Line Go Down: Chapter 4a
Begin a Session. Last time, Frappé wrapped up in the Moose, made it to the Prom, went out ahead of the trade caravan, fought off a GC attack set off by Vengaboy being rude and betraying its trust in the deepest way, and settled accounts with its former boss by dropping them into Casco Bay.
I envision a brief vignette to start things off: External factors create new danger, urgency, or importance for a quest.
It’s the crack of dawn. Seagulls are cawing, waves are rocking the concrete seawalls. Dr. Halley is standing with a handful of others on the pier where Vengaboy negotiated with the crew of the dairy skimmer Raya’s Promise. Someone else is carrying the recovering older man’s luggage. They’re talking to the crew of a yellow-on-black painted ferry with a scuffed hull. After some goods are exchanged, Dr. Halley and the others are led aboard as passengers. Take +1 momentum as I pick up.
===
Frappé has no EX generator to recharge, no GB repair toolkit, and not even cardboard boxes in a closet to rest in. After the big fight, it links up with the trade caravan on the edge of town, leads ’em somewhere safe for the night (some Prom residents welcomed the traders in while thanking Frappé) and immediately powers down into dreamless stasis.
Sojourn, spending time recovering within a community.
[Weak Hit: 6 + 1 + 0 = 7 vs 1 | 7]
Resources are strained after the GC attack, and Frappé isn’t sticking around long. I’ll resolve that as I go. For now, Repair for 3 points (a strong hit outside a dedicated facility), returning to 5 health and 5 boost frame integrity.
It boots back up when the sun is peering through the clouds. There’s chatter and conversation happening in the front room of the indoor skate park where the Moose trade caravan sheltered for the night, among locals. Ask the Oracle: have Ended Strander and the locals already worked out a trade deal of their own? [Likely] Yes.
No Vengaboy required. Frappé fighting off the GC attack was enough of a talking point that the Prom Committee was dead curious about the hotpink android’s friends, and the icebreaker built up trust for a forthright and red-tape-free negotiation. The Moose will get port access, the Prom will get fresh veggies on the regular, and Frappé doesn’t care about any more details than that. Waning Strander gives them anyway, though.
Reach a Milestone on “cut Vengaboy in on supplying Moose-to-Prom fresh veggies.” This still counts, even without V-boy. Frappé isn’t really a “letter of the sworn oath” kinda robot. Mark progress:
[Mark Progress: “I’ll Cut Vengaboy in on Supplying Moose-to-Prom Fresh Veggies!” :10 Boxes]
Now let’s Fulfill Your Vow.
[Progress Roll: “I’ll Cut Vengaboy in on Supplying Moose-to-Prom Fresh Veggies!” :Strong Hit = 10 vs 2 | 8]
Another vow fulfilled. Frappé has, against all odds, made Kennebec a slightly better place. Mark 2 ticks on my quest legacy track. That fills a box, giving me 2 XP!
Waning Strander looks chill and happy. Despite the GC attack, the vibe here in the morning is better than she expected from Prom. She’s pretty impressed with how Frappé handled all that battling last night; she saw the light trails and explosions from the ridge overlooking town. Develop Your Relationship for standing with her against hardship, and hey, also for completing a quest to her benefit by giving Ended Strander a chance to shine and secure Moose residency. Mark four boxes.
[Mark Progress: Waning Strander :8 Boxes]
[Progress Roll: Waning Strander :Strong Hit = 8 vs 6 | 5]
That’s enough to successfully Forge a Bond with a strong hit. Mark 2 ticks on my bonds legacy track, which also fills a box, giving 2 more XP. I’ll bolster her influence, adding +2 when she assists on Strander stuff. I also add a revealed aspect to WS: loyal.
frappé has never been roasted this bad. there’s no coming back from this one
Halley…bounced?! He ghosted?! After Frappé saved his miserable life?! That dark red is coming back to its frame.
Test Your Relationship with Halley for betrayal!!!:
[Weak Hit: 4 + 1 + 0 = 5 vs 7 | 2]
Frappé burns, but rather than writing him off as a flake, this slipping-through-her-fingers only deepens her need to track him down. Develop Your Relationship, marking another box, and also reassess a vow: “I will make Doctor Halley remove the limiters on my boost frame” becomes Formidable!
Frappe asks around if anyone knows where Halley went. Gather Information.
[Strong Hit: 5 + 1 + 0 = 6 vs 4 | 1]
It learns that he was asking for directions to the pier just before dawn, where he must have taken a transit ferry, and the only ferry expected that early today was the Firebreak, yellow and black with a scuffed hull, headed north along the coast to Au Haut Bay. +2 momentum.
Frappé wastes no time. It sticks around just long enough to rip off that corny vengaboys. fanny pack, and to tell Waning Strander that it’s heading north, after Halley.
(gather information +2 from Strander bond:
[Weak Hit: 4 + 1 + 2 = 7 vs 10 | 4]
New insight, but also a complication. WS says that’s a weird place for someone like him to go after all this trouble, because Au Haut Bay is right near Queen’s Rock, that haunted ass deadtown with all the GCs prowling around. He’d just be getting into more trouble. Frappé is immediately certain that this is exactly where Halley is going.
“get his ass,” WS encourages in a eyes half-lidded kinda way. “we’ll meet again.”
===
Nothing left now but to Undertake an Expedition. I’ll name this expedition “Reach Queen’s Rock via Au Haut Bay”, rank Formidable. This part should go by more quickly.
Frappé’s boost frame can zoom over the water, but not nonstop all the way - not a Generation 2 chassis with its limiters active. It’s going to hug the coastline, taking breaks at safe-looking sites to vent heat and purge debris as needed before continuing. From what it’s been told, it expects to reach a mooring at Au Haut Bay by sundown. We’ll see!
Its top priority is speed. It doesn’t fear anything on the water after last night’s battle. I roll +edge for this first segment, +1 from EX Turbine.
[Strong Hit: 4 + 2 + 0 = 9 vs 7 | 6]
A miss becomes a strong hit by burning 9 momentum! Reset to 2 momentum, +1 for a hit +edge while traveling with my boost frame. I reach a waypoint and mark 1 box of progress.
Empty + Supply. Frappé stops in the ruins of an old boat launch an hour’s flight north of Prom. It wanders around a little while venting heat, keeping an eye for danger. This place has long since been stripped by weather and picked clean of edible food, usable equipment, and anything valuable for sustaining life. Even the bugs are sparse. It doesn’t stick around long before continuing. It sucks here and is boring, like most of this scrap heap planet.
Move at speed +edge, +1 from EX Turbine.
[Strong Hit: 5 + 2 + 1 = 8 vs 4 | 3]
Another strong hit, +1 momentum from the boost frame. Reach another waypoint, mark 1 box.
Mechanical + Gas. Someone is trying to operate a generator out on this rocky and forested stretch of coast. There’s an older woman in a fishing hat and vest, well-equipped with outdoorsy and utility gear and some kind of pedal-powered road kart. She waves at the hotpink visitor who’s landed not too far away. “That’s a heckuva trick!”
The android hangs back, not saying much, despite the adventurer - “Name’s Lux! Lux Cayne! What’s yer moniker, bub?” - shouting over the noisy, smoky generator. She’s quite curious about Frappé and asking a lot of questions about who she is and where she’s from and headed to and Frappé is venting heat as fast as possible to get the hell out of here. (“I see yer antsy to get goin’, but yer more’n welcome to stick around. You know anything about ethanol conversion?“) As soon as the ready light beeps! on its HUD, Frappé breaks off mid-sentence and zooms like a rude little gremlin. (“i didn’t mean ta antagonize ya!“)
Move at speed +edge, +1 from EX Turbine.
[Miss: 1 + 2 + 1 = 4 vs 7 | 6]
I roll a miss, but I can turn it into a strong hit with the Fugitive path ability - by marking a segment on a new 4-clock called Glitch Busted. When the clock fills, Frappé’s Blackstar pursuers catch up to it. But this is still a strong hit, giving me another box of progress and reaching a waypoint.
There’s a Derelict here, a wrecked place. This one is a beached leisure boat from before the Stranding. It’s at an odd orientation, not just upside down, but the prow is buried in the rocks and sand, stern propped against a stand of dead trees, spilling debris-strewn netting like guts. Half-legible along the hull is the name Lightline. Climbing over the rocks to check it out while venting heat, Frappé sees more text - this looks stenciled on, or even burnt. Some kind of esoteric writing or symbols along the interior of the ship…is that a capcha code?
Nope. Potential infohazard. Nothing good, maybe something bad. Frappé knows not to engage with glitchy stuff like that, whatever weirdo human sect was inspired to print it on this inverted shipwreck. If power wasn’t at a premium without an EX generator, it would blow this thing to smithereens with the buster cannon. But it’s gotta keep moving, quick. It has a nasty feeling that Lux is gonna run her mouth to anyone who listens about the pink flying robot weirdo she ran into along the coast, and it doesn’t want to leave more of a trail.
Move under the radar +shadow, +1 from EX Turbine.
[Strong Hit: 6 + 3 + 1 = 10 vs 1 | 4]
+1 progress, another waypoint, and no entanglements. Not covering quite as much coastline this segment, though. The weather gets choppy and stormy up around here, and it’s unsafe for a Gen 2 frame to boost so close to the water. Depleted + route: Frappé spots a cracked asphalt road, unmaintained for generations, marked by a long-faded sign as Highway One. There’s no one around, so it decides to follow this road on foot for a while.
A weathered stone statue of a friendly seal balancing a ball on its nose stands on an overgrown hillside. Frappé charges a stable buster orb to detach, and spends a longer than usual recovery period standing on one boot trying to imitate the seal. Take a Break.
Continue the session, +1 on next move. Frappé exits its idle animation by bouncing the buster orb on its nose, playing some hackey sack, and speed-kicking it into an abandoned house that explodes into bricks and splinters. It gets movin’ on down the road, looking for signs of Au Haut Bay.
Stay vigilant +wits, +1 from returning to session.
[Miss: 2 + 1 + 1 = 4 vs 4 | 5]
Instead of accepting a miss, I’ll burn momentum 6 to make that a strong hit. Despite the nasty weather splotching rain on its sensors, Frappé spots signage for Au Haut on a faded board. Mark +1 progress.
Down a road that’s seen attempted repairs with tarp, winding through a wrecked old settlement with few recent signs of human habitation, Frappé follows the irregular sound of bells to a marina. It’s mostly full of salvaged fishing boats, but there’s a ferry docked here, waiting out the storm. A few humans in raincoats are sitting on the porch of a boathouse, shooting the breeze with a deck of laminated cards. A wood-burned sign calls this the AU HAUT FERRY.
Frappé deactivates her skates and scurries over to ask around. The fellas on the porch say there’s no ferry out to Au Haut Island today, the storm’s too bad. She asks if a black and yellow ferry, the Firebreak, came through this morning from down south. That triggers Explore a Waypoint.
[Miss: 2 + 1 + 0 = 3 vs 6 | 5]
Another miss. This time, I use the Fugitive path to convert it into a strong hit, and mark another segment on Glitch Busted. This weird loud android is asking very specific questions of gossipy people and leaving a trail of data points to follow. I envision a favorable insight: the fellas say she missed the Firebreak, but it usually doesn’t stop here for long on the way up north to Arcadia. This morning was the first time in a while someone got off here, actually - an older guy with some luggage. He hung around the boathouse for a little, not saying too much except that somebody was coming to get him. Sure enough, a humming electric buggy with another educated-looking fella came down the 15, helped him with his bags, and took him back up the road. Must’ve been headed up towards Queen’s Rock, but that don’t seem like a good idea, what with all the scamps around there. Seemed like they knew what they were doing, though. (+2 momentum.)
Frappé doesn’t waste any more time. It powers up and boosts away, chasing the remains of Route 15. It’s moving at full speed up the overgrown road. +edge, +1 EX Turbine.
[Weak Hit: 3 + 2 + 1 = 6 vs 3 | 7]
The long overland journey without a charge is catching up to it. Its batteries are running low. Sacrifice Resources -2 supply (to 2.) Frappé isn’t much of a long-term planner, so it treats the HUD alert as a problem for the Future-Future Ruler of Planet Earth.
It pauses at a long-scavenged roadside fuel station along the 15. There’s some troubling synth cries, glowing lights in the trees, and signs of motion on the horizon. Weird signals around here, too. Gotta be a GC hotspot. It’s going to proceed with caution to avoid being detected by whatever glitch constructs are drawn to the Kiss: silent running, staying off the road, emissions minimal, turbine passive. The heart-shaped nacelle in its chest powers down to a dim whir.
+shadow.
[Strong Hit: 5 + 3 + 0 = 8 vs 5 | 6]
+1 progress. Taking a circuitous route, Frappé snakes up the river into the spooky-quiet rainy-day remains of a small town that used to be called Queen’s Rock. It’s been weathered by the elements. Frappé keeps a low profile and looks around this quiet place. Explore a Waypoint.
[Weak Hit: 3 + 1 + 0 = 4 vs 10 | 2]
There are GCs moving openly around here. Stately cyan-black sentries with cloaks, or beetle wings, embroidered with a fractal pattern like paisley wallpaper. They carry lanterns on hooked poles, patrolling the bridges as if in a gaslamp fantasy city. They register Frappé, raising their lanterns and chattering in musical notes, but they don’t break out of their idle pattern to pursue her. It freaks her the heck out. What’s going on in this place?
Does this count as finishing the expedition to the Kiss? Let’s find out.
[Progress Roll: Reach the Kiss via Au Haut Bay. :Strong Hit = 6 vs 5 | 1]
Yeah it does! Frappé made it, and I mark one box on my discoveries legacy track for a Formidable expedition. For chasing him all the way up here, Frappé also Reaches a Milestone and marks one box on “I will make Doctor Halley remove the limiters on my boost frame.”
As it prowls, skating and tagging, Frappé opens up the codec to INFRARED 177.29 again. If Halley is in this town, the blackwave frequency will reach him. It knows.
Compel, +iron for a threat.
[Weak Hit: 4 + 2 + 0 = 6 vs 6 | 4]
There’s no response for about half an hour. Then, just as it’s doing a mural of a crowned bunny with button eyes on a burning planet, it gets a codec ping on ULTRAVIOLET 97.03. It’s never seen that frequency before. It kicks out its heels and answers right away.
Swear an Iron Vow. “I won’t contact Halley, won’t threaten anyone, and will overall play nice while I visit KIS.” (Troublesome.) +heart
[Weak Hit: 6 + 1 + 0 = 7 vs 10 | 4]
Frappé isn’t so sure about this. KIS makes clear that while it respects 15′s autonomy, they prioritize their own just as dearly. They are willing to help if they are met with good faith, but they are not pushovers and will defend themselves to the teeth if threatened. Frappé may enter as a peer, not a monster, a tool, or a bully. It is not used to being treated this way, and accepts.
It’s directed to what used to be an airport west of town. The packs of yellow-black turtle-blossom GCs clinging in hex formations to the sun-facing side of the terminal building turn their reflective petals toward Frappé as she skates past.
There are a few hollowed-out small planes in the hangar, long since scavenged for parts and left to decay. It lingers there. These machines are obsolete. They could still be flying today, it thinks, with the right parts and steady maintenance, but the world is broken, and they are grounded. They will decay here. They will not fly. Upsetting speculation fills its buffers. Frappé imagines lying here in this hangar with her turbine extracted, unmoving, slowly being covered in rust and moss.
Endure Stress -1. Resist, +spirit:
[Weak Hit: 1 + 5 + 0 = 6 vs 4 | 6]
Lose 1 spirit and press on.
Surrounded by junked deadtech, Frappé is caught off guard when a pale blue laser on a servo arm scans her from brow to boot, with special focus on her buster cannon. “Weapon systems detected.”
It can’t stop thinking about rusting in this hangar. Out of battery. Exposed. Empty.
It holds up its buster cannon arm. There’s a high-pitched dissipating whirr… as the tip goes cold, leaving a wisp of pale smoke. It retracts and resets the arm back to a manipulator gauntlet. Waggles its fingers. Its expression telegraphs a quip that doesn’t get said.
Reach a Milestone on playing nice at KIS.
[Mark Progress: “I Won’t Contact Halley, Won’t Threaten Anyone, and Will Overall Play Nice While I Visit Kis.” :3 Boxes]
Take a Break. Next time, Frappé will visit the King of Infinite Space and conclude this part of the intermission.