AIR DEVILS OF THE SOUTH SEAS by Matt Riggsby
“So you’re not posing on an active volcano?” asked the lawyer.
“The volcano can do what it wants, I’m active enough for both of us.”
We had five adventurers today, and four hours of action. So, after a brief overview, I'm going to break it down by character.
Things were going wrong for American-Pacific Agriculture corporation and instead of waiting by the phone, the gang took initiative! Solving this problem would mean great publicity, and a working vacation in Micronesia. Of course, this case would draw the ire of the
deadly and possibly supernatural White Devil of the Pacific.
Now that we’re properly situated: This was a Rafe Lancaster session all the way through. He started it by evicting an orchard so he could expand a munitions factory.
“This orchard has been operating for more than 100 years!”
“So?” asked the tycoon. “Means their deed’s probably bad.”
Mr. Lancaster acted very differently on vacation. Not only did he do his own flying (he's rarely the best pilot in the group), but he wore a short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt with no tie.
And while he was arrogant, he came to a startling revelation: his obnoxious mentee Devika was his best friend. (After he admitted this, Devi immediately demurred. She was beginning to realize it was weird to have so many adult best friends who weren't friends with other people! Although she didn't renounce the codependency she developed as a preteen goddess, she did ask a favor of the other four characters: please become friends with Rafe.)
1930s hipster Saeki "Zelda" Yoriko was the best at it. Who better to talk tech with than a guy who spent all his time creating it?As an actual detective, Saeki was responsible for investigating the crime scenes left behind by the Devils. (She was equally effective socially with a
stunt that gave her a persuasion bonus during apologies. The rest of the group made plenty of faux paus. Saeki was amazingly good at soothing whoever they offended, whether it was the harbor master or a local tribe.)
Of course, General Saeki, Zelda's father, casts a large shadow. When an imperial intelligence officer raided her hotel room, she had to trade secrets without the rest of the group finding out… that she was doing it, or that she had deep ties to a prime suspect, the empire of Japan!
Aldous, once a butler, has become more of a logistics specialist. He excelled at his new job, dock organizer for the APA. Of course, that didn't mean he couldn't cut loose. When the group located a smuggler vital to their investigation, he challenged the fellow to a boat race, and whooped him.
Tácito played it more thoughtfully. When it was time to put clues together, he was the first to recognize them for what they were.
Like when a witness claimed the white devil had an earless white skull…Instead of thinking “horrible monster”, he thought "Luchador mask.” Not that the Jade Jaguar let his agility go to waste. He saved someone from a burning building, lowering the Great War ace down to the ground as flames whipped around them.
Giovanni Barbossa Lima made time for work, posing for Christian Starker (from
Gallery of Souls!), on a dormant volcano. Physical strength got him a lot further than good looks on this case: the man he flirted with, Ramón, turned out to be a major part of the crisis.
And when Gio went to confront him, he got sidetracked flirting… Because he is a himbo.
The physical strength did help though, when he needed to burst into a burning building, and his charm helped him convince a very large, yappy dog to follow him to safety. He then tried to nickname the dog Pepito which nobody was buying because the dog was already named.
Together, the group figured out the conspiracy. Members of the APA were devastating local targets to try and get Uncle Sam involved. They were operating out of a forbidden island, which the fearful locals had kept off their maps.
The raid was two-pronged. Lancaster and Saeki went by air, the other three by sea. It was a hard target!
Matt Riggby said:
The base was on a slightly unusual atoll, consisting of an outer ring, an enclosed lagoon, and an inner island. The outer ring was 100 to 200 yards thick, with a diameter of about three miles. Most of it was sandy beach, but it had a thin screen of palm trees all around. The inner island had a diameter of about two miles, rising gently to a point about 50 feet above high-tide level. The lagoon was very shallow, and it was possible to wade several hundred yards into it. There were a few gaps through which a ship (or surfaced submarine) could sail. An aerial survey revealed several small buildings, a camouflaged radio tower, several floatplanes in the lagoon, and two ships: the Betty Sue Borden and Northumberland Belle. The buildings had the look of residential shacks or small storehouses rather than fortified positions.
The butler was steady as he hit the beach at 52 knots. Los Angeles traffic didn't have sea mines, but the Lomitas/Canon intersection was great training.
Yoriko was a hell of a tail gunner, laying down withering cover fire and chopping the radio tower in half.
Rafe got to the island safely, but was tagged by surface-to-air flak. Hope he could land this thing!
On the ground, the Jade Jaguar and the physical specimen took the beach. The pilots had to get to the planes, and that wasn't happening when these two had anything to say about it. Giovanni outmuscled the crooks and slammed their heads together like coconuts. Tácito fought off mercenaries with a trench shovel.
Aldous, after carefully parking the boat, snuck into the building… by walking backwards. He worked for the company, so instead of creeping around, he grabbed a clipboard and looked serious. He was beyond reproach as he rifled through file cabinets for evidence.
Outside, Rafe had nothing but luck to rely on… and landed perfectly. (Later, his buddies would tease him it wasn’t a big deal because "the ocean is as big as target as you can get.”) Without their planes and munitions, the Devils’ conspiracy was over… and when the newspaper stories came and went, it would be clear who were the true daredevils of the South Seas.
Of course, Rafe and Zelda would spend the rest of their vacation fixing the plane…
Yoriko:
Last night my party encountered some Yuan-Ti while in search of a cultist wizard in the tomb of another wizard. There were a couple of Yuan-Ti purebloods, some of the snake-headed Yuan-Ti and one Abomination Yuan-Ti (who was holding a dagger to the cultist wizard's throat). At first my party tried to get the Abomination Yuan-Ti to give us the cultist peacefully, but the latter was only willing to hand the dwarf over for something of equal value. While the party's Empath (homebrewed class) did the negotiations, the party's Rogue/Fighter took a small sack and filled it with gunpowder and a vial of alchemist fire (which he hid by covering them with precious gems). He then took the 'offering' to the Abomination Yuan-Ti and pretended that he was giving himself up to the Yuan-Ti in exchange for the cultist. He was hoping to get close enough to get ahold of the cultist and use his scroll of Dimension Door while the latter took his offering. 
