09/21/06
Whoo. Time for an update. So get ready, it's a doozy.
Near the middle of August I ran a one-shot for Wellstar, Keska, and her fiance. Because Keska and CuVallen had heard so much about the Traverse setting, they insisted I run a one shot for them. The characters were as follows: Wellstar played Blain, a cyborg based off the manga Blame!, Keska played Jarvis Guado,
a character she played in a game I ran based off of Final Fantasy X, and CuVallen played a D&D warlock by the name of Altus.
Altus, Blain, and Jarvis end up in Traverse Town through their seperate means and all meet in The Highwind, the bar that has become a staple to the setting. As is made evident by the name, Cid Highwind of FFVII fame runs the bar. Jarvis attempts to learn more about Traverse Town (being a geomancer--a class more from FFTactics) and learns the dirty secret of Traverse Town: the mayor is an avatar of the town itself. Mayor Jones has been a sketchy ally for the PCs of my regular game, more so since the PCs stopped someone imprinted by Koffman from making it into Jones' tower. I had not expected the one-shot PCs to make such an impression on Jones, but Jarvis contacting the "spirit of the place" made avoiding it impossible.
Jones gives Jarvis permission to use the power of Traverse Town if necessary, so long as Jarvis never lets it slip that Jones and the town are one in the same.
Anyway, the small group decide to join several scattered parties laying claim to a new distict in Traverse Town, and empty the new district of "the hollow ones." Those who played Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2 know the "hollow ones" (or "empty," or "shadow men," or "shadows," or "dark ones," etc.) better as the Heartless. So the group help, clear the Heartless out of the new district, meeting this man, James, along the way.
James also has a friend he calls "Red" hanging out with him, though I don't have a picture of him. The PCs learn fairly quickly that Red is a time manipulator, and the players learn fairly quickly that this 19-year old James is the future son of Virgil and Amut from the main campaign.
Lame? Oh, yeah, you betcha. But fun as all get out to watch the players stare at me open-mouthed when it obvious James had Virgil's cross.
The rest of the one shot deals with the group finding someone else in Traverse Town imprinted with a copy of Koffman's personality: his brother. Bennie Koffman is thankful that the PCs stop his dead brother's efforts to take over his personality.
To go back to the main campaign ...
The PCs return to Traverse Town after some nasty run-ins with the mercenaries mentioned in the 05-10-06 update. With surgical precision the mercenaries had struck the PCs, and managed to get their hands on Virgil's cross--the item he uses to heal with. They nearly killed Virgil (technically he was below neg ten, but I always give players ONE ROUND to save someone from death--considering I don't allow resurrection), and disappeared into the night again. Seeing that until they take care of those mercenaries there is no particularly safe place to be other than Traverse Town, the PCs go back to Traverse Town and crash with Bennie Koffman--in the new place he's found thanks to the one shot.
While they rest up and lick their wounds, Virgil--having techinically been DEAD for a few seconds--confronts Amut with serious matters. He reveals to her that in the few moments he was dead his soul was nearly claime--not by God, but by her relative Set, the god of evil. Amut realizes that Set had tried to get at her through Virgil, and resolves that she will have to confront him. This fight not being one for mortals, she reluctantly says she'll have to leave the PCs for a while. Virgil is extrememly sad, but understands. The two of them vow to be wed when they're reunited, and Amut goes to Isis to find someone to help the PCs travel through dimensions.
While Amut does this, the other PCs take some time to relax. Pojo has been having some problems as of late, not the least of which being he's begun to manifest telepathy. Unfortunately at the moment he's unable to control his ability to scan thoughts. He and his girlfriend Jenna believe that Koffman's prying into Pojo's mind some time ago must be the cause of this. (Those familiar with Aberrant may know that sometimes Novas can manifest new powers based on what they encounter--including other powers.)
To help Pojo stop accidently reading his friend's minds (including when Virgil and Amut were alone together -_-;; ), Silas takes Pojo aside and teaches him some Jedi concentration exercises. You may all snicker at the thought of Pojo holding a lightsaber.
They also run into James, who seems overly eager to spend time with them. His friend Red quickly takes leave as soon as he sees the group of them. Silas, Pojo, Virgil, Jenna, and James spend time in Traverse Town together. James tells the group that he is from "somewhere far off," where he is on a quest to find balance in himself--at the command of his grandfathers. The PCs automatically recognize the cross he's wearing, and tell him that Virgil's was stolen. James offers to travel with them and heal until Virgil can get his back.
All of you may remember this man:
As Dr. Kurt Dominick from a story Wellstar and I are doing. Well, he also has appeared in my setting's Traverse Town as the owner of a coffee shop called The Comfy Chair. The PCs have gone to the Comfy Chair quite a few times (save Hiro, who refuses to go in because one of Wellstar's old PCs, a half-demon named Nai, works there), and at least Pojo became somewhat friends with Kurt. Well, Kurt has been hanging out in Traverse Town not because his world is dead, but because he hopes to keep friends of his safe from an old enemy he had on his world. This woman, January Duval.
This is only one of many faces she has, being a more than competant biomancer (and former Nazi scientist--yay, Nazis!) she's found a way to create multiple bodies for herself. Should one die, her soul simply goes to another. Kurt met her more or less by accident during his time as a member of the Office for Supernatural Crime Investigation, and unfortunately she took him stopping her plans personal. She has practically dedicated all her spare time to making his life hell, going so far as to STEAL HIS DEAD WIFE'S BODY and using it as a vessel.
When Kurt ended up in Traverse Town he figured at least those who were his friends and coworkers wouldn't end up her targets.
Unfortunately, with a bit of "divine inspiration" (namely Virgil's dead mentor, now a demon under control of Set) she found him. More than that, Alexander informed her of a few tricks with alchemy that would make it easy to control him. Duval could get her hands on him in Traverse Town, the two would leave together without a bit of struggle whatsoever, and no one would be the wiser until it was too late.
The group trying to focus on relaxing end up running across the two of them as Duval is attempting to make her escape with Kurt. They disrupt her teleportation circle and she's forced to escape and rethink her plans. With the PCs now protecting him, Kurt goes with the group to meet up with the rest of PCs. They all get a chance to meet Amut's temporary replacement, a time manipulator in training named Norn. He's an ice dragon (though not a standard D&D one since those are pretty stupid) and is the same age as Gaiavein. Norn's first act upon joining the PCs is to fix the sped aging that Death (from the first Castlevania run) inflicted on Hiro.
Pojo and the others get Norn, Hiro, and Gaia up to speed on Kurt's problem. They all agree that Nazis can't be allowed to run around free, so they try to figure out how to find her again. She's in Traverse Town just waiting to retaliate, after all. Pojo and Silas use their telepathic and empathic abilities to glean scattered bits of info out of her mind, though neither are quite sure what they mean.
Silas and James go to Mayor Jones, while Kurt and the rest of the PCs go to try and call in favors people owe Kurt in order to find Duval. Silas speaks to Jones and informs him that Duval is looking for some kind of army, and something not unlike a keyhole. Jones laughs this off arrogantly and says that if anyone tried to find the city's keyhold--a direct reference to Kingdom Hearts--that he would know. As soon as this thought leaves him he is physically pained, and Silas and James can clearly see the streets filling with Heartless.
The scattered PCs become aware that somehow Duval allied herself with the Heartless, drawing them into the streets to provide enough chaos for her plans. In the rather epic battle that fills Traverse Town, the residents--most of them adventurers and those who have lost homes to forces not unlike the Heartless--take up arms to defend their home. The PCs wade through the monsters to get to Jones' mansion, where Silas, Jones' guards, and James--going into something like a rage and turning into this:
--fight to keep the Heartless away from Jones, the city's heart. After James is calmed down, Jarvis Guado arrives escorting Sora, Donald, and Goofy from Kingdom Hearts to handle securing the "keyhole," and the PCs go to find Duval. They find her fairly easily, simply strolling through the chaos, and a fight follows. As soon as she loses control of herself, the Heartless themselves claim her and the darkness consumes her.
After defeating Duval the Heartless ("How fitting," most of the players said), the PCs are almost relieved to know that the darkness she was consumed by even devoured her soul--she would not be escaping into a new body. A grateful Kurt Dominick returns to the Comfy Chair, and James is forced to take his leave of the PCs as Red returns (wearing a mask to hide his face) to collect him. Norn is struck by the odd feeling that he recognizes Red, and tries to glean information out of him, thinking he may be his estranged father. Red refuses to answer questions in even theatrical half-truths (all too commonly heard from time travelers), simply stopping Norn's questioning quickly and bluntly.
Well, that's one hell of an update, at least as far as text is concerned. Seeing how far behind I'd let myself get, I figured I'd try to bring everyone to speed. There'll be another fairly soon, but right now I should get back to TwoDee Ten and studying. -_-;;
We've got a few of the kinks worked out and the comic for Tuesday is now up for viewing. 
