S2G1 Legend Has It! in HTML Wanderpus | World Anvil
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S2G1 Legend Has It!


Season 2 Game #1

May 22, 2022
Quest
Officer Nichol Trafford (ProfWinter), Officer Vatna Stein+ (Lurid)
Officer Rasheeda "Raz" Ernouf (Klackles) Officer Lorelei (Esmie)





A world discovered in the night sky... Legend has it that it is the Anvil of the Sky Otter!


On the eve of the name-to-be-earned Airship’s inaugural mission, while the crew share tales of companionship and adventure, the leader of the nomadic otters, Tincture, steps outside the Diving Belle with a giant telescope and points it towards the sky.

“That’s your target. You can see just there, a constellation vaguely resembling an otter holding a stone. Legend has it when the clouds come in, that stone, well moon, comes much closer to us, ringing very much like the moon upon the moth’s ziggurat your crew encountered in their Tale of the Silken Towers.
Season One Game #17 "Ich Will Alles:" The moon atop the moth’s ziggurat plays a song or has a resonance no one truly understands. When the moon fell into the ocean it caused rifts to just randomly open all over the world. Thankfully, the crew retrieved the moon and placed it back atop the ziggurat. Now it only creates/opens rifts if amidst a hard downpour.
As far as the legend goes, tonight is the perfect night for a rift to emerge and to test the mettle of your new airship.” - Tincture

While Vatna is charting a course to the moon, the clouds begin to roll in and the weather changes, their antennae feel the intense energy of a rift opening above them and their eyes are swept with an oily iridescence. Though trepidatious, Tincture and her small moth scribe Cree join the Officers aboard the Airship as civilians protected by Invoker ability shields and the Officer’s promise of using less dangerous tactics on this mission.




   

Officer Nichol Trafford

Airship smuggling Re-Acquisition Officer & Pilot

Officer Vatna Stein+

Particle Flow & Breach Navigation

Officer Rasheeda
"Raz" Ernouf


Airship Cataloguer

Officer Lorelei

Airship's Archaeologist & Cultural Anthropologist

All-Star Officers Aboard the Airship

     



After a flawless ascension into the skies and through the rift, the Airship traverses a vast tunnel in-between dimensions lined in the same watery, viscous oil rainbow constantly fluctuating as Vatna’s eyes sheened earlier, with supple green, tendrily slender roots form around the tunnel from what would be the atmosphere of the in-between. It’s beautiful.

As the ship slowly approaches their still distant destination, they hear the loudest, bassiest music ever experienced begin to shake the entire ship. CRACK! An unknown ship blasts through the hallway-like rift tunnel from the outside and speeds in the direction of the moon, followed by a much larger ship giving chase, led by the one Commander Joust.


 
“Hahahaha! you know it's almost too easy. Forgive me, I'm getting ahead of myself, perhaps we should do this by the book. I am Commander Joust. Attention all degenerate scum aboard the piece of space trash you call a ship!

You will cease your criminal activity and surrender at once! Failure to comply will result in an escalation of violence the likes of which generations from now will feel the very tremors!”


“You there in the ship, not The Jewels, stand down immediately.

We're commandeering your vessel as part of this, well, let's just say escort mission. You'll follow us and proceed to capture The Jewels ahead of me.

Failure to comply, well need I repeat myself?”

- Joust


Over the communicators a booming-voice response comes through, “Heeeeeeeeeey, you guys know me, you guys are good, uh, you don't like the Starlight Group right? If you guys could just do me a favor and not try to capture us, that'd be pretty sweet.” Followed by a “GET SOOOOME!!” coming from The Jewel’s gunner seat firing at the Starlight Brigade.


 
Vatna to The Jewel:
How long have you been running from these guys?
Kay: A little while, a little while, you know uh years..
Joust: Drones One and Two, flank the ship we've commandeered. Pursue The Jewels! Initiate orbital cannons. We'll be firing shortly.

As the drones pinser the Airship, sucked in from the tunnel’s newly ripped side an indiscernible number of old friends appear - countless Red Caps!!

Joust: “You idiots! Do you not understand how fragile this ecosystem is! Look what you've done! All crew members on deck prepare cannons - Fire on anything that moves!

Starlight’s firing systems overload and break after firing a barrage upon every ship and creature in the tunnel’s space. The resulting mist of blood, however, is immediately devoured by a single Cap, now the largest red cap the crew has ever freely seen.
  Vatna calls out: Full sail please!  
The Airship’s sails of silver release and catch the unseen current and gain speed.
  Joust: Drones, as many as we have, follow them!  
Nichol maneuvers out of direct crossfire and catches the strong headwind Vatna found, blowing right past
The Jewels toward the moon.
 
Joust:
Stay on them! I gave you one order: Follow them. If we can take their power source, we can get our weapons back online faster, you idiots! .. ergh, I almost lost my composure there for a moment. Now, proceed as ordered.  
A Madness overtakes the monster and Commander Joust’s ship is grabbed.
  Vatna to Commander Joust: This is a private vessel. We have rights that you're violating.   Joust:
Now honor crosses your mind, and here I thought that was a word that evaded your lexicon entirely. Well I stand corrected. I will follow the law to a T, and right now I am enforcing it to that T. You are endangering everything with your presence here. You must leave immediately. You can do that by coming with us or exiting the same way you came, which i don't think you know how to do, so that makes your options a bit limited, don't you think?   Vatna to the Team: We could turn around?
Nichol: We have a job to do though
Vatna: We did not anticipate this
Lore: Also at this point turning around would have us flying directly into the red caps..   Joust: You have 10 seconds to comply.   Vatna: Then, I think we gotta go for it


 
With a big self-created vortex, Nichol Trafford attempts to scale the distance between the enemy ships and the new airship, but in doing so, Vatna loses the delicate control of their silken sails riding the space breeze. Ships and red caps alike whipping around, crashing into each other, squishy bodies being smooshed between the hulls.
 

Joust: Impossible! Stabilize us!!


 
Damaged and covered in red cap blood, the airship begins to hurl down towards the moon at the
end of the trans-dimensional hallway; Only Joust remains standing in his ship.
   


    Joust: Idiots! I gave you one job. This was supposed to be our big payday! you you .. *Into the Intercom* You fools! Do you have any idea how you've ruined everything. This was in your best interest, You are messing and completely disrupting a fragile ecosystem the likes of which none of you could ever comprehend. you're like a plague. You're like a pathogen coursing through the very veins of this universe right now. You don't belong, I was trying to help you!   As Joust lectures away, two little creatures step out of the Jewels, brushing themselves off.
The first one, with one eye, El Pea walks up to the crew’s ship saying:
This is gonna take a bit of work yeah, yeah it is   Kay Em: well man, I guess it worked, but the launching apparatus is probably down for your shi–   Joust: By decree of the starlight police force you are all under arrest you will obey every one of my commands and we will prepare the only way off of this moon. Now I suggest you all lay down your weapons and follow my orders.   El Pea, the very small one with the beanie on his head, points a gun at Joust: We don't have to do this. we can all find our way through here just fine can't we? we can all get along, get everybody off this place, maybe do a little good? You scratch my back, I scratch yours?   Lore: We weren't the ones who ripped a hole where there shouldn't have been a hole   Joust: We know how to nav, we do things by the book.   LP: Okay I, that was my bad, that was my bad. I didn't see it, I haven't been in this part of the neighborhood in a while, like honestly i-   Joust: Does it trouble you? All the lives that you took that day.. Does it trouble you at all to think of all of my comrades, the ones that fell by your idiocy? You destroyed Starlight One and you expect me to work with you? (The crew killed his commander in a previous encounter, but) it matters not, right now as I've stated you are all under arrest. We will work together under my leadership.  
Raz: Ain't listening to you  
KM slides to the side of the jewel, pounds his hand on the casing a couple of times till it opens up. He pats his belly, then he looks at LP,

“We’re not the right size, but a couple of you look like the right.” Kay’s Eyes glancing over at Lore and Nichol till what looks like a mech steps out of The Jewels.  
Lore suits up in the large magically-powered clockwork Exo-mech, meant for a single Pilot between five and six feet tall as Joust continues to gain control of the situation.
 

Joust: All saber rattling, I don't think you have it in you. However, given the circumstances it would be foolish for me to continue this fight, so I propose a truce with conditions.   LP: Always conditions once you pull out the guns.   Joust: We'll work together, we'll pool all of our resources. With my knowledge of the Starlight Organization and your knowledge of the.. communities in which you surround yourself with, we should be able to make it off this moon. Now the condition is we lay down all of our weapons… all of our weapons..   Tincture: I think that's fair, I think everybody just wants to get home. I don't know you, I don't know them, and they seem uh dangerous; but don’t you know where we are? We're on the sky otter's anvil! Can't you feel it?!  

A desolate moon with breathable air and ruins off in the distance; once completely covered with water, now just dust and fragments of permafrost ice, remarkably silver in nature.
 
A ship made of silver or dense silver alloy can travel through rifts without experiencing the frightful pull of a random rift along the way.
 
Vatna: I don't trust him to uphold his end of anything, not with how authoritative and by the book he seems to be.   Raz: I'm not too afraid of them   Joust: You misunderstand, I enforce the rules and I shall follow them to a T.
I made you the offer for safe passage and I will uphold that end of the bargain. If we can put the differences aside for now, I will agree to turn the other way and allow you back home. However, it still stands, we lay down our weapons.   LP holsters his gun: it’s down it's down   Joust: If those two absolute degenerates if they agree to play fair then so shall I.  

   

Kay Em: Yep. We're good now,
so who knows how to fix a ship?  
They begin to study the damage on The Jewels, the Starlight ship, and the HTML Airship out of politeness. Although Raz remembers a few things from their Engineer father, Cashews, they choose to continue the mission on foot & Mech with the party and let the crew assist KM in ship repairs
and Vatna in silken sail repairs.
 
Lio: D-Don’t worry! We’ll w-work on the repairs here! You a-all go on ahead!  
(Note: In our HTML Live Games, everyone present in the live chat is considered present crew. Today, they serve on the Airship, regardless of their Departmental designation, unless otherwise independently noted. Your growing curiosity for exploration & adventure comes first!
Read the for more crew lore per this episode!)
 

Joust to LP & KM: Listen well, familiarize yourself with that vessel. You'll find yourself there in chains soon enough. Lore: I don't think that's the best thing to say to the people helping repair your ship. What if they put a EMP on there? don't give them-  
Joust: Now party, onward. Lead the way.
     



     
Before them is a ground covered in almost dead roots reaching upwards to the sky, dissipating into dust upon touch. Tincture goes from great excitement seeing the guiding blue light shine just beyond the ruins, to deep sadness upon witnessing the signs of ruthless destruction the buildings and otters endured here, before the decay set in.   Lore, an anthropologist by trade, can sense at least one strong lingering spirit around further into the ruins, calling from the blue light. As the party walks through the tragic remains of an Otter town. Lore remarks their findings: TW: Blood
Many of the otters have the same puncture wounds on their bodies and nearly all appear exsanguinated, perfectly in line with reported Red Cap Attacks.
  Seeing this a thousand times before, Commander Joust’s resolve hardens once again. This is why he does what he does, knowing as long as all the entryways into worlds are protected and locked up, the red caps can't get in.
 


Joust: As I said, it's a matter of disrupting a fragile system. This is the end result. You've seen them yourselves, and yet you still look at me like I'm the villain, typical.   Raz: Maybe you should stop being such a tightwad then..   Joust: Your vitriol means nothing, actions speak louder than words. I have been trying to protect all of us. You have done nothing but be reckless. Now, shall we proceed?  
Cree, the teenage moth, takes notes of absolutely everything she can, marking charcoal sketches of the writing on the walls and corpses in her book.
   
       
Meanwhile back at the ships:

Vatna speaks with The Jewels
Kay Em walks over to Vatna and the Airship:
This is a weird looking one, how are you little moth friend? you little banged up? You're right we did just came out of nowhere, we do that, we do that, but like you know it's what happens, you look a little, all right pardon the phrase, a little pirate-y yourself, look at that snazzy outfit you got, and I saw that fish woman, she's rocking a classic hat..   Vatna: Yeah that was my my next question, if you were pirates..   Kay Em: Ah pirates, it's a little too narrow for us we're..  
From the back of the airship, LP shouts:
We're entrepreneurs, you know, we find stuff around some worlds, they don't want it sometimes, it's not even good for them to have, you know, so we take it and we sell it to people that can handle it. And a snazzy ship like this *flicks the wheel a little bit as LP comes into full view,* looks like you guys might be able to afford some of it.   Vatna looks at all three ships and back to KM & LP: We should steal from his ship and then arrest him when he comes back..   Kay Em: OH! okay! Oh you're a devious one! I wasn't expecting that from such a, I mean, small and adorable fellow as yourself..

Vatna smiles.
Kay: All right, alright, there's bound to be some security on that ship, I like your style though   Vatna: Maybe you know another way, you have worked on his engines haven't you?   Kay Em: We could sabotage those engines, he couldn't chase after us, but he knows where you live. It’s just that way right? *He points to the sky in direction of the rift leading to Liminal* I understand the Starlight already doesn't like you, but that's an enemy you might not want, unless, unless of course, you do.   Vatna: You seem to be doing well…   LP, with both hands on the middle of his back stretching back: Yeah we do alright. they did capture one of our friends a while back, haven't found him yet. We thought maybe he'd be on this ship, but he's not, I already checked the dossier. Have you, and this is a wild question, have you ever seen a frog with a penchant for explosives?   Vatna: YES!   LP: Oh, you’ve seen Tracksuit?! Where?   Vatna: Is that his name? I did not see him myself, but I have read about him! Last reported alive I recall.
(Referring to the Saving Private Squishy report where the party released a frog Starlight prisoner with a knack for the boom-booms.)   Vatna to LP: but how do we both get out of this?

 
 
LP: Here's what I'm thinking, you want something from this ship, we grab one of these engines, he won't notice, they're all redundant systems, he won't know, he’ll think it fell off on the ship. Now scratch my back, I'll scratch yours - we've got a bit of a stockpile we need to unload, and we're looking for a safe place to unload said stockpile. Now, i don't know but with all your fancy uniforms and matching emblems and *looks over the crew* large crew here i'm thinking maybe set up a shop at your home base. We get you the means of, you know, maybe traveling a little better, a little safer, you know, perhaps with a little bit more juice.

We come in once in a while to sell our stuff, it's not going to be like, you know, we’ll we know you don't have any qualms about it do you, of course you don't, you want to steal from this guy, so you guys are good with some maybe ill-gotten goods, right? It sounds good to us.. my name’s El Pea… if it sounds good to you. LP extends their hands for a shake.   Vatna: We welcome any chance at acquisition. And mine’s Vatna Stein+  
The Reality Moth and Jewelsmen shake hands in mutual understanding.Sounds of ratcheting tools
engulf the scene as the Starlight ship is jacked upward, off its proverbial wheels.

LP looks back to Vatna:
Don't worry he'll be fine, he'll be fine, our word is our bond, you gotta keep your word.
 
Vatna joins the project, learning as much as they can about engine jacking and repurposing.
And a quick learner he is! The quickly bonding team of pirates retrieve more engines
from the Starlight ship than expected, ensuring the cockpit engine gauges and displays readout positively.
     
       
Unaware he’s being robbed, Joust and the party find the source of the spirit-energy, blue light. Before them, in the coldest part of the moon yet, sits a literal anvil with a powerful relic the shape of a hammer, known to Joust as incredibly dangerous, beside it. Tincture’s eyes captivated by the beauty.
  Joust: Everyone, I think we should approach with caution,   Raz to Tincture: What is that?   Tincture, still in shock of the wonder before her:

It's what this planet is named after, this I think, based on Cree’s sketches of the walls, this is where we came from, all the otters, this was our forge. It was said that it could craft gateways to other dimensions and so they built ships to sail The Beyond, what that paper recently called the Onion-verse.   Joust: Then their safe keeping should be of the utmost priority.  
Raz finds a few Fragile books and decrepit papers resting near, in a language no one present can read,
but to read one many would become destroyed.
 
With their death-sensitive vision, Lore extends their sight and witnesses a ghostly otter acting out their final moments centuries ago on a loop - a red cap attack
(Being yanked into the sky, drained of his blood, and dropped back down)
followed by striking something with the hammer one last time, beside them a tree rests, now withered and dead.
 
Starlight Organization Dossier
The anvil and hammer are not made of silver.
They are composed of the concept of silver.
Anything crafted on the forge has the same magical ability as fully silvered items do in this universe, i.e., if a normal iron sword was crafted using this forge, the weapon likely could cut through reality. Someone could build a ship capable of navigating through rifts as the HTML Sub & Airship do, made out of any material as long as it was made on this forge. It is incredibly powerful & therefore dangerous.
  Joust: The safe keeping of this object is our utmost priority, I will admit I know the exact boundary of my physical and mental ability, and this greatly exceeds them. One of you must be the one.   Deliberation
Raz: That's why there's books for it right?
Joust: You don’t have time to go through them all right now.
Raz: Well, no, of course not.
Lore: Why don’t I carry the anvil back on my shiny back?
*gestures towards the high-powered magnet Lio slapped on before the party ventured off*   Joust: No worry, I will give my life, lay it down absolutely, to make sure this system is upheld.   Raz: Well I'm pretty sure our job is to keep this thing safe right?
Joust: Indeed
Raz: No, not not talking to you it's talking to my crew, thank you
Nichol: Remember, once, the cop is right
Raz: I guess the broken clock is is right twice a day
Joust: I am well within earshot, thank you
Raz: I know. And I just start walking away.
 
  Joust: One of you must decide who will carry the hammer, I will run defense. Trafford: At this point since we are picking up incredibly dangerous artifacts, keep your senses sharp.  
Lore straps the anvil to her exo-back, and as she picks up the hammer off the freezing cold ground,for the first time in hundreds of years, a single drop of blood falls off it and splashes onto the ground.
 
 

Nichol Trafford’s hackles shoot way up, something is definitely watching the party: We have a problem.
 

 


Joust: Close ranks everyone, keep your eyes peeled
 


The ground shakes as a pale centipede-like colossal with small red veins nears.
Stacks and stacks and stacks of red caps fused together compose the creature’s bloodthirsty body.
All the redcaps that once ate this planet now writhes towards the spilt drop of blood.
 


Joust: If that thing gets blood, it’s over.
 

Vatna drops what they're doing and prepares the ship's weapons and asks The Jewels to do the same.
Kay Em hops into the pilot seat and LP into the gunner’s seat with a Yup yup yup yup attitude.
 


Joust: We need to leave now!
Lore: Leaving seems like a great idea!



As the party begins to run, the red cap swipes out at Raz who just barely jumps above it. “Refresh!” Midair, Raz invites a magic blade to their hand and stabs the swiping redcap’s appendage. The tiniest trickle of blood comes out and the redcap conglomerate roars through the medium of feeling, not sound. Everyone feels the roar in their bones.

 

Joust, squaring up: I said we needed to move! Now collect yourselves and get moving!  

Raz: He did say he was going to put his life on the line..
Vatna on Comms: Ships ready, make haste!
   

The amalgam attacks Joust, ripping one of his arms off and sucking it dry.





Joust: I've dealt with enough of you!
None of your kind scares me anymore!
Granted you look a little tougher than the others...
but that said, EN GUARDE!!  
Joust to HTML: I just hope you're moving!
 


And They are!


The party makes it back to the ships, Nichol assumes the helm, Akhana secures the ship’s hull,
Vatna configures the best firing solution. Outside, Midnight begins to cast smites left and right,
Seth snipes, while the entire crew pulls double duty to get airborne and combat/support ready.
 
Using the lyric ornament, Nichol sends a whisper to Joust, alerting him to a rescue.
“This message is brought to you by Bobert's Casino and Spa.
We now have the best mud in the entire OnionVerse!”
 
Lore reaches over the side of the ship while everybody's firing to assist the now alerted
Commander Joust to safety, as the two ships pelt the colossal from behind.
 



Joust: You fools! I told you to leave..
That said, thank you.
What are your names?   Vatna: Vatna Stein+
Joust: Well met.

Vatna gives the HTML salute.
 

Joust: You'll be granted safe passage through this area for as long as you'd need, but after that once your business is done, well you've proven yourselves capable, we will meet again as authority dictates.  
After the airship delivers Commander Joust safely to his ship,
Vatna adds his final words:
We may know how to mend the hole that was created with your passage..  
Joust: Thank you, I'm relieved to know that there's still hope for this universe yet. Now safe travels.  
Joust speeds through the ripped hole before the crew (14 strong!),
using Vatna’s silken sails as a reality patch, stitch it shut.
Interestingly enough, the Jewels follow the Airship back to Silver Thimble on Liminal.
   






     
It’s been two days since the HTML Airship left Liminal for the first time.
As the ship and the Jewels appear over Button Bay waving a green banner of success, the city of Silver Thimble’s emergency speakers blast victory music in celebration, but the ships aren’t alone. Small redcaps who made their way to the rift entrance begin to rain from the Liminal sky.  
On the ground, nearly all the Otters of Silver Thimble have been transfixed on the rift above them, witnessing one of their own, their leader Tincture, in their ancestral home. As the speakers celebrate and pride wells up, the trained otters pull out their weapons and shoot the red caps out of their sky.  
It’s agreed, the anvil and hammer belong to the Otters and are handed over to Tincture who will most likely take the relics to the plains of Pastura where the majority of Liminal’s Otter rift-related diaspora live. There, it shall be open
for all Otters to visit and behold.
 
  • Commander Joust’s report gives no reason to
    further investigate or hunt HTML right now.
  • Nichol Trafford purchases a large amount of wine
    for when the airship is properly named.
  • Guess Lore has a mech now?!
    And the Airship got two new space engines!
  • The Jewels parks above the sweetest bar possible, the Diving Belle, with a
    “Don’t rush us, don’t rush us, we’ll get a shop set up soon.”





  •        

    Congrats!


    The crew now has access to The Jewel’s Little Shop of Horrors!
    Shop Drops occur randomly, monthly-ish in the Discord #html-offship Channel where players with enough coins can purchase questionably procured wears. These Shop Drops are also available as a World Anvil RP Forum linked here: Little Shop of Horrors!

    Once an item is purchased and the Coin Purse updated, El Pea or Kay Em will give
    a full item description. Vatna buys the dress of many pockets immediately.
             

    From Alan, the Guide


    By the way , El Pea (LP) is my new favorite NPC hands down.

    Look at him,

    look at that guy,
    look it's cool,
    he's cool,
    he knows how to uh jack a ship.  
    Their third, Tracksuit, could have been in the game.
    So early on, Lore played their Season One card which makes something happen in every game depending when in the game it’s played. If the card was played later in this game, Tracksuit would have been activated and he would have been on the enemy ship, but he wasn’t.

    That’s the plan for Season One Streamloot Cards!! moving forward, so they’ll be one-time use cards with a direct purpose! (Season One cards refer to cards given only to crew/participants of the Season One Finale Episode in Dec 2021.)
           
    Just us Girls
    The moon wasn’t there until Nika told me to prepare a contingency on a contingency. See if there’d be a police chase across the onion verse, because there’s no way in hell they’ll actually go to the moon they’re expected to! Then last week, Goose said something about Sky Otters and I thought about what they call the rocks otters use, and that’s how we ended up with the game we got today about anvils and hammers and otters!  

    Just us girls, did anyone else ever swallow a folly Polly?
    Joust as a JoJo stand would be “Jagged Little Pill,” a great name.
     
        Take a second to appreciate the art real quick, it looks great!
    Vatna has little star freckles when they talk! Joust is a Lil pill bro!
             
    Everybody was a
    lot of fun!

    Thanks for having me! Thank you very much!
    - Joust

    Check out Adrian's Projects!
    Webtoon: Neon Saviors
    Frost Child Studios & Instagram
    YouTube: Insomnia & Neon Saviors

    Thanks to Adrian
    for Guest Starring as
    Commander Joust!


    The NPC Joust Game: Distress Call
    is now unlockable on Streamloot!!

    The crew picks up a distress call coming from a closed rift and discover the source is none other than
    Commander Joust.

           

    all right, alright again everybody thank you so much for coming
    thank you for playing um you guys all did great
    this artwork looks amazing um but yeah
    also if you guys have more want to see something different
    yeah please give us feedback
    please please please  

    Get ready for the next adventure!
    Game #2: Seligkeit

         








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