Eagle Eyes c10s0b

Magneter och Mirakler rules

Magneter och mirakler is a Swedish rules set and game setting. We're using the rules of Magneter och mirakler with the game setting of Eagle Eyes. Rules-wise Magneter och mirakler is quite simple and the principle is that a character have a fixed amount of aspects. We added petitio videtur, the request each Eye makes to The Eagle when he or she assign themselves for service since this is significant both in the setting and in the rules for the original Eagle Eyes (Fate accelerated). Role-playing goes on until there's a conflict of interest regarding where the story goes. When there's a conflict an aspect is used to win the conflict. The conflict could be escalated though and in that case each player or game master rolls a six sided die and add aspects if they want to have an upper hand statistically. The aspect  Game setting is used to activate aspects of other player characters or non-player characters than your own. Each aspect has a limit for how many times it could be used in a positive aspect and how many times it could be used in a negative aspect. This is the +X/-Y noted by the aspect further down. Each gaming campaign also has a few themes that can be activated by anyone along with places and items in the story. There's a little more to the rules but that's the main principle. Magneter och mirakler can be found at Kaleidoskop's web site (in Swedish); Magneter och mirakler.

Characters

Claudius Piso Caesonius

• Game setting: -5/+5
• Petitio videtur: -3/+3
• Regain membership in collegia and and get back hos luxury barber shop
• Stubborn: -2/+1
• Distorts information: -1/+2
• Steady hands: -1/+2
• Used to seeing blood: -2/+1
• Social: -1/+3
• Vain: -2/+1
• Used to upper class people: -1/+1
• Runner: -3/+1
• Barber: -1/+2

Paulla Nynnia Lamia

• Game setting: -5/+5
• Petitio videtur: -3/+3
• Cancel banishment of her grandmother from Rome, falsely accused of bad magic
• Loyalty to Caecilii: -3/+1
• Business sense: -1/+2
• Nimble-fingered: -1/+1
• Non-squeamish: -1/+2
• Deviating morale: -2/+3
• Singer's voice: -1/+2
• Well-known in her home area: -2/+1
• Organised: -1/+1
• Forefathers' attention: -1/+1

Hostus Caecilii Nasus

• Game setting: -5/+5
• Petitio videtur: -3/+3
• Regain his family's farm
• Vendetta: -2/+2
• Acting: -1/+1
• Loyalty: -2/+3
• Observant: -2/+1
• Acting under pressure: -3/-2
• Fleet-footed: -1/+1
• Dominating: -2/+1
• Hunted: -1/+2
• Nimle-fingered: -1/+1

Eagle Eyes c10s0a

Eagle Eyes is a noiresque setting in ancient Rome, in our case the last period of the Republic. Gaius Juilus is in Gaul and committing genocide to subdue the Gauls to Roman rule while conspiracies is going on in Rome and everyone is wondering what comes next. Unrest stirs among nobiles that don't like G Julius who actually have broken some rules regarding imperium to fullfil his own plans.

Originally Eagle Eyes was written for Fate Accelerated but we're trying out Magneter och mirakler a Swedish rules system originally for another game setting. THe rules are based around the principle of keeping role-playing until there's a conflict in where the story should go, then the rules are used to solve that conflict. The rules aren't traditionally skill based but rather on aspect of the characters. One or more aspects could be close to skill sets, e g a profession, if that's important for what the player want the story to be about.

The characters are of plebeian descent although once successful such. Claudius Piso was a barber in the uptown quarters, Hostus Caecilii was next in line to inherit a medium family farm and Paulla Nynnia was the overseer at the farm. Then bad luck struck them down.

A little more than ten years ago Caecilii's farm was struck by bandits and everyone there was killed and the farm was burned to the ground. Everyone was declared dead and the land as free land (not aeger publicus though) and a nearby latifundia owner took over the land. Luckily for  Paulla and Hostus they were on errands in Rome when it happened. Paulla hadn't fully taken over all the task as an overseer but were doing all physically demanding tasks since her mother were becoming old. Hostus was nearly 20 so he was preparing to become young adult and thereby starting to help his father to run the farm for real. Therefore he and Paulla was in Rome to conduct some business when the bandits attacked the farm.

Paulla and Hostus didn't have much money since they only had what coin they had brought to Rome and also need to stay hidden to avoid the risk of getting killed to tie up loose ends. They kept a living as street corner actors and comedians with some swindling if needed.

Approximately five years ago Claudius was thrown out of the collegium and stripped of his place as a barber so that some relative of the master of the collegium could have his place. Claudius money ran out and fueled by lust of revenge he managed a living as swindler, e g selling stolen goods or fake greek artwork.

Close to three years ago the three of them met in the streets of Rome and teamed up to cover for each other down periods and help each other out and in some time even stabilise their common living standard.

Newly another recruit in The Eagles approached them and gave them an offering. Working for The Eagles would make the Sinistram (The Left Hand, the three senators running The Eagle) fullfil whatever wish they had. They enlisted with wishes (petitio videtur, unseen request) of their own and just four days ago managed to complete a test mission and was accepted.

The Secrets of Cats tARE, c6s4c

When they search for Trubbklo they hear cats say the same thing as about Trubbklo as about Stortass, that he since a while has kept to being indoors - even become something of a sissy. They call for Trubbklo but Trubbklo just says something about being busy and disappears indoors.

Some cats appear to think that Skarpöra is cool cat, a little harsh but fair (but that mostly cats without real territories, mostly cats with small apartment territories within bigger territories). They seem to think that there were a lot fussin' and yappin' before but that's gone now. Some seems to have come to an agreement with Skarpöra, to Skarpöra's benefit. None of them are especially willing to discuss Skarpöra in details although both Tryggtass and Grå tries to get them do exactly that.

Gast sneaks back home since he knows that it's food time although he knows that he's not so welcome at home since the "accident" with the master's important box. As he comes back he catches the last part of a quarrel between two of the slaves over whether Gast should have some fresh fish or not. After a short while one of them returns quickly and puts a small dish with a small fresh fish filet with some garum in Gast's hideout and then he returns with the usual plate at the usual place but with unusually old and crappy meat-something. Gast pretends to eat a little, messes a little with the food as a cover-up for not eating. Gast notice which slave it was and sneaks into his hideout and enjoys the delicacy and then decides to go out to complement with a freshly killed mouse. Before he is finished master and mistress of the house appears and sits down at the small bench at the other end of the very small garden (but still a garden).

Gast pricks up his ears. They're talking quite low for being humans and seem very serious and concerned and maybe not totally agreed upon some important matter. It shows to be The Big Debt that the husband has kept secret for his wife. She is hurt that he didn't tell him. They usually share all important parts of private and official business, both her doings and his doings, and sometime help each other. He is sad and tries to convince her that he was going to fix it and she never needed to know about it. Gast don't think he sounds very convincing and his wife doesn't seem to really buy it either. "It was just this thing..." he tries. "I'll fix it" he says and his wife look at him with mixed feelings and beliefs showing in her face. It's like either he didn't tell about something important, the debt, or he didn't tell about something important, the resources that can solve this. Gast thinks that he should stop trying to dig himself out of the hole he's in. The mistress of the house turns to her husband and ends the discussion with "...and don't try anything stupid like your cousin who burnt the debt paper, there's another copy at the lender's place". Now the master of the house gets hurt and almost a little angry "My dropped behind a wagon cousin?!? You think I would do something like him?!?" Gast thinks that maybe, maybe if both copies burned, maybe everything would be solved... The pair returns inside for lunch. Gast walks out to the old food so that mistress of the house notice him and the old food. She looks at him with mixed emotions, a little like if she's angry for the broken ornamented box but on the other hand, hadn't the box broke she wouldn't have known that they risk having to sell the house and move to, gasp, an apartment. Gast returns to a comfortably sunny spot on the street roof.

The Secrets of Cats tARE, c6s4b

Two days and a night until the senate meeting.

The cats are laying around at the street roof having a discussion regarding whether Tryggtass should represent herself or not and if it's good or bad for her case that they have discovered that Skarpöra is cooperating with two other cats to dominate the streets. Svansglidaren tells Tryggtass that he has talked to Kattmyntetunga (Catnip Tongue) who will help out with the hearing if they wish so. Svansglidaren, Tryggtass and Grå decide to see her while Gast stays at the street roof

They saunters along on top of the estate walls to get a better view, look cooler and to avoid the humans that run along everywhere.

While Gast is half asleep Skarpöra appears and actively ignores Gast like he was air and goes to for Tryggtass favourite spot. She sniffs and looks to carefully place her as exactly on that spot as she can. She rubs herself on the concrete to be sure to leave some scent after her.  After a short while Gast hear a human curse by some unknown entity and something swish through the air and crash into the wall a little uncomforably close to Gast. Gast keeps it cool and looks up as Skarpöra does. Someone has thrown a pies of charcoal from the building across the street which hit the wall and broke on Gast's and Skarpöra's side. Someone shouts from across the street (from Grå's insula), curses some more and shouts to Skarpöra to leave which Skarpöra ignores. This seems to make the human furious who with much hatred throws another piece of coal towards Skarpöra and escalates by throwing a few as (copper coin) directly at her and hunts her off.

Svansglidaren et al arrives at the domus (city house) of the burden of Kattmyntetunga and Svansglidaren jumps up on the garden wall and calls for her. Shortly a cat with nifty appearance shows up. A slim cat without scars that cares for her appearance. Her kind of cat doesn't have fur tips on top of the ears but it's almost like someone has patted her fur to almost form tips anyway. She greets them and Svansglidaren presents his friends and the case. Tryggtass and Svansglidaren starts to describe details but Kattmyntetunga stops them politely and suggests that they go to park not far away where they can talk without humans running around and between the lines without other cats listening. Kattmyntetunga leads the way a few blocks away into a smaller park where she stops under a tree that gives some shade but not totally blocks the sun. She seems to signal to magpie who flies to somewhere near the top to, from what it looks, keep a lookout.

They discuss the matter and Tryggtass tells what has happened and also the history of Tryggtass territory and that there are no real territory connections between this street or street roof and Skarpöra's real territory. Kattmyntetunga takes a quite aristotelean stance and try to get Tryggtas and the others to tell as much as they can themselves and tries to get Tryggtass to suggest her stance in the hearing herself.

Kattmyntetunga asks about which witnesses there are and learns about Gast who aren't there now. All events seem to have several witnesses on both sides; Tryggtass, Grå, Gast, Svansglidaren, Skarpöra, Högertass and a third cat that Tryggtass can identify on sight and scent but doesn't know the name of.

According to normal praxis Kattmyntetunga finds several issues with how Skarpöra is claiming the street and the street roof.
* It's a strange way to get to the territory in question. There has been no real territory fights over the territories (or parts thereof) between Skarpöra's and Grå's or tryggtass'.
* The duel seemed less duelesque  than wished for. Högertass seemed very keen on joing in to help Skarpöra in what rather looked like a regular fight than a territory duel.
* Skarpöra seems to have quite a non-proper attitude to the whole thing.
* The provocations in themselves are especially problematic but since Skarpöra so very much homed in on Tryggtass she sort of jumped over Grå's part of the street/street roof and directly to Tryggtass which doesn't give her a fully connected territory even if that area could actually be called a territory.
* She didn't do a formal challenge.

As a counter-gesture for the help Kattmyntetunga wants Svansglidaren to get her a hemina (~0.25 kg) of catnip (kattmynta) which Svansglidaren agrees to but for himself thinks that that's gonna be somewhat of an effort to gather. They leave to try to find out something more about Skarpöra's personal quality, find it as low as possible. They all agree on meeting again in the evening.

In the meanwhile Skarpöra has appeared again looking at Gast as he's nothing to care about. Gast answers with a yawn. Skarpöra glares at her and lies down at Tryggtas favourite spot again.

"By all the lemures in the Roman Empire - are you here Again?!?" someone shouts and again the same human chase away Skarpöra by throwing coins at here. Gast feels good watching it but can't help wonder what that human has against Skarpöra specifically. Gast starts to get a little worried that the human will start to hunt him when he discovers him so he takes a jump up to a window alcove slightly to the left from the windows with the human to have a better view and easier avoid eventual projectiles. As he land in the alcove the human throws shut the shutters with a "cat lemur" spitted out into the air between the buildings. Gast is confused.

When Svansglidaren, Grå and Tryggtass gets back to the street roof and Gast they noticed a certain Skarpöra smell. Gast describes the morning's events with amusement. Svansglidaren looks over where there human should have appeared and recognises the apartment where he did his dream walking with the pater familias (family head) and looks very satisfied.

Grå leads the way towards Skarpöra's territory as he, Svansglidaren and Tryggtass walks off to try to find more intel on Skarpöra and her activities and most of all her personal quality for the senate hearing.  They start to ask around along the streets towards Skarpöra's territory seeking cats losing parts of their territories to Skarpöra. Different cats seem to agree on that Skarpöra is the one making the calls on the streets.

One of the cats losing their street is Stortass (Big Paw) who apparently has become almost offish lately and totally satisfied with territory only within the actual building of the insula. It takes some searching in the insula before they find a shy and suspicious cat that presents itself as Stortass (although he seems quite muscular and competent in fighting). After a lot of rethorics and luring Stortass agrees to that Skarpöra and company bashed and threatened their way to the street outside the building and not necessarily by the book. Stortass is very unwilling to appear in the Cat Senate but agrees to telling them what happened in more details to the one that shall plead the cause. That is not decided yet so in the end he tells the three being present. At first he says the duel went by the rules. They are little unsure wether that's actually the case since he seems nervous. After more convincing he admits that the other cats accompanying Skarpöra almost, almost joined the fight by that threatened Stortass into submission without having to actually win a fair duel. Foul play is obvious from Stortass' tale. They also find out that Stortass territory neighbour across the street is Trubbklo (Blunt Claw).

To be continued in c6s4c...

The Secrets of Cats tARE, c6s4a

A sketch over some of the territories in the story so far (several will be mentioned in the post for the fourth session, c6s4)

The Secrets of Cats tARE, c6s3

Updated 20150630 15:42 CEST

Over the latest few days Gast has realised that his burden, the senator, has become very melancholic, not all the time but every now and then, in a way he hasn't noticed before. His burden is often troubled by financial or politic matters but usually he seems to see those troubles as challenges. Also he seems to keep this new trouble from his wife with whom he often shares thing and discuss things with. Two brains work better than one but for some reason he keeps this from his wife.

Tryggtass yesterday found out that a kid from one of the poorest families at the top floor (5th) was bordering on getting sick, something that often for a small child like this (less than a year old) means death. After some stakeout she found out that the parents didn't seems to cuddle with their child and also that the roof were leaking in water making the bad small apartment even damper, hotter in the day and colder in the night. Tryggtass decides to start cuddling the child herself, mostly during the nights, to warm the kid and hopefully get her through whatever she is almost catching. Tryggtass also engages Grå who lives across the street in this activity.

During the day Gast actively spies on his burden and hangs around where he is all day. He then finds out that this new kind of troublesomeness with his burden is connected to a certain piece of paper or two that he keeps in a small special box with a lock. This is strange, all normal human paper things are kept in two bigger unlocked boxes in the office room with just a simple sprint to keep the kids from opening them. Gast's burden also seems to almost hide this small box among other boxes not related to papers like pen boxes, ink flasks and such. The box needs to be opened but how and how should Gast know what's written on the paper?

Gast remembers that Tryggtass  an read human so he and Tryggtass start to work out a plan where they will smash the box into the wall in the office to break so that Tryggtass can read the note. There's only one problem, the sound will catch the humans' attention. After a while they come up with the idea that someone else could create a distraction e g topple a table or a floor candelabra in the dining room across the atrium. When asked Grå is happy to help. The only question is when; at lunch or dinner time when all is gathered in one place, late afternoon when the family is out at the baths and the servants are spread out in the house and in the city running errands or in the night when everyone is home but asleep except, hopefully, the door-keeper.

In the meanwhile Svansglidaren has been trying to socialise with the corvids in the area; crows, magpies and ravens, by hanging around on roofs and weird nooks and corners where birds spend time. After a while and a hurt behind leg from a fall Svansglidaren sort of becomes accepted by the corvids (advantage created) and starts to have actual talks with them about Skarpöra and his associates. Apparently Skarpöra is socialising a lot with two other churls for cats, all three of them old fighters from their looks. From a birds view combined with Svansglidaren's knowledge it seems obvious that they cooperate to take over the streets in a tactic that combines that fact that the streets usually aren't that big a part of a territory and that these three cats can frighten many cats into submission.

In the evening Gast and Tryggtass sneaks into the house when people are passing in and out while Grå are waiting until it's time and then takes the way in over the garden wall. Grå topples a floor candelabra moments after Gast has smacked the box into the wall and Tryggtass bent apart the main box and the lid. Grå then leave the house quickly while Gast keeps his ear alert while Tryggtass looks at the paper. The door-keeper enters the house to see what happens and some people stir in their beds. While the door-keeper turns to look at the obvious fallen candelabra Gast and Tryggtass sneaks away and leave the house the same way, over the garden wall at the back, as Grå. As they leave they hear the door-keep curse "the cat" and Gast feels that maybe he should keep away from the house for a while.

The paper was debt note on a, for cats, meaningless sum but obviously high debt. It was stated that the debt note was created in two copies, one for the borrower and one for the lender.

It doesn't take long before Gast realises that he is in the possession of almost exactly the true name of the human who had lent his burden the money since the humans are so sloppy with their true names and use almost exactly the true names as regular names. Most humans don't even seem aware of true names. The debt note had both lender's and loaner's full names, person name, family name and additional name. It would only take a few tries for Gast to get the true name correct enough. Gast slips away to his own corner behind a flowerbed with tall flowers. He gets into his proud and meditative sphinx-like position and drifts into the world of magic and seeks the true name of the human. He finds him in one of the great bath houses and shivers a little at the thought of all that water and jumping into it voluntarily. He realises that even though he could find the place he could not single out the human since he doesn't know his appearance. He makes another try before taking a nap much later in the night and finds the human in a house. Assuming the human has went to bed and is a house master Gast should be able to go there and in the same room only find two humans which of one will be a female and the male should be the lender.

And so another day and night passed closing in on the hearing in the cat senate now two days and one nights away.

The Secrets of Cats tARE, c6s1

The session started with everything having been calm for a while, no startling things in The Cat Senate, territories respected and no urgent grave dangers for The Burdens. The four cats Grå, Tryggtass, Gast and Svansglidaren lies on the street roof covering the street between the insula where Tryggtass lives and the insula where Grå lives. Grå and Tryggtass are on good standing with each other and have devided the area between the insulas in the middle and don’t quarrel about the exact border (except maybe sometimes just to tease the other). Tryggtass has a territory of one side of her insula (including some other cats being content with their respective apartments as territories) and Grå has two sides of his insula (also including some other cats).

It’s sunny but slightly shady because of the high building and everything is cool when a sturdy cat suddenly walks up to them or more specifically up to Tryggtass catching her attention extra by blocking out the sun for her. The group greets the new cat lazily which they vaguely recognise and can put a name on, Skarpöra (Sharpear), but that haven't been noticeable in the cat senate and is no neighbour of any of them. Skarpöra presents herself and asks what they're doing on her territory.

The group doesn't repsond well to that and simply suggests that she should leave Tryggtass territory and be done with it. Skarpöra doesn't take that well and and insulting and provocation game, involving human everyday names, begins (no dice rolled). After a while Skarpöra who is a bully used to win standoffs and fights attacks Grå who is the most provocative of the cats. A fight breaks out and soon Tryggtass is also involved together with Svansglidaren and a companion to Skarpöra, Högertass (Right Paw). After a an exchange of hits and slashes and with Gast hiding in a window alcove Skarpöra and Högertass leaves quite quickly.

At the beginning of the fight Tryggtass jumped up to a window alcove one level up and there she heard steps she didn't recognise and smelled a cat she didn't recognise. When she looked into the apartment she saw an unfamiliar cat. A human in the apartment noticed them and grabbed a broom to get them out. The other cat ran out in the corridor outside the apartments and Tryggtass returned to the fight by jumping Skarpöra from above (stunt Death from above).

Later Tryggtass applied for audience to princeps, the leader of The Cat Senate, and when approved asked about this territory claim Skarpöra did. Princeps was unsure and had to check with other cat officials before saying too much but probably it would have to be solved either in court or by fight.

The Secrets of Cats tARE, c6s2

Tryggtass got some info on what was remembered officially about Skarpöra and her territory. To the cat group's surprise and not surprise Skarpöra's territory is several blocks away from theirs which means she is a long way from home claiming territory and if she actually had taken a territory that big, like biggest in Rome, they would have heard of it. Increasing the edges of one's territory would be the normal and accepted way of expanding a territory, weird behaviour indeed.

Here we had a minor milestone:

• Grå increased Territory to +3 and decreased Burglary to +2
• Svansglidaren increased Territory to +3 and decreased Burglary to +2
• Gast increases Deceive to +3 and decreases Physique to +2

A day later they return from having checked in with the consul of the day to see if there's any patrol missions for them to take on during their duty. Since it's been calm regarding the threats from lemures and such there's nothing coming up now. As they take the natural path back they arrive at the street roof between Grå's and Tryggtass's territories (usually they either split up here or take nap or rest in the sun or shade whichever preferred, it's a good spot). When they jump to the roof they stop, staring at her, Skarpöra's back. She's lying almost exactly at Tryggtass's favourite spot and being groomed by her underling Högertass as if to make it totally clear that she sees this a part of her home.

Tryggtass and Grå (the two having territory on the street roof) hiss at her but she ignores them and make herself, if possible, even more comfortable. After a short burst of words and insults between them Tryggtass jumps Skarpöra. Grå is just right behind her and Högertass joins in on Skarpöra's side. The cats jump around and slap and smack each other and the fight is even but Tryggtass maneuvers out of the fight and then Grå does that as well. Skarpöra confidently but obviously with pain returns to lying in the Sun after the four cats have stood for a while panting and staring at each other.

Grå runs off towards the areas around Skarpöra's expected territory and walks around finding a lot of her scent in the streets. He also talks with cats he meet and find that they overall seems bullied into more or less submission. At least the cats he meet talk of Skarpöra as someone to be submissive towards.

Tryggtass can't stand the invasion of her territory and hangs around with Gast at the street roof to mark that she's not given up although the fight wasn't definitive. She also declares to Skarpöra that she's gonna escalate this to the senate. Skarpöra just ignore her with a facial expression telling that she don't think Tryggtass has the guts or the social standing to pull off such a thing.

Svansglidaren also goes off on his own mission and seeks up a cat skilled in rethorics and convince her to speak for Tryggtass if it should come to a senate hearing and vote in the matter. She agrees with the condition that Svansglidaren becomes her client for a small favour. They both find the suggestion agreeable and tap paws in a gesture parallel to when the humans grabs each other hands to seal a deal.

When Grå returns he walks around the whole of his and Tryggtass territory to get into "her" insula without the cats on the street roof noticing him. He walks up the highest level and climbs up on the tiled roof and shove a tile off the roof to hit Skarpöra but in the process he almost tips himself over the edge as well and in the process several tiles follows the first one and almost hits Tryggtass as well. Skarpöra gets a partial hit on her loin. Having had enough of troubles here she walks off with her underling.

After sundown Tryggtass goes to princeps's secretary to  file a complaint regarding Skarpöra. After a short discussion where the secretary tries to find out if they can't solve it on their own, if they really have to take it to the senate. She says that a meeting will be called after sundown in three days. She also states that if Skarpöra wouldn't turn up it's Tryggtass's right to drag Skarpöra to court, literally, unless Skarpöra would be old or sick. In that case she, with help if needed, would have to carry Skarpöra.

Svansglidaren seeks out a well-off citizen living on top of his workshop on the side of Grå's insula facing the street roof. He reckons it from there would be a good view over the place where the fight and provocations have taken place. As so often when winter is over the window shutters are slightly open but blocked so that fresh air can enter but a burglar has to break it open and awaken the family inside. Unless it's a cat burglar of course, Svansglidaren sneaks through the gap between the shutters and walks up to the sleeping family head and lies down beside him, up close to his face. As Svansglidaren relaxes and start to feel drowsy he inhales some of the man's breath, sniffs it, feels it, atunes himself to the man. Svansglidaren falls to sleep and enters the dream world where all sentient beings souls during sleep partly let go of the body and roams more free than during awaken time. This means they can meet sprits close to the mundane world, good or bad spirits, lares or lemures and all kinds of spirits. Most humans don't remember this though and if they should remember something they usually mix it up with earlier experiences in the mundane world while trying to understand what happened during the dream. Svansglidaren seeks out the man and convinces him that the cat Skarpöra has to go. There's no place around here for such a cat. Luckily cats don't sleep so much during nights as humans do so Svansglidaren wakes up much earlier than the family and sneaks out the same way he came, convinced that he has created a new problem for Skarpöra, something that will benefit him and his friends.

Svansglidaren's phase trio story for tSoC, c6

Soon after the senator, Svansglidaren's burden, had moved into his domus (Domus exiguus) the slaves hadn't cared properly for the fire in the kitchen and some still glowing coal fell to the floor and set fire to the mat in front of the toilet. Svansglidaren toppled a bowl of soup and put out the fire.

Grå was in the vicinity to check out the new cat and noticed the incident. Afterwards Grå witnessed about Svansglidaren's readiness to protect his burden even if he would get punished in the process (for toppling the soup bowl and destroying the slaves's breakfast.

Tryggtass was in the house of the new "neighbour" (the domus is next to her insula) to see what the new cat of the house was up to. When she felt the smoke and ran to the kitchen and found Svansglidaren and the toppled soup bowl she showed Svansglidaren the best hiding place in the house so that Svansglidaren didn't get any blame for the toppled bowl. Tryggtass knew the previous cat in the house and thereby knew the house quite well.

Gast's phase trio story for tSoC, c6

When Gast's burden the senator returned to Rome from Alexandria (where Gast had his vision about the senator and that he was his burden) Gast followed him on the boat trip (properly cared for by the sailors, no one wants sto mistreat an Egyptian cat when leaving Egypt). When they arrived to Ostia and the luggage was reloaded to barges for the river trip to Rome the crate with the senators Nile crocodile was dropped and suddenly the senator faced an irritated and hungry crocodile. Gast jumped in between and drove back the crocodile long enough for the handlers to capture it again.

Svansglidaren notices that something supernatural is influencing the crocodile and making it more aggressive than normal but manage to hold it off with his Warding skills.

Since the senator seems to be in an exposed position Grå helps Gast with the protection of the seantor through the streets of Rome when the barges have landed in Rome.


Cat scares off alligator

Cat and alligator decides on who gets dinner

Grå's phase trio story for tSoC, c6

In the middle of a night a burglar climbed in the window of Julia's window (Grå's burden). A short and for the burglar painful struggle erupted and woke up the familia. Sadly the thief managed to escape the same way she came.

Tryggtass was nearby when the burglar and Grå started their fight. When the burglar climbed out the window she got another cat in her head when Tryggtass jumped her from above. When she fell down from the second floor she got delayed and Grå got time to run out and lead the family head to thief who got arrested.

The burglar brought and dropped a flask of poison and Gast finds this and brings it to his burden's slave and shows where it was found. Since the senator that's Gast's burden get most of his pastry from this specific pastry chef he got a valuable lesson on the political climate and the weapons used in the modern Rome (the new principate and the way people achieve they goals as opposed to the old glorious republic).

Gast, a player character for tSoC, c6

Updated 20150424, stunts

Chosen name: Gast/Ghost

Everyday name:  Leo/Leo

Kitten name:  Bruntass/Brownpaw

True name: ---

High concept:
Newly immigrated Egyptian Abyssinian cat shaper

Trouble aspect:
Greater than the rest of the Roman cats because of the Egyptian closer bond to Bastet

Character aspect 1:
Daring

Character aspect 2:
Scheming

Character aspect 3:
Suspicious of...

Description:
Sand coloured siames patterned Abyssinian cat with a brown front paw

Burden:
A lesser senator

Physical stress: 3

Mental stress: 3

Skills:
Shaping +4
Deceive +3
Stealth +3
Territory +2
Will +2
Physique +2
Warding +1
Naming +1
Seeking +1
Notice +1

Stunts:
Deceive, Ventriloquist, +2 at deceiving others that the voice is coming from another adjacent zone.
Stealth, Prowl, +2 to stealth when hearing is the main way to discover the cat.
Stealth, Surprise! Once per session, the cat can reveal itself in a scen where it wasn't participating in from the beginning.
Warding, Invisibility, the cat whispers it's true name backwards and creates an inverted ward around itself which makes it and eventually other animals invisible.
Shaping, Shadow form, by whispering it's true name to the darkness the cat obtains a shadowy form. The cat can see in total darkness, is invulnerable to physical attacks, can slip through a shadow wide cracks but must stay in the shadows and darkness.
Shaping, Disguise, the cat can change it's appearance or even look like another cat.

We also did the FATE Core Phase trio to connect the characters with each other. Those stories will be published separately.

Tryggtass, a player character for tSoC, c6

Chosen name: Tryggtass/Safepaw

Everyday name:  Sansan/Sansan

Kitten name:  Långöra/Longear

True name: ---

High concept:
Experienced and hungry for knowledge acrobat.

Trouble aspect:
Always curious

Character aspect 1:
Keen hearing

Character aspect 2:
Everybody has something good in them

Character aspect 3:
To be decided in early gaming

Description:


Burden:
All the children in her insula

Physical stress: 2

Mental stress: 3

Skills:
Athletics +4
Investigate +3
Stealth +3
Will +2
Notice +2
Burglary +2
Empathy +1
Rapport +1
Lore +1
Territory +1

Stunts:
Investigation: Insatiable curiosity, +2 Will when someone tries to persuade her to stop investigate
Lore: Literate, +2 when reading could help
Athletics: Death from above, Athletics instead of fight when jumping her enemy from above.

We also did the FATE Core Phase trio to connect the characters with each other. Those stories will be published separately.

A game of Tooth and Claw, a review

I made a review of the rules in Tooth and Claw and one of the rules from The Good and The Bad, The Furry here: TaC rules review

Tooth and Claw gaming review

A summary could be that we had fun but didn’t have time to play much when we had finished talking and created characters and gaming environment but we liked it and will pick it up again to proceed. I give the game four ferrets out of five. The picture above, by the way, shows the whole rules system, the character sheets, relationships sheets and stash sheets for a business of three ferrets and one ferret next door.

Preparations

It took a little while to create characters, business and gaming environment for the first time but not near as long as for most other games I have played. The second time I think it will be very easy to create the characters. The business relationsships and the gaming environment probably benefit from having some time spent on it. Still it’s totally possible to create characters and play a short story in one evening (for us 4 h minus some chatting and eating, usaually at least 3 h).

Character and business generation

The character generation in itself was much like any character generation but very easy to understand. The choice of skills and similar things did bring some feeling for the game though. We had three ferrets with the roles; scavenger, strategist and decoy (this affects attributes and skills). Alreday before starting to play you create relationships between the ferrets wich affect their attributes and how they can support each other in the game which is nice. This was done in a way where the players defined relationships their ferret have to some of the other ferrets but unknown which. The relationships was then shuffled and dealt out to the players who then discovered which relationships they had with each others. This was fun, some of the relationships we ended up with was:

• Viktualia thinks Ferialia has less Muscle than they give themselves credit for because nobody else ever got stuck in the slinky toy
• Augustus thinks Viktualia has less Muscle than they give themselves credit for because the stairway rail seems slippery when walked upon
• Ferialia thinks Viktualia has more Bones than they give themselves credit for because she always knows when the big ones awakes during the night
• Ferialia thinks Augustus has less Fur than they give themselves credit for because of a bold spot not seen in the mirror
• Augustus think Ferialia has more Fur than they give themselves credit for because the ferret next door glances at her in secret

Another exciting thing was creating the ferrets' stashes. I will not print any of it here since parts of them is secrets between the ferrets. They don’t have to be because the other ferrets can have seen what the others have found and run away with. The place is always secret at the beginning of the game though. The business stash ended up containing:

• The Rat Shield, a shield made out of three bottle crown caps. It was used by a rat and taken as a trophy by the ferret business in The Rat War that stood in the large area where the big cellar doorway is.
• A string
• The Deformed Bouncy Ball. It’s very fun to play with since it’s hard to foirsee how it bounces and also a good training. The ferrets always play with it at night to not be in the way of The Big Ones living in the house.
• One of the keys to the inner doors in the house. The ferets know that these makes it possible to pass the doors when they are closed but has yet to figure out how.
• A shot glass. They roll funny when laying down. They had two but the other one broke and angered The Big Ones. Also broken glas cuts paws badly.
• A 4" nail.

The gaming environment

The last thing done before starting the first actual gaming is creating the house where the ferrets live. This is done together and each and everyone can decide thing if no one protests and discuss together is not everyone totally agree or has a suggestion for a change.

For our business an old mansion with two floors, a cellar and a side house. In the side house a wild ferret has taken up residence without The Big Ones knowing about it. The wild ferret is the feret next door mentioned in the relationships. The big ones are two grownups, a male and a female, and a small Big One (some years old) that’s very fond of Augustus’s hat, Viktualia’s dress and Ferialia’s socks. In the cellar The Big Ones have built a nice tunnel system to play in.

The house is ridden from rats but still contain mice wich isn’t really a problem since they’re good food. The Big ones are nice but sometimes serve boring food. Besides the regular stairs from the cellar and the ground floor and a big cellar doorway to the outside there are two other ways to get from the cellar to somewhere else. One way is behind the boiler that heats the house. There’s an old chimey stack (wich connects the still used tiled stoves)and a newer water pipe. Behind the the chimney stack it’s possible to sneak up to the kitchen but during the cold winter’s of Sweden it gets very hot and it’s tricky to use that way. The other way is with an old dumbwaiter (food elevator) that can be used to get to the ground floor or the top floor. The ferrets can’t operate it themselves though and The Big Ones don’t really like them using it.

The old mansion is also equipped with a kennel that is still used by The Big Ones. Three hunting dogs, beagles, live there. Close to the houses are also a park/small forest. The forest is kept at bay by Big Ones and the trees were chosen by Big Ones to be nice to walk among so it’s mainly trees without lower branches (birches rather than pines for example) and bushes.

The scenario (c5s1)

The scenario started in the early evening when the ferrets woke up. They had gotten their food but wasn’t really hungry yet and The Big Ones were sitting half-sleeping in the sofa while the small Big One were playing at the upper floor. The ferrets found some icky goo on the kitchen floor, tracked it to the big machinery that kept The big Ones' food cold and with a lot of fiddling (removing a panle) and with the help of a piece of a candle from Augustus stash fixed the hole where it was leaking. In the process The big Ones were disturbed by Viktualia who were put in the cellar with the door almost closed behind her. Viktualia and Ferialia manged to, but barely, open it again and Viktualia could join the problem solving. When Augustus ran away to fetch the thing-that-could-solve-the-problem from his stash Ferialia tracked him but was lured into a trap by Augustus and instead of finding Augustus’s stash Ferialia found herslef in the claws of the small Big One who put on here two of here socks wich didn’t make anything easier. On top of that the door to the room got closed as a result of fallout and Ferialia had big problems getting rid of the socks and getting out to the stairs and down to the others. In the meantime Augustus had fetched the candle piece and clawed and gnawed it into a fitting piece for the leaking hole. During that time The Big Ones' eyes also had caught a glimpse of the puddle in the kitchen and deducted that the ferrets had toppled something again. Especially since Ferialia had jumped/climbed up on the kithcen bench but instead of finding some tool fallen into the sink, yelp, bounced and and jumped/fallen back to the floor and made a lot of noise in the process.

After solving this and the players had gotten used to the rules system the ferets felt like time for food and returned to the cellar and the food. The food was gone…

Here we stopped because it was getting late and we all had work to attend the next day. As mentioned we will continue play later on if there’s no regular gaming meeting at the regular gaming day or if we shoudl find a day where we don’t really know what to do and feel for some role-playing.

<\,/\,~~

Tooth and Claw

Grade (out of five ferrets): <\,/\,~~ <\,/\,~~ <\,/\,~~ <\,/\,~~

So, no one didn’t really expect me to not buy a game like Tooth and Claw right? I mean, it’s cheap, it’s simple rules, it’s small and easy to bring, it’s delivered in digital format and is easy to print by yourself. It’s about ferrets. And half of the money goes to ferret care run by the game’s creator and hos partner. Our ordinary game master was sick and we decided to have a gaming meeting anyway so I got us to try this little game. We only used Tooth and Claw but I will include the status from The Good, The Bad, The Furry in this text because I think it doesn’t really add complexity but game value. This is a post mostly about the game rules and I will also make a post about our forst test run.

Preparations for gaming

One could say that there are three parts of preparations; character generation, business generation (business is the word for a group of ferrets with internal relationships) and environment generation.

Character generation

The ferret induviduals are described by their (Bones, Brains, Fur and Muscle), their role in the business (Castes: Decoy, Hunter, Nurturer, Scavenger, Strategist), their skills and their (everchanging) mood. The character generation felt quite like any simple system although there’s game mood in the coice of names of attributes, skills and so on.

Attributes

The base for these are set by the player by dividing 12 points among the attributes, at least one and maximum five on each attribute. With some other modifications these are the most important values when the ferets try to acheive things.

• Bones, instincts and awareness
• Braines, knowledge and ability to reason
• Fur, appearance and social standing
• Muscle, raw physical potential

Castes (roles)

There are five castes for ferrets and depending on the size of the business and the individual ferrets each and everyone is more or less unique in the business. In larger businesses there might be duplicates but the ferets try to have different roles to make the group work better. The ferret’s role also decides two out of three skills for the ferret, the third is free to choose. Theese roles do something for me in giving me an experience of playing in a certain situation, the ferret business.

Castes; decoy, hunter, nurturer, scavenger, strategist.

Skills

The skills are 13 and gives a bonus to the attribute when the feret tries to achieve something. The main value is the attributes though. Several of the skills are game specific and carries a game mood in them. Some examples are; comfort (help another ferret recover), dook (ferret communication by sound), focus (maintain mood), musk (scent marking and expression of dominance), soothe (affect another ferret’s mood in certain directions), stash (find and hide hidings), taunt (affect another ferret’s mood in certain directions), war dance (confuse enemies and duck danger but also a happiness expression). There’s also some more regular skills for handling some other physical stuff.

Mood

An important thing is the mood a feret is in. If the mood cooresponds to the type of action it tries to do it can’t get spectacular failures (only failure, part success and success). On the other hand if the mood opposes the type of action there will be no extra dice and significantly higher risk of not full success. There are four moods; impulsive, empathetic, confrontational and considered. Each of the moods corresponds to an attribute. The rules works well to make the mood important.

Business creation

A business is a group of ferrets with relations between them. When creating the business rules-wise every player takes to relationship cards, one saying ‘'NN thinks MM har more X than MM gives itself credit for because Y’‘ and one saying ’‘NN thinks MM har less X than MM gives itself credit for because Y’‘ and fills in their ferret’s name for NN, leaves MM empty, chooses which attribute X is and motivates with for example an event from the ferrets’ past. These are then shuffled and dealt out to the player again (one ‘'more than’‘ and one ’‘less than’‘ to every player). Each player than fills in their ferret’s name for MM. Now a bunch of relationships have been created within the business. These also affects the actual attributes of the ferrets. These relationships also affects which ferets can cooperate and how well. This was quite fun to do and a little exciting since you don’t know what cards you will get.

Ferrets hide stuff. Therefore every player has a stash card where he or she fills in some things their ferret has stashed away somewhere. Each of these stashes is in the beginning hidden from the other ferrets but can be found in the game. The business also has a business stash wich all the ferrets in the business know where it is but that is in the beginning hidden from others outside the ferret business, ferrets or not.

If the ferrets agree upon a nap time they all find somewhere nice to rest for a while and then recover somewhat from mood changes and injuries. A ferret with the skill soothe can help another ferret recover some extra.

The business also has a status order wich decides which ferret takes the lead in cooperations. This isn’t as rigid as it can be among other animals and as soon as the status is relevant a renegoiation or fight for status can start which changes the status order.

Environment generation

When the ferrets and their business is created it’s time to create the house where they live and the Big ones living there. This is done together by answering on questions about the house, the big ones and so on and hopefully by adding some ideas that comes up when answering the questions. This was a very fun collaborative part of the game building.

Game start

If the game master has some idea on what problem(s) that arises and forces the ferrets to save the day (or rather the night) he or she just needs to decide on how ‘'big’‘ story it’s gonna be. This decides how many success the ferrets must ahve to solve the problem. Usually one scenario takes place during a night and usually the big ones are not aware of the problem.

<\,/\,~~

Mouse Guard SPQM source material

Planning for some Mouse Guard SPQM work; illustrations and some guard related stuff.

Illerns konventskampanj i MG: SPQM så långt

This will be in swedish but it's background material for a campaign I've been running at swedish gaming conventions.

Förrförra sommaren (702 a u c) sändes patrullen på ett enkelt men viktigt uppdrag, postleverens med hemliga brev. Detta är inte den typ av uppdrag som Secunda sett fram emot i gardet utan ser det mest som en transportsträcka till ett viktigt handlingsfyllt uppdrag. Fausta däremot ser det som en god träning för de oerfarnare i patrullen för en av de viktigaste erfarenheterna är att skaffa sig rutiner och lära sig lägga upp planer. Dessutom är kommunikation och logistik kärnan i Asylums och Sapientias framgång. De levererar posten till Stameus, en stor gruvstad, och får post att leverera till Asylum. På vägen tillbaka från Stameus försöker en korp sno posten av ren nyfiken-het och på pin tjiv eftersom postväskan uppenbarligen är viktig för mössen. Korpen försvinner iväg med posten men mössen förföljer den och så småningom kommer de till dess näste där de hittar posten. Olyckligtvis dröjer de för länge och när de är på väg ned kommer korpen tillbaka och är denna gång betydligt aggressivare och det blir en strid på liv och död som patrullen håller på att förlora.

Plötsligt får de hjälp från en mycket oväntat håll, vesslor attackerar korpen och dödar den och plötsligt står den utmattade patrullen öga mot öga med lika många vesslor och det är bara en fråga om hur många av vesslorna som överlever att äta upp dem och huruvida någon av patrullmössen kommer stekas levande. Nu händer något ännu mer oväntat, tre gigantiska vesslor, och vesslor i sig är stora från början, faller de vanliga vesslorna i ryggen. Patrullmössen flyr i en inte särskilt ordnad reträtt men med postväskan i behåll. På något vis lyckas de komma undan medan vesslorna slåss med varandra.

De återvänder till Asylum med posten och rapporterar om vessleaktivitet långt inne i territorierna. Det blev ett handlingsfyllt uppdrag där Secunda fick handla snabbt och på liv och död. Även Gnaeus hårdhet och förmåga att hitta och undvika andra varelser i terrängen tillsammans med Faustas ledarskap var viktiga delar av att de klarade sig.

När en ambitiös fälla samma sommar (702 a u c) dödar en patrullmus och kunde tagit en hel civil karavan med sig så skickas patrullen ut för att undersöka den och eventuellt hitta spår efter vesslorna som förmodas ligga bakom så patruller kan söka efter dem och om inte döda dem så åtminstone driva ut dem ur territorierna.

Undersökningen visar till deras oro att det är möss som byggt fällan, möss med kunskap i gångbygge, möss som gruvmöss. Arbetet är stort och har krävt arbetsledare med teoretiska kunskaper. Patrullen söker runt och finner att mössen kommit från Stameus, en stad stor gruvdrift  inte så långt från fällan. De hittar dock inga misstänkta men uppfattar en asylumskeptisk stämning i Stameus och rapporterar vad de funnit om fällan och om stämningen i Stameus. De tycker stämningen i Stameus så pass oroande att de finner det nödvändigt att poängtera att det rent av kan förberedas uppror eller utbrott ur Alliansen i Stameus. Faktiskt så pass att det måste poängteras med eftertryck. Särskilt Caeso och Gnaeus såg beteendet i Stameus som ett allvarligt tecken på att mössen där inte samarbetar i det stora kollektivet som Musstädernas allians är, det samarbete som är själva grunden för kollektivets framgång och motståndet mot vesslorna.

 

Detta får till följd att en senator skickas till Stameus med ett ultimatum, ett ganska kort hållet sådant (optimaterna är i överläge för tillfället) och patrullen får i uppdrag att eskortera denne. Eskortuppdraget går bra ända till de på hemvägen blir inringade av vesslor. När de nästan börjat förbereda sig på att sälja sig så dyrt som möjligt och senatorn har talat med förfäderna och lånat en dolk för att kunna lämna jordelivet med den äran dyker plötsligt en jättevessla upp där de förskansat sig. Jättevesslan påstår sig vilja hjälpa dem komma undan de vanliga vesslorna. Det är förstås ingen som tänker lita på jättevessla som dessutom tittar lystet på dem hela tiden. De inser dock att de inte har något val och följer jättevesslan beredda på att få sälja sig dyrt till en jättevessla i stället. Jättevesslan leder dock mössen, vars doft försvinner i jättevesslans starka doft, bort från de andra vesslorna och försvinner. Patrullen och senatorn tar sig hem på helspänn. Optimaterna, till vilka senatorn hörde, är en gruppering i senaten som i mycket består av de rikare senatorerna och som värnar traditioner, nobiles, filosofi och Asylums överhet. Den största andra grupperingen är populisterna som tar upp folkets frågor, som värnar de bredare massorna. De är över lag inte heller lika styvnackade som optimaterna ofta är.

Under försommaren förra året (703 a u c)  får patrullen under lite hierarkiskt oklara omständigheter i uppdrag/order att eskortera en senator, en av de högsta i Asylum - en av sex praetor peregrini (utlänningsdomare) till Stameus, antagligen för att leverera nya krav och besked. Senatorn avviker under vistelsen i Stameus och visar sig möta upp med två jättevesslor. Efter att nätt och jämnt ha skapat en stand off mellan fyra möss och två jättevesslor lyckas patrullen föra med senatorn för att dömas i Asylum. Under en utfrågning lyckas senatorn finta patrullen och drar fram sin dolk och begår självmord och dör med en hälsningsfras till förfäderna. Patrullen återvänder frustrerad men med jättevesslornas kodmeddelande till pretorn vilket överlämnas till Pretoriangardets tribuner. Det blir mycket utfrågningar och hörningar i senaten men hur många som var med honom förblir okänt. På grund av senatorns hedersamma frånfälle får familjen behålla egendomarna och skickas inte i exil. 

Sluteffekten av avslöjandet av samarbetet med jättevesslorna blir en stor misstänksamhet i senaten uppblandat med möjligheter att smutskasta politiska fiender genom att associera dem till pretorn som mötte vesslorna eller att på annat vis antyda att de kanske är förrädare. Det är då inte vilket förräderi som helst utan ett brott mot högsta heligheten (bland annat självaste Asylum). För sådant kastas man ut från förrädarklippan i Asylum. 

Under tidig sensommar (703 a u c) blir patrullen utskickad som en av fem patruller som ska eskortera en handelsskeppskonvoj. Handelskonvojen som på hemvägen ska frakta, för Asylum, mycket viktig säd till vinterförråden har getts fem triremer med en gardespatrull på varje (på den gamla goda tiden innan det utarmande Vesslekriget hade varje skepp haft 5-6 patrullers bemanning utöver skeppsbesättningen). Resan norrut går bra och konvojen anländer till Lostora och deras last av förädlade varor omsätts i silver guld och framför allt säd. Det mesta av hemresan går också bra, ungefär två tredjedelar av vägen.

Konvojen attackeras av pirater. Det hade i sig inte varit ett stort problem då även piraterna lider av det, efter Vesslekriget, nedbrutna samhället. Det visar sig dock att de attackerar tillsammans med två minkar. Minkar är enorma vattenlevande vesslemonster och det är enbart Faustas patrulls oräddhet och samarbe som räddar deras trirem från undergång. Tre av de andra förstörs och kantrar och besättningarna börjar drunkna. I detta kaos bordar piraterna två handelsskepp och sänker ett tredje (triremer sjunker normalt sett inte) och försvinner i väg. Den femte triremen eskorterar de få kvarvarande handelsskeppen med överlevande söderöver medan patrullens skepp beger sig iväg i den riktning piraterna försvann.

Det finns trots allt inte hur många ställen som helst att gömma mer än fem piratskepp (biremer) och det krävs en stor befolkning för att kunna bemanna skeppen. Patrullens skepp hittar såsmåningom piraternas nattläger (vare sig biremer eller triremer är lämpade för dygnet-runtsegling) och gör strandhugg en bit bort. Patrullen smyger bort till lägret för att bekräfta misstankarna. Väl vid lägret upptäcker de att det inte bara är pirater där, minkarna är också där samt både triremer och fraktskepp från Navalia. Navalia är en av de tre dominerande städerna i Musstädernas allians (Asylum och Sapientia är de två andra) och är en övervägande handels- och flottmakt. Patrullen retirerar till sitt skepp och beger sig i gryningen söderut med så långa dagsseglingar de kan. Hela resan diskuteras och ältas frågan vad de ska göra när de kommer hem. Att piraterna ska fångas in och skickas till gruvorna är inget snack om saken. Piratledarna kommer troligen dömas till döden. Minkarna måste även de dödas för om de får avkomma och fäste i innanhavet kommer det bli katastrof. Utan ett lugnt och seglingsbart innanhav kommer Musstädernas allians bryta samman på grund av de förlorade logistikmöjligheterna. Frågan är dock vad som ska göras med informationen om att navaliaskepp är involverade.

De skulle kunna låta bli att nämna det för sammanhållningen i alliansen. En dag kommer vesslorna tillbaka och då måste de vara enade. Då kommer det också märkas om Navalia följer Asylum och Sapientia i att fånga in piraterna, bränna deras boplatser och jaga rätt på och döda minkarna. I så fall kanske det går att lita på navalia som helhet ia lla fall. Om de tvekar eller avstår så är förräderiet tydligt och ute i luften om patrullen delger sin information. å andra sidan så är lagen och mos maiorum (förfädernas sed) tydlig. Navalia har förrått aliansen och slagit sig samman med pirater och begått brott mot högsta heligheten, de har samarbetat med vesslor (minkarna). En annan trängande fråga är hur minkarna kommit in till innanhavet. Det tillsammans med de ökande förekomsterna av vesslor på senare år är mycket oroväckande. Rapporterar de allt kommer alliansen falla samman men å andra sidan så går det kanske ändå inte att lita på navalia i ett krig mot vesslorna ändå.

Medan Fausta och Secunda tvekade bestämde Caeso och Gnaeus sig för att berätta och vittna i senaten. ett sådant flagrant brott mot lagar om heligheterna och mot förfädernas sed kunde inte gömmas. ett litet tag hängde alliansen i sköra trådar och den interna politiken i asylum blev än spändare beroende på vad man trodde om vittnena men på förfrågan berättade och bekräftade även Fausta och Secunda och frågan om vad som hänt ställdes i hårda ordalag till Navalia (röster höjdes för assimilering av Navalia till Asylum och ett upphörande av deras självstyre). Navalia avrättade ett antal sjösoldater, skeppsbesättningar och befäl och frånsade sig ansvaret för vad som hänt och pratade om myteri. Delar av deras armé och flotta dekimerades även för att tilltala Asylum. Under tiden attackerade gardet piraternas tillhåll och tog befolkningen som slavar och lyckades med stor manspillan (fråmst i trirembesättningar) döda minkarna. Under förhör av pirater kom det fram att minkarna hade färdats tillsammans med vesslor som fördats i territorierna vilket fröklarade att ingen märkt något. Den myckna vessleaktiviteten hade döljt de två minkarna. Pirater påstod dock att samarbetet med Navalia var större än det verkade och sanktionerat på hög ort. det tolkades dock som försök att rädda deras skinn eller om det möjligen ignorerades för att rädda Musstädernas allians.

Sandra gets recognised and some meet a rock star, DRYH c3s4c

Sandra is satisfied that her work were used in almost exactly the form she delivered it. So much for her boss thinking that he knew better than her. She knew that she had understood Vincent. When the show is over Vincent disappears behind the stage and Sandra goes to look for some way to get behind the stage and talk to him. She is almost immediately stopped by a beefy guy that says ''No visitors'' and folds his arms tighter over his chest.

Meanwhile Maurice is walking further and further into the corridor. It seems to be slightly longer than the last time but then suddenly he arrives to a big hall but this time it's not a exhibition but some noisy party where they play loud rock music and young people misbahve and jump around. Maurice frowns as his looks around him. As Maurice arrives the show seems to end with a ''I see them. Don't see them?!? That's odd, d, d, d, d'' and people in spider comstumes crawl away in the darkness that rises as the stage light dimnishes. As he looks around him he sees Sandra walk by. He walks over to her as the youngsters shout for one more and Sandra gets stopped by some personel. As Sandra explains more another guy acknowledge and disappears through a door as Maurice appears.

Maurice asks Sandra what she does here and learn that she designed the stage act and then goes straight to the important things. The door is still open. The door in The cathedral and They can still come out there. Sandra isn't interested and doesn't understand what's so important with it and why it would stop whatever it is that Maurice is so worried about. As they stand there Erik appears as well. Sandra and Erik talks shortly on what can be done to the hotel lobby to make it harder for unwanted people to show up.

Yurev talks to the student that shall help him with his 20's outfit and notice that he has a competitor. He memorizes the guy's look and goes looking for a bar as he leaves. Yurev finds a newly opened bar in the stage hall and orders eight vodka shots on a tray since he has noticed the other hanging around looking bored. He walks over to them and gives them one shot each. As Maurices bites his shot in two pieces a short argument arrises between him and Yurev on how to drink vodka shots adn yurev ends it with ''I buy drinks. I decide how to drink.'' and finishes the last shot by himself since that french guy doesn't seem to know how to drink.

A guy from the personell appears and says that they can come in and meet Vincent and leads them into a corridor. Yurev and Erik follows Sandra. Yurev wants to tell him that his maths sucks. Erik is hesitant to meet one of his customers like this but Yurev pushes him after Sandra. Maurice at first wants to leave but there's a mob of drunken people in his way and before he knows it he on the inside of the door to the corridor that leads to Vincent Warmer the Rock Star. As they walk down the corridor they see a door with a star on it and then suddenly two doors with stars on them. A moment ago it was only one door. Sandra decides she can talk to Vincent some other day and that she has had enough of these weird things. erik that was hesitant from the beginning feels the same way and floolws Sandra back while Maurice and Yurev enters one of the doors. Yurev wants to see what the drop-out is like these days and Maurice finds this as a way away from the loudness and unruly mob in the hall.

Maurice and Yurev gets showed into a room with loads of rock parafernalia and in the middle of it Vincent ready to sign some stuff. Yurev reminds Vincent of the course in discrete mathematics but Vincent disagrees on it being ''discrete''. As Maurice looks disoriented and like he wants to leave Vincent tells him to not be so shy, grabs a poster and signs it for him. Vincent states that the students will find it very cool if Yurev has a signed poster on his office and signs one of the small posters for him as well.

Yurev looks at the poster that consists of several smaller pictures. Among the things there are black widow spiders with their characteristic hour glass markings in red on the bellies, a strange man that bears uncomfortable resemblence to The Curator at the exhibit in Mad City holding Vincent (in stage outfit) in a lead, toys, something looking like a old times asylum. The tour is named ''The Nightmare Returns''. The itenary holds several places, Linköping among them. ''Rock On'' Yurev says, Vincent laughs and they leave.

Maurice leaves and takes the bus back to the city centrum to find the door again. He walks to the cathedral and enters the door again and walks down the corridor. Sandra returns to the office to try to catch up with the rest of the stage design now that her computer lost the last two months of work for her. As a collegue arrives later on the saturday he finds a letter for Sandra in the mail box although there's no post delivery on saturdays. Surprised he hand Sandra a hand written letter. It's a note from Vincent that he really liked her design work and is looking forward to the rest. Later when her boss arrives and of course is upset about Sandra doing the design in the wrong way and maybe making the whole firm be ashamed she just holds up the note in front of his nose and watch him fall silent. He suggests that they shall have a meeting about the rest of the design but Sandra desperately states that she has no time for that since she has so much to catch up with. Her boss is busy as well and walks away as Sandra dives into her work and outs on some aggressive hard rock in her headphones.

The Rock Show, DRYH c3s4b

Erik ponders whether that person he met, Sandra, could help him and his father to make the necessary changes to the hotel lobby to keep unwanted people out or at least give a good warning. Erik's father is most worried about the more unruly elements of the city like drunken students while Erik feels that the police is a bigger problem. That Sandra worked with design as far as he understood it.

Yurev works until some time around midnight where he realise that he doesn't have that much stimulantia that he really feels safe from sleep. He avoids the culverts and walks across the area between the buildings of the university. The university has some kind of arts budget they have to spend every year wich renders some new more or less nice looking things in a park in the other end of the university. There's everything from a distorted girl to iron beams to a weird chtulhuiod yellow something. As Yurev walks over the edge of the slope from the lower end of the university to the upper end he suddenly, between A building and C building, sees that weird yellow statue. The first thought is of another stupid freshman prank but it moves and not like it it was sitting on some kind of cart but rather as if it was moving by itself in an as unearthly way as it's unearthly looks. As Yurev tries to understand what he sees it enters a door at approximately the same spot as where Yurev entered Mad City but it's not the same door. Yureev decides that he doesn't need his bike to get to town tonight and instead walks all the way down through the university area to a bus stop and takes one of the last night buses into town, to Travel Center close to Park Hotel where Erik works.

In the meantime Maurice has decided that he has to solve this door business on his own. When he arrives at the cathedral he takes three memorial candles and leave some money, fetches some matches and then he heads for the door and enters it.

Yurev crosses the road to Park Hotel and immediately finds Erik in the lobby. They greet each other and Yurev buys some speed. As they chit-chat Yurev warns Erik for the university area. It seems to have some connections to Mad City. They also mention Maurice and his door and agree that a plan is a good thing. Erik isn't that hot on returning to Mad City but Yurev is more neutral as he sees having monsters at the university area is a problem. Besides eating students or maybe non-students lured there by false university applications the monsters are slowly eating Fermat's Great Theorem. As Yurev mentions this Erik becomes slightly reserved though and they end their conversation. Yurev leaves a ticket to Late Summer-X for Erik and leaves. To Erik's surprise the main attraction at Late Summer-X is Vincent Warmer, one of his customers, the rock star. Erik then returns to watching the TV.

Yurev looks up where White is located and finds out that it's at Trädgårdstorget and that it's on the way to the bus that goes to his home in Ryd. He decides to pay her a visit. She seems to be the kind of person that works and stays up and probably is found at work when it's not later than some time after midnight.

Sandra has had several hours of work without being disturbed when the door bell rings a gain and she walks over to the office door to answer the intercom at the outer door at street level. Yurev answers with a straight on ''Hi, it's me Yurev. Do you want to go to a party tomorrow?''. Sandra asks him if he is sure that he has come to the right person. As he seems quite sure on that she asks him what party it is and then tells him that she already has a ticket to Late Sumer-X (after all, she is a student) and hangs up. ''See you there!'' Yurev says and leaves. Sandra returns to work. It seems like she actaully is gonna make it and mange to do all the design for the small part of the set Vincent Warmer is gonna use tomorrow night. It's gonna be way harder though to manage to finish the rest of the stage set before the tour starts after that mysterious file disappearance though. Later the next day she is finished. She feels like she has understood the rock star who ordered the whole thing and noone of her bosses will have the time to inspect or criticise her work. Something good in all the stress. Sandra sees to that the drawings and instructions are fetched by the rock star's people and then goes home to have a shower and food. She had decided to go to Late Summer-X already before Yurev came around and for amoment she thinks of relaxing a while until it's time to get to the university but instead she decides to go back to work for a few hours. Then she's definitely gonna see what the rock star's personel has done with her design.

During the day Erik has decided to go to Late Summer-X. The students are good customers for some stimulantia and it would be a good opportunity to uphold and broaden his network at the same time as there's a party to participate in. He's not gonna sell anything though, only work his network.

Yurev is going to Late Summer-X as well but he's there for the party. Out of a hunch he also checks Sandra's grades and finds out that they're good.

    It is only Sandra who actively watches the whole show and she finds out that they have almost to 100% followed her design. There are some slight changes made and something that couldn't be done the right way on short notice but still, it semms her design was appreciated. The show is centered around a young adult's room in his apartment. Vincent Warmer plays the role of the man through the songs and his actions on the stage. The stage show, which is a part of the coming full stage show, begins with a song about a boy or a man or a boy or a man or a lunatic. It seems that the man is longing back to some point in his youth where everything was simplier and also before some traumatic accident of some kind. The man is having terrifying nightmares, among other things there live monsters under his bed that apparently ate his cat (and only left an ear, a paw and a tail). It's almost like it could have been for real or maybe it's only the man's nightmares. It's hard to tell and kind of creepy. Erik can't avoid noticing that the phrase about the monsters eating the cat is the same phrase as Vincent were humming when he waited to buy some stuff the night when the police arrived and they both fled to Mad City. To Yurev it's kind of creepy that the monsters living under the bed are spider-like, maybe some kind of black widows bent on world dominion or the like. It do associate to the strange partly spider-like monsters Yurev met in the university culverts. The show ends with the man becoming crazy and placed in an old-fashioned asylum where the last song takes place. The song tells about how his parents don't want to take care of him, how the doctors wanna examine him, electro shocks and other things. The crazy young man sits in his cell with his favourite harmless toys (as a rubber bat and ball) and during night strange things come crawling under the door and the toys come alive. The whole concert ends with spooky ''I see them! Don't you see them?!? Hm, that's odd, d, d, d''. Sandra is satisfied that her work was used and that she als realises where the food for the latest bad trip came from. Apparently from working with this crazy stage show too much.

The door must be closed I say! DRYH c3s4a

Yurev stays at work to try to figure out some of the rest of Format's Great Theorem. Sandra works her ass off to finish the part of the stage set up that shall be used tomorrow (although her work for some weird reason has been set back several months by disappearing file data). Erik works or at least is at work at his father's hotel. Maurice on the other hand is drawing up plans for retrieving the key to the door in the cathedral and preparing himself by gathering a few tools beforehand. In his wardrobe he finds a jacket and trousers that might fit Sandra to make her fit better among the other people in Mad City. He completes the outfit with a hat. Maurice puts his tools for retrieving the key in a woven bag: flashlight (has been to use last time), hammer (always useful), small bottle of cognac (not full) i a plate package, 2 garlics (they were there in the kitchen and Maurice uses garlic most often, might come in handy), army water bottle (from the first big war), Mad City bond paper, bag of Mad City coins and the local telephone directory (Maurice don't trust those new things like cell phones or Internet). Then he heads for Trädgårdstorget and Whites. Since it's evening the gate is closed (going to apartments as well as White's office).

Maurice uses the intercom to call White's office. On the top floor Sandra annoyed walks to the intercom to answer, ''White''. ''Is it you? It's me, Maurice. Let me in.'' Sandra hangs up and returns to work. Maurice waits a little but the door doesn't unlock so he calls again ''There were an error, the door didn't unlock''. ''Who are you?'' Sandra asks harshly. ''It's me, Maurice'', Maurice declaration is met by a ''I don't know any Maurice''. ''No, of course we don't know each other, that takes a longer time but we have have met quite intensely lately'' Maurice answers and follows up with ''I have clothes for you as well''. Sandra tells him that she is busy and can't help him closes whatever door it is he's talking about. As she tries to get out of the conversation somebody calls her on videochat and she hangs up on Maurice once more.It's her boss that wants to check that everything is going OK and also has some useless tips and changes she shall use. Maurice gives up on Sandra and heads for Park hotel instead.

As Maurice arrives at the hotel he finds Erik as expected in the lobby although he think the hotels has become worse than when he was young. Erik greets him in a reserved way. He is a customer after all but still, those things that happened and that crazy french guy...

''We must do something about it!'' Maurice says. ''Do something about what?!?'' Erik asks him. ''The door'' Maurcie answers with his french accent ''The door in the cathedral is still open! Wide open!''. Erik looks at the strange man and ask him why he would be interested in a door in a cathedral. ''If we can go in there they can come out there and that's very bad'' Maurice answers without really answer anything. ''Don't you see that?!?''. Erik points out that there apparently goes a train between Mad City and Linköping so why can't they take the train? And if he's so eager to close the door, why don't he just go and close the door? Upset Maurice explains that the key to the door is on the inside and that he needs help to find the key. Erik don't want to go there again now that he escaped from there and firmly say ''no thanks''. Erik offers him ''goods'' if needs more of that otherwise he will have to find somebody else. Erik has him to leave. Maurice crosses the street to The Travel Center and takes a bus to the university.

After some confusement at the university involving Maurice, a few students and a collegue to Yurev Maurice manage to find Yurev at his office. Apparently the ''russian that deals with maths'' isn't a specific enough descirption to find Yurev spot on. Yurev invites him to his office and arranges for some tea for both of them. Maurice pours some cognac in their tea. Maurice explains that he's worried abut the open door and that he has to find the key to lock. Yurev suggests that he should contact a locks smith and have him to switch locks. If not possible he could remove the door and put a new door with a new look there. If he can't remove the door he can destroy it. A sledgehammer can solve a lot of problems. Yurev is a little reserved when he realises that Maurice isn't sure on where the key is except than it is in Mad City and don't really have a plan for finding it. Maurice is sure though that the corridor goes to the museum and The Curator seems to be communicatable man. Yurev says that he as well has a lot of work to do and can't really agree on that it went well the last time and thinks there's a need for a plan. Yurev uses his listening-to-complaining-students-face and retreats to other thoughts while Maurice go on about the importance of closing the door and how bad other maintanence staff do their work and other things. Yurev won't follow on any wild goose chase and tells Maurice to think it over again and come up with a plan. ''Besides that'' he says ''we need to rest a little. Here, have a ticket to Late Summer-X''. Yurev gives Maurice one of the tickets. Maurice leaves after having disconnected Yurev's telephone receiver, asked if he can borrow it and put it in his bag. Yurev helps him out from the offices and fetch a phone receiver from another office and connects it to his phone.