RPG Report?

Topics not covered in other forums. NO POLITICS OR RELIGION.
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

RPG Report?

So a few weeks ago my brother started running a Magical Girl RPG inspired by his recently getting into more modern MG anime like Madoka Magica. Would people actually be interested in reading the recap summaries of the game, or is that not in peoples' wheelhouses around here?
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
User avatar
Omega
Posts: 1577
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2008 4:21 pm
Contact:

Re: RPG Report?

I'll admit to being a tad curious Amuro, so one vote in favor of sharing the recap summaries
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

Well, not much response but I might as well post the first summary and see if it draws some attention. Anyway, before we begin, here's the Dramatis Personae:

Erika Kadoya - My character. A Japanese-American girl with a cheerful personality, sunny outlook, and desire to be everybody's friend. She takes a lot after her father, a globetrotting American photojournalist; however, when she was 10 her parents got divorced after her father was accused of adultery. Because she knew he was innocent but nobody believed her, she has a strong dedication to truth and justice and is staff of the school's newspaper. She's also a huge Tokusatsu fan. Her Magical Girl form is themed around time control, making her fight a lot like Kamen Rider Kabuto or Touhou's Sakuya Izayoi.

Fujiko Moriguchi - My sister-in-law's character. She's the granddaughter of a man who employs traditional cloth-making techniques and is recognized as a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government. Her mother is very strict and controlling and spent years trying to mold her into the perfect Yamato Nadeshiko; however, after a major fight and her grandmother trying to mediate, the leash was loosened, if only a little. She's very smart but also cynical and a bit antisocial. Her Magical Girl powers are themed around wuxia, with an emphasis on cloth manipulation.

Aino Crescentia Sturluson - Our friend's character. She could best be described as a "Scandinavian mutt", being mostly Finnish but tracing ancestry to several Eastern European countries. She suffered from spinal cord degeneration in her youth, meaning she's spent the last several years undergoing surgeries and physical therapy to be able to live a normal life, and missed enough school that she had to repeat a grade. She idolized her big brother, but tragically he died saving her from a dangerous fall, which has caused her to feel responsible for it. Her Magical Girl form is Valkyrie-themed and has the ability to copy powers from other people.

---

The story begins on Monday, April 23, 2074, three weeks into the new school year, with our girls being on their last year of middle school. On the way into school there are two big rumors: a ghost in the school bathroom (which prompts Erika to investigate, only to get dragged away by Fujiko grabbing her ponytail), and an idol who successfully reinvigorated her career by rebranding herself as a Magical Girl. We start off with History Class, which also serves as a way for my brother to help introduce elements of the alternate history for this setting. Our story is set in Urahara, a fictional city resulting from a Japanese military port growing and absorbing the nearby cities of Otsuchi and Kamaishi. This was important because 2074 is the 100th anniversary of the end of the "Great War", which was the major world conflict in this setting (World War II as we know it didn't happen). Another big change is that nuclear weapons never proliferated because the various nations realized how dangerous a nuclear war could be; instead they focused on the use of "super-weapons", things along the line of Agent Orange and napalm.

Jumping through the rest of the classes, we came to club time, when Erika getting surprised by Haruyoshi, the head of the newspaper, coming in and asking to speak to her in private. She was a bit surprised by this, since the Chief is normally a very level-headed and mellow person. Even more surprising was what he wanted to discuss: A photograph he'd been given that 1) was very blurry and indistinct (something you pretty much never see in this age) and 2) it seemed to show a girl in a white costume leaping about 50 feet through the air. Erika's photography skills tell her that if the picture is fake it's not a very good one (she could probably bang out a better fake five five minutes in Photoshop or an equivalent program), but more importantly there's no reason for someone to fake a photo like this. Haruyoshi indicated that he got the picture from a classmate who's a weird Magical Girl otaku and leaves the matter in Erika's hands to investigate or dismiss as she pleases. Returning to the classroom she discovered that the classmate had already gone home for the day, so she met up with Fujiko and Aino and told them what was going on. This wasn't the sort of thing they really cared about, but Erika insisted on looking into it, so they agree to help on the condition that she treat them to a meal at their favorite Chinese restaurant Pailong as payment. Looking over the picture together the girls narrow the area down to a couple of local buildings.

At the first building, the girls discovered a half-dozen "dents" in the pavement, about two inches deep, as if someone had dropped a wrecking ball on it several times. Making things really odd was the fact that nobody seemed to notice or care; Erika went into the building and told someone there about the holes, hoping to ensure that nobody tripped and hurt themselves. On the way to the second building, the girls noticed a figure in white leaping through the air, battling a number of small black orb-like objects using a giant zweihander and energy beams. Erika's response: "You know...I've investigated the school ghost, I've investigated Toilet Hanako-san...I never thought the one that turned out to be real would be Magical Girls." She quickly started snapping photographs as quickly as she could while the others realize that they seemed to be the only people on the street who noticed what was going on. After a couple of minutes the Magical Girl defeated the enemies and realized she was being watched. Afraid that she'd try to smash the camera, Erika discreetly passed it to Aino and the girls split up, hiding in the crowd and eventually meeting in front of the Chinese restaurant. Getting the camera back, Erika send the photos off to Haruyoshi as well as her aunt Yui, who works for a local newspaper, while Aino kept copies on a personal storage space (like Google Drive). Fujiko had to leave for her afternoon lessons but Aino was still rattled by the whole experience, so she and Erika hung out in the arcade until she felt comfortable enough to go home. That evening Erika called up Haruyoshi to discuss things, coming off a bit more excited than she meant to; she wasn't able to get in touch with Yui, so she called it a night.

The next day at school Erika spoke with Takeda, the classmate whose photo started all this in the first place...however, now he doesn't even remember taking it, though he's grateful when she gives him a copy of her photos. Again we have history class, which covers how the Great War was mostly about nations grabbing up territory that they felt belonged to them, like Japan snapping up the Kuril Islands (I compared it to a giant game of Hungry Hungry Hippos and got told that I wasn't far off). There haven't been any major conflicts since the Great War since most nations realized how pointless and foolish the war was, and since modern military actions are mostly carried out by drones any further wars would be seen as even more foolish. After class Erika went to talk to Haruyoshi, but now he didn't even remember showing her the Magical Girl photograph in the first place, and to her shock when she brings out her own photos have started getting blurry as well. Worried that she's coming off as some kind of conspiracy nut and feeling stressed out, Erika apologizes to Fujiko and Aino, saying that she didn't feel much like hanging out today. On their way home both Fujiko and Aino spotted what seemed to be the black orbs the Magical Girl was fighting, but quickly went in another direction and texted warnings to the others. Feeling suspicious, Aino called up her friend Sumire, a shrine maiden, to ask if everything was normal where she was; she also tried using her fortunetelling, but didn't get anything out of it. That evening Erika got a phone call from Aunt Yui, but since the photos were useless she couldn't exactly broach the subject anymore. Erika tells Yui that she's feeling frustrated and worries that she's looking like the kind of reporter who throws out garbage "clickbait" rather than actual news; Yui encouraged her not to stress out about things that were outside her control, and Erika rounded out the night with a little stargazing to relax.

On to the next day, the girls met up at the train station and started walking to school together. However, on the way there they rounded a corner and saw several of those black orbs from before...and worse, the orbs (which seem to be floating eyeballs) noticed them, too. The girls started to make a break for it, but one of them fired some kind of eye laser, nailing Erika in the stomach. Just when things started looking really bad, something "clicked" in the girls' minds and they transformed into Magical Girls. Erika and Aino fought most of them off using bow techniques while Fujiko put down a magical barrier that protected them from most of the eyeballs' attacks. At one point they tried combining their attacks, but Aino deflected it, launching a beam that took the corner off of a nearby building. After the battle ended, the girls started to take stock of the situation when Erika spotted the girl in white on a nearby rooftop. She jumped down and advised the girls to pick up the objects the eyeball monsters dropped when killed; these objects looked like blood-red marbles with ribbons of gold running through them. The girl then explained that the monsters (which she calls Shades) feed on peoples' life energy and drop these orbs (she calls them "Mana"), which can grant wishes depending on how many one has collected. All of the girls were suspicious of this, but they couldn't really get a good read on the girl in white. She explained that she'd been a Magical Girl for about a year (she developed her powers under similar circumstances) and that she'd met quite a few other Magical Girls, though most of them weren't very nice. When asked, she identified herself as Kirika, a 16-year-old who attended a nearby Catholic school and asked if they could get together another time; realizing it'd be a good opportunity to get more information, the girls agreed to meet her at Pailong in a couple of days.

Going off on their own, the girls agreed that they should avoid using the Mana because they don't fully understand their nature and something like that ALWAYS has a negative side to it. On a whim, Erika checked the photographs from before and now they're crystal clear, making her lament the fact that they'll probably still look blurry to normal people and thus the story pretty much dies there. The girls did some investigating to try and find out about Kirika, but all they could really turn up was her surname (Kita) and a mostly empty social media account. On the appointed day the girls met Kirika at Pailong and start picking her brain. She explained that she developed her powers under similar circumstances to them, and that by her estimate she'd run into anywhere from 10 to 20 other Magical Girls, and that some are just in it for the wishes, going so far as to "farm" other girls by letting them do the hard work of killing Shades, then ganking them and stealing the Mana they've collected. She also said that she'd encountered several different kinds of Shades, including animal-like ones and brute-like ones, but they never displayed any signs of higher intelligence before and just seem to be animals. The girls observed that she seemed a bit more collected than before (she came off as really flighty when they first met), and Kirika gets a little ashamed and admits she was just happy to meet more people who might be friends. Fujiko surmised that she probably doesn't have a lot of friends and picked at her by asking about her parents, who had died a few years earlier. Kirika further explained that she had seen a few Magical Girls get killed, and tried to at least give them the dignity of a decent funeral; the girls realized that this was probably the reason for a reported string of disappearances of girls their age in the near past. Kirika suggested doing a training session on the weekend, and the girls agreed, feeling that after everything they'd heard they wanted to be prepared.

That weekend the girls transformed and headed out towards the mountains to the spot Kirika had specified for the training. On the way there Fujiko and Aino's danger senses picked up on something, but the feeling went away as they got closer to the site; Erika warned them to keep an eye out, suspecting that they might get ambushed. Once there, Kirika suggested having a mock battle so they could get a feel for their abilities. The girls put up a fairly good fight, but Kirika seemed to get tougher as the fight went on, healing quickly, taking less damage from their attacks, and hitting harder; that said, she only barely hit Aino (who healed it back up with her counterattack ability) and Fujiko's barrier soaked most of the damage. At one point Kirika used a giant energy sphere (which my brother pretty directly compared to something like the Spirit Bomb); the girls managed to shoot it down before it could hit (Erika tried to land the finishing blow with her "Rider Kick" attack, but the attack roll missed by 1. Argh.). Before the fight could progress much further, Fujiko spotted another Magical Girl spying on them from a distance. As soon as everyone looked her way she ran off; Kirika remarked that she looked familiar but wasn't absolutely certain. She suggested that they should probably call the fight there and get back home. The girls headed back to town together and shared contact information before going their separate ways.

---

So that's the first sesson. I was a bit loose with the character info just to spare everyone an even worse wall of text, but if there's interest I can always post more information here, either on the girls or the setting.
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
User avatar
Mu La Flaga
Posts: 1433
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2009 7:06 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: RPG Report?

I would be curious to read more and see how more of it turns out.
Given the fact there were lots of other Magical Girls out there within the confines of this story you all played in.
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

And now we continue. I'm aware it's been a while; I got lazy and took my sweet time summarizing the last adventure, especially considering the third adventure is this coming weekend. But things to pick up and get more interesting this time around.

---

Picking up from just about where we left off last time, the girls headed back towards town to hop a bus home. However, the moment Aino de-transformed she stumbled and fell over, with Erika rushing over to help her. Kirika showed a good bit of concern and the girls decided to take Aino to a doctor just in case. The doctor couldn't place it as anything but exhaustion, though. Kirika suggested that she could always use a wish to help Aino, but all three of the girls were still leery of making use of the Mana at this point. Kirika went her own way, and the girls got take-out lunch and hung around Aino just to make sure that she'd be okay.

After the girls went their separate ways, Aino examined the Mana she'd collected and made a trial wish (deliberately one that she thought would be beyond the scope of the Mana she'd collected); she got some kind of sense like something had happened, but nothing more. That night around 2:30 AM, Fujiko woke up with the sense that some kind of dark magic was going on something nearby. She called the other girls to let them know and said that she'd be investigating, with Erika and Aino agreeing to meet up with her. The three girls snuck out of their houses and transformed; Fujiko flew up to get an aerial view of the area and spotted a group of the spherical Shades plus two larger humanoids with them; the spheres seem to be "scanning" buildings, potentially. The combat wasn't amazingly eventful, mainly because it mostly boiled down to Erika using her Polaris Spark area attack and Aino copying it in order to cut down on the horde of Orb-Type Shades, while Fujiko mostly just played defense by laying down her barrier. At one point Erika attempted to land a Crossfire Kick on one of the Beast-Types, but missed...God just does not want Erika to kick people. The other girls followed to the street level and the battle continued down there until all the Shades were defeated.

The girls divvied up the Mana and headed back to their respective houses. In the morning, both Erika's mother and Fujiko's father seemed to notice that they were moving around last night, but both girls managed to deflect suspicion (Erika giving the half-truth that she woke up in the middle of the night and had to use the bathroom). Additionally, Fujiko's grandfather told her that someone was interested in commissioning a kimono from her and she accepted. Aino headed out and met with Kirika at her Catholic school, mostly talking about their lost loved ones and how to deal with it (since this was a conversation my character wasn't a part of, I didn't really listen). Afterwards Aino got the results of her blood test from the day before, but all it showed was that she'd exerting herself. Next came Monday, and there's planning for the school field trip to Tokyo. The talk of the day is still Haruka Oshima, the "Magical Girl" idol singer who was discussed last week. However, it was also Aino's birthday, so the girls planned out a little party at Pailong, with Erika calling Kirika to let her know. During the meal Kirika mentioned that she's got a friend who has a concert coming up...yup, she's friends with Haruka Oshima. Erika asked if Haruka really is a Magical Girl and Kirika rather casually confirmed that she is. The topic of conversation turned to music, and Kirika says that she likes Metal (with the group all sensing that "like" is an understatement). This also served to explain the fact that Kirika's primary weapon is a gigantic sword. Afterwards the girls headed home.

After school the next day, Aino sensed something bigger and more malicious than before; the girls transformed and started searching for the presence. At a nearby construction site, they found a large, squat plant-like creature with countless tentacles, some of which were stretching out towards nearby buildings. After school the next day, Aino sensed something bigger and more malicious than before; the girls transformed and started searching for the presence. At a nearby construction site, they found a large, squat blob-like creature with countless tentacles, some of which were stretching out towards nearby buildings. The girls started combat by entangling it and sniping from a distance; however, it started taking out its anger on a nearby car, causing a traffic pileup. When it started stomping into the road and laid down a "plague field" on the stopped cars, the girls realized that they'd have to keep it focused on the construction site to avoid further casualties. Fujiko dropped her healing field on top of the plagued zone in order to minimize damage while Erika and Aino got around behind it to lure it back. Fujiko and Aino were able to sense the presence of another Magical Girl, as well as a mild sense of danger from her. As the battle continued, Erika finally got her Crossfire Kick to connect, finishing the beast off and making it melt into goo while dropping more Mana than the girls had seen. Before they could gather it, Fujiko noticed the Magical Girl who'd spied on them during the training battle on a nearby rooftop and gave a warning.

The mystery girl lept down from the roof to attack Aino while a laser-like blast came out of nowhere and sniped Erika. She countered by leaping over Aino and Crossfire Kicking the brawler who'd appeared before them. The opposing Magical Girl performed a very clumsy roundhouse kick, striking Fujiko with a blinding burst of energy. Sensing an invisible opponent nearby, Aino used her copied Telekinesis to pull the Mana over behind the girls and asked what they wanted; Erika said that they didn't deserve any kind of reward since she just sat back and watched, but the brawler said that she needed the Mana. The invisible opponent fired a lightning attack at Aino, who deflected it away, then intercepted an attack from the "sniper" that did a fair bit of damage. Erika laid down her force field and tried to convince the brawler that the Mana was potentially dangerous and shouldn't be used so casually; she responded that they didn't worry about things that are "above their pay-grade".

Erika continued debating with the girl, saying that they shouldn't just accept the idea of consequence-free wish-granting magic; the brawler remained unconvinced and threw a punch, but Aino stopped it. Fujiko tried to intimidate the brawler by mentioning that the girls had backup on the way but she remained unconvinced. Aino asked if they needed the Mana to do something that would save lives, but the brawler gave a vague answer. Suddenly another Magical Girl appeared on a rooftop, which scared the brawler senseless. The new girl, whose outfit resembled a pink pantsuit and had a large katana strapped across her back, said to give her a minute and teleported over to the sniper. After a brief conversation she brought the sniper over to the field and had the invisible girl show up as well. The leader made the other girls apologize and said that they sometimes acted on their own. Erika tried asking if they could share information, like what they know about Mana, but the leader refused to give further information, saying that it's better for their health. Erika's further attempts to get information out of the leader only managed to yield her name, Sakura. In the meantime, Aino's attempt to scan Sakura ran up against mental resistance, and the latter said "You remind me of someone really annoying who lives around here..." She warned the girls that they probably shouldn't stick together, but once again refused to elaborate. Erika asked if they can at least consider each other on the same side, if the term "ally" is too generous; Sakura asked if she's serious and Erika replieed "I'd rather have friends than enemies." Sakura responded "Try and find me", to which Erika replieed "I may take you up on that offer."

Suddenly a familiar beam of energy came out of nowhere, aimed at Sakura's back. Aino took the shot and the girls tried to call off Kirika. She and Sakura already knew each other and clearly weren't friends. Sakura went over to her team and all four of them teleported away. Erika asked Kirika, who explained that Sakura is essentially a Magical Girl yakuza boss, managing the entire south side of town, which made Erika realize that her "Come and find me" was effectively a job offer rather than the taunt she thought it was. Kirika warned the girls not to associate with Sakura and just to avoid her, saying that she's the type to attack people when they're alone and untransformed. Erika expressed the desire to form an alliance of good Magical Girls in case the "Mafia" starts leaning on them, but none of the others seemed very interested.

---

So that's Session 2 down. More interesting stuff happened, including the introduction of some new antagonists. We all "levelled up" (BESM doesn't use a traditional level-based character progression), and a couple of us decided to re-spec abilities that were less than useful; personally I dropped Erika's force field because it was pretty useless and redundant when compared to Fujiko's, instead focusing on her primary role as the main damage-dealer of the group.

Again, if you want to know more about the characters or setting just let me know and I'll provide the details that I can.
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
Henyo
Posts: 690
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2014 10:24 am
Location: Hidden Tramo Village

Re: RPG Report?

sees Magical Girl. interest piqued. sees RPG. a becomes a bit cautious. i have never played this kind of RPG.

but i think this will be a good thing for mi, who is planning in writing a Magical Girl Fanfic. multi series crossover, but the point still stands. one vote!!!

on a side note, how interested are they into the magical girl genre? i want to have more people to talk to about it.(via FB preferably.) it's hard being the only one who specializes in the genre ja? :D
MOOK: ITS A YURI FANBOY!
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

What we're using is Big Eyes Small Mouth (aka BESM), a system designed to (in theory) let you recreate basically any kind of anime. In practice, though, there's a lot of potential for abuse and game-breaking, and it often comes down to house rules to patch the holes left behind by the creators and playtesters.

So far we've had a couple of battles each session but I've been abbreviating them and only mentioning important moments because round-by-round accounts of fights can get kinda boring. Like I said, in the first battle of Session 2, there were a ton of smaller enemies so most of the activity early on was us spamming the same area attack over and over to whittle down their numbers.
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

If by "join" you mean you're interested in reading it, that's great. But if you mean you want to be part of the game...well, you can't. This isn't something we're doing online; if it was I'd just have posted links to VODs or audio recordings of the sessions. This game is being held at my brother's house and we go there every couple of weeks to play, so it's basically not going to be gaining any new characters unless someone we already know in our area develops an interest.

Anyway, it's been a while again...I had a bunch of stuff going on over the last few weeks including a baseball game, Anime Weekend Atlanta, and housesitting. So once again I present the last session the night before the next one.

---

We continue on the weekend, the day the girls were set to attend the Haruka Oshima concert. In the days leading up to the concert, Erika and Aino researched Oshima on their own while Fujiko worked on her commissioned kimono. The day of, the girls arrived at Kirika's apartment to collect her before they headed off. While Erika and Fujiko petted a stray cat that showed up, Aino rung the doorbell but got no response. The girls searched around to make sure there was no foul play, in the process discovering that the windows were vibrating and they could sense Kirika's magic inside. Eventually they finally managed to get her to answer...and the moment she opened the door, EXTREMELY LOUD death metal came blasting out. After the music was shut off, the girls went inside. Aino asked (and Kirika confirmed) that she'd used a wish to sound-proof her apartment. The apartment contained a fair number of electronics, including a very beefy PC and some disassembled electronics (most prominently VR headsets)...and a bunch of death metal paraphernalia that was obviously set up so it could quickly be hidden. This included a figure of Jesus Christ on her dresser, positioned as if He was about to crowd-surf on some figures below. When Fujiko pointed out that this might be seen as disrespectful, Kirika put the figure back, but everyone got the impression that as soon as they left the Son of God was going to go right back to crowd-surfing.

The girls had some snacks while waiting for their train, and Erika revealed that she'd purchased and customized a set of headsets so the girls could stay in communication during battle without having to shout at each other. They asked about Haruka, who's been a Magical Girl for a while and actually lives nearby, but has been on tour lately. Erika asked what happened to Sakura, and Kirika said that she isn't sure; about 4-5 months ago she split off and started setting up her "Mafia", supposedly because she saw her abilities more as a job rather than a duty. Erika said that she can't just write Sakura off as a villain because they at least used to be friends, but Kirika just insisted that they're better off avoiding her at all costs.

After finishing their conversations, Kirika changed and the girls left for the concert, with Kirika stopping to feed the kitten on the way out. Erika asked if she's named it, and Kirika got embarrassed and muttered the name "...Belphagor." As the girls headed to the station, they sensed the presence of low-level Shades, because of course. They traced the sensation to an alleyway and found several Orb-Type Shades and two Brute-Types. The battle went super-quickly, with the girls using area attacks in order to wound and defeat as many Shades at once as possible. The only really noteworthy thing was Erika finally getting to use her rapid-fire Algol Slash attack.

The girls hurried back to the train station but realized that they missed their train; after a brief debate, they decided to take the next train 20 minutes later. On that train, the girls noticed that Kirika was pissed off...and realized that Sakura was on the train with them, seemingly not noticing them yet. Erika and Fujiko convinced Kirika to just move to a different train car rather than confronting Sakura. After arriving, the girls ran to get to the concert on time since they technically don't have tickets (they need Haruka to vouch for them); Aino struggled due to her health, so Kirika hoisted her up piggy-back. At the arena the girls got let in by Haruka and headed backstage. Unfortunately due to the late arrival, Haruka barely hads time for introductions before she had to get on stage. The concert began and the crowd went wild. Very quickly the girls realized that Haruka was transformed into her Magical Girl form on stage...and Sakura was right there backstage with them. She and Kirika were both pissed off that Haruka was using her powers on stage; Sakura kept saying things like "Can I kill her now?", while Kirika told her to get lost.

During a lull in the songs, a monster appeared on the opposite side of the stage, but the girls could sense that it was some kind of illusion. Aino used her powers to analyze Haruka's abilities (and whatever her player saw on her character sheet made him die laughing for a minute straight). As Haruka did a cheesy stage show, Erika and Fujiko discussed the reason Kirika and Sakura were so angry about all of this, Erika reasoning that Sakura isn't the type of person to give a damn about someone else using their powers for personal gain. The point came up that her production company would have to notice things like the fact that they don't have to hire actors to play the villains, meaning they're either in on the con or they're being conned themselves.

After the concert, the girls talked while waiting for Haruka. Erika asked Kirika what was going on and what she planned on doing about it; Kirika replied that she wasn't sure. Haruka showed up already preparing to defend herself, but Kirika chewed her out and wanted to know what was going on. Haruka admitted that she used a wish to let people see her, and when Erika asked about the company Kirika said that she's obviously mind-controlling them. During the conversation Sakura came in, saying that if word got out she'd put a stop to it. Haruka insisted that everything would be fine and Sakura just gave up and left, while the girls went to the craft services table and got some food. Haruka seemed very devil-may-care about the whole thing, even when Erika pointed out that by taking away her "stealth", she's made it so she can't fight monsters anymore without exposing herself or the idea of Magical Girls. Haruka said that there are countless Magical Girls out there, with more coming as time goes on. She said that she's fine with using magic to control peoples' emotions because it makes them happy, but Fujiko sensed some self-doubt behind her words. The girls pointed out that she can't be so careless because she's gambling with the lives and privacy of countless other girls like themselves; however, Haruka couldn't be convinced and took her leave.

On the way to the station, Kirika apologized for being a downer and said that she needed to verify things. Aino asked about the past and Kirika explained that Haruka was always a talented singer, but needed to "sell" herself as a performer. Erika brought up her issues with using Mana again, but this just annoyed Kirika; things only got worse when Kirika said that maybe she SHOULD just let Sakura kill Haruka, and Erika replied that that wasn't a very Christian attitude. The train ride home was mostly silent, with Erika attempting to smoothe things over by pointing out that they're all in this together, but Kirika said nothing. After the girls arrived at their stop they sensed something big and nasty. Heading to the site, the girls saw something that almost looks like a sheet draped over a rod, surrounded by smaller, mechanical objects with a tube-like appearance. Kirika confirmed that she'd never seen anything like this before, but it was clearly really nasty. Aino analyzed the Shade and told the group that it was tough but slow and had lasers; the smaller cylinders were "prisms" that redirected its lasers, while the larger ones were "cannons" that did the attacking. Erika tried to apologize to Kirika once more before the battle started, but she remained upset.

Most of the battle consisted of the girls trying to take out the Shade's "reflector bits" while evading its laser attacks (which was kind of annoying to plot out on a map). Making matters worse, the Shade could simply respawn "prisms", some naturally and others by "ripping" parts off its own body. After a few rounds of this, the girls focused fire and took down the Shade. It dropped a ton of Mana, even more than the Plant-Type Shade they fought before. Kirika. Kirika asked the girls if they were still going to keep the Mana despite having no intention of using it, and they confirmed that they did; after splitting up their shares she left. As the girls went their separate ways, Erika and Aino detected another Magical Girl in the area but couldn't spot her. All three of the girls' families were upset with them for being out so late without calling, but that was something we decided to save for the next session, and the trio all went to bed. The next morning, Aino woke up and feeling better than she ever had before (which, we all realized out-of-character, probably meant that Kirika had used a wish to heal her).

---

And that's the third session of the game. As you can see, it wasn't a very good day for Erika since she may have alienated the group's mentor character; however, my brother reaffirmed that he's really glad she's in the game. Previously he had said that because, as the only extrovert in the group, she was effectively the glue keeping the girls together, but after that session he said it was because she was essentially driving the plot single-handedly at this point, both with her trying to find the truth about Magical Girls and Shades and her conviction that Mana and wishing shouldn't be treated like toys. It does make me feel a little better, but in the short term it seems like she's going to go through the wringer some more before this is all through.
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

And here we are again, with the fourth session of the game. I was actually kind of eager to get this one posted as soon as possible because that session was where Shit Got Real™, but once again laziness got the better of me. But enough chatter, here we go:

---

Continuing from the last session, Erika arrived home and got chewed out by her mother for coming home late and not calling. She apologized and explained that she had a terrible day, but Mom just told her to go on to bed and they'd talk more in the morning. Up in her bedroom, Erika realized that Sakura was there hiding in the shadows. The two talked, Sakura saying she wanted to work out some kind of peaceful co-existence with the group, but still insisting that Erika stop prying into things. She claimed she didn't know anything more about the origin of Shades or Magical Girls, but still felt that the girls were better off not knowing some things. Erika remarked that she felt Sakura wasn't necessarily a bad person, but was playing the "bad guy" by doing the dirty work so that other Magical Girls could stay clean. Sakura said she would give Erika some time to think it over and talk it out with her friends, and left so Erika could get some sleep.

The next morning, Fujiko had to deal with her mother, who was likewise upset. However, during the conversation she realized that something seemed "off" about her mother, but it wasn't magical in nature. Aino was so worn out that she basically just collapsed in bed; however, before she did so she absorbed her Mana for safe-keeping. In the morning she had breakfast with her parents, who were surprisingly sympathetic about her being late, being more worried than angry. After lunch the girls set about messaging each other, Erika telling them about Sakura's visit and offer while Aino messaged Kirika to apologize for Erika's actions from the previous day. The girls stayed home for the day, doing various things on their own.

On Monday the girls discussed Sakura's visit and offer. The main issue that came up was that basically nobody seemed to know anything about the origin of Magical Girls or Shades, which meant finding out would be very difficult. In the end, they all agreed that they just wanted to focus on their specific area of Urahara and not rub up against anyone else. Fujiko had afternoon lessons, but still couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Aino had a check-up at the doctor's, who was surprised at how well off Aino seemed, openly stating that her recovery was nothing short of miraculous. That evening Aino's parents got a call from the doctor, relating what she'd observed.

Tuesday at school, Erika asked if anyone would be willing to go with her to deliver their message to Sakura, since she wasn't comfortable doing it by herself. Eventually the idea came up to write the message as a letter and deliver it to one of Sakura's minions in order to minimize contact. About 10-15 minutes before the end of the school day, Erika and Aino sensed some kind of larger monster. Unfortunately, Erika couldn't think of any way to get out of class early, and Aino seemed to not want to deal with it. As soon as the bell rang they got Fujiko and raced off to catch up with the monster, which was actually right in front of Pailong. The Shade resembled a black ball of vines with dark red and blue flowers (that looked like local flora); Fujiko sensed that there was something "off" about the monster, the same way she sensed something "off" about her mother.

The girls started off fighting the monster, but fairly quickly Haruka Oshima showed up on a nearby rooftop looking like she was ready to join in the fight. However, as the fight continued they could sense that there was something really wrong and awful going on, nagging at the back of their heads. Finally, something clicked in their minds and it all came together: they began remembering Momoka Oshima, a classmate and the "fourth Musketeer" of their group who had been there all along. As the name suggested, she's also Haruka's younger sister, but for her part Haruka didn't seem to realize it herself. Fujiko shouted out to her to explain things while Erika and Aino tried to pacify the creature and see if Momoka's mind was still in there somewhere. When Haruka finally caught up to the others she collapsed in shock and horror.

Erika kept trying to talk the Shade down, but it didn't seem that Momoka had any conscious control, and her attempts to get through the vines to see if she was trapped inside were also fruitless. Haruka seemed to be on the verge of a total mental breakdown, but Fujiko went over and slapped her, which thankfully seemed to at least keep her from flipping out. She summoned up her Mana and started making a wish, but she didn't have enough handy so Aino gave some of the Mana she'd collected. Eventually the wish went through and the Shade transformed back into Momoka.

As soon as she could, Haruka hugged her little sister tightly as the trio lead her off the street and up to a rooftop to get some privacy. While waiting on Momoka to come around, the girls remembered that she'd been with them until about a week or so ago, hanging around and going to the Chinese restaurant for Aino's birthday and such. On the way back to Haruka's place, she spoke up, saying that Momoka was the only reason she wanted to become an idol. She confirmed that she's never seen anything like humans becoming Shades before. The girls almost felt as if there were two realities, one where they were friends with Momoka and another where she'd never existed to begin with. Erika suggested that someone call up Kirika and let her know the situation. The discussion turned to Sakura and whether she knew all this or not; Haruka remarked that if anyone knew the whole story, it'd be her. Erika apologized to Haruka for how they got off on the wrong foot on Saturday and gave her the headset she'd made for her. Saying their goodbyes, Momoka went home with her sister.

Erika remembered the letter, but since Fujiko didn't feel like any more conflict that day so they agreed to save it for Thursday and the trio went home. That evening Fujiko used her Mana to try and find out the consequences of making wishes, but for whatever reason nothing happened. Not wanting to press any further, she simply absorbed her Mana for safe-keeping, as did Erika on her own. Aino did some research and found out that Momoka was still on the school records, as well as identifying Haruka's high school. The next day at school, Fujiko asked the homeroom teacher about Momoka and was told that she'd called in sick that day. After school Fujiko had her lessons, still getting the vague feeling that something was wrong. Erika and Aino researched past articles on Haruka to find out that they did in fact mention a little sister.

Aino went to visit Kirika in order to let her in on the new information. When she got to the apartment, the windows were shaking as on Saturday. Pounding on the door as hard as she could, she finally got Kirika to answer the door. Aino began explaining the situation, asking if Kirika remembered Momoka; she only vaguely did, as if she hadn't made the mental connection yet. Further explanations helped fill things in, which left Kirika upset since, like everyone else, she realized that if anyone knew more about this situation it would be Sakura. Aino said that if she decided to go speak to Sakura, the whole group would go with her, but Kirika says they should probably go without her. Aino also mentioned that Erika wanted to apologize for before and Kirika responded that she should visit on her own time.

---

And there you have it, the fourth game session. Like I said, things got nuts and we've hit the first "dark secret" of the game. Naturally there's far more questions than answers right now: are all Shades humans or just the "bosses"? How did Momoka transform, and is there a way to prevent it from happening again? Does Sakura know any of this? What IS her goal in all of this? And of course, there are even some questions hanging over all this; I think Erika would naturally be happy at getting a friend back, but she's still a little suspicious that the person they saved just so happened to have connections to everyone present at the fight, and that Haruka chose that specific battle to intervene. It's not like she's going to just up and attack Momoka, or accuse her of being a fake, but she's still worried since obviously there's a lot of memory-altering magic out there.

Either way, I fully expect the game to kick into high gear now that we've had our first big reveal of the RPG, and it'll of course be far from the last.
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

Oh, and just for the curious I did a rough image of what Erika's costume would look like. This isn't supposed to be anything but a really rough idea, the sort of thing I'd hand off to someone with actual artistic talents.

https://i.imgur.com/N2Wb3ZK.png
https://i.imgur.com/Fpvia0C.png
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
User avatar
Omega
Posts: 1577
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2008 4:21 pm
Contact:

Re: RPG Report?

Damn... o.o This looks like an interesting situation to end up in. But now i'm wondering what else is in store for your campaign with the first dark secret kinda reminding me of Yoko Taro's work
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

Figured I should try to get the latest session's notes out earlier than normal, especially since "normal" so far has meant waiting for the night before the next session to slam it out. Especially since the next session might be delayed a week, as Aino's player is in the process of apartment-hunting and it's messing up his work schedule.

Additionally, I'll note that I really gloss over the battles unless something really noteworthy happens, because for the most part our battles play out the same. Pretty much every fight boils down to 1) Fujiko (support) lays down her barrier, 2) Erika (DPS) does most of the heavy lifting, and 3) Aino (tank) covers for the other two. It's gotten to the point where around Session 4, I simply summarize any given battle with one sentence per action, simply because it's not as interesting as the actual story.

---

Picking up from last session, Aino left Kirika's apartment, found a secluded place and transformed so she could use her abilities to scan herself and figure out if there was something wrong with her as a result of her miraculous recovery. She didn't believe there was any leftover magic, just that it had helped her heal and then vanished. After confirming this she decided to check Sensei's dojo and Fujiko's house to make sure everything was fine there too; from there she simply went home. The next morning she left early to scan Erika and Haruka as well, but in the end her efforts didn't turn up anything significant.

At school, Momoka turned up just before the bell, and class proceeded as normal until lunch when the girls got the chance to talk to her. Momoka was worried since Haruka has basically done nothing since that day, just staying in her room (and it seems that her even eating is something amazing). The girls confirmed that Momoka did remember what happened, and was in on the whole Magical Girl story; however, she wasn't comfortable talking about it at school. After classes the girls decided to go to the karaoke lounge so they could discuss things in private. Momoka explained that the last thing she remembered was going to Pailong for food, but she wasn't entirely sure when. She still remembered being a monster, but didn't want to talk about it; she also realized that the girls were the ones who helped her. Erika filled her in on the whole Magical Girl situation and they discussed Haruka, with the idea coming up that maybe her current state was some form of backlash for making such a big wish. Momoka felt guilty both about her sister and the idea that she might have hurt people while she was transformed, and Erika's attempts to comfort her don't seem to do much good. The girls decided to take some time and relax before heading back to the Oshimas' apartment to check on Haruka.

When they got to Haruka's room, she was essentially caterpillared upon her bed. Erika and Fujiko spoke to her, saying that she could quit being a Magical Girl or even an Idol Singer if she wanted, but she still needed to be there for her family. They pointed out that beating herself up over what she can't change or "what-ifs" would get her nowhere, and she should be proud of the fact that she saved her sister's life and opened the possibility for more lives to be saved. Haruka explained that she did know other Magical Girls, but the only ones likely to know anything would be Kirika or Sakura; when Erika mentioned Kirika, Haruka winced and suggested that she would be the one most affected by the revelation that some Shades are humans. The girls discussed Sakura and her potential motivations, but couldn't figure anything new. Erika floated the idea of using a wish to take away Sakura's powers, should it come to that, but the girls generally agreed that they should reserve their Mana for restoring transformed Shades. Erika suggested that since they were just talking in circles, they should head out and let the Oshimas get back to their family. On the way out, she decided to try wishing to learn what Sakura knew about Shades and Magical Girls, but the wish didn't get through. Discussing things further, Erika said that they probably needed to confront Sakura personally about all this to verify whether she knew about Shades being humans or not; Fujiko reluctantly agreed and said that Saturday seemed to be the best opportunity. From there, the girls went their separate ways.

Friday morning before school, Momoka spoke to Fujiko and asked for tutoring to make up for the days she missed, which Fujiko used to figure out that Momoka lose about five days. Erika decided to research the conspiracy websites that report on Magical Girls to see if any of their evidence is actually real (some was, but this was mostly an experiment for later). That night Sakura showed up in Erika's room, rather testily telling her to just meet up already and stop talking to other people. The fact that she didn't just ask for Erika's response then and there suggested that she wanted the meeting to be on her terms. Saturday the girls met and discussed what they were going to say to Sakura before heading off to the south side of town. Searching around, Erika managed to sense the sniper Magical Girl they fought before and they told her that they wanted to speak with Sakura at a nearby park. However, Sakura showed up and insisted that they speak on a rooftop instead.

Sakura was annoyed that the girls had found out about Shades being humans, but agreed to fill the girls in, saying they'd doomed themselves. She explained that Mana is indeed human spirit or life energy, but the premise that using it is "wishing" is fundamentally flawed. According to her, Magical Girls are essentially Witches and the use of Mana is casting a spell. One way Magical Girls can become more powerful is by "sacrificing" something, either intentionally (in the sense of "I wish I never had to deal with (blank) ever again!") or accidentally as a result of their power spilling over; this is what turns humans into large Shades. Aino asked how she learned all this, and with difficulty she admitted that her father was a scumbag, an abusive low-level Yakuza mook who put his family through hell; she one day wished she didn't have to put up with him, and only later after she'd defeated him in Shade form did she make the connection.

Erika asked how Magical Girls were created, and the best Sakura could figure about 6-8 months ago, when she became a Magical Girl, they started sprouting up everywhere. She suspected that Kirika had something to do with it, whether or not she realizes it, since she seems to be the first Magical Girl, possibly in the world. Erika said that the girls had decided that since their supply of Mana was now finite, they needed to focus on finding the source of the Shades and shut it down, which Sakura agreed. She said that by her count there were around 20-30 Magical Girls, all of them in the Urahara area, but more are born as time goes on. According to her, Kirika lost her parents when she was 12 and she was kept at the school because she had no other living relatives in Japan. Fujiko suggested that maybe Kirika's loneliness is the catalyst, turning other girls into Magical Girls so she would have companions. Sakura remarked that the Mana can even be used to bring people back to life, but it costs a lot. The girls exchanged phone numbers and Sakura returned to her base, which Kirika apparently wrecked earlier.

The girls discussed what they've learned and what they'll need to investigate when they sensed Sakura's trio of minions approaching them. The blue brawler appeared on the roof and said that they found out the secret thanks to Kirika ranting angrily as she trashed their base the other day. The three of them wanted out, and they wanted the girls' Mana in order to do so. Erika said that wasn't going to happen (while discreetly texting Sakura to get her to come back and rein in her subordinates), kicking off a battle. The minions got a few good hits in early on, but once the girls got under Fujiko's forcefield things swung around in their favor. At one point, "Blue" threw out one of her really clumsy, untrained kick attacks and Erika responded with her Crossfire Kick, shouting "THIS is how you kick, you little brat!" After a few exchanges, Sakura teleported onto the rooftop and appraised the situation. After a moment she charged in and slashed "Blue", knocking her unconscious. "Green" and "Red" obviously started fleeing while Sakura landed a coup de grace on the brawler, cutting her into bloody chunks as more Mana than the girls had ever seen before dropped from her corpse.

Sakura apologized to the group, who were all severely rattled at the sight of the brawler's mangled corpse (Fujiko shut her eyes, Aino collapsed to her knees, and Erika could only weakly mutter "You didn't have to go that far..."). She explained that she figured out they had heard the information during Kirika's rampage. The girls remained stunned for most of the scene as Sakura suggested they head on home, which they did. Fujiko got home in time for her usual lessons, but she got the feeling that she shouldn't be having them on this day, prompting her to text Erika, Aino, and Sakura. When Aino got home, she found her parents preparing a party to celebrate her recent good health news; she likewise got the sense that this scenario was too happy. Sakura responded to Fujiko's text, saying that she was probably running into exactly what she'd mentioned before about something in her life getting affected by her energy.

---

And there's Session 5. The situation has shifted quite a bit, with Sakura now as an erstwhile ally, but not remotely a good person; in the meantime Kirika is potentially shifting into a more dangerous position as she reacts to the knowledge that she's responsible for a ton of innocent deaths. There was also a fair debate between the group over saving transformed humans, with Fujiko advocating that they should prioritize in case a friend or family member gets transformed while Erika argued that they don't have the right to say "This guy's life is less important because I don't know him".

For the record, my brother also told us that if we wanted to, we could use the Mana we'd collected to make our characters more powerful, but I don't think anyone is going to take him up on that offer. We've been receiving a steady 10 Character Points every session (except the first) and so far we've been alright, but who knows what the future will hold. Right now I'm personally thinking about what Erika's going to do between then and now, since they potentially have a whole organization of Magical Girls supporting them...assuming they don't all rebel against Sakura like the trio did...
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

Apologies for the lapse in posting, but with the holiday season starting in November things have been kind of weird. We've actually had two sessions since my last post, with the most recent one being this past Sunday, so I'll try to get everything caught up.

---

We pick up on Sunday with Aino reluctantly calling the girls to invite them to the party her parents were setting up. Before the party Erika did some work, trying to determine if there was any kind of discernible pattern behind the Shades' attacks, checking conspiracy sites to see if Kirika was really the first Magical Girl, and investigating missing persons reports to try and identify people who were turned into Shades or who became Magical Girls. Unfortunately she wasn't able to find anything really useful on her own, but she did let Sakura know about her investigations and asked her to share whatever she discovered in those areas.

With nothing else to do beforehand, the girls headed to Aino's place for the party. A bit embarrassed, she admitted to Erika and Fujiko that she was magically healed; Fujiko seemed a little annoyed that she hid it as long as she did, but neither of them blamed her for what happened. After everyone showed up, Aino's father announced her clean bill of health, to the other guests' surprise and joy. The party passed without incident, with everyone eating, playing games, conversing, and having a good time.

On Monday, Momoka let the girls know that Haruka was doing better, but she still wasn't back up to 100%. That afternoon during her lessons, Fujiko again got the sense that she shouldn't be doing this sort of thing today, but still went along with them just in case. When she got home she noticed that her aunt was there, which was especially odd because she's been estranged from the family for a while. However, she got the sense that her aunt lives nearby and visits every so often, which she instinctively knew was wrong. When Fujiko went to look at the kimono she'd been working on, everything started falling into place and she "realized" that history seemed to have changed. Her family's tradition in the textile business seemed to have been erased, meaning her aunt didn't get put through the pressure that led to her becoming estranged originally and additionally that Fujiko is being groomed to take over the family's ryokan; she and her grandfather still make kimonos, but the one she'd been working on was no longer a commission. Finally, the realized that the Ghost-Type Shade (from Session 3) was actually the embodiment of her family's traditions, and that by destroying it she'd changed history.

Tuesday, Fujiko told the girls that she needed to talk to them after school. Erika asked Momoka if she remembered any kind of conflict or strife with Haruka before she was changed, but she couldn't recall; Erika explained that she couldn't imagine Haruka "sacrificing" Momoka, even accidentally, because the sisters got along so well. After school the girls went to Pailong and Fujiko told them about what had happened. Erika reflected on the fact that the Moriguchi family's history was the whole reason she and Fujiko met in the first place, and realized that the situation they were in was paradoxical since there wasn't a "corrected history" version of their first meeting. Getting an idea, Erika asked Aino if it was possible that the Beast-Type Shade (from Session 2) was the embodiment of her illness, and its defeat was the reason she got better; as near as Aino could tell, that wasn't the case. Suddenly the girls all sensed a fight going on between some unknown Magical Girls and some Shades; they explained the situation to Momoka, gave her the money to cover their part of the bill, and headed off to investigate.

When the girls arrived, they got to a safe distance and watched two Magical Girls, one resembling a Spartan warrior and another with shortswords, fighting a Shade that resembled a larger, blobbier version of the Brute-Types inside a park. The moment they saw it, Aino realized that it was her older brother Kyo, who died over a year ago. That explained her family's unnatural happiness: they didn't remember losing a child, because as far as they knew Aino was their only child. After she told them, Fujiko and Erika handed over their Mana without hesitation. Aino jumped down to start trying to turn the Shade back into her brother while Erika and Fujiko tried to explain the situation to the other two Magical Girls, who were mostly confused by the situation.

The two Magical Girls still didn't seem to get what was going on, not really understanding that humans could become Shades and refusing to help when Erika explained that they could be returned to normal using Mana. After a lot of internal struggle and debate, Aino used the Mana, returning her brother to his human form and going over to give him a kiss. The other Magical Girls remained confused, even after Erika tried to explain yet again. Erika and Fujiko confirmed that they had met Kirika and been given her initial mis-information about Magical Girls, and tried to set the record straight. In the end, the two went their own way and Erika volunteered to go back to Momoka at the restaurant while Fujiko and Aino took care of Kyo. Fujiko straight-up asked Aino what she did to her brother, and if she sacrificed something else in order to bring him back; though Aino didn't answer, she could tell that she was right on the mark.

Erika went back to Pailong and got Momoka up to speed on what happened. After they went home, Erika checked her copy of her father's book, since he had covered the Moriguchi family; it still reported on them, but had a different tone and depicted her grandfather as the last of a dying breed. Later on she called up Fujiko to check up on how things went after they split up. During the call she sensed several Magical Girls in the area who seemed to be approaching. She told her mother that she was going to the convenience store to pick some things up, then transformed and started moving away. As soon as she sensed that she was deliberately being followed, Erika texted Fujiko and Aino to ask for assistance.

The girls met up at a construction site and were approached by three Magical Girls who said that they were planning on eliminating Sakura and wanted the three of them out of their way. Erika and Fujiko tried to talk the girls down, explaining that the best possible outcome would result from joining forces and trying to stop the Shades rather than hiding in a hole until the world burned. Aino exploded at them (surprising both Erika and Fujiko), saying that if they wanted out that badly, they should sacrifice something for Mana rather than attacking other people. However, it became clear that they weren't going to be swayed by words and everyone prepared for battle.

The leader of the group, a girl in Chinese-style clothing, used earthbending powers, while her meeker ally used some power to try and teleport Erika away, but she was able to resist it. The third member of the group, wearing something resembling a cocktail dress, transformed into a being of living flame like the Human Torch and (obviously) used fire attacks. However, once more the girls were able to win the day by getting behind Fujiko's forcefield (and Aino's copied version) and then Erika and Aino dealing the lion's share of the damage. Fujiko used her Telekinesis to rip out a nearby fire hydrant and redirect the water at Fire Girl, who took quite a bit of damage; Erika followed up with her time-stop arrow, knocking that girl out and leaving the scaredy-cat badly injured. At that point the attackers realized they were outmatched and teleported away.

The girls took a quick stock of the situation; none of them particularly wanted to get Sakura involved, but they realized that she needed to know. After making her stop at the convenience store, Erika called Sakura to fill her in on what happened, leaving out the part about Aino's brother out of respect. She suggested that maybe they needed to form a new alliance of Magical Girls based around trust rather than intimidation, since fear of Sakura was what made her original group fall apart. Sakura thought such a thing was a waste of time, but didn't tell her not to pursue it at all.

---

And there we have Session 6. This was more a continuation of previous episodes rather than a big plot episode, though we still got the news about Fujiko's family history being altered and Aino's brother being brought back. Part of that actually surprised me because I guess I missed the part of Aino's profile that specified her brother was adopted, and she clearly has some kind of romantic attraction to him. I'll work on getting Session 7 up ASAP.
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

And here we go right into Session 7!

---

The session began by quickly jumping back to Tuesday afternoon, when Fujiko and Aino were taking Aino's brother Kyo back home. Fujiko asked the pertinent question of how her parents are going to react to their supposedly dead son being alive again, but Aino didn't even have an answer for that. Buzzing the intercom, Aino disguised her voice and let her father know that they'd found his son passed out in the park, which surprised Fujiko. After handing Kyo off to her father, the girls started to leave when her father asked "Do I know you?"; Aino only responded "Take good care of him" and left by transforming and flying, with Fujiko following behind. After a chase, Aino managed to break away, find a place to land and de-transform, but Fujiko was able to track her down with her magic sense. She stayed a safe distance away and followed Aino to an apartment near the school.

Wednesday, Aino didn't show up for school and both her friends realized that something was up; checking their memories, they realized that she wasn't part of their homeroom anymore. Getting an idea, Erika asked Momoka, who didn't remember meeting her at all. Erika asked Fujiko what was going on, but Fujiko said it wasn't her place to say, but they could go see her after school. When Erika described Aino to Momoka, she got rather shocked and said that Aino died some time ago, which left Erika stunned. Fujiko called up her grandmother and aunt to get out of her afternoon lessons, but after class Erika said that she couldn't go meet Aino because right now she was too upset with her and would probably punch her and yell at her. After everything that's happened, she wanted to end the Shade threat as soon as possible, so she wanted to do something more constructive. Fujiko went ahead to Aino's apartment, but didn't get any response after knocking. Transforming, she used her Telekinesis to start picking the lock, but Aino ended up opening it herself. Inside the rather plain apartment, Fujiko filled her in on what had happened, particularly Erika's frustration at what she'd done, and asked for an explanation. Under pressure, Aino admitted that she'd traded her life for her brother's, giving herself a new identity as an orphan. Fujiko told her that they would need to know specifics sooner rather than later if they were going to be able to help.

Back with Erika, after parting ways she transformed and ran off to find Kirika. As usual she was in her apartment with the music blaring, but Erika also sensed some magical wards on the apartment. Kiria let Erika in, and she explained everything that had happened the last few days, apologized for their earlier fight, and finally asked for her help. The two talked things out for a while, with Erika mentioning the theory that Kirika's power might be unintentionally causing the Shades and more Magical Girls to appear. However, Kirika didn't have any further insights and said that her powers developing wasn't anything different from what happened to Erika and her friends. Partway through the conversation Fujiko turned up and got caught up to speed. Erika asked if Kirika could help get them in contact with Sakura's former minions, but both she and Fujiko didn't think they'd be too willing to help out. After the girls left Fujiko filled Erika in on what she'd learned about Aino and her alterations to history. Erika theorized that Aino had changed the circumstances of her brother's death so that she died in his place, but couldn't confirm her suspicions.

On Friday Aino went to meet Kirika herself. Kirika mentioned that she and Sakura didn't like fighting each other, which seemed to be a combination of their being former friends and also very powerful and thus hard to kill. She certainly doesn't agree with Sakura's methods and doesn't think they could ever put aside their differences and work together. Kirika further summarizes the worry about the truth behind the Shades by pointing out that things could have been changing earlier in their lives and they wouldn't be able to know it. Aino got the sense that as a devout Protestant, Kirika didn't really approve of the idea of bringing people back from the dead. They briefly discussed Haruka, and Kirika said she would probably check up on her some time soon. Overall Aino was concerned with how the world always seemed to "right" itself whenever things changed, but she decided that they would find out when they found out.

Saturday, Fujiko sensed a Magical Girl in the neighborhood of Erika, but something felt weird about her. She alerted the others and Erika pursued the target using her superspeed. Realizing that she was headed towards Haruka's house, Erika tried to call ahead to warn her but Haruka was already aware. When Erika arrived at the Oshima house, Haruka was already battling the Magical Girl, who had long black hair and a half-length kimono and was using ice powers. Taking advantage of the distraction, Erika charged in and performed a leaping Crossfire Kick on the attacker, dealing a good bit of damage. The attacker said that she was there to kill Haruka, with Erika replying that they were going to have problems. For the first bit of combat Erika faced the girl solo, both of them doing a good bit of damage to each other. When the others arrived, Fujiko's knowledge of kimonos let her recognize that the attacker's outfit was a style that was popular around a hundred years ago. Now with the tide turned in their favor, the girls managed to knock out the attacker.

Fujiko used her cloth to restrain the unconscious Snow Girl. The girls checked on Haruka, who said she'd never seen this person before. When it was mentioned that she wanted to kill Haruka, Fujiko suggested that maybe she was mad about Haruka "exposing" Magical Girls with her idol act, which seemed the most likely motive. Erika called Kirika to come and investigate the enemy while Haruka went to check on her family. Kirika showed up and, unfortunately, she didn't recognize Snow Girl either; however, she was able to use her Telepathy to probe the girl's mind. Kirika didn't believe what she was seeing, so Aino offered to give a "second opinion" by copying Kirika's Telepathy. She confirmed the girls' suspicions about Snow Girl's motive. A disbelieving Kirika said that her telepathy told her the girl had been a Magical Girl for around 100 years.

Aino asked what Snow Girl knew about Shades, but she didn't know anything more than what they'd already heard. As for herself, she became a Magical Girl much like the rest of the girls but got scooped up by the military to fight in the Great War. Her real name was Nobuko Fukunaka, alias Kotomi, and had been stationed around Tokyo. Her job was to perform a sort of coastal attack against China, but she was only used sparingly. As far as she knew there were a few more Magical Girls, but the military kept the girls from interacting much, presumably to avoid sedition. Using her smartphone to search the Internet, Erika was able to confirm the existence of the military unit she was discussing, but couldn't find any records about specific personnel who served in it.

Around this time Kotomi started waking up. Erika asked what she thought would happen if the big pop idol was suddenly found dead, and she admitted that she hadn't completely thought it through. She was thoroughly gobsmacked when she realized that the girls had no intention of killing her. When asked about her motivations, Kotomi said that even if she'd failed, she would have gone out with a bang. Since she could sense that her mind was being read, she went ahead and corroborated the information they had already gotten. Erika tried to convince her to help them fight the Shades, but Kotomi remained unconvinced and just wanted to get back to her life. Eventually the girls agreed to let Kotomi go, and Kirika and Haruka went their own ways. Reluctantly, Erika mentioned that they would have to share this information with Sakura because, as unpleasant as she is, she's still technically their ally. Erika confronted Aino about her actions...and hugged her tight, saying that she shouldn't devalue herself and act like her life is less important. The girls discussed the possibility that Magical Girls go even further back than they know, and that mythological stories of magic might have a factual basis. However, after realizing that they were just engaging in baseless speculation, the trio split up and headed home.

Erika called up Sakura and let her know what they'd learned; she admitted that she suspected something like this, but perhaps not these specifics. Sakura said she would follow up on some of her leads in that field. Erika did online research and discovered an obituary for the Brawler girl (name: Namika Ogata), with the general public thinking her death was caused by a car accident. At the library, Fujiko found records talking about the military, but nothing in greater detail and certainly nothing relating to Magical Girls. Searching the national archives turned up someone who seemed to be Kotomi, with a death record in the early 2000s. Aino researched mythology and the occult but didn't turn up anything useful.

Monday, Aino was introduced to the class as a new student. She got crowded around by the students as per the norm, but Momoka couldn't seem to put it together that Aino is the same Aino she knew before. During the lunch break, Fujiko asked the Magical Girl otaku if he knew anything about the military conspiracy theories, but unfortunately he didn't have anything new. Erika managed to snag the homeroom teacher before he left class and asked if he knew of any good books discussing Japan's research into superweapons during the Great War; he didn't know any off the top of his head, but said he would look into them and get back to Erika.

Wednesday, Sakura sent Erika a message during class asking for a phone call when she had the time; when Erika called, Sakura said that she had investigated a military base and found something magical, but couldn't get at it by herself, and needed the girls to create a diversion for her.

---

And there's Session 7. Obviously quite a bit happened here, between Aino separating herself from her family and the girls finally getting some concrete leads on what they can do about the Shades. Of course, the fact that the military might still be conducting these experiments to this day is a major concern, but at this point all we have is speculation.

The funny thing is, even though this session ran quite long, we still didn't cover everything my brother had planned out for us; according to him, he had a solid page of notes for the session and we didn't quite get to the halfway mark. Because of the Christmas holiday and the fact that Aino's player is looking for a new apartment, if we left things as-is we wouldn't be able to do another session until mid-to-late-January. As a result, we might end up doing a session this coming Sunday just so we can get things wrapped up before the holiday. I'll let you know how that all works out.
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

Well there was a significant delay, but I'm back with another session report. Sadly January was a complete wash because I was out of state helping my aunt. We actually had this session early in February, but I took my sweet time writing it up as usual, and the next session was delayed to this Sunday because my brother wasn't ready to run it last weekend. But anyway, on with the story.

---

The story continues from last time with Sakura asking the girls to create a diversion so they can investigate the magical energy she detected on the local military base. After school Erika informed the girls that there was something important they needed to discuss, so they transformed and found a building rooftop to talk in private. She told them about the military, and the girls reluctantly agreed to go along with it. While they planned out what they were going to do, Fujiko and Erika sensed a large number of low-level Shades and went off to fight them.

The girls arrived on the street and saw lots of Orb and Brute Shades causing chaos while people fled in terror and Haruka tried to both fight the monsters and protect the civilians. However, there was a newer Shade, a sphere of darkness with innumerable humanoid limbs reaching out from it. The girls didn't have much trouble overall, even with the "arm ball", whose powers included generating long chains of limbs (in a manner similar to Nico Robin, I believe). The main issue was that it kept endangering civilians by doing things like throwing cars and knocking over light poles, but between the four of them they were able to handle it.

Haruka thanked the girls for showing up as they got to a nearby rooftop to take stock of the situation. Aino asked Haruka what she was going to do, and she admitted that she'd decided to stop moping and get back on with her life both as a Magical Girl and an idol singer. They discussed whether she'd be able to continue her career without using her mind control magic. Haruka said that she wanted to do whatever she could to deal with the Shades, which lead to the girls grudgingly letting her know about the military base. She agreed to keep an eye out and said that if they needed backup they could call her. Aino attempted to piece together the new timeline established by her changing history, but they couldn't figure out anything concrete.

After Haruka took her leave, the girls continued planning their action regarding the military base. They decided that the best time to act would be during a shift change, somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 AM, and that they should try to look like they have a distinct purpose so it's less obvious that they're acting as a distraction. The girls decided to head home and take their time planning, while Fujiko decided to make black cloaks to help hide their forms during the raid.

On Thursday, Erika tried to get information about the military base online but couldn't find much useful. She texted Sakura to ask for help and she suggested they meet up in order to plan things out. At lunchtime the girls ate with Momoka up on the roof as she asked Aino all kinds of questions and generally acted super-friendly. Aino decided to test things and asked her about "the other Aino", and Momoka described her without ever making the connection between the two.

After school the girls met up with Sakura at a hole-in-the-wall yakitori restaurant to plan things out. She explained that she would be heading down into an old unused section of building and wanted the girls to cover her entry and be ready if she needed extraction. She gave the girls as good a layout of the base as possible and set up where she wanted them to wait. Erika asked about her former subordinates and Sakura admitted that she was still dealing with them, her house had taken some damage and she'd just resorted to telling her mother to keep hidden. She also expressed remorse at her past actions, bitterly remarking that she'd turned into her father. She told the girls that they'd perform the operation at about 1-3 AM, then departed. They got in touch with Haruka to fill her in, and she said that she was trying to keep Kirika from finding out and going nutso.

On Saturday the girls met up with Sakura outside the military base for final preparations. The group could sense more Magical Girls in the area and asked Sakura if she was still willing to go through with it. They talked things out, discussing whether to risk it now or hope that security would die down in a day or so. Sakura ended up deciding to wait and try again Sunday. However, on Sunday they still sensed Magical Girls in an area as if they had set up camp somewhere in the area, with Fujiko sensing that Kirika was in the area. Sakura said that at this point, the situation was serious enough that she'd be willing to put their animosity aside and work together. Erika went over to Haruka and explained things, and together the two went to meet up with Kirika and convinced her to join forces.

After the girls met up, they tried to determine the intent of the other Magical Girl group. Though most of the energy they detected was unfamiliar, Kirika was fairly certain that one of the people there was Kotomi. After another brief planning session, they decided to stick to the original plan, with the extraction team positioning themselves between the base and Kotomi's group. Sakura went into the base while the others settled in to wait. After about 10 minutes, the group sensed a magical alarm and could tell that Kotomi's group was on the way, so they set up to intercept them. Fujiko laid down her forcefield while Erika got into a sniping position when suddenly a mirror-like surface appeared in front of Aino and a short-ish Magical Girl with an orange dress stepped out.

After her partners arrived, Mirror Girl asked what was going on and who started all this. She explained that Magical Girl booms are something that only happens every decade or two and is usually triggered by one Magical Girl developing powers. When Haruka said that Kotomi is the earliest Magical Girl they know of, Mirror Girl said that the military stopped making Magical Girls a long time ago and Sakura isn't going to find anything rooting around the base's basement. Aino asked Kotomi if the military might still be doing it, but she said that they stopped a long time ago because Magical Girls tend to attract enemies. Watching from the shadows, Erika and Fujiko realized that Kirika is getting nervous as if she's hiding something. While Haruka talked to the newcomers, Aino borrowed Kirika's Telepathy to speak to her mentally, but all she got was loud surface thoughts of fear that she'd been found out.

In order to buy time, Erika suggested asking why Kotomi was suddenly hanging around a military base when she said that she was just living her life for herself. However, Mirror Girl refused to let the conversation be derailed and asked Kirika why she was acting strangely. At that point Erika used the telepathic link to give Aino instructions, having her ask about the trio's motivations and goals. They said that they wanted to find the first Magical Girl and find out what spell she cast to cause all this. Through the mind-link, Kirika admitted to Aino that they were probably right and she was responsible for this, but the girls refused to let Kotomi's group get involved since they were fairly certain that their solution would be to kill Kirika, whether or not it actually worked. Mirror Girl pressed the issue further on Kirika, at which point Erika and Fujiko launched surprise attacks.

With the advantage granted by the ambush, the girls were quickly able to knock out Kotomi and and Mirror Girl. Erika told Bow Girl to back down, saying that if they wanted to help deal with the Shades that was fine but if they came after Kirika again they'd regret it. She took the opportunity to collect Kotomi and Mirror Girl and run away. The girls decided to give Sakura another 20 minutes (making 30 minutes total since she left) before they did anything, and started talking to Kirika. Erika guessed, and Kirika confirmed, that she developed her powers naturally and her wish was simply to have more friends like herself. She said that she'd been a Magical Girl for about six months before casting the spell, and that she'd tried any spell she could think of to undo it, including removing her own powers and making more Magical Girls stop appearing. The girls could tell that deep down, she wondered if maybe her own death would fix all this.

Erika and Fujiko sensed Sakura returning from the base and the girls decided not to tell her about Kirika for fear that she'd instantly resort to murder. When Sakura got back, she explained that she only found some old, mostly non-functioning machinery that had a magical aura to it. The girls told her about what Mirror Girl had said, and Sakura confirmed that the machines seemed designed to contain a single person. Erika suggested that at this point their main goal would be to get access to the government's data on the project, since nobody still living would likely know how to operate it.

Returning into the base, the girls started looking for leftover documentation while Kirika looked over the machines. The magical aura on the machinery felt weaker, much like the half-life of radioactive material that had been gone for ages. The girls speculated on how the process worked, if girls were infused with Mana (or, more darkly, the lifeforce of other humans). Kirika remarked that the machinery had a ton of fried components, but Aino suggested that maybe they could pull out the hard drives and get the information out of them.

After reading though some files and speculating some more, Kirika pointed out what she thought was the source of the magical energy, a box that was bolted securely to another machine. After some discussion about what to do, the girls resolved to cut open the front panel carefully to see what was inside. As they began cutting, a large surge of magical energy came forth, revealing a container with a few small Mana orbs inside it and a lot of free ambient magical energy hovering around inside. Having found all they could, the girls snuck their way out of the base and returned to their respective homes.

---

And there's Session 8. We got concrete confirmation that instead of simply recruiting Magical Girls, the Japanese military was actively creating them. Of course, this only led to more questions, such as how they were able to get past the "memory veil" effect on magic. However, I've had an idea that I'll get to look into next session...but that may be delayed because we're coming up on the long-teased field trip to Tokyo, and you KNOW something big is going to happen during that.
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
Zeonista
Posts: 1178
Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2009 5:47 pm
Location: in ur colony, steelin ur gundam

Re: RPG Report?

This has been an interesting game report. You are doing a great job of relating to your inner magical girl, and I mean that in the best possible way.
"I am fire. I am death. I am Hashmal."

"Discontent is the first step in the progress for a man or a nation." - Oscar Wilde
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

Because this was a big and important session, and because the next one may be the end of the RPG, I decided to get off my lazy ass and actually do the write-up in a timely fashion.

---

Picking up from last session, Aino used her Telepathy to ask the girls if they wanted to meet up and go through the information they'd gathered from the military base. Erika spoke up, advocating that they be honest with Sakura about Kotomi and her peoples' intentions, but Fujiko and Aino were more hesitant since they still worried she'd also want to kill Kirika. The trio and Kirika agreed to meet up Sunday afternoon, but Erika said that she might be late because there was a lead she wanted to follow and she might have to visit the BOKU Journal to chase it.

Sunday morning Erika followed up on her lead by researching female officers who might have served at the military; searching on her own, speaking to the BOKU Journal's resident military expert, and visiting the national archives. However, her search only turned up a list of names without providing much of a lead. The girls started heading to Kirika's apartment to meet up, with Kirika seeming down. Aino tried to break the tension by bringing up Bel, and when Kirika went to feed him she went with. She asked Kirika about where she lived and attended school before, which combined with taking care of the cat seemed to help her a little. After a while Erika showed up and explained that her idea was that the military project might have been headed by a person with magical powers, explaining how they could get through the "memory veil".

While most of the girls went through the papers, Kirika looked at the hard drives they'd collected and observed that she didn't have the cables needed to access them, and felt like it would take a little work to find them. Going through the papers thoroughly, the girls found information about a dozen or so girls, mechanical details, etc. The reports showed that the military originally tried to be more forceful, essentially injecting girls with magic, before just exposing them to the energy via the machine. There was no information on male test subjects, leaving the girls wondering if they even tried or not. Searching for how the military obtained the Mana lead to mentions of a "main branch" in Tokyo. The documents only referenced Shades in vague terms like "Class A beast". Rejected subjects were mentioned as being removed from the project because they didn't respond to long-term exposure, leading to the theory that there's some kind of X-factor to Magical Girls beyond just exposure to Mana.

During the search, the girls talked to Kirika, Aino confirming that she was the one who wished her to be healthy back around the concert. Sensing the tension in the room, Erika told Kirika that she shouldn't blame herself for what happened, since she had no way of knowing and had to work with the limited information and experience she had. Kirika said that she still felt guilty, but the girls pointed out that even if bad things had come of her wish, so had good things, and all she could do was keep on going. Fujiko outright asked why she hadn't committed suicide (even if "suicide by cop") if she felt so guilty about what she'd done, but Kirika said that she felt she had a responsibility not to just give up like that. Kirika said that she didn't even consciously make a wish, she just wanted friends and the Mana disappeared on its own and she wasn't sure what could be done to fix it. The girls reaffirmed that they would stick by Kirika, and a group hug (minus Fujiko) ensued. After finishing up the documents, the girls headed back home for dinner with their families, with Aino and Kirika going to the Moriguchi family.

Monday morning, everyone headed to school for the big trip to Tokyo. The schedule had a few logical gaps where the girls would be able to potentially sneak away and investigate. During lunch Aino sensed a larger source of magic somewhere in the city, but they didn't have the freedom to look for it right away. The first big stop was the war memorial, then souvenir shopping and dinner. The travel allowed Aino to triangulate her magic senses, letting her fairly definitely pinpoint it to the nearby military base. Erika elected to hurry and get a look at the base to report back to the girls. While they were able to figure out the specific point on the base from which the magic was coming, they wouldn't be able to investigate that night since they were staying in a communal hotel room.

On Tuesday the girls went to a shrine, drew their fortunes, and saw some traditional crafts. However, because of the schedule it looked like their best chance would be at the ryokan. Wednesday the girls visited a castle and ended at the ryokan. In the evening the girls told Momoka (who was sharing their room) that they would be using their powers to go out and stretch their legs; she accepted it but seemed a little dubious. After the teachers checked in, the girls snuck out and headed towards the base. Going to the building where they sensed the magic, Fujiko used her Telekinesis to open one of the windows and sneak in. Looking around, the girls found a set of stairs leading underground to a storage area, but could still tell that the magic was further below still. During a search, Fujiko discovered what seemed to be a rusted door hidden behind a shelving unit. Opening the door, the girls found a narrow carved-out hallway leading to a long staircase.

Flipping a light switch, they progressed down the dimly lit hallway (and we started having to map things out D&D-style). Investigating a pair of rooms, they found offices from the war that had more files discussing test subjects, pretty well confirming that this was the "main branch". Going down the right hallway lead to what seemed to be a doctor's office/medical examination room, with a hidden door in the far wall. Behind it was a small room for patient pacification, with a sturdy bed fitted with restraints. Heading back to the cross-shaped junction, the girls found a tough, sturdy door with some magical energy behind it and decided to investigate. Aino managed to open the door, revealing six Brute-Type Shades which started advancing towards the girls and were soon joined by a dozen Orb-Types. However, at this point the girls were way too powerful to be slowed down by something like this.

After taking a quick rest so Fujiko could recover her forcefield (which had been battered by the Brutes), the girls went back down the hallway and found another room, which turned out to be a common kitchen/dining area with nothing of interest. Heading closer to the source of the magic, they found a barracks with some discarded clothing and personal effects. The last hallway had a doorway, a freight elevator, and what seemed to be a briefing room or classroom. Finally, they approached the door that was the source of the magic they'd been sensing since they arrived.

Inside was a room just like the one back in Urahara, full of machinery for "creating" a Magical Girl. The most striking thing was a chalkboard onto which someone had etched "If you want to know more, find Hisako" and a set of longitude/latitude coordinates; Aino recognized Hisako Minamoto as the name on one of the offices at the front of the facility. Using their phones to verify, the girls mapped the location to Mt. Oodake, which is just outside of Tokyo. A more thorough search of the room turned up more papers which showed about a couple hundred rejected test subjects, including a few males, ranging from childhood to late adulthood but mostly in the region of 8-18. Erika theorized that the government releasing people with elevated exposure to magical energy back into the general population might be responsible for the upsurge in Magical Girls - assuming that "released" wasn't a pretty euphemism for "killed". The girls discussed visiting the mountain, but decided to save it for Friday night, the last full day of their trip.

Sneaking back out of the base, Erika quickly uploaded the photos she'd taken to a cloud folder and called Sakura to fill her in on everything they'd discovered. On the way back, Erika remarked that she was seriously considering exposing all this information when this was all over, since she felt people had the right to know about human experimentation. Thursday passed without incident, and on Friday the class went to Tokyo Tower, Akihabara and all the other "checklist" tourist spots. That night the girls once again snuck out of their hotel room and headed off to Mt. Oodake. Within the last mile, they began sensing a Magical Girl in the area they were headed towards. As the girls hit a certain area, Aino and Erika were struck with a blast of raw elemental energy.

Erika called out, trying to tell the mysterious Magical Girl that they're not hostile and are just trying to find someone. Fujiko laid down her forcefield and used her healing field while Aino used her Walpurgisnacht ability to summon a duplicate. Moving slowly, the girls managed to avoid the oncoming traps, but were hit by a wave of explosions resembling antiaircraft fire that blinded Erika and Aino. Erika again tried to yell at the attacker and convince her that they weren't hostile. Fujiko used her cloth to write words in the air. The girls continued slowly advancing past traps until they were within shouting range, with Erika saying that they were looking for Hisako and that they got her message.

Finally the team came across a small hut on the mountain, about a half-mile away from a small town. Outside was standing a shortish teenage-looking girl with long black hair in midnight blue and black shrine maiden clothing. Erika asked if she was Hisako, which the girl confirmed; she asked what they wanted and Erika said that they found her message and were looking for a way to stop the Shades permanently. With a sigh, she invited them inside; while she didn't seem outright dangerous, the girls still knew they'd have a hard time reading her.

Inside the hut was a bizarre mix of modern and very outdated technologies. Hisako directed the girls to a sofa and said that if they wanted to know anything, she was probably their best source. She apologized for the traps, saying that she'd been attacked recently; the girls surmised and Hisako confirmed that it was Kotomi and her group. She apologized for them too, basically calling them children who only knew how to fight and never learned anything other than that. Erika mentioned the upsurge in Magical Girls, which troubled Hisako a great deal. When asked about her age, Hisako started explaining everything she knew about Magical Girls.

(And this is where things get really wordy, since Hisako basically gave us the mother of all infodumps, answering most of the hanging questions we had about magic, Magical Girls, and Shades. I'll try to condense it for the readers' sakes.)

-The origin of "Magic" (as such) came back in the 1940s, during a major war that most people don't even remember happened. The Japanese had been conducting "superweapon" research and discovered a new energy source that didn't match up with any of the known natural forces, which they ended up labeling magic, or ki, or any number of terms related to energy produced by human beings. And yes, this means that Mana is essentially crystalized life energy.
-The government started experimenting with the power, exposing people to it in order to see what happened, and Hisako was one of the first successful test subjects. According to her there is indeed some "X-factor" that's required to gain magic powers; those who have it gained powers almost the second they were exposed to magical energy, and those who don't will never develop powers regardless of how much Mana you exposed them to.
-According to her, magic doesn't "want" to be seen, resulting in the "memory veil" effect witnessed from the very beginning. One of the problems encountered was that the veil started affecting the researchers, meaning they would forget their own research until people like her started taking over. They tried to make people capable of piercing the veil by exposing them to large amounts of Mana, but doing so invariably drove the subjects insane. Erika expressed concern about Haruka's ability to make people see her, Hisako said that her case was small enough that it shouldn't be a problem.
-When asked about the rejected subjects being "released", Hisako said that while she did try to let people go peacefully, not everyone was so kind-hearted and some of them were almost certainly killed. She mentioned that Kotomi and her two allies were orphans who were picked for the project in the 70s and that since they were basically just trained to be living weapons, they were little more than emotionally-stunted children who didn't know any better, and asked the girls not to judge them too harshly in spite of everything they'd done.
-She explained that Shades are born from magic, which attracts Magical Girls, and so forth. Fujiko asked why, if they knew the dangers, they would reactivate the project in ths 70s, Hisako replied "Nationalism is a hell of a thing." She told the girls that the reason nobody remembers World War II is because when Japan started losing, they gathered up several Magical Girls, had them sacrifice their home villages for Mana, and then used it to cast a spell that changed history so that the war never happened (apparently involving wishing "a German dictator" away). Hisako called this act the worst war crime she ever witnessed, and remarked that the girl tasked with casting that spell committed suicide soon afterwards. (At this point all the players stopped to remark that everyone knows you don't try to kill Adolf with time travel because it never works out.)
-Returning to the subject of the Magical Girl "boom", the girls grudgingly explained about Kirika and her accidental wish, which made Hisako go pale. She insisted that something needed to be done; Erika very strongly objected to the idea of killing her, but Hisako said that they should be prepared for that eventuality. The girls discussed ideas, such as wishing to change the fundamental nature of magic or sending the Shades to an uninhabited planet. When asking about Kirika's power, the girls admitted that she was far stronger than any of them. Fujiko remarked that to her, it seemed like magic was sentient or at least self-aware, which made Erika add that if so, it would more than likely do its best to resist any attempts to erase or change it.
-In spite of everything, the girls still felt that killing Kirika was the worst outcome, since it would be little more than putting a bandaid on a gaping wound and wouldn't solve the overall problem. Aino asked Hisako about sacrificing, and if it'd be possible to sacrifice oneself; she responded that the power you got out of such an action would depend on how strong the person was and how much they'd done. Erika mentioned that she'd once considered sacrificing the "masquerade" on Magical Girls, but Hisako advised her against doing things like that since they could have unpredictable effects.

In the middle of the conversation, Haruka called Erika and explained that Kotomi's gang attacked Kirika and, in the middle of the battle, she obliterated Mirror Girl. Haruka said that she was doing what she could, but Kirika seemed inconsolable. Erika asked her just to do what she could, then ended the call and explained the situation to the others. Hisako offered Fujiko a sizable chunk of Mana and the girls thanked her for all her help, then headed back to the hotel.

After the trip ended, the girls returned to Urahara and headed over to Kirika's. On the way in they could sense that Kirika's power was unstable and fluctuating. Haruka let them in and Kirika was huddled on the couch, apologizing to them. Erika pulled her into a motherly hug while Fujiko tried to calm her down, saying that what happened wasn't her fault and she was just defending herself. Kirika said that she wasn't even aware of what she did, which led to Aino analyzing her powers to make sure everything was okay, and they most certainly weren't*. Kirika was majorly upset because she felt she'd committed a sin by killing someone, though Erika and Fujiko insisted that it was self-defense and she shouldn't devalue her own life. And that's where we ended the session, to pick it up next time.

* I feel like I should explain this in a bit better detail. From the start I mentioned that Aino's main power is copying, but it's not Mega Man-style "defeat and copy" or Rogue-style "touch and copy" or anything like that. Simply put she can use a mental power to scan someone, gaining insight into their powers and abilities (read: the GM hands over the character sheet) and can duplicate ones she chooses (using the Power Flux ability, which allows you to shift Character Points around), though she can only "hold" so many powers and will have to "forget" old ones to gain new ones. When Aino's player scanned Kirika at the end of this session, my brother (the GM) had a specially-prepared character sheet to reflect her current state of mind. I didn't see it directly, but through the blank side of the paper I could see that the text was all wavy and distorted and there were messages in blood red scrawled across (and he remarked that those weren't happy messages either). My brother said he'd been waiting months to pull this little trick off.

---

And with that, Session 9 comes to a close and we come ever closer to the end of the game. At this point I'm not entirely sure what Erika is going to do; she'd never consider killing a friend, especially someone who's been through so much and is in such a fragile state of mind, but at the moment options are looking pretty limited. Some of the ideas I've considered:

1) Ignore Hisako's warning and try to get rid of the "memory veil". Erika is horrified that young girls have been forced to experience such terrible things and can't get the help they need because any doctor or therapist will just forget about it in a day. Thus she might risk becoming the most hated Magical Girl if it has a net positive outcome and lets people like Kirika and Kotomi get the care they need. Even if I don't do this, I'll more than likely have Erika break her own masquerade so she can report on everything she's discovered.

2) Alter history so Kirika's parents didn't die in that car accident. Hopefully this would put her in a better place emotionally, but there's always the problem of a time paradox. On the other hand, as we saw with Aino changing her own history, time seems to have a way of sorting itself out.

3) Try to change the nature of Magic so it's not actively antagonistic. This doesn't seem too likely, since as I observed during the session it will more than likely resist any attempts to alter it. As seen earlier in the game, people could never get information about Magic and Shades no matter how much Mana they used.

4) Find a way to create a "representative" of the Magic, whether that means creating a Big Bad to fight or trying to put someone benevolent in charge. If I did this (and it was okayed), it'd probably end up like Kamen Rider Gaim, with Erika essentially becoming the avatar of Magic and trying to steer it in more positive directions. And of course, that's IF it was okayed.

5) Find some way to undo the original change to the timeline, forcing things more in line with our own universe. I'm not sure this is even possible, and even if it is it'd probably require something insane like every Magical Girl sacrificing themselves so that the last one standing can use the massive amount of Mana that generates to power the spell.
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

Sorry I've been quiet on this front, but the game has been delayed a couple of times, once because my brother wanted a weekend off to spend time with the waifu and then this past weekend because he didn't feel prepared. This latter one is because he says he's working to actually do something with those nice character backstories we wrote up that have mostly gone by the wayside because of the main plot, and this is something he doesn't want to half-ass. He's also said that he has enough content that the next session WON'T be the end of the game after all, but that there are two or maybe three more sessions to go.

As a little aside, I decided to give Erika an upgraded costume since I feel like, as we approach the game's ending, she's at the point where characters would receive their ultimate form. The game isn't really set up for Kamen Rider-style further transformations, but we've been constantly gaining power as the game progresses (in game terms, we've been given 10 Character Points after each session rather than worrying about things like traditional D&D-style leveling up) so I'll probably have her costume abruptly change the first time she uses her new final attack.

https://imgur.com/a/QDeRa

The new costume is actually a combination of several Kamen Riders' final forms, but the breastplate is actually inspired by Lancer Artoria from F/GO. It's not really visible in these pictures, but the twin scarf has been upgraded into twin capes like Shishi Red Orion. Additionally, for the heck of it I did an alternate "evil" version of the costume that I'd end up using if that idea I suggested about Erika trying to take control of the Magic Gaim-style happens.
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

And now we jump right into things with Session 10. Not much preamble this time, so let's get right into it.

---

We continue from last week with the girls trying to console Kirika about what had happened. Erika tried citing the Parable of Job, saying that just because things look bleak you shouldn't give up, but Aino's telepathy let her see that Kirika kind of felt she was being lectured. Haruka told the girls that if they needed to go home she could handle things, but they told her telepathically that they'd found things out about the nature of Magical Girls. They mentally explained what they'd learned to Haruka, including the fact that Kirika's unintentional wish had accelerated the natural creation of Magical Girls and that even if she were killed it would probably keep going. Kirika noticed the silence and Erika tried to defuse the situation by admitting that they'd discovered important information but she shouldn't worry about it right now.

Fujiko asked if Kirika had gotten much sleep lately, and Haruka remarked that she hadn't. The girls decided to cook her something to comfort her, settling on a nice hearty beef stew that managed to get her to uncurl and eat. After finishing her meal Kirika went to sleep and Aino offered to stay the night. The girls went out to buy groceries and discussed the situation. Aino asked what they would do if they had to fight either Kirika or Sakura, and Erika admitted that ever since they first met Sakura, she'd been developing an attack powerful enough to potentially take out someone like her in an instant, but it had some major drawbacks like a long charge time and backlash damage. Obviously though she wasn't much a fan of any course of action that would involve killing anyone, least of all Kirika.

Erika suggested that they could alter history to make Kirika's parents survive the car accident that killed them, which Aino and Fujiko liked, but the issue of how much Mana it would take came up. Erika said that she was going to talk to Sakura's former subordinates and ask for their Mana, even if she had to get down on her knees and beg, but the girls thought it wasn't likely to work because they seemed selfish. The idea of altering the fundamental nature of Magic was floated, but deemed unlikely since Magic seems to have a will of its own and would likely resist any attempts to be changed. Erika mentioned Sakura and the trio agreed to tell her the truth about the situation, figuring that she wouldn't just instantly go after Kirika, both because she'd shown remorse for her past trigger-happy actions and because it wouldn't actually help. After dinner Fujiko headed home while Erika and Aino went to the latter's apartment to collect the secret documents and whatever she needed to spend the night at Kirika's.

After Erika got back home, she told her mother about the trip and went upstairs to her room, only to discover a letter from her father on her desk. The letter mentioned that he was getting remarried, and that he hoped that she was doing well and wanted to see her again. Before writing her response she called up Sakura and let her know everything they'd discovered. She asked what they could do about Kirika and Erika related the plans they'd discussed. She also asked Sakura for her former subordinates' contact information, admitting that it might be a stupid plan but at this stage they needed to do everything they could.

Sunday, Fujiko was at home when she heard what sounded like her grandfather getting into an argument with someone, seemingly about money. After the other person left, Fujiko spoke to her grandfather, who said that the person who'd ordered the kimono she was working on was throwing a fit over the price. He was upset that Fujiko's future seemed uncertain, since there wasn't much interest in things like hand-made kimonos and she wasn't much interested in taking over the ryokan either. Fujiko said she would stick with it because their traditions deserved to be remembered and she would do everything she could to ensure that, which made her grandfather happy.

After lunchtime, Haruka dropped by Kirika's apartment with some snacks and gave Aino some time to herself. After dropping her suitcase back at her apartment, she started looking for the Shade that would have been born from her sacrificing her own history. She detected it at the edge of town near the dojo where her brother trains, heading over there while texting the others, telling them that she was "tying up loose ends" and if she didn't see them tomorrow not to worry. Naturally this made them worry, and they decided to find out what was going on. Aino arrived at the dojo and saw her brother collapsed on the ground on a side street as drained of energy. The Shade resembled a large humanoid with a wide head that almost looked like two heads in the process of splitting. Aino flew in and got her brother out of harm's way, with the Shade giving chase. After depositing him on a nearby rooftop, she returned to deal with the monster.

The fight ended fairly quickly, thanks in part to Aino copying Erika's new "secret weapon" attack to finish it as soon as possible. Afterwards, Erika and Fujiko asked Aino if she was willing to explain and the three of them went to the rooftop where she'd placed her brother earlier. They rightly surmised that the Shade embodied her former life and started talking about Shades and why they want Mana. Aino carried her brother into the dojo, where the master said he would look after him while waiting for the ambulance. The master seemed to recognize Aino, who tried to pass it off as coincidence, but he seemed to see right through her. Aino asked if she could stay around until the ambulance showed up, and Erika took her leave.

Outside Erika and Fujiko talked about the recent events and Erika wondered if tragedy was the "X-factor" that makes Magical Girls, and if being one caused their sorrows to multiply. Back inside the dojo, the master asked Aino if she'd taken martial arts before and suggested she could start coming by. When the ambulance showed up, they went with it while Erika and Fujiko returned to their previous activities. At the hospital Aino's brother was put in a private room and the master offered to keep an eye on him for Aino. She called up Haruka to sort out their plans and what they were going to do about Kirika.

Erika returned to her search, going up and down the city blocks trying to sense other Magical Girls since she still hadn't gotten the contact information from Sakura. She sensed multiple Magical Girls in a particular direction and headed that way after shooting off a heads-up text to the girls. Unable to tell if it was Kotomi, she prepped an SOS text and headed for an open rooftop when she sensed the other girls approaching her as well. As she reached the rooftop she noticed the Red Sniper girl from before but didn't see anyone else, figuring the Green Mage was present but invisible.

Erika spoke up, making it absolutely clear that she wasn't looking for a fight, and asking the Mage to decloak so they could talk things out. Getting down on her knees, forehead to the ground, she asked the girls for their Mana, insisting that she wouldn't drag them into this conflict any further but needed it to save someone. She could tell the other girls were unhappy with her and tried to placate them, but the Mage said that they needed the Mana themselves. The Sniper fired a shot that knocked Erika towards the edge of the building. She made one last attempt to convince them, telling them that the Shade situation was a ball rolling down the hill and it wouldn't stop unless they acted, but the Sniper said that they needed their Mana - and hers. Erika made a break for it, but a homing shot from the Sniper knocked her unconscious to the street. Fujiko arrived on the scene, landing on a nearby building and setting up her forcefield, which drew Sniper and Mage's attention.

The fight was a back-and-forth slugfest, with both parties soaking a good deal of damage (thanks in part to their healers and powerful defenses). During the fight the girls could sense a familiar energy approaching, but couldn't tell who it was immediately. A few minutes later, the fight was interrupted by someone shouting "STOP!" from the end of the alley. Everyone looked and the energy that had been approaching was revealed as Namika, the blue brawler girl who Sakura had killed. She retrieved her unconscious friend and apologized, saying that her friends had just brought her back and used up all their Mana. However, she was still dealing with the fact that she was back, which meant her parents still thought she was dead and she wasn't even sure if she still had her old identity, and her friends wanted Erika's Mana so they could fix that, but they might not have had the guts to actually kill her. The girls tried to comfort her and offer help, with Aino offering to let her stay at her apartment until she could sort things out.

Aino went to dinner with the other trio, trying to get what information she could. After getting Namika settled in her apartment, she returned to Kirika's apartment where Haruka informed her that the caretaker who was supposed to visit Kirika never showed up, leaving them to conclude that Kirika may have turned her into a Shade by accident. That evening Erika got a text from Marie, one of her friends from the school newspaper, asking if she was running around town in cosplay today.

---

And that wraps up Session 10. As you can tell it's not the end of the story as had previously been suggested, but my brother said that odds are the game actually will end with Session 11, but if not then then there was absolutely no way it would go further than 12. However, the very last sentence of the summary shows that we've got a fun new plot complication to deal with next time...

As a couple of random asides, my brother remarked that the "scene" of Erika and Fujiko making a stew for Kirika was super adorable and has become one of his favorite moments in the game, and it also made me very happy that I deliberately avoided the anime cliché of the goofy, cheerful character being a lousy chef. Also, I was kind of annoyed that Aino's player stole the debut of Erika's new ultimate, the Infinite Crossfire Kick, by copying it - and even moreso because his attack roll was better than mine, meaning he did way more damage than I did. On the other hand, I used the activation of the attack as the excuse for Erika to upgrade to the new costume I showed off earlier in this topic.
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
User avatar
AmuroNT1
Posts: 3420
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:41 am
Location: Atlanta, GA

Re: RPG Report?

We continue from last session where Erika received a text message from fellow newspaper club member Marie Momoi, who saw her while she was transformed. Her immediate reaction was to check her Mana supply, which was the same as it was last time she checked, which suggested that whatever had happened wasn't her doing. She asked Marie for clarification, and she said that she saw Erika and her friends in "cosplay", suggesting she saw the aftermath of the battle at the end of the last session. She messaged her allies to let them know, and while most of them were concerned, Sakura suggested that maybe Marie was simply developing powers of her own, rather than the entire "memory veil" being removed.

In the meanwhile, Aino talked with Haruka about Kirika's missing caretaker, and what the girls could possibly do if worse came to worst and they had to bring Kirika down, admitting that it was the absolute last resort. Haruka was obviously deeply affected by this, but Aino said that their ideal goal should be talking her down because of the gulf in power between them. At about that point Aino got Erika's texts and they discussed the possibility that Kirika might be responsible, albeit unintentionally. They discussed the nature of Magic and what they could possibly do to put a permanent end to the situation. They went in and checked on Kirika, who was still in poor shape. She spoke up, saying that she was causing people a lot of trouble; Aino admitted that there was a lot going on, but it was wrong to pin the blame on any one person, telling Kirika some of what they'd learned about Magic in the past few days. Kirika asked how any of this could be God's plan, and if she was just doing more harm than good at this point. Aino pointed out the good things Kirika had done, and told her not to devalue her own existence, saying that all anyone can do is what they think is the best course of action since nobody can know for certain what the future holds. Noticing the time, Aino took Kirika to her bed, singing the lullabye her own mother had always sung for her.

On Monday morning, everyone prepared for school and Aino dropped by her apartment to check on Namika. She explained that she'd only been resurrected for a couple of days and was just coping at the moment. At school, Erika mentioned Sakura's suggestion, but Fujiko pointed out that that wasn't necessarily a good thing since it could mean that the rate of girls developing powers was increasing still. Erika tested her theory by showing Momoka the photograph of Kirika from the beginning of the game; all she saw was a blurry image, seemingly confirming that it's just Marie. The girls discussed what they could do, since they probably didn't have enough Mana to effect any big changes (and that quantity might not even exist).

Going over what what they knew about Magic, Erika suggested that maybe Magic had always been there and had no real effect until people started condensing it, at which point the metaphorical dam broke and started events in motion. They discussed the idea that Mana was sentient, what its end goal could be, and why it created Shades. The girls came up with a theory that Mana gained sentience when it was first collected and "desires" to multiply itself, potentially with the end goal of achieving full human-level sentience - and that it might potentially want Kirika as a vessel. At that point school began and the girls focused on school, though during lunch Fujiko conducted another test, confirming that Momoka could see Mana.

Aino scanned Marie and confirmed that there was something about her that was different from normal; deciding to test things further, she found a place to transform, changed her costume into the school uniform so she wouldn't stand out, and used her analysis power. She confirmed that Marie didn't have any extra-human abilities, but she was still radiating more magical energy than a normal person, as if she was on the threshold of transforming. After school Erika said that she was going to visit Kirika to cook her a meal and comfort her, and Fujiko and Aino came with. However, as the girls headed to Kirika's apartment Aino sensed that Marie was crossing the threshold; they immediately transformed and headed off to support her. Entering the street, the girls saw Marie, transformed into a forest green costume resembling a mix of fencing gear and a dress, facing off against Orbs and Brutes and clearly looking scared about the whole thing.

The girls swept in and quickly mopped up the Shades, then turned to Marie, who immediately asked what was going on; an embarrassed Erika replied "Remember how I said it was a long story?" After heading to a nearby rooftop, the girls filled Marie in on the situation, which she openly said was unbelievable and horrifying (and they completely agreed with). Erika summarized by saying that she could go back to her ordinary life and if she needed help she could call any time. Seeing that Marie still felt a bit overwhelmed, Aino offered to walk her home. On the way to buy the groceries, Fujiko sensed Kirika was about a kilometer away and decided to check on her, sending Aino a text to get her up to speed.

The girls arrived at a church and found Kirika outside, transformed and leaning against a wall, looking worse than before. Erika approached slowly and asked what happened, and Kirika said that at least four of her classmates had disappeared. Erika telepathically asked the girls if maybe Kotomi and her ally were behind the disappearances, as punishment for Mirror Girl's death; while they considered the possibility, Kirika seemed fairly certain that it was her fault. The girls sensed a powerful Shade, assuming that it was borne from Kirika. Erika sat down with her and explained how, following her parents' divorce, she became bitter and lashed out at everyone, but after she met Fujiko and Aino she realized how she was hurting herself and those she cared about, but Kirika seemed to be absorbed in her own thoughts. It became clear that the girls had to go and deal with the Shade ASAP, so Erika volunteered to stay behind until Haruka showed up, messaging Sakura in the meantime.

Fujiko and Aino arrived at a park and spotted the Shade, which had a crystalline structure and wings while emitting radiant light, making it clear that it was born from Kirika. Even moreso was the fact that it was using her signature attacks, particularly her gigantic flame sphere (Hellfire Destroyer) to try and attack the park. Fujiko and Aino engaged it, destroying the fireball in time. In the middle of the action, Kirika finally noticed what was going on and seemed like she wanted to go help. Erika asked if she would be okay, saying that after everything she'd been through, nobody in the world would blame her for staying out. Kirika insisted that she had to go help because that was the reason she had her powers in the first place. Erika agreed, messaging Haruka to let her know, and the two set off for the park together.

The battle continued for a bit, but as Erika and Kirika arrived, the latter realized that the Shade was her former caretaker and froze up. While everyone tried to keep the Shade contained, Erika gave her Mana over to Kirika so she could restore the caretaker to humanity. Haruka and Sakura arrived, Haruka going to comfort Kirika while the girls got them up to speed. However, suddenly everyone sensed four copies of the Shade they had just defeated popping up around the city - obviously Kirika's missing classmates - as well as familiar Magical Girls coming in to help. Kirika sensed them as well, and quickly became distraught, with Fujiko picking up that she was on the verge of completely giving up.

Kirika asked the others to kill her, and when Erika refused she swatted her aside with her sword and insisted that it was the only way to end things. While Sakura went off to help fight the Shades, Aino ask if there was anything she was willing to sacrifice to get the Mana to save the people...and naturally she thought of something. Erika tried to convince Kirika once more, but she was attacked and pushed back, with things becoming clear that she was either going to commit "suicide by cop" or, if nobody was willing, she would take herself out.

Aino started asking what Kirika knew about her past, and she admitted that at this point she didn't even know whether her parents died in a car accident or if she erased them. She started trying to talk Kirika down, but it didn't seem to do much good at first. Erika tried arguing that Kirika had done far more good, and that her own death wouldn't solve anything. However, Kirika decided to attack to try and force the girls' hands by attacking them. Erika de-transformed and stepped outside of Fujiko's forcefield, swearing that she would stand by Kirika to the end of the world, and that the only way to get rid of her would be to kill her. This action unnerved Kirika, who clearly didn't want to kill anyone, causing her to begin swinging her sword wildly.

Aino and Haruka used their magic songs to try and weaken Kirika, while Erika continued trying to reason with her while dodging her wild attacks. Eventually the singing managed to knock Kirika out peacefully, and Haruka and Fujiko headed off towards the battle to support the girls who were fighting. Erika stayed with Kirika and sniped at the Shades from a range, while Fujiko joined up with the trio of China Girl, Party Girl and Scaredy Cat and Aino teamed up with Sakura and Haruka. After taking down their Shade, Haruka went to join Fujiko's group while Sakura and Aino joined the other group, where Spartan and Bumblebee were getting by. Together the girls managed to defeat the Shades and reconvened at the park.

Sakura stepped up and asked what the group was going to do. They went over all their ideas for what they could do to fix the situation, including taking control of the Mana or saving Kirika's parents. The girls called up Hisako for advice, but all she could suggest was nothing that would risk "breaking" reality by changing the fundamental nature of magic. After some discussion and debate over what to do, Erika observed that this all started because Kirika unconsciously wished for friends, and suggested that if they changed history so she had friends in the past, maybe these events wouldn't have happened. The girls agreed that that was the best course of action, unlikely to cost an insane amount of Mana or to have gigantic unforeseen consequences, and convinced the rest of the group to go along with it.

All the Magical Girls got together and joined hands, using the Mana to change history so that when Kirika needed them the most, they would have been there for her. The Mana glowed and spread out, seemingly doing the work of their wish, and suddenly everything went white. When they regained their vision, they were still standing in a circle, except that Kirika was now the only one with magic powers. As near as they could recall, their wish had mostly just changed history so that they were friends with her, but they could still remember the original timeline and everything that had happened in the course of the game had still happened.

The girls went to wake Kirika up, and she seemed confused. The girls explained to her what happened and Kirika burst out crying while hugging Erika. Erika tried to pull Fujiko into the hug, but Fujiko elbowed her in the gut to break away: "Erika-san, please keep your hands to yourself." "Love you too, Fu-chan!" This exchange made Kirika laugh (for the first time in the entire campaign), but when she started thinking about what all this meant, Sakura walked up, swatted her on the back of the head, told her just to be happy...and ended up getting pulled into a hug by Kirika, just accepting her fate.

Erika checked in with Marie, who was understandably confused by the whole thing but accepted the explanation. Aino returned to her apartment, where Namika was getting her possessions together, planning on simply going to her house and hoping that her family would accept the idea that she had mysteriously survived. Aino decided to try the same, with Fujiko and Erika going for support. Her father answered the door but didn't immediately seem to recognize her, but the awkward moment was interrupted when Kiyohiko came saw what was happening. Fujiko stepped in and claimed they were there to check up on him after what happened at the dojo the other day.

A little meekly, Aino asked "Do you remember me?" Kiyo seemed to pick up on something but couldn't put his finger on it. Erika tried to prod by suggesting that Aino introduce herself, and she explained that they live in the apartments next door to each other. Kiyo invited her in while Erika and Fujiko took the opportunity to make their exit. They ate dinner together and her father invited her to visit more often. Aino and Kiyo headed back to the apartments, with Kiyo admitting that he has a strange feeling about her, as if she'd been watching over him.

Tuesday after school, the girls went to Kirika's apartment. They found Belphagor outside and Erika picked him up to pet on him...but then the door opened and death metal came blasting out, scaring the cat. Kirika explained that she had a vague idea of what had happened and understood that the girls had done a lot for her, so she cooked them a meal. Unfortunately her cooking skills weren't amazing so the meal was only mediocre, but the girls kept on eating. Eventually they decided to fill her in on what they'd learned from Hisako, and Kirika said that she could live with being the only Magical Girl since she had friends like them to support her.

Epilogues:

Aino continued interacting with her family, with Kiyohiko having the vague idea that there was something special about her, as if she was his guardian angel, but couldn't quite pin it down. She was still as close as she could be to having her old family back, under the circumstances. She ended up starting a musical career, and down the line she and Kiyohiko started dating and got married.

Fujiko's kimono went unsold, so her grandfather put it on display, which garnered a lot of attention, which only grew more when Erika decided to write up an article talking about Japan's traditional arts with Fujiko as the central focus. The outpouring of support convinced Fujiko's family to recognize her skills and trust her to choose her own path in life. Though the traditional Japanese arts would never return to their original glory, Fujiko ensured that they would be remembered for a long time coming.

Erika continued her reporting, being the head of the school newspaper once she moved on to high school and working part-time at the BOKU Journal. Her father admitted the truth about the first affair he'd had, explaining that the woman in question was the one he'd be marrying. When she was old enough, Erika's mother allowed her to see her father again, letting her occasionally take trips to America to visit him and his new wife. Eventually she went on to become a councilor, helping troubled teenagers who needed a sympathetic ear.

Namika's family used DNA testing to confirm that she was their daughter, which resulted in a minor media frenzy since the general public was convinced that she'd miraculously come back to life.

Sakura continued her everyday life, mostly taking things easy since she no longer had the weight of being a Magical Girl on her shoulders.

Haruka's idol singer career continued, perhaps not as big as it had been when she had her powers, but still successful.

Kirika continued to protect Urahara as its sole Magical Girl, always relying on her friends when she needed them.

---

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of our adventure. It was quite a ride these past eight months, with lots of ups and downs, and everyone involved had a lot of fun and got quite attached to their characters.

As for the rest, I'll be working on putting together a list of extra information - what-ifs, notes from our GM about how the game changed and defied his expectations, and other fun tidbits. Either way, I hope you enjoyed reading our adventures as much as we did experiencing them.
Sakuya: "Whatever. Stop lying and give up your schemes, now."
Yukari: (Which lies and schemes are she talking about? It's hard to keep track of them all...)

-Touhou 07.5 ~ Immaterial and Missing Power
Post Reply