Session 17:

Pattern:

Emitter Ape

Cunning: 1d8

Charm: 1d4

Muscle: 1d10

Guts: 1d12

Pattern Forms:

Grimefoil Network: 5d6

Territorial Aggressor: 2d12

Grid-nest lair: 6d4

Emitter Apes are well documented beasts that lurk the Loom Void. They are large, lumbering beasts with racks of formidable steelform antlers. Their anatomy has been warped by the ancient radio equipment long abandoned in the Void.

They are able to communicate over radio frequencies, and the bodily fluids they excrete contain unique signal receivers allowing them to manipulate their environment in a myriad of unstudied ways. They will smear their grimefoil across surfaces and objects to incorporate them into their grid-nest network.

- Loom Void Supplement 1

—

Arm rental - (1d4) 3

Little City Upkeep - (1d8) 7

Filigree remaining - 43

Focus: 2

At the top of this flight of stairs you see a mostly intact floorspace that may have once been an office. Long collapsed furniture in decomposed heaps spread out among fractalized cubicle walls. Old metal filing cabinets break their way through the floor and into the ceiling at skewed angles, their drawers limply hanging open.

Woven file-folder ivy with fine parchment leaves spill from the drawers, twisting and hanging in loose curtains. You see the dried greasy substance you spotted on the stairwell smeared throughout the space, and in such a quantity that you can now see the reflective glimmer of polished metal flaked throughout it.

Test of Cunning: 1d12

12

Vs:

Cunning: Elk (1d8)

3

You take a step, and your foot slides several inches forward and you hear a sound like a lot of little lightbulbs popping. Looking down, you see you’ve stepped into a small pile of this goopy grease.

There’s a small twinge of electric heat that jolts your heel, and you see a pulse of light traveling through a branching network of the stuff, smeared and connected all throughout this room. The pulse of light travels beyond the floor, out a window and through several cracks in the ceiling.

You can choose to engage one of your pattern forms to engage the situation, or pay 1 focus to the Game Master to break from it..

I pay the focus.

How are the Woolings reacting?

Baskins has drawn his rapier, which is large enough to look more like a lance given the wooling’s relatively small stature. The fur that isn’t locked in braids is bristling in anticipation of violence.

Hoppen is recording notes with a quick hand in a ledger book, as seems to be their default behavior.

Boppen is scooping some of the grimefoil into a glass vial.

Radarn’s eyeline is darting between the floor beyond, the stairs, you and Baskins.

He says, “No reports mentioned a grid-nest this far out.”

Boppen responds, “It looks fresh. Hasn’t had time to cement. They’ll be close and they’ll know we’re here.”

I want to take some of the grimefoil and smear it along a little length of rope. I’ll tie one end to my Baker’s peel, around the flat of it where the little city is stowed.

I want to get the network to display in the city. To see the extent of it or where it’s centralized.

This will be a display of cunning and start a Build pattern form.

Cunning (little city - 1d10) + Build 1 of 3(1d8)

17

Vs.

Guts (Emitter Ape - 1d12) + Grimefoil Network 1 of 5 (1d6)

6

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Emitter Ape concedes, -1 focus.

Elk +1 focus.

Grimefoil Network 4/5

You deftly apply the grime to your rope conduit and the knot you use to attach it to the little city is sturdy and efficient. The light emitting from the display flickers and you see a brief moment of static as if there is an effort to resist from this network of grime. But it's only for a moment, after which there is a clear display of a twisting maze of grimefoil overlaying the map of the building.

There seems to be a nest two floors from which the network spirals outward.

You hear the snapping and splintering of wood as several figures emerge from the piles of busted furniture. Corpses. Unclear what they may have looked like in life, these lurching bodies coated in grimefoil swing their limbs about in clumsy arcs, grim puppets animated through remote command over the network.

Their attention turns to you, as they scramble toward you with violent intent.

Emitter Ape - Muscle (1d10) + Grimefoil Network 2 of 5 (1d6)

4

The little city is still physically linked with the grime network through the rope you’ve connected to it. The animated corpses display as blinking orbs of light.

Dowser, in her heavy plated apron, has a smith’s hammer and a heavy shield held out before her, with Baskins leveling his rapier to strike behind her. They advance with practiced formation.

Will I keep the map of this network if I pull the rope out?

You don’t know.

I let the Woolings engage the corpses. I want to pull a structure piece from the little city, tie it into the rope and sever the rope just after where the piece is tied. Create like a mobile link between the map and the network.

Wooling Combat Duo - Muscle (1d10)

10

The woolings repel the initial assault of animated bodies, Dowser bashing them backward with her heavy shield and Baskings piercing and ripping through them in a rhythmic dance.

Test of Guts

Intricate rigging (1d12)

5

Vs.

Guts - Elk (1d10) + Build 2 of 3 (1d8)

10

Emitter Ape will add (1d6) from Grimefoil Network (3 of 5)

2

Result:

Elk - 10 vs. 7

The rigging works - you separate from the rope conduit you’ve built and the map overlay holds steady. You see several more pulsing dots on the floor above moving toward the stairwell down to your level.

The duo of Dowser and Baskins, having cleared the closest pack of these animated corpses, braces to face the next barrage from an incoming cluster of flailing limbs and the haphazard gnashing of teeth.

Emitter Ape - Muscle (1d10) + Grimefoil network - 1d6 (4 of 5)

8

Wooling Combat Duo - Muscle (1d10)

4

Dowser’s shield crunches into a flailing body, the corner of it burying into a ribcage. The corpse, embedded into the shield, is able to reach over Dowser as she draws back and grabs onto Baskins’ shoulder. This break in their combat patterns causes them to quickly get pushed back under the weight of piling corpses and these animated bodies continue to throw themselves at the pair.

I’ll drop the peel for now. I’ll try to find a makeshift shield in the rubble, rush the combat pile and try to barricade some of these puppet corpses to give the woolings an opening.

Build - 3 of 3 (1d8) 8 + Wooling Combat Duo (4)

Total: 12 vs. 8

You find the splintered but mostly intact backing of a dilapidated work desk. It's broad and flat and you’re able to wedge it between a couple of the corpse puppets and Dowser’s shield.

Dowser uses the moment to reorient, plants her hoofs into the hardwood and with a few powerful galloping steps, runs and bashes the barricade backward, along with the corpses pressed against it.

The explosive charge pushes the bundle of enemies back and splays them across the floor.

At the same time, several fresh puppets stumble down from further up the stairwell you were initially ascending.

The remaining Woolings have moved a little ways into the office space, and turn in surprise at the approaching ruckus.

The corpses all halt in unison. You hear more of the light bulb-popping noises as pustules and decayed openings on these corpses begin to bubble and burst. Their limbs jerk around as the remaining flesh expands. Spindling, spiking jets of grimefoil geyser forth from their ballooning bodies.

Emitter Ape - Guts (1d12) + Grimefoil network 1d6 (5 of 5)

9

Vs.

Guts - Woolings (1d10)

3

Guts - Elk (1d10)

10

The Emitter Ape has sprung a vicious trap, as bubbling hot grimefoil spits and spikes throughout the floor, painting all manner of surfaces and creating intricate webs that stretch floor to ceiling.

You are pushed back from the force of the eruption, but you are able to bear the brunt of the impact, which is softened from the layers of debris between you and the corpses.

You succeeded without engaging in a pattern form. You have the opportunity to couple a pattern form roll to the Woolings guts roll to attempt to save them from harm, or gain 1 focus.

I want to lash out my hook arm at the ceiling. I’ll try to wrap it around one of the spires of filing cabinets and yank it down on top of the corpse heap to block the woolings from the blast.

Elk - Pattern Form: Break - 1 of 2 (1d12)

12

It works. You manage to hook your arm into a loose hanging drawer in this tilted cabinet tower, which crashes down to the ground, along with a heavy netting of paper ivy growing out of it. Splashes of grimefoil speckle you and the Woolings but none of the resulting webbing or shrapnel hits your fuzzy companions.

A great chunk of the floor above comes with it, and rubble is strewn all about. Through the resulting hole in the ceiling, you see the floor above you. The fallen filing cabinet provides a serviceable ramp upward.

There's a moment after the surge of chaos where dust hangs and quiet follows. When it settles, you spot all five of the Woolings climbing from behind rubble and cover, dazed but unharmed.

Above you is a maze of interlacing steel struts and beams that swallows most of the light that comes in through windows and holes in the structure you’ve been climbing. In that darkness, you see a pair of dull yellow eyes peering down toward you, and feel the static buzz of potent electric charge pulsing down at you.

A quick trace of thought unbound by words – a threat – creeps across your mind.