Hello once more! 👋😇

I played another session of Golden Sky Stories with my friends last weekend!!  So, I thought I would record our adventure once again.  This is a scenario I wrote myself for them, and it is somewhat Halloween-themed because this was our belated Halloween meetup. 🎃  My first post about the game, if you’d like to go over what happened previously, is over here~

(I will copy my same summary of the setting from the last post, because it succinctly describes what the game is about):

The player characters are henge, a magical, folklore-style animal that can transform into a youthful human form.  (Partial transformations, such as turning mostly human but leaving one’s ears or tail out, are possible as well – often these are even preferable because it costs fewer points to do so.)  The setting where they live is a Japanese town in the countryside.  It’s in the modern day, so it’s not antiquated (all houses have electricity and water, etc., and phones and computers exist), but things are quiet and old-fashioned there.  Additionally, for the most part, the people who live in the town understand that henge exist (acknowledged in the same spiritual way that spirits of natural things all around them exist), although it’s very special to meet one.

The participating characters (a few of these are returning from the previous game, but a couple are newcomers) are:

• Tora, a cat henge.  She is very wise and proper, and knowledgeable of magical things.  Her appearance as a human is the eldest of the group, appearing as a 15-17-year old young lady.
• Ayame, a fox henge.  She has lived a long, LONG time, and is antiquated, proud, and traditional in her mannerisms.  There is also a small shrine devoted to her along the side of a road in the town.
• Ichigo, a bird henge.  She is a sweet little bluebird with very limited knowledge of human civilization, and is a little spacey and clumsy as a result.  She looks a bit bedraggled in her human form, with twigs sticking out of her messy hair.
• Akane, a rabbit henge.  She is a shy and quiet white rabbit girl, although with a little bit of a compulsive and rebellious streak.
• Vivian, another rabbit henge.  He is a very polite and refined young boy with angelic features and dresses in a cute sailor boy uniform.  He is a very calm & collected person.

I myself am the Narrator~

[Lines written like this are added notations as I write up this post, not things that occurred in gameplay.  Furthermore, all of the events and lines in this story are a summary from my memory of our game session, and not 100% accurate to what each player said and did.  There are also more Checks for whether a character succeeds/fails at something throughout play, and more Dreams being handed out, than I describe here.]

And now, for our story.

🕯 The Fushigi Forest 🕯

🎐 Scene 1 🎐

Narrator: Yoyo Town is in the midst of its week of Lantern Light, when candles are lit filling every window and hanging paper lanterns are strung around above the streets and from rooftops and overhangs.  In the current muted light of this crisp Autumn evening, the candles and lantern light gibe the atmosphere a flickering, low-light quality; kind of dreamy and pretty because of the warm lights against the dark.

Narrator: It is also kind of foggy, and has been for a few days now.  You can see the buildings immediately around you, and all  of your friends, but vision is limited to about a block away, where fog conceals the further buildings and you can only see the flickers of warm lights in rows before those, too, disappear further away.

Narrator: The henge are all hanging around the main commerce street of Yoyo Town, at an open entrance gate, which is a big red Torii gate with yet more lanterns and strung lights hanging over the arch way.  Beyond the gate is a path meandering through a field dotted with trees that gradually become denser further out (although you cannot see very far, because of the fog).

Narrator: What are each of your characters doing right now, and what form are they in?

🐱 Tora: Because it is a festival, are there food stalls around?

Narrator: Yes!  Although most things are closed this late, or are in the process of closing.

🐱 Tora: I’m as a cat, and up on a fish stall, pawing at where fried fish are strung along the top of the stall.

Everyone: Omg cuuute!!  (Some Dreams are shared, and we discuss how Dreams are for handing out whenever we like someone’s role-playing, for the sake of the two new players we have this time.)

🐦 Ichigo: I’m a bird hopping around up high, maybe up on the Torii gate.

🐰 Akane: I will be shyly hanging back as a bunny, just around the bottoms of some stalls.

🐇 Vivian: Vivian is in human form, and I think that he has been doing some shopping, and is calmly walking back to this area, holding his shopping bags.

🦊 Ayame: Because it’s a festival, Ayame, in human form, has arrived with a yukata in a paper bag that she is going to change into.

Narrator: Oh, neat!  (A Dream is awarded.)

🦊 Ayame: Ayame looks around at her friends and asks, “Can someone help me put this on?”  A yukata is kind of an endeavor in getting into, with all of the layers, and the obi…

🐇 Vivian: “I will help!”  (He is also the only other one in human form right now, lol).

🦊 Ayame: Is there somewhere around where I can change?

Narrator: I guess you could step outside the gate?  Like around to the other side of the fence.  There’s no one out there.

(There is much fumbling as the yukata is put on LOL.)

Narrator: So, next, a faint light is seen in the fog, bobbing slightly as it grows nearer.  This is coming from within the town, down the street.  Does anyone want to transform at this point?  Because if this is a person, and you transform after they’ve arrived because you want to participate and talk with them, they will be Surprised by your appearance.

🐰 Akane: I’ll transform now.  Akane’s human form has this long, soft, white hair, btw.

🐱 Tora: I’ve just succeeded at getting a fish for myself and I’m holding it in my mouth, but I’ll stay a cat and jump down from the fish stall.

🦊 Ayame: Ayame and Vivian really quickly finish up the yukata, too, so they can be in plain sight to talk to whoever this is.

Narrator: Yeah, lol, I can see the big obi bow, like, bounce into place, like the birds that tie Cinderella’s bow.  So, the glowing light grows nearer, and you can see that it is a lantern being carried by Reo, who was in our previous game.  (I describe Reo a bit for the new players; that he is an adult, official person, who would totally be a samurai if this were a setting where there were samurai.  In a modern setting, he is more like a rich, noble state official.  The new players make a new Connection with Reo while the returning characters get to reuse their existing Connections – although no one gets the points for this quite yet, because it is the middle of a scene.  They will for the next scenes, though.)

Narrator: Reo is carrying this lantern as he makes rounds through the town, making sure everything is safe and that kids are heading home, stuff like that.  He recognizes some of you.  Or, maybe he only recognizes Ayame, who is the only human here that had helped him before.  So, he turns to Ayame and mainly talks to her, which I think was the case last time, too.

🐱 Tora: I’m sitting at Reo’s feet holding a fish in my mouth. :3

Narrator: Okay, he actually remembers this cat from the last time, too, lol.  But he says to Ayame, “I was just thinking of you kids, since you seem to show up whenever weird stuff is going on, what’s up with that?  Weird, right?” (I’ve broken Reo’s character at the end of his sentence to make everyone laugh.)  “It’s getting late in the evening and you kids should be going home.”

(Lots of the characters proudly insist that they are NOT kids.)

🐇 Vivian: Vivian very indignantly asks, “And how old are YOU, mister?!”

Narrator: Reo is completely taken aback by this.  (I pantomime in a “well, I never!” fashion.)  He doesn’t even answer and just kind of shakes it off, lol.

🦊 Ayame: “What is the weird stuff that’s going on?”

Narrator: Reo answers, “For the past few days, people have been having trouble making their way through the woods out that way.”  He holds the lantern out, pointing with it out the gate.  “Beyond this gate is the Fushigi Forest, and lots of folks rely on it for gathering herbs and medicine and food.  It’s also one of the major ways out of town.”  It’s not the ONLY exit from town – there are other paths, and other gates, but this is one of the main ones.  “I’ve gotten reports of people getting disoriented in the woods, and ending up back at this gate instead of where they were heading.  Maybe they are seeing the lights from the festival and getting turned around?” he guesses.  He’s kind of at a loss, not understanding what’s so difficult about just following a path.

🐰 Akane: Akane’s eyes get really wide, and she grabs onto Vivian’s arm and dashes out the gate for the forest.  (There is camaraderie between their two characters, because they are both bunnies and are friends.)

🐇 Vivian: “Wuagh!!”

🐱 Tora: You know how when a cat looks up really alert with sudden movement?  I think the two of them dashing off makes Tora just run off after them, purely on cat instinct, lol.

🐦 Ichigo: Ichigo is jumping around, not sure who to follow.

Narrator: Reo goes “Waitwaitwaitwait!”  He doesn’t want you guys going off into the woods if there is danger.

🦊 Ayame: Okay, Ayame is the one that stops and hangs back to ask what else.

Narrator: Reo looks over you all, and asks, kind of tentatively, “None of you guys believe in those stories the other kids in town talk about, do you?”

(Both Ayame and Vivian consider that their characters both probably play among the other children in town, but they don’t know what stories Reo means.)

Narrator: He says, “A popular game among the kids right now is to play ‘witch,’ where one of the kids has to be a witch and chases the others all around, or tell scary stories about a witch that cursed these woods… Of course, it’s only their imaginations running wild.”

🦊 Ayame: “What’s her name?”

Narrator: What?  Who?

🦊 Ayame: The witch lady, LOL.

Narrator: Oh, LOL.  Sorry, I was distracted, LOL.  [This detraction sounds random, but the fact that I blanked on the witch’s name actually comes up at the end of the game, so I had to include it here so the future exchange makes sense.]

Narrator: Reo shrugs off the question.  He thinks that the kids are just being over-imaginative and he doesn’t have any details beyond that.

🐰 Akane: Akane suddenly comes running back and tries to grab the lantern from him.

(Everyone laughs and is questioning, what?!  Why?!)

Narrator: Okay, this will be a battle of strength between the two of you, so that will use the Animal stat.

🐇 Vivian: Oh man, strength check!  (Pantomimes rolling dice.)

Narrator: Exactly!  Reo has a couple of points in Animal already, and I have my own pool of Feelings to bump that up to… I’m gonna say 8, because he’s a big strong adult and he doesn’t want to let go of it.

(Akane doesn’t have enough Feelings to increase her Animal high enough to beat that.)

Narrator: I’m gonna say that plays out as you grasping for it, and he jerks the lantern away from you and out of your reach.

🐰 Akane: Oh fine, lol.

Narrator: And he kind of narrows his eyes and points toward you, like a teacher that’s really mad and they’re keeping their eye on you.

(This amuses everyone.)

Narrator: Okay, everyone seems determined to move on into the woods, so Reo gets ready to finish up his rounds and head back.  In farewell, he tells you all not to get into too much trouble, or to do anything dangerous, and he is very sincere about it.

(Someone sticks their tongue out at his back before they run to join their friends, and I don’t remember if it was Ayame or Vivian.  Why is everyone so mean to Reo, lol?!  He is supposed to be cool!)

–

🎐 Scene 2 🎐

[Okay, I have been bad and let this post sit in my drafts for a couple of weeks, and now my memory of the events is even weaker… Please bear with me while I summarize a bit more succinctly, and with fewer dialog from the other players and characters, because I don’t remember the finer details of our game any more and have forgotten some of what ideas were brought up, and by whom. 😓]

Narrator: It is late evening, and you have moved just outside the gate, where the trees are beginning to get thick.  You’ve all walked just far enough along the path that, when you look behind you, the lantern lights of the town look hazy in the fog.  Before you, tall dark trees loom, some of them looking spindly, having just spent their leaves.  The ones that do have leaves are deep Autumn colors.

Narrator: As soon as you walk through this first threshold of trees, the fog around you starts to feel more like a chilly mist.  If you peer between the trees, the shimmery mist seems to make murky swirling patterns.  Overhead, the canopy of reaching branches and sparse leaves keep the stars from view.

Narrator: This is like how in a video game, when you walk into a new area, and there isn’t a loading screen, but the lighting changes and the music gets spooky!

[For the sake of setting the atmosphere for the readers of this post, here is some appropriate music to enjoy!]:

(The henge glance around a little bit.  Some of them huddle up to be near others in the spooky forest.)

Narrator: So, you notice that the path you’ve been following now branches, like a perfect split in exact cardinal directions.  You’ve approached from the south, and you’re in the center of this round-ish clearing where paths continue each way, with dense trees completely blocking any non-paths.  It’s like an old text adventure game – “Ways to go are North, South, West, and East.”

🐱 Tora: And we came in from the South?

Narrator: Yup!

(There is some discussion over what to do.)

🐱 Tora: I’m going to use my Power called ‘Friends!’

(We all laugh at the name of the power and how adorable everything in this game is…)

🐱 Tora: Friends summons cats from town around me.  I add up my Animal and Henge attributes and multiply by two, so… Ten.  There are ten cats here now.

Narrator: OMG.

🐦 Ichigo: AAH!  Ichigo is up in the branches and doesn’t want to be anywhere near this many cats.

🐱 Tora: So, I have my cats split up and each go scouting down the different paths.

Narrator: Okay, this is interesting!  So, the cats all go running down the paths, and, as they disappear into the mist, most of them actually come up behind you from the South path, and they’re like, “Meow?” (in a confused inflection, lol).

🐰 Akane: Ohhh, like it looped around!

Narrator: Exactly.

🐱 Tora: Did ALL of them come back??

Narrator: A couple of them actually succeeded.  You notice that only eight of the cats came back, so you wait for a bit, and the last two cats come sauntering back from the West path.  They go “Meow, meow!” (encouragingly, as if saying “This way!”).

🐱 Tora: (Looking to the rest of the group) So… do we want to go this way?

🦊 Ayame: I’ll use a Henge check to magically sense if there is anything that way.

Narrator: That’s a good idea.  With your mystical, magical senses, you notice that there are a few bioluminescent mushrooms growing at the base of a tree at this West path.  (Everyone goes, “ooh…”)  They’re glowing blue.

🦊 Ayame: I pick one… and I… sniff at it.  Ayame is thinking about eating it, but hesitating (lol).  She looks around at her friends, and shoves it toward Akane.  “You eat it!”  (LOL)

🐰 Akane: Akane nibbles at it almost right away.

Narrator: O…kay… it tastes, uh… It tastes like a mushroom.  And a little bit magical.  [In hindsight, I should have come up with some kind of funny flavor for it to have, but my brain completely blanked in the moment, because I didn’t think anyone would eat one. 😆]

🦊 Ayame: Does anything happen?

Narrator: You wait a bit.  As if you’re all waiting for Akane to just keel over from poison.  But, she seems fine.

🦊 Ayame: Cool.  “Homf!” (she pantomimes tossing the entire mushroom into her mouth now that she knows it’s safe).

(Everyone is laughing, and I take a second to read over what the henge’s innate stats are.)

Narrator: Ichigo, while your friends are playing around, you have mushrooms on the mind.  Your Animal stat is high enough that, just glancing around, you see that there are more mushrooms around the trees at the other paths.  However, all of the other clusters of mushrooms are just small, plain little white mushrooms.  This West path is the only one with glowing blue ones.

🐦 Ichigo: Neat!

🐱 Tora: I think the West is definitely the way to go.

Narrator: Sweet!  Everyone goes West.  Very similarly to the last time, you step between the trees and find yourselves in a clearing that opens up again, and another branch of paths going in exact cardinal directions.  This time, you’ve arrived from the East (I demonstrate how, since they moved west, they’re now on the east side of the new clearing), so the new ways to go are North, West, and South.

(There is more discussion over which way to go.  I use the time to look over everyone’s stats again.)

Narrator: Man, all of you guys have your Henge at 3.  I was gonna pick someone with the highest Henge, but like four of you are tied!  Okay, who wants to pump their Henge stat up to, like, 5, in order to notice something cool?

🦊 Ayame: Ooh, I will!  (She deducts Feelings to succeed at the check.)

Narrator: While everyone is puzzling around, you happen to glimpse out into the woods.  Not along one of the paths, just – just outside your clearing, somewhere, in the dense trees.  You see… the eyes of a stalking beast-

(Someone asks, “A beast?!”)

Narrator: -And you hear its low growl-

🦊 Ayame: Aaah!!

Narrator: -And you see its mass move… It’s covered in coarse fur, and really big, but it just looks shadowy and you can’t make it out any more than just the shape.  But it was definitely watching your group, and then it turns away and leaves, moving deeper into the forest.

Everyone: AAAHHHHH!!!

(Some of them are going, “Okay, no!  Nope!”)

Narrator: It’s gone now.  You’re not in danger.  (I’m trying to calm the group down, but kind of amused that I got everyone to react.)

🐰 Akane: I have a Power to use.  I’m going to do ‘Help Me!’ which calls someone I have a Connection with to join us in the scene.  The only Connection I have with someone that isn’t already here is Reo…

Narrator: You can do this, but you’ve got to give me a reeeeaaal good reason for why Reo would randomly come out to the woods.

🐰 Akane: He, uh… he heard that there was a big beast in the woods!

Narrator: Hmm… well… Okay, maybe he saw how determined you guys were to run into the woods, and he got worried about you, so he came along after to make sure you are safe.  Sure, maybe he can help.  He’s got a lantern to light the way, maybe?

Narrator: So, Reo enters the woods behind you… but he doesn’t know how to solve the puzzle in the first section and just kind of bungles around. (LOL)

🦊 Ayame: Okay, okay.  Ayame is rolling her eyes, but she runs over to the first clearing and drags him over with us.

Narrator: Reo says, “What in the world are you all doing out here?  It’s late, and dark, and you should all be at home!”

🐱 Tora: Also, there are still ten cats all around me.

Narrator: OMG.  Yes, Reo is looking around at this myriad of animals, and all these cats, and he is majorly confused.

🦊 Ayame: Ayame doesn’t want to deal with this.  She transforms into a fox.

(Everyone goes, “Oooh…” while I start to think of what Reo’s reaction should be as he learns that these kids are magical henge, as someone who dismisses magical things…)

🦊 Ayame: I want to Surprise him enough to make him leave, so… how do I do that?

Narrator: Oh!  Okay, so, the way Surprise works is, you have to increase one of your stats to higher than his highest stat.  Reo has a big, beefy Adult stat of 5, because he is a mature, grown-up dude.  (There’s a chart in the rulebook that details what effects different levels of Surprise will have, and we consult this.)  If you want to scare him enough to make him run away, your stat needs to be higher than his by 3, so you need to bump something all the way up to 8 to succeed at this.

🦊 Ayame: I’ll make my Henge go up to 8 and just scare him by suddenly turning into a ferocious fox monster.

Narrator: You guys are SO MEAN to Reo!!  He just wants to help you!!  (We are all laughing while I describe Reo running away at the sight of the monster.)  He is going to think that this was all just some weird nightmare he had while nodding off while patrolling.

🦊 Ayame: …Did my yukata fall off when I transformed?

Narrator: (LOL) We’ll say no… like, you just quickly transformed like “HA!” and then quickly changed back, and you’re still in your yukata that you worked so hard to put on.

(Now everyone is back to not knowing where to go…)

Narrator: Wwwweeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllll… (I lean in toward everyone, like telling them a secret)  As the GM, I’m not supposed to nudge you in any direction, buuuut… Does aaaaanyone want to look around the bases of the trees at each path?

(They realize, “Oh!  Yes!”  After some checks are made, the henge discover that there are small patches of white flowers at most of the paths, but the South one has a larger cluster of blue flowers.

“South!” the group decides.)

🦊 Ayame: As we walk through, I pick up a flower and sniff at it.

Narrator: It smells like a flower, and a little bit magical.  [I could have thought of something for it to smell like, but I opted to repeat the same description that the mushroom had, like a running gag.]

🦊 Ayame: I put it in my hair. c:

Narrator: In the next clearing, you have once again encountered branching paths in each of the cardinal directions.  You approached from the North path.  Who wants to see something cool with a Henge check?

🐰 Akane: Ooh, me!

🐦 Ichigo: Another monster?? 😭

Narrator: Out in the trees, almost completely hidden by mist, you see round eyes watching your group.  You can make out the shape of long antlers above them.  Once it sees that you’ve noticed it, you see it step away on dainty hooves.

🐰 Akane: This is like Harry Potter!

(They start talking about a deer on a lake and I have to tell everyone I’m unfamiliar with Harry Potter. 😰)

Narrator: Is it a scary thing?

🐰 Akane: No, it’s beautiful!

Narrator: Oh!  Okay.  Then, yes.  This is like that.  You feel very safe after seeing this animal, like it is watching over you.  It is gone now.

(To get things rolling, I encourage everyone to pick one of the paths and make a check as they search the area – but I don’t give a target number to reach, and suggest that they simply put however many Feelings toward the action to indicate how “hard” they are searching.  Ayame used a lot of her Feelings to scare Reo earlier, so, she lingers around the North path they entered from and keeps an eye out for the beast she saw that way.)

(I describe everyone noticing little flowers around the trees at each path – but, this time, ALL of them are blue.  The henge at the West, East, and South paths succeeded at their checks well enough that they look very closely at the blue flowers, and count four petals on each one.  Ayame, at the North path, glanced at the flowers, but didn’t look close enough at them – i.e. did not make her check high enough – to notice the number of petals.)

🐰 Akane: Oh, oh!  Look at the flower in her hair and see how many petals it has!

Narrator: That is SUCH AN AMAZING IDEA!!!  (The suggestion got a lot of Dreams, because everything came together really perfectly.)  The flower in Ayame’s hair has five petals.  Then, you guys look down at the flowers at her feet, and see that they, too, have five petals.

🐱 Tora: Do we want to go back the way that we came?  Maybe it changed?

(The henge discuss that it might be possible that magic changed the path behind them.  They decide to take the risk and follow the North path, and step through the line of trees…)

Narrator: The trees open up into a wider clearing than the mysterious paths you’ve been following so far.  Even the mist thins and gives you some more space, allowing you to see the whole clearing before you.  There is a cottage here, made of dark grey stone and with a thatched roof.  (Everyone goes “Ooh!”)  There are vines and ivy growing all over it, and an herb garden in little plots on either side of the front door, although it’s looking a bit overgrown.  (Everyone is going “OOH!” and thinks the place is really cute.)

Narrator: …And this is where the scene ends.

🐱 Tora: …That’s when my Friends power deactivates, so the ten cats disperse and run back to town!

–

🎐 Scene 3 🎐

Narrator: It is now nighttime, and you are all deep in the Fushigi Forest, at the door of a cottage in a clearing.

(There isn’t much exploring around the exterior of the cottage, and soon the door is pushed open and the henge enter.)

Narrator: The door creaks open into a cozy, homey layout, lit with low, dripping candles placed in wall sconces and corners of the windows.  Hanging from the rafters are bunches of herbs, making the place smell earthy.  There are bookshelves lining the walls, crammed with colorful books with symbols on their spines, alongside random crystals and devices.  Propped up against the bookshelf beside the door is a broom with twiggy bristles.  And, also stacked up around the perimeter of the room are numerous empty picture frames, all different shapes and sizes but fairly large.  The picture frames have fancy scrolling frames in different designs.

Narrator: All of those details, you take in with just your first peripheral glance.  What mostly occupies your attention is the center of the room before you, where there is a wide round table.  There is a crystal ball on a stand, a big book held up on a book holder, and a BIG, FAT FROG.  This is a HEFTY frog, where, if you were to hold it, you’d need both hands, and it would be kind of spilling over your fingers (I’m pantomiming this, and everyone makes various noises in reaction).

Narrator: The frog sees you all spilling in, and says, “R-r-ribbit.” (In a low, croaky voice.)  Oh, yeah, and I have a prop for this!

(I reach behind me and place a little toy frog in the center of the table where we are all playing.)

🐱 Tora: I slowly start nudging the crystal ball off the table.

Narrator: The frog goes “RIBBIT!!” (In a distressed inflection.  Lots of us give Tora’s player a Dream because this was really funny.)

🦊 Ayame: I react quickly and push the crystal ball back in place before it falls.

(The henge are having a fun time and start exploring the place.  One henge is looking around the kitchen and pantry area for food, someone is examining the herbs hanging from the ceiling, and others are huddled around the table to more closely examine the frog and the other things there.)

🐇 Vivian: Can I play with the crystal ball?  I’m totally all over that crystal ball.  Vivian rubs his hands all over it and, (says random spiritual things about auras and energies).

Narrator: Okay lol, that’s actually helpful for you, because, while Vivian is just playing around, your Henge stat is high enough that just by touching it, you realize, oh, this is actually a real magical artifact.

🐇 Vivian: Oh!

Narrator: Yeah, you definitely get the idea that this is an actual crystal ball, however, it is dormant right now and would need to be activated before it does anything.

🐱 Tora: I… use my Animal sense to try to talk to the frog.

Narrator: Sweet, this is an interesting thing to do!  So, in our last game, there were animals that you guys talked to.  They had different little speaking quirks, but you were able to communicate very easily.  You try to communicate in the same way with this frog right now, and you strangely just can’t get any sense of communication with it.

🐱 Tora: Ohhh.

Narrator: Yeah, it’s like you can’t even get the sense of open dialog with it, and you recognize that’s strange, because you do remember talking to other animals easily.

🐱 Tora: I seeeeeee.

🦊 Ayame: (Leans in and whispers) I don’t think that’s actually a frog…….

🦊 Ayame: I sniff at the frog.

Narrator: It looks kind of annoyed.

🦊 Ayame: I… lick it.

(Everyone is like “LOL WHY”)

Narrator: Now it looks very annoyed, and croaks a low “Ribbit,” very not-amused.  …Frogs are slimy right?

(There is some discussion about frog slime and toad warts.)

Narrator: Okay well you totally have frog slime in your mouth now.

🦊 Ayame: “Uuueeaaaaawhhhhhh”

🐰 Akane: I’m sniffing around the table and also nip at the frog.

Narrator: Wh…. okay, you also have frog slime in your mouth, and also the frog jumps up in alarm with a surprised “RIBBIT!”

🐰 Akane: Oh.  Ew.

Narrator: It tastes like frog and a little bit like magic, LOL. (repeating the same joke description from earlier)

🦊 Ayame: Ayame is still crying.  She has like, those anime tears running down her face, like zig-zagging rivers.  And with her tongue hanging out, she’s saying, “That was my first kiiiiiiiss, wuahhhhh!!”

(This gives her Dreams from lots of us.)

(There is some more exploration around the cottage and eventually, I believe it is Ayame who picks up the book from the holder on the table and begins to look it over, because she loves books.)

Narrator: The frog sees you looking over the book and reacts with interest immediately.  It hops over to you and looks at the pages, then flicks its tongue out to stick to a corner of the page and turn it, and then it turns a couple more pages like that until it’s satisfied with your current page.  (This is amusing to several players.)

(A couple of characters make Henge checks and discern that this is definitely a magical spellbook, and all through the book are recipes and instructions for casting spells and making potions and things.

(Everyone goes, “COOOL!!”)

Narrator: The page that the frog was so determined to bring to your attention is a spell called “Breaking a Transformation Spell.”

(Everyone goes, “Ahh!” in understanding.)

(There is some major group effort from every henge – some of them make Adult checks to read and make sense of the ingredients and instructions, and some of them make Henge checks to understand the actual magic involved and how to apply it.  Others are running around the cottage to gather the supplies that the others read off, or are reading over shoulders to point out a word they forgot.)

Narrator: So, everyone is doing an awesome job working together to figure out this spell, and you’ve reached the last of the instructions now.  It says that you need… six teacups, placed in a circle around the target whose transformation you need to break.

(Everyone is very excited now, because, in real life, we have been sitting around the table drinking tea and hot chocolate as we enjoy our time together.  All of the players put their cups in a circle around the toy frog that was placed on the table earlier.  I took a picture!)

Narrator: And thennnn, everyone has to say “Hocus Pocus” all at the same time.

(There are gasps of excitement.)

🐇 Vivian: This is THE DUMBEST-

(Vivian is drowned out as the others count down from 3 and all say “HOCUS POCUS!!” together at the same time.)

Narrator: With that, a waterfall of deep blue glitter pours over the frog in the middle of the table.  It’s covering everything and streams over the sides of the table.

(Everyone is going, “Pretty!” over the idea of so much glitter.)

Narrator: And then – let’s say that this poor character is not sitting on the table, but standing beside it when the shimmering sparkles dissipate and clear.  You see a tall, lanky, gangly-limbed older-teenaged guy, with shaggy black hair, and cool asymmetrical clothes in black and dark blue.

(Everyone is going, “Ooh!” more and more as I keep describing him.)

Narrator: In his hair, which is really a mess, there’s actually bits of moss hanging in it.  And from what you can see of his face, because his shaggy hair is covering so much, you can see he looks, like, really tired, and – you know how anime characters will have bags under their eyes that are just like a color under their eyes?  (Everyone is nodding)  He’s got that going on.

🐇 Vivian: Holy crap I LOVE HIM

(Many other players are expressing the same idea, so I wrap up the scene quickly.)

Narrator: He looks over you all and says, in a low and gravelly voice, “Whoa… You saved me.”  And that’s the scene!

–

🎐 Scene 3.5 🎐

(Because I want the henge to be able to have a Connection with this new character going into the final scene, I let everyone make Impression Checks while we are “between scenes.”  I encourage each player to introduce themselves in some simple & quick way to appeal to this character, which will give them a point of Connection so they have another point or two of Wonder and Feelings for the final scene.)

🐱 Tora: I’m going to make a magical connection with him using my Henge stat, to communicate with him magically.

Narrator: Okay, that’s cool!!  He senses your connection and is like, “Whoa, cool!  That’s a pretty snazzy power you have.”  And, you get your Connection with him.

🐦 Ichigo: I have been a bird all this time, so I turn human to greet him.  And I ask, “Are you like us?”

Narrator: Okay, so, he’s not fazed at all by your transforming.  Normal human characters would be Surprised, but this guy seems to know exactly what’s going on with you all.  Also, he sees your human appearance, and that you also have messy hair with twigs and stuff in it, and he’s like, “Whoa, I totally dig your style, little bird!”  (This sounds funny in the low, raspy voice I’m giving him, and the players laugh at the almost surfer-dude way he talks.)

Narrator: He answers you saying, “I have some of my own powers, but I actually am human.”  (I tell the players that this character is a class from one of the game’s expansions, a Witch.  He has his own stats, list of powers, and weaknesses, just like they do.)

🐰 Akane: Akane is also human now, and she looks shyly at her feet and says, “I’m sorry I bit you…  What’s your name?”

Narrator: He goes, “Oh, that’s okay, little bun.  I get that you guys were just trying to figure things out.  My name is Thorn.”  And, you get your Connection with him (everyone is writing down his name on their Connection tables, because it was blank until now.)

🐇 Vivian: Vivian very primly composes himself, and with extreme politeness, he greets while bowing, “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, good sir.”

Narrator: He looks kinda shy at how much more well-behaved you are than him.  He’s standing there with poor posture and looking kind of drab, but he goes, “Oh… hi… it’s good to meet you, too.”  You get your Connection point.

🦊 Ayame: Ayame is kind of in awe.  She’s still remembering that this was her first kiss.  She asks him in a whisper, “Are you single?”

Narrator: Oh my god, I love that I’ve described this guy as awkward and tired and kind of gross, and all of you guys are like, “HOT!!”  (Everyone is dying laughing rn.)  But anyway, he answers kind of flustered, like “Man, I don’t know!!” and you get your Connection point.

(While everyone is writing down their Connections and taking care of other mid-scene things, I point something out.)

Narrator: So, remember earlier, when you asked “Oh what’s her name?” about the witch, and I just blanked?  That was accidental foreshadowing, because I wasn’t thinking of the witch as a girl.  So, you totally got me on that one.

🐰 Akane: What?!  Was that on purpose?!

Narrator: Nope, lol.

–

🎐 Final Scene 🎐

Narrator: It is nighttime, and everyone is gathered around in Thorn’s cottage.  Now he will answer aaaaaall of the questions you have.  I also left the ending of this open-ended.  I don’t have any concrete ending and it will be up to you guys to decide how you want this to end; whether you’ll end up going anywhere or go and do anything else…

🐇 Vivian: Oh, I know where Vivian will be at the end of this game.  He is CLINGING to Thorn.

Narrator: Thorn is EVERYONE’S goth bf.  You have to share him!

🦊 Ayame: Ayame, as a young teenage girl, is standing nervously beside him and emitting a high-pitched sound that only dogs can hear.

Narrator: You hear coyotes howling somewhere outside, LOL.

Narrator: Anyway, Thorn walks to where that twiggy broom is leaning near the door, and he picks it up and holds it, clutching it in front of him while he talks to you all.

🐦 Ichigo: “What turned you into a frog?”

Narrator: Ah, perfect!  Thorn looks kind of embarrassed, and he says, “I was picking mushrooms in the forest, and it disturbed a frog henge.  They turned me into a frog to get back at me.  That was a few days ago…”  That explains why the candles in here are burned so low.

(Some of the henge express that he’s lucky his place didn’t burn down, with those candles lit the whole time.  I explain that it’s magic!)

🐱 Tora: “Are you the reason the forest is like this?”

Narrator: Another excellent question.  He says, “Ah!  The Fushigi Forest is actually a very magically-powerful place.  The thick magic is disorienting to normal humans, and they often get lost just trying to navigate it.  The swirling mist and looping paths are actually the natural state of the forest.”

Narrator: Then, Thorn moves to the crystal ball on the table and – uh, I have to actually keep track of Wonder for this character, because this is one of his Powers!  He waves his hand over the crystal ball, and it activates, and you see a vision of the trees somewhere in the woods.  “What I do is create these little crystal charms…”  In the image in the crystal ball, you see little blue diamond shapes begin glowing.  They are strung up in the branches of the trees, like ornaments.  “These allow normal humans to make their way through the forest without getting lost.  They kind of magically light the way.  If someone enters the forest intending to walk through to the other side, the path straightens out for them.  If they want to gather herbs, they find themselves led to a patch of exactly what they are looking for.  Most mortals never even realize that it’s magic showing them the way, and the crystal charms are hidden from non-magical sight, as well.”

(The henge are nodding along and going “Ohh” in understanding.)

🐰 Akane: “What if we want to come back here and talk to you again?”

Narrator: He looks surprised for a second, like he didn’t expect you to care about seeing him.  Then, he gets an idea, and he opens a jewelry box he has on a shelf, and you see that it’s filled with those diamond crystals you saw in the crystal ball.  They are wrapped up with twine with a big loop on the end so they can hang from stuff, so you can wear them as accessories.

Narrator: He explains, “Well, same as anyone else that travels into the forest, if you have the intention of ending up somewhere in particular, you’ll find yourself led here.  But, I’ll give you guys some of these crystal charms, and then you will have that power yourselves.  If it ever happens that I’m cut off from my power and the crystals stop working again, you guys can use your own magic to power them, instead.”  Again, because he had been transformed for a few days, his crystal charms had gone dormant, so that’s why everything was all twisty.  But, now that you guys know about the charms, you can power them, too, if he’s ever unable to.  And you have your own ones!  He’s giving one to each of you.

(The henge are admiring their cool magical accessories.  Vivian never wants to take his off.)

🐱 Tora: Can I use magic to combine my charm with the bell on the collar I’m already wearing?

Narrator: Yeah that sounds awesome.

🐱 Tora: So, I kind of just magically put the glowing crystal together with the bell, and now I’ve got a cool magical glowy charm on my collar.

(The henge agree that this is very neat and Tora’s player gets many Dreams.)

🐇 Vivian: “Does that broom work?”

Narrator: He goes, “Oh yeah, check this out.”  He holds the broom horizontally and it just floats there, so he sits on it.  This is actually another Power, so I have to use Wonder… I’m not used to this!

🐇 Vivian: Vivian sees the available lap and transforms into bunny and leaps into it.

Narrator: That was your plan all along!  To get in his lap!  He holds and pets you, with proper bunny handling.

🐇 Vivian: This is heaven.

🦊 Ayame: Ayame asks if Thorn knows anything about the scary beast in the woods.

Narrator: That is another excellent prompt.  Thorn looks surprised to hear that from you, like he didn’t expect you to see anything like that at all.  Then, he explains, “If they showed themselves to you, then you all must be very special… There are two very powerful, magical beings that live in these woods, and they are the entire reason for the heavy magic that makes the place so disorienting to mortals.”

(I break from storytelling to explain for the newcomers that haven’t read through the rulebook.  In Golden Sky Stories, there are powerful NPCs called Local Gods, who are like super-henge.)

Narrator: Thorn says, “There are at least two Local Gods in the Fushigi Forest; a God of Moonlight and a God of Sunlight.  If they did show themselves to you before, I’m sure you will see them again, perhaps in the future…”

(The henge are going “Ooh,” and “Cool…”)

(Next, the henge work together to convince Thorn to come back to town with them.  He gets very shy at their insistence and clutches the handle of his broom tightly, like he wants to hide behind it.)

🐱 Tora: I’ll use the power Peek Into Hearts.  (Tora’s player reads the information of the Power for me; it reveals what a character is thinking and keeping secret.)

Narrator: Thorn is definitely hesitant to go into town because he is very different from anyone else there.  He looks weird, and he has magical abilities, which distances him from normal people.  …This is actually one of his Weaknesses.  (Checks his character sheet) – Actually, he has TWO weaknesses relevant here!  He has one Weakness called Strange, which is that he stands out among normal people and they tend to distance themselves from him.  His other Weakness is called Mysterious Person, which also makes him distant from others.  It’s a lonely combination.

(The players do many things to ease Thorn’s fears; the bunny on his lap snuggles close to comfort him, and Tora activates her Fuzzy Power again – the first time was at the end of the first game session, and it was amazing – to completely lower his defenses.  Other characters do or say encouraging things as well, and promise to stay close to him so that he doesn’t have to be afraid of being by himself.  Eventually, Thorn is convinced to go into town with them.)

Narrator: So, Thorn goes to one of the stacks of empty picture frames that are leaned up around his walls and shelves and things.  Remember those?  He rifles through them, looking for one in particular.  Finally, he finds what he’s looking for and pulls it out, and hangs it on an empty hook that’s on his wall.  The frame is nice and wide, and it’s about half the height of a full-length mirror.  Pretty sizable.

🐇 Vivian: (Gasps) Are we jumping through a painting?

Narrator: He waves his hand over the surface of the painting, much as he did when he activated the crystal ball earlier.  In the empty space of the frame, you begin to see an image forming.  Warm lights are visible first, in rows disappearing into the distance… Then, you see that those lights are candles set in windows along a street.  Arching over at the top of the image is a string of hanging paper lanterns.  You realize that, in the square image of the frame, you are gazing exactly through the same square shape of the Torii gate at the entrance of Yoyo Town.

(Everyone: Ohhh!!)

Narrator: Thorn waves for you guys to follow him, and he flies his broom through the frame.  …With the bunny on his lap, still.

(Everyone jumps through and find themselves back in town.)

Narrator: You also notice while you are here that the feeling of the woods coming from out the gate doesn’t feel so oppressive any more.

(The henge find Reo and tell him not to worry about the forest any more.)

Narrator: Reo also asks you guys, “By the way, were you in the woods, with some kind of scary fox monster…?”

(Everyone is going “Nope!” “Nooo.” “Uh-uh!”)

Narrator: Reo’s like, “Huh, weird.  Guess I was dreaming.”  He also notices the scruffy-looking dude in dark clothes who seems to be hiding behind you, and asks, “Do you, uh, need a room at the inn, or anything?”

(The henge insist that he is just fine!)

🐇 Vivian: I can imagine Thorn completely hating the idea of sleeping anywhere but in the comfort of his own room.

Narrator: Yes, exactly!

(Some closing conversations are going on, so I make sure to have Reo say just one more line.)

Narrator: “…Does the fog seem like it’s thinning to you guys?”

Narrator: And that… … … is the end!!

🕯 The Fushigi Forest – End! 🕯

–

Thank you so much for reading,
and if you enjoy this post, consider supporting BonBonBunny~
I’m so grateful for you! 🎃

–

What up!!! ✨🐧✨

Things are awfully wintry out, huh?? 🌨❄

I’ve had not one, but TWO different people I know say that they want to play Golden Sky Stories – the tabletop RPG I’m currently enamored with – as a penguin character.  It seems so appropriate for the current season to work on putting that character type together!!

So, I did!  I hope this serves as a nice custom character type~ 🐧  I’m not sure about balance, but I tried to match Wonder costs for the powers to similar existing ones, and the same for Weakness/Additional Power matches.

Rather than being 100% custom, this penguin character type mostly combines Powers belonging to the existing bird and fish henge, sometimes with snowy twists.  The Snow Song power, for instance, is identical to the bird’s Wind Song, but with mention of cold and snowflakes in the wind’s wake.  The Pet/Home weakness/power is copied over from dog henge, and I borrowed Glutton from the tanuki and matched it with a fish weakness that had the same Wonder cost.  The only things I completely made up myself are the Hunker Down power (because when I think of penguins, I think of them settled cozily into themselves and weathering the cold), and the Li’L Backpack additional power (because if you’re a pet penguin in Japan, you need a li’l backpack!).  Other than that, the rest are as if bird and fish were combined into one animal – which serves the purpose for a penguin quite nicely! ❄

Here is also some art work I quickly put together, to demonstrate that a half-transformed penguin henge would have flippers and webbed bird feet~

Here is the page of Penguin Powers (man, I love that phrase – PENGUIN POWERS!):

And this is the page of available Weaknesses and Additional Powers:

Click on the images of the pages to view them fullsize!!  I did my best to recreate the look of the official pages, but my editing is slightly messy (you can see the grey square backgrounds behind the text blocking out what was originally written, for instance).  I even drew the penguin icon with katakana behind it for the top-left corner of the Powers page~

Hope this is of use to someone out there! 🤗

–

Thank you so much for reading,
and if you enjoy this post, consider supporting BonBonBunny~
I’m so grateful for you! ❄️🐧❄

–

Hello, friends! 👋😇

Today’s post is going to be a replay (a summary of the events that happened in our game) of the tabletop game Golden Sky Stories!  This is a very cute and heart-warming role-playing game, and earlier today I just GM’d my first session of it with my friends.  This was my first try GMing ANYTHING and I thought that a sweet and simplified game like this would be perfect for my first go at it, especially because with GSS’s setting, I could put together a story with a cutesy and sweet storyline where the stakes are very low. 💝

The player characters are henge, a magical, folklore-style animal that can transform into a youthful human form.  (Partial transformations, such as turning mostly human but leaving one’s ears or tail out, are possible as well – often these are even preferable because it costs fewer points to do so.)  The setting where they live is a Japanese town in the countryside.  It’s in the modern day, so it’s not antiquated (all houses have electricity and water, etc., and phones and computers exist), but things are quiet and old-fashioned there.  Additionally, for the most part, the people who live in the town understand that henge exist (acknowledged in the same spiritual way that spirits of natural things all around them exist), although it’s very special to meet one.

The participating characters are:

• Tora, a cat henge.  She is very wise and proper, and knowledgeable of magical things.  Her appearance as a human is the eldest of the group, appearing as a 15-17-year old young lady.
• Ayame, a fox henge.  She has lived a long, LONG time, and is antiquated, proud, and traditional in her mannerisms.  There is also a small shrine devoted to her along the side of a road in the town.
• Ichigo, a bird henge.  She is a sweet little bluebird with very limited knowledge of human civilization, and is a little spacey and clumsy as a result.  She looks a bit bedraggled in her human form, with twigs sticking out of her messy hair.
• Hachi, a dog henge.  Her personality is very shy and reserved, but she is filled with the wonder of youth.  (Seriously, her ‘Child’ stat, which is for cuteness and charm, has the highest possible score, which is 6.  The other stats are at the very minimum.)
• O-Tsuya, a rabbit henge.  She is a ladylike & “big-sisterly” girl in her human form (the phrase “oneesama” was used).  She loves traditional Japanese candies like mochi and daifuku, and helps to make them at a store in town that sells them.

I myself am the Narrator~

[Lines written like this are added notations as I write up this post, not things that occurred in gameplay.  Furthermore, all of the events and lines in this story are a summary of what I remember from our game session earlier today, and not 100% accurate to what each player said and did.]

And now, for our story.

🌸 The Promised Pin 🌸

🎐 Scene 1 🎐

Narrator: You are henge who live in Yoyo Town, a rural place far from any bustling cities.  It is surrounded by nature, with farmland and forests outside of the town.  Because the location is so beautiful, it is a travel destination for tourists as well as for rich families with vacation homes there.  There are some high-class locales in the town because of this, with large sculpted gardens.  There is also a main commercial street of the town, but you guys are a bit removed from that right now.  You are hanging out along a path that goes behind a row of houses – the back porches and back gardens of those homes are facing you, and you are a bit concealed from them behind fences or hedges.  All of you know one another, because you are all henge that live in Yoyo Town together, so give yourselves Connections to and from one another.

(The players all give themselves 1 point of Connection to the other players on both sides of the Connection table, which represents their connections with others, and others’ connections with themselves.  Then, they add up their Connections on each sides.  The total of their connections with others becomes ‘Wonder,’ which goes towards using powers, and the total of others’ connections with themselves becomes ‘Feelings,’ which go toward making checks.)

Narrator: What form are all of your characters in right now?  If you want to be in a human form, you will have to spend Wonder or Feelings, and there is an extra cost because it’s the daytime.

(O-Tsuya partially transforms, leaving her ears and tails out.  Also, I remind my friends that I love them all very dearly, but “henge” is not pronounced like “henj.”  The introduction of the book points out that it is “hen-gay,” like a happy chicken.  Everyone remembers the happy chicken thing very well. c: )

Narrator: What are each of your henge doing as you are hanging out and playing together along this path?

🦊 Ayame: I’m reading a textbook, licking my little fox paws to turn the pages like a person does with their fingers.

(Because I laughed at this and thought it was cute, I her a Dream, which we represented in our game with a pile of Pokemon damage counters in the center of our table – you know those little colorful plastic bead-things, with the one side that’s kinda flat and the other is rounded?  Yeah, those.  I used this as an example to tell everyone that whenever you think a player or the Narrator does something cool, cute, or interesting, or just kind of in-character and you think it’s neat, grab one of the Dreams from the center of the table and give it to them.  This is usually done without dialog; often someone will just hand one over while laughing or smiling.  See what a nice and feel-good game this is?)

🐰 O-Tsuya: I’m playing with one of those ball toys with a jingly bell inside, bouncing it off the ground and catching it, and dropping it again (she pantomimes this).

🐶 Hachi: I’m chasing my tail around in circles. c:

🐦 Ichigo: I’m perched in the trees.

🐱 Tora: I’m lounging up on the top of a fence.

Narrator: As you are all playing, you hear a distressed voice coming from one of the houses nearby.  It’s a woman’s voice, saying, “Oh no!  Where is it?  I can’t believe I lost it!”

🐰 O-Tsuya: (Her player acts out her character’s nose twitching as she looks up with interest, which earns her a Dream from me.  Now that I’ve handed out Dreams a couple of times, other players get used to the idea and start doing it for each other, too.)  I go over to a hedge and peek over to see.

🦊 Ayame: I transform (with ears and tails out because hiding them is a lot of points to use when no one has many), and also go over.

🐱 Tora: I stay a cat, and go under the bush, poking my head out through the leaves at the bottom.

🐶 Hachi: My character hasn’t even noticed at all.  (This got a lot of Dreams from other players, lol.)

Narrator: (To coax the players to go across the back garden and approach the woman, I have her reiterate her distress.)  “Where did it go?  How could I lose something so important?!”  She is rummaging through luggage on her back porch and throwing clothes and things out around her.

(Ayame and O-Tsuya approach her, and Tora slinks further across the yard.  Ichigo flies over and perches on the roof above the woman.)

🐶 Hachi: Hachi realizes her friends left and goes over with them.  (This earned another round of Dreams from everyone.)

Narrator: She looks up and sees you all approaching.  She’s kind of surprised to see kids and these animals coming in.  As you get closer, she sees the animal ears and tails on Ayame and O-Tsuya, and is about to be REALLY surprised – [There is a system for Surprise in the game, because encountering henge is not an everyday occurrence.  Depending on the severity of the result, Surprise can result in crying out in alarm, running away, or fainting on the spot, so players are encouraged to be cautious about their powers and appearances.]

🦊 Ayame: I’m going to tell a lie so that she isn’t surprised. (We all LOL.  I ask her if there is a Power she has for this, but it is actually going to just be our first normal check of the game.)  “Oh, we were just coming back from school, where we were having our cultural festival.  These are our costumes!” (We are all laughing at this point about the characters wearing animal-ear headbands.)  I’m appealing to her with my Child score, because it’s an over-the-top way that a child would lie about something.

Narrator: Okay, this will be a good example of how checks work for everyone.  If you want to convince her of this, you will need to meet a Child score of 6.

(Her Child stat is at 4, so in order to meet 6, she spent 2 points of Feelings.  This was a really good example for everybody and I made sure that everyone knew how it worked.)

Narrator: Oko’s like, “Ohhh, okay, your culture festival…”  It’s amazing that this worked.

(Ichigo feels safer now that they don’t have to worry about Surprising her, and flies behind some bushes, partially transforms, and steps out.  When bird henge partially transform, they keep their wings.  The woman sees them and comments on how cool and elaborate everyone’s costumes are, lol.)

🐰 O-Tsuya: (With all of the appeal of a very polite bunny-eared child) “What’s your name, Miss?”

Narrator: “It’s Oko.  My name is Oko.  Oh, I’m so embarrassed to have to admit it, but I’ve lost something very important to me.  It came from someone very, very important to me.”  While she talks about this person, she gets kind of dreamy, and has her hands on either side of her face (I do the same motion).

🐰 O-Tsuya: Gasps and asks, “Was it your booooyfriiiend?”

Narrator: Oko gets even more embarrassed and blushy and holds her face (I do this, and kind of wiggle).  She says, “Actually, we’re engaged~”

(Everyone goes, “Ooh~”)

🦊 Ayame: “What was it that you lost?”

Narrator: Oko says, “Oh, it was a very beautiful gift my fiance gave me.  It’s a hair pin, with a golden stick and a round, brown bead on the end.”  She sighs dreamily and says, “He picked that bead for me because he said it matches my eyes~”  Now, if someone can make an Adult check of 6, there is more information you can learn from her.  [‘Adult’ is a stat that corresponds not only with maturity, but also for having knowledge of human society and understanding more complicated emotions.]

🦊 Ayame: Okay, I can make that.  (She spends some Feelings to meet it.)

Narrator: Okay, Oko explains a little bit more, saying that her fiance is named Reo, and that he is the young lord of a noble family that resides in the town.  Because the family is important, Oko is especially worried about losing a gift from them.  It’s not that Reo himself would be mad at her, but she wants to look good for an important family.  (We discuss for a little bit about Reo’s title.  “Young lord” is kind of an antiquated term, but we pretty much establish that it’s a family of old money, and the kind that were samurai back in the day.  Reo himself probably holds a political position in modern terms, although he is the youngest in the family so he is just an heir right now and not someone who has held a political station for a long time.)

🐰 O-Tsuya: When O-Tsuya understands this, she gets really wide-eyed and asks Oko, “So you’re going to be a PRINCESS??”

(Everyone agrees that this is Extremely Cute, and O-Tsuya’s player gets many Dreams.  Lots of dreams are being passed around without me making note of them, btw.)

Narrator: She gets really embarrassed again (I do the hands on either side of the face and the wiggling again).

(Because I have to keep doing that, I remind the players that they can also give Dreams to me if they think that I did something neat.  The Dreams get converted into more Connection points at the end – which for me, means making Connections from these NPCs stronger – so I remind them that giving Dreams to me means more points for them.  With this explained, everyone pantomimes giving me tons of Dreams, because they want tons of points.)

🐱 Tora: I have a Power that I can use for this.  I use my Power, From the Shadows, to determine where I’ve seen the hair stick before.

(There is some discussion about this From the Shadows power, which reveals to a cat something that happened even when the cat wasn’t there and didn’t see it.  She spends some points of Wonder to activate it.)

Narrator: Okay, I’m going to say that, earlier, while everyone was hanging out in the alley, you saw the glint of something shining near a window that’s open and faces out toward this garden.  There isn’t anything there now, so you know that it was there recently and is gone now.  You all can also see this open window from where you are, and the hair stick isn’t inside and is not laying on the porch.  If someone can make an Animal check of 4, there is something else to notice.

🐦 Ichigo: I will make that one!  My Animal is good enough that I don’t even need to spend Feelings on it.

Narrator: That’s excellent!  There is a chipmunk right by Ichigo’s feet, and it’s perked up like it has something to say.

🐦 Ichigo: Ichigo would definitely get right down and listen to a chipmunk. (lol)

(We talk for a little bit about how the rules say that henge can only communicate with animals of their own species.  I thought that it would be more fun for magical animal-people to be able to talk to both animals and people, and everyone agreed that this was cool.  I established that some animals will be harder to understand than others, because of different ways that those animals talk.  The chipmunk, for example, is going to talk really quickly and excitedly, and everyone agreed that yes, that is exactly how a chipmunk would talk.)

Narrator: The chipmunk saw the same shiny glint that Tora did, although he saw it on the wooden porch just outside of the window.  With everyone’s knowledge together, you all determine that the hair stick had been inside the window, then fell out, and now it has gone missing.

(The henge tell Oko that they will search all around for her hair pin, and that ends the first Scene.)

🐰 O-Tsuya: Oh wait, actually – O-Tsuya hands her jingly-ball to Oko and asks, “Can you hold on to this for me, please?”

Narrator: Oko nods with sagely understanding.

(Between scenes, I tell everyone that they now have a Connection with Oko, so they add her to their table and fill in 1 point on both sides.  Now, Wonder and Feelings are accumulated again.  The amount left over from the previous scene are kept, and added to the new totals of all of the Connections on both sides again, which are each 1 point higher now that Oko has been added.  This demonstrates for everyone that making new Connections during scenes gives you even more points to use.)

–

🎐 Scene 2 🎐

Narrator: The chipmunk leads you to the main commercial street of Yoyo Town.  Since you will be on a populated street and there are people around, what form will you all take?

(Most of the henge transform into human, now that they have plenty of points for doing so.)

Narrator: The chipmunk says, “There are two main places to go, where you can learn aaalllllllll of the information you would ever need.”  He points down one way.  “Over there is a great big scary beast!!  With teeth!!” – but since you guys are in human form, you can see down the road and see the cute little dog there – “But the scary beast lives at a great big building where lots and lots of people come and go all the time, so it learns everything, and also sees everything that goes down this street.”  You look again, and can confirm that the dog is in front of the inn, and that since it is in the center of this highly trafficked place and the dog is very attentive and checking out everything that goes by, it should see everything that goes past.

Narrator: The chipmunk also points the other way and goes, “That way is a creature with sharp, terrible claws!!” – and you guys see that it is a cat curled up on the front porch of a store.  The chipmunk explains, “Somehow, that creature is able to gather a lot of information from all around the town.  It always seems to be able to track things down, even though it’s so lazy and never leaves that spot!”  With that, the chipmunk skitters off.  Which animal would you guys like to go to?  Would you like to take a vote?

(It also comes up and there is some discussion about how O-Tsuya also works at a store, and it is decided that the store that the cat is lazing about in front of is the same store where she works.  Then, we take votes.)

🐰 O-Tsuya: Since that’s in front of my store, I want to go to the cat.

🐱 Tora: Tora doesn’t want to go near the dog, and definitely feels some kinship with the cat.

🐦 Ichigo: Ichigo would be scared of going to the cat, so she wants to go to the dog.

🐶 Hachi: (Shyly) Hachi wants to go to the dog.

Narrator: She wants to go sniff the dog’s butt.

🐶 Hachi: Yes she definitely wants to go sniff butts. (lol)

🦊 Ayame: I think Ayame’s canine instincts are telling her to go to the dog.

Narrator: Ayame was the tie-breaker, so the dog wins by one point.  So, you guys go to approach the dog at the inn.  She is a cute little shiba inu, wearing a pink cherry blossom flower in front of one ear.  You all know this dog, because she lives here in this town with you and is super friendly with everyone, as you can see by the strangers walking by who are even compelled to reach down and give her ear-scritchies.  Her name is Kouhai, and everyone gets 1 point of Connection both to and from her.

Narrator: (After everyone writes down their Connections) Kouhai sees you all approaching and gets SUPER excited, saying “Oh my GOSH, Kouhai’s BEST FRIENDS are coming!!”  She is wagging her tail and is really happy.  Everyone is Kouhai’s best friend.

🦊 Ayame: “We are looking for a golden stick-”

Narrator: “I LOVE STICKS!!”

🦊 Ayame: “With a big shiny ball on the end-”

Narrator: “I LOVE BALLS!!”  (This got me many dreams LOL.)  “Those are both KOUHAI’S FAVORITE THINGS!!  TOGETHER!!”  (Someone asks if she has seen anything like that.)  She thinks about it, and does the doggy head-tilt.  Then she remembers, “Wait, Kouhai DID see something like that!  It was a stick AND a ball at the SAME TIME and it was AMAZING.”  (Everyone is laughing so I have to wait until we have stopped before I begin to describe anything.)  “Kouhai saw the stick-ball flying overhead.”  She thinks about it some more, “It was being carried by a bird that looked like night-time.”

Narrator: (After an Animal check, Kouhai elaborates more.)  “When the bird’s wings were open, it looked like a moon in the night-time, and it was carrying the stick-ball in its feet.  It went flying in the direction the sun goes when Kouhai starts to feel sleepy.”  Does anyone want to make a higher Animal check to learn something else?

🐦 Ichigo: My Animal is 4, is that high enough?

Narrator: Yes, Ichigo knows that Kouhai is talking about a black bird with a white mark on its tummy.  And since you’re a bird and you already succeeded at that, I’m going to say that Ichigo also knows that we are talking about a magpie.

🐦 Ichigo: Ichigo tells everyone, “It’s a friend!”  (Which everyone thinks is very cute and she gets Dreams.)

🦊 Ayame: Ayame tells Kouhai, “I know you love ear-scritchies, but what to you think of… belly-rubs.”

Narrator: Kouhai’s eyes go wide and she IMMEDIATELY is on her back, and her little paws are up in the air (I do my best to pantomime this, LOL).

(Kouhai gets belly rubs and it is the best thing ever.)

🐱 Tora: Tora decides that this dog is all right, and kitty-rubs alongside her to show affection.

Narrator: That’s very cute.  Tora and Kouhai, once at odds, are closer together now.  I’m going to give you one more Connection point with Kouhai because you made a good impression.  [Impression Checks are another feature in the game, but we are all sort of making them through role-play rather than with the rules in the book, which feels more dynamic.]

🦊 Ayame: All right, Ayame is also going to use her Animal ability to sniff on the wind for where the bird went.

Narrator: (An Animal check is successfully made.)  You are successfully able to follow where the magpie went.  You have Kouhai’s information pointing you to the West – the direction of the sun going down – and with those two things together you are all led right to the tree where the magpie has its nest.  And that’s the end of Scene 2!

(Everyone totals their Wonder and Feelings yet again, and has plenty of each of them.  We all get the sense that there isn’t any reason to be stingy with using Powers, because there are tons of Wonder to put toward them.  I’m also wondering if I should make the required numbers for checks much higher, because of the abundance of Feelings.  All things to remember for future games!)

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🎐 Scene 3 🎐

Narrator: You find yourselves led just outside the last buildings of the town, to the beginnings of the rows of trees.  It is now the evening, so it is much cheaper to transform.  What forms would you all like to take?

(Everyone decides that because they are confronting a bird, they all stay in animal form.)

Narrator: You approach the tree where there is a nest in the lowest boughs, and a little bird head pokes up over the side and eyes you all, turned sideways to peer at you.  (I put on a scratchy voice.)  “Who are you guys?  Go away!”

🐦 Ichigo: I’m going to fly up next to it, and perch on the branch beside the nest.

Narrator: She’s a little upset.  You’re all up in her territory, and she’s like, “What do YOU want?”

🐰 O-Tsuya: “Um, hello up there!  We are looking for something!”

🦊 Ayame: “Have you found anything recently?”

Narrator: Ichigo, from your vantage point, you can see that the nest is FILLED with shiny things.  She is looking around at all of her things, like taking inventory.  She answers you, “I don’t know, I can’t keep track of it all!  Go away!”

🦊 Ayame: “Did you find a hair stick today?”

Narrator: (Looks around shiftily.) “N…………… no.”

🐱 Tora: I’m going to use my cat Power, Peek Into Hearts.  (She reads the information about the Power.)

Narrator: So it tells you what someone is feeling instead of what they are saying?  Okay, the magpie is definitely thinking, (I don’t put on the scratchy voice and just sound really bored,) “Ugh, who are these jerks who are all up in my space and bothering me?  They want my cool hair stick?   I just got this hair stick.  Like, I just got it.”

🐱 Tora: I tell everyone, “She has it!!  She totally has it!” (lol)

🦊 Ayame: I can trade something for it.  I have money.

Narrator: You have money??  (Lol.  Because of the fox character’s Shrine power, she has access to the money that is left at the shrine in tribute.)  That’s definitely something I’ll have to remember for future stories.  There are so many problems that could be solved by just, like, buying something.  (We are all laughing at this.)

🦊 Ayame: Okay, I’m holding up a handful of gold coins, and I’m like, “Look!  Shiny!”

Narrator: She is definitely looking with interest at the shiny coins.  She’s looking at the coins, and looking around her nest, and getting all these home decor ideas, thinking, “I can put that coin over here, and that coin over there, and I can use one of those coins as like, a stand for this other thing.”

🐰 O-Tsuya: I have a Power called Please that I’m going to use.  My ears droop and I get wide, teary eyes, begging the bird to please give the hair stick back.

(We read for a second about the Power, which can be resisted if the target has a high Adult score, but it doesn’t.)

Narrator: Okay, she rummages around and, Ichigo, you can see her bring out the hair stick.  It’s gold with a brown gem-like bead at the end, kinda marbly, like a topaz.  (Ayame and Ichigo work together to fly the coins up to the nest as they make the trade.)  The magpie holds the hair stick over the side of her nest, but she still kinda wants it because it’s so cool.  She kinda starts to let it go from her beak, and then tightens her grip on it again, but then she looks at the sad, adorable bunny, and she finally drops it.

(Everyone goes, “Yaay!!”)

🦊 Ayame: I pick it up and wipe off.

Narrator: The magpie squawks, “Now go away!”

🦊 Ayame: (Turns to Hachi’s player) You should pee on her tree.

🐶 Hachi: You have to pay me for that. (L O L)

Narrator: That’s the end of Scene 3, but I’m so sad no one asked for the magpie’s name.  Her name is Pickle Pee, like the weird bird in Dark Souls that you give items to.  Also, you don’t get any Connection with her, because Connections are only for positive things, and Pickle doesn’t like any of you.  (Everyone is dying over this.)

(With the scene over, everyone gets even more Wonder and Feelings.  I also tell everyone that the next scene is the final scene, so this is where they should use up those points since they don’t carry over to future games.)

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🎐 Final Scene 🎐

Narrator: Now everyone is walking back to that main street back into town, making your way back to Oko’s house.  It’s still evening, so it is very easy to transform into human form.  I should also let you know, this street has lots of people milling about, all on their own ways back home.  What form is everyone in?

(Since there are many people around, almost everyone turns fully human, especially since they have plenty of points to do so.  Tora stays a cat, however, and points out that because she has the Kitty power, no one pays any mind to a little kitty walking around.)

(I also double-check that Ayame is the one holding the hair stick while they are walking.)

Narrator: All right, as you are walking down the road with the hair stick out, a voice calls out and stops you, “So, YOU are the ones that took my beloved Oko’s hair stick!  How dare you take something that was meant to be a symbol of our love!”

(Everyone goes, “Oh noo!!”)

Narrator: (Some of the characters try to speak up, but are all talking kind of rushed and tripping over one another, and the man interrupts them.)  “Oko was meant to have that, because she is a beautiful angel who deserves to have something as beautiful as she is!”  Even though he’s angry, when he talks about Oko, he kinda gets dreamy and starry eyed, too. (I act out staring up in the sky with hands balled up under my chin.)

🐰 O-Tsuya: I’m using my Power to Remember, which makes it so that a new character is actually someone that I’ve met before.  I’m gonna say that this is someone who comes into the candy store sometimes and knows me as someone who works there.

Narrator: All right, so because you know this person, you know that this is Reo, the young lord of a political family here in town.  He’s in the middle of another line, like, “If you don’t return that to me right now, I’ll-” but then he recognizes you, and goes, “Aren’t you the kid from the candy store?” (I’ve tilted my head and am squinting, and everyone is laughing at the sudden change in his tone.)  Also, just to describe Reo a bit, he has long black hair, with the top layer pulled into something like a half-ponytail, held in place with a golden, jeweled clasp.

(Everyone nods, understanding that there is a theme with this guy and cool jewelry.)

🐰 O-Tsuya: (Explaining really, really fast) “We met Oko and we said we’d all help so we went over there (points) and found it.”

Narrator: (Laughing and amazed at the speed she said all that) “You whuh- you found-”

🐰 O-Tsuya: “A bird took it.” 😀

🦊 Ayame: (Seeing that Reo needs more help processing everything) “We found the hair stick to help Oko and we are bringing it back right now.”

🐱 Tora: I’m activating my Power of Fuzzy, where I kitty-curl around their legs and their Adult drops to zero.  (Everyone laughs at this amazing power.)

Narrator: He has lost all composure.  [This poor dude.  He was meant to be their final confrontation and they’ve absolutely destroyed him with cuddliness.]  You know what I thought you guys were going to do?  I was afraid you were going to try to Surprise him and get him to run away.  You can do that, by boosting your Henge stat with Feelings.  But, this way turned out way nicer.

Narrator: All right, he’s listened to you guys and understands the situation now.  He looks to the hair stick that Ayame is holding, and kind of automatically reaches for it from you.

🦊 Ayame: …I sniff at his hand.

(We all laugh at this, because she’s human right now, so we all have this image of this girl just going *snrrrrrrk* at a guy’s hand.)

Narrator: He smells like, uh, paper and ink and money, stuff he’s been working with all day.

🐱 Tora: He should smell like the hair pin.

Narrator: Oh my God, that’s so smart.  Okay, yes, his smell is actually on the hair pin, because he is the one that gave it to Oko in the first place.  (I give Tora’s player a Dream because she thought of something that I should have, lol.)

🦊 Ayame: Pleased to have associated the scent with him, I present the hair stick to him in a very proper, Japanese way. (She pantomimes holding something with both hands in front of her.)

Narrator: He’s a little taken aback to have it presented like that, because it’s like the same way that people present things to him all day, and he’s surprised to have a child doing the same thing so politely.  He receives it from you in the proper reciprocating way and gives a serious nod.

🐰 O-Tsuya: O-Tsuya leans in near him and she says, “She’s going to make a great princess.”  (It was unanimously decided that this was an amazing line.)

Narrator: Reo gets all dreamy-eyed again and sighs, “She’s already my princess.”

🦊 Ayame: Because Ayame’s human form is like 13, she’s kind of like, “Ugh, gag.”  She politely turns away to make the face, though, and when she turns back she’s perfectly composed.

🐱 Tora: Tora also looks really bored, and she’s thinking, “Can we get on with it, please,” and kind of flicking her tail in annoyance.

Narrator: Reo agrees that you should all return to Oko right away.  Annnnd… that is the end of the final Scene!!  We can do an epilogue after this, but right now everyone gets a Connection point with Reo because you resolved things peacefully with him.

(No one really needs to tally up their points again for the epilogue, so we move right along.  We also do not linger very long in this epilogue because one of the players has to leave shortly.  I’m really glad we were able to get through the whole story before anyone had to head out!)

–

🌸 The Promised Pin: Epilogue 🌸

Narrator: It is the evening, and everyone has returned to Oko’s garden.  When Oko and Reo are reunited, Oko goes in a dreamy voice, “Oh, Reo!” and Reo goes, “Oh, Oko!” and they embrace, with hearts all around them.  He puts the hair stick through the bun in her hair, and everyone enjoys tea and sweets together.  Oko also gives O-Tsuya her ball back, and she brings out fresh, hot tofu that she just finished preparing, which makes Ayame’s ears and tail pop out [This is a weakness attributed to Ayame’s character, lol].

🦊 Ayame: Because the ears and tail are moving around, I’m like, “Oh, uhh, these are animatronic.  I’m in the school’s AV club.”

Narrator: Oko is nodding along and says, “Wow your cosplays are so elaborate!”  She still believes you, it’s amazing.

Narrator: And that’s… … …THE END!!!!

(Everyone goes, “YAAAAAY!!”)

🌸 The Promised Pin – End! 🌸

Continue with the next story: 🕯 The Fushigi Forest! 🕯

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