Let's Play Torg: To The Moon! Part One

Earth's reality has been invaded by several parallel realms, each dominated by a High Lord who is trying to steal Earth's fertile possibility energy. But some inhabitants of Earth - and of the other realms - become attuned to this possibility energy. Able to harness possibilities to enhance their abilities and perform incredible - almost impossible - feats in the fight against the High Lords for the freedom of their realms, they are known as Storm Knights.

This is their tale.

Some days ago Sir Richard Fernwilter III, of Her Majesty's Botany Service, received a letter informing him that he had been selected to give a speech at a scientific conference on the moon. He also received a letter from the mysterious Red Heat, formerly one of super-villain Wu-han's Three Deadly Concubines, expressing a desire to see him there. In their previous meeting, the two had developed a powerful attraction catalyzed by their mutual love of Weird Science before realizing they were on opposite sides of the alignment spectrum.

Upon discovering this, Red Heat called for Sir Fernwilter to join her and rule together, but his defiance and devotion to the cause of Good were so great that it won her over instead. No longer a villain, she led Wu-han's soldiers from their post, providing no further obstacle to the Storm Knights' thwarting of his plot.

Although Fernwilter moved on to further adventures - including an unrequited love for Tolwyn, paladin and captain of the guard in the fantasy realm of Aysle - he never forgot Red Heat or lost hope of seeing her again. So upon receiving these letters he set out immediately for the launch point east of Tokyo.

He was accompanied by three other Storm Knights: the fair and eloquent Aphrodesia Jones, writer of great romances; the devout and enigmatic Raphael, Inquisitor of the CyberPapacy, gone forth to preach the blessing of cyberware without the artificial limitations imposed by the heretical CyberPope; and the quick and deadly ninja Echo, recently rendered cybernetic by her conversion to Tharkoldu reality.

They have traveled by Japanese cruise ship from the borders of Orrorsh to Tokyo. During the trip, Raphael took Echo under his wing, to serve as her spiritual advisor and teach her about her new cybernetic abilities. The captain turned out to be a fan of Aphrodesia's works, so she had dinner at the captain's table every night on the trip. Fernwilter, a genius in the field of animatronic taxidermy, attended every nature video showing on the ship in hopes of getting inspiration for his next project. Unfortunately, what he thought were nature videos - "When Vines Attack", "Giant Squid's Revenge", "Tentacle Invasion" - turned out to be something very different, though he still took careful notes.

In Tokyo, Aphrodesia goes looking for spacesuits for a trip to the moon, and finds executive-quality spacesuits that are easily collapsible into a small handbag. She buys four. Echo stops by her old contract agency to see what sort of work is out there now. The only interesting contract is one for a Sir Richard Fernwilter. It's an open contract, meaning that taking it won't get it off the market - so she doesn't. She heads to the boat where they all were to meet in order to transport to the launch pad, in the ocean east of Tokyo. Fernwilter, Raphael, and Aphrodesia are already there.

Echo is still coming up the gangplank when the two men coming up behind her see Fernwilter and yell, "There he is!" She turns around and kicks one off the ramp, and the helicopter overhead shoots a laser through Fernwilter's right eye shoots a laser at Fernwilter, who sizzles with possibility energy as the laser grazes him. ["Take four wounds K-O 5." "I… spend a possibility to reduce damage. And not die."] Three speedboats come toward the ship as well, from all different directions.

Echo looks up at the helicopter and narrows her eyes. She feels an internal targeting computer start up, part of the cyber-tech that she acquired in the reality storm that converted her to the reality of the Tharkoldu cyber-demons. She hears Raphael say, "Trust in your god-given abilities!" and, in tune with her targeting computer, fires a shuriken from the launcher in her arm. As it streaks toward the helicopter, she hears Aphrodesia yell, "The boats!" and shoots a second one after it. The first shuriken hits the helicopter in a screech of shearing metal, tearing the tail off and sending the body of the copter toward one of the boats. The second shuriken hits the tail and sends it flying into a second boat, gunmen screaming. She gives a satisfied smile that shows far too many teeth.

Aphrodesia strikes a dramatic pose, pointing her Princess Leia-style laser gun at the third (fleeing) boat. She looks the image of a warrior princess as she fires off a shot - irrespective of the fact that it misses. Raphael threatens the last man on the gangplank, who surrenders to interrogation. He has no idea where the contract originally came from, having accepted it through a contract agency like the one Echo had consulted with. However, the number he names for the price is much higher than the price Echo was offered. "Huh," she mutters. "I guess that agency skims more off the top than I thought."

The rest of the boat trip to the launch pad goes uneventfully. On the shuttle to the moon, some Japanese businessmen are watching Fernwilter suspiciously. The team sets up a rotation to guard him (Shift One: The cyber-ninja. Shift Two: There is no shift two.) but no one makes trouble, and they arrive uneventfully.