Reptile Fetish

Yesterday was a good Task Fo... er, Strike Force Sunday. That first Strike Force is, to me, interesting and a lot of fun. I think we did really well on it, even though we struggled a bit to begin with. I think that had more to do with the fact that we were on a slightly-increased difficulty level and while we were all at 18, the mobs were spawning at 20-21. It became much easier once we all hit 19. The fact that by the end of the SF (and 1 newspaper mission to nudge the Bomber over) we were all 20 (except for our special guest star, the Green Corruptor, who started out a level behind us) was just icing on the cake.

So the next step was, naturally, the costume slot mission and the cape mission. The costume slot mission was the standard hunt, and although one of the ambushes kinda surprised me, we banged it out pretty quick. Only one of us actually wanted a cape, but if we were gonna do the mission for one, we might as well all do it and get the auto-complete. After all, we may not want a cape now...

If you've been following this blog or the associated ones at all, though, you know what that second costume slot means for Ryu. He can finally "reveal" himself as a dragon to his teammates, something I think all the players have been kinda waiting for. I had it in my head that, with Ryu getting hungrier and hungrier, once I had the costume, I'd wait for a defeat or a near-defeat (something that would really irritate Ryu) and have him change and go nuts. Dramatic, shocking reveal and all that.

The story said "no, we're not gonna do it that way".

After a dinner and costuming break, T3 started talking. First about Zen, then about Kain's costume change and powers. We were talking about how over-exposure to radiation is what gave Kain his powers, and just for a laugh, I threw out that something similar had happened to a friend of Ryu's and now he spewed radiation from his mouth.

Yeah, Godzilla reference. Sue me.

But instead of being a throw-away joke reference (like Ryu saying "I am not afraid of any ghost"), Luna and Bomber pursued it. I won't quote the conversation, but the reptile fetish thing that Luna brought up way back came up again, and the muse nudged me. Ryu isn't a rampaging monster, it reminded me. He would just tell people sooner or later. Do it now.

Oh, all right.

I'd designed the costume in my head back when I created the character. When I sat down to the costume creator that first time, I built Ryu's "second" costume first. Then I converted it into the human form that became his "first" costume. You can change faces, skin color, claws, hair... everything on the character is mutable from costume to costume. Except height and base body design. So Ryu had to be ready to be turned into a whip-thin seven-foot-long Japanese dragon.

That did make my job at the Facemaker very easy once the second costume slot was open. The only debate was wings. Traditionally, Japanese dragons don't have them, but people (myself included) would be kind of expecting them. I decided to go without for now. I can always add them later if I change my mind.

So, with a "I trust you three" and "let's keep this between us", Ryu stepped out of alakazamreact as a dragon. Oh, that was a fun pose, and a great scene to watch and play in. I'm not sure if the reactions would've been bigger if the players hadn't been expecting it. Kain had the reaction I expected (a slight raise of the eyebrow and the equivalent of "huh"). I had expected Luna's reaction to be bigger and more horrified, but she took it quite in stride ("Oh, so that's why it's tough to make you invisible. You don't look like that."). Bomber's reaction was fun. The insane person thinking he's going insane.

Once all three had gotten over their initial reactions, the conversation kept going, and that was fun, too. I revealed a couple of the cards I'd been keeping hidden. "Ryu Tatsu" is actually "Ka-Riu" (also spelled "Ka-Ryu"), one of the dragon lords of Japanese folklore. His seven-foot "height" is his full and actual size, he is fiery red, and an acid-spitter. (Search the web for more info if you're curious. I did a little research before creating this character. :) )

Ryu revealed that he is starting to get very hungry. The food available in the Isles is not suited to his needs and Arachnos has confiscated his attempts to import what he needs. And he also revealed that he has other needs that are not being met... but was somewhat shy and changed the subject. The others let him (or to be more accurate, it was very easy to distract Bomber), and so the only other "card" that got tipped was when Ryu said that his servants aren't what they appear to be either.

As a side note, we also got a little more of the Bombardier's back-story. I'll let Mason post on that in detail, but Ryu (and his player) loves stories, especially those that tell how things came to be as they are. But he is also polite, so when Bomber says "I don't want to talk about it any more", as far as Ryu is concerned, the subject is closed. Ryu's player, on the other hand, would love to push for more backstory from all the characters. Especially, at this point, Luna, who has been pretty quiet and hasn't shared much more of her story than is in her bio.

I think, though, that each member of T3 has now put out their backstory a bit. We've teased each other with some of the secrets our characters are keeping, so I think we're finally past the introduction/prologue of this story and into "chapter 1", the beginning of which I place on the Strike Force.

Now what happens next?