Armour Astir 1
[This is a transcript of a 4-player session of a fewshot of Armour Astir, a Powered by the Apocalypse game of a conflict between rebellious factions and a fascist Authority. I am playing the character of Rajiv, an Imposter-Playbook who has gained his magical powers through cybernetic enhancement of his body. Alwain Riese is using the Captain playbook and Alya is using the Paradigm playbook. All other players and GM preferred to remain anonymous. You can find Armour Astir here: https://royalrabbit.itch.io/armour-astir]
In the Conexus sector, a carrier ship breaks orbit and enters the atmosphere of the planet Fitora. A desert planet, devastated by the brutal conquest of the Kingdom of Sumere, originating on the planet of the same name. Sumere and Fitora were the first planets to gain Astir, the magical giant Armours used in warfare and industry, after magic awakened in the sector. But while Fitoras' Astir were boons granted by the gods to make life simpler, the Sumerian Astir are 'gifts' by an otherworldly being. These are paid for in blood through ritual sacrifice of innocents. These so-called Crimson Guard decimated Fitora's military and population, and today the planet lies silent.
Except for the carrier ship breaking orbit, commanded by Captain Alwain Riese. Sitting in his command chair he receives a report from the sensor stations of strange readings, originating from the ruined city of Arcadia. The city they were sent to, to retrieve an ancient Astir. A mission nobody else has come back from alive thus far. Concerned, he turns on the comms and opens a channel to the two Astir pilots in the hangar. While Alya is checking over her Astir's system and responds formally in her military-style manner, acknowledging the Captain's orders, Rajiv is less formal. With his feet up on his Astirs dashboard, he voices his boredom and says to contact him when the action starts.
Annoyed, the Captain turns his attention back to business on the bridge. Shortly after, he receives another report: Automatic turret defences have been activated on the crumbling walls of Arcadia. He gives the command to launch the Astirs and the crew, less afraid of her than Rajiv, launches Alya out of the catapult first. Utilising her Astirs flight form, she deftly avoids the energy beams shooting up from the turrets at her and starts attacking the weapon's power sources, directed by the Captain's commands. Rajiv on the other hand is less lucky. During descent to the surface, his Astir's leg was damaged, leaving him to only attack the turrets themselves. Nevertheless, the outdated defences are no match for the Astirs and ship and are quickly destroyed in a flurry of attacks, without more than a few scratches on the Astir's paintjobs. Rajiv breaks through the wall and once inside, both pilots get joined by Alwain. They disembark their Astir so the crew can take them back up to the ship for maintenance and repairs while they start exploration on foot.
The outside is stiflingly hot, but Alya, leading the group with her large sword, simply remarks "Just like home. Let’s go.". The three start wandering the city, passing by the remains of people and Astir alike, from a battle long ago. Soon, they find an entrance to an underground complex. It's getting colder and colder the deeper they go. Unnaturally cold, with the air itself starting to feel ... strange. The tunnels and passageways down here are also riddled with the dead and destroyed, amplifying the prevalent feeling that this place is wrong. That danger is lurking here, unnatural and destructive.
In one of the cavern's dead ends, they discover what might be the reason for this. A huge Astir is lying here, but this is so far the first one that doesn't seem to be damaged. It's covered in what looks like human skin, the large clawed hands made up out of human bones. A nightmare turned reality. With a soft hissing sound, the Astirs cockpit opens, revealing a humanoid form that is very obviously not a human. The silhouette is indescribably alien, six large eyes focusing on the group. Nevertheless, the pervasive magical disturbance in this room emanates from the Astir, not the strange figure in the cockpit.
The figure presents itself as the guardian of the Astir - which she calls Ophelia - and not its pilot. A guardian waiting for a worthy person to arrive and claim the Ophelia. This prompts the Captain to speak up, telling the strange being, who introduces herself as Aer, that the group has come to do just that. When Aer warns them that the Ophelia only exists to destroy, Alya adds that they'll use it to fight evil. Aer concedes that this might be a better use for the Astir, and tells the group that she's just an observer who will leave the planet soon. She will not stop the group. This raises Rajiv's suspicions and he asks Aer who might. She, in turn, simply answers "Others who are looking for this". The encounter in the cave ends with Alya entering the Ophelia's cockpit and managing to activate the Astir. Rajiv and the Captain climb up and hold on to the Astir’s outer frame. All three watch as Aer walks up to a wall, touches it, and vanishes while walking through the rock.
After leaving the underground complex, the three are confronted by foot soldiers from Sumere. They demand that the Ophelia is handed over at once. Luckily, the crew and Astir are ready for a fight. Alya jumps up to the ship with the Astir, which has been waiting, cloaked from suspicious eyes, taking the Captain with her. Rajiv waits below and the crew sends down his Astir. While the enemy attacks him with their beam rifles, he gets into the Astir without problems and immediately opens fire with his missiles, destroying the house the Sumerian troopers used as cover and killing some of them. Alya descends in her own Astir, adding to the carnage by overheating and firing her spellcannons. The few survivors get blasted by the carrier's cannons, and the two Astir are quickly loaded into the carrier to leave Fitora before the approaching enemy Astir arrive.
While en route, the group needs to decide who to give the Ophelia to: They've been sent by two factions, the College of Daedalus, a scientific institute working for Sumere as a cover while trying to subvert them, and the seemingly neutral Silver Wing Company, the premier mercenary group in the sector.
After a short deliberation, they decide to set course for the planet Seech and the headquarters of the College, thinking they'll be able to do more good with the Ophelia than the Company. Using the downtime to their advantage, Alya starts installing poison filters in her pilot's suit and Rajiv decides to spy on the College using the carrier's comms array. This works surprisingly well and he manages to tune into an ongoing poker game between the headmaster of the College and the commander of the Silver Wing Company. He listens for a while and can gather that the headmaster is surprised that the group chose the college, but is very happy about it. The commander of the Company on the other hand doesn't seem to disapprove of the choice either.
After arriving on Seech, they are greeted by one of the professors there (not without embarrassing the door guard first by blurting out top secret information to them). The professor doesn't introduce themselves, but inspects the Ophelia. The strange Astir is loaded onto a truck for transportation after Alya confirms that it won't be used to hurt innocents. Silently, she also deliberates about this with her deity - the Arbiter - who seems to talk with her through her sword, but the two don't reach a specific conclusion. It seems the College is still up for judgement from the Arbiters point of view. Of course, all of this happens inside Alyas mind and none of the others notice anything.
As soon as the Ophelia is underway, the group is escorted to the private library of the headmaster. While the three are drinking coffee, he joins them and introduces himself as Charles. He is very interested about the happenings on Fitora and the group only tells him about the automated defences and the troops from Sumere, but keeps quiet about Aer. Charles doesn't seem to notice that they're keeping something from him, he simply adds that the turrets must be manned by the dead. While Arcadia might not be haunted, something still remains of its population that can control these turrets. Finally, the headmaster reveals the College's plans and wants the group to join them in this: Since all ships and Astir use magic to power themselves, they can only be used to travel a certain distance from the sector before the magic gets too weak and the machines break down. This is why they're working on alternatives that don't use magic and at the same time trying to find ways to eradicate magic. Seemingly to counter Sumere since they would be severely weakened without their crimson guard and navy, but who knows what goals the College really has. For now, the three decide to help the College at least short term. But none of them are too happy about the idea of destroying magic itself.
[Part 2 can be found here: https://daydreamingmoose.bearblog.dev/armour-astir-2/]