2/9/2018 - Second Post: The Search for a Topic

So, as stated, this is my search for a topic a real theme, I may create more than 1 blog and title them by theme before date, but so far I'm looking for a main blog theme. I should think, since I spend the most time with it than anything, that I should start a table top rpg blog. Then I think about it and perhaps I should start a thought blog where I post about my personal issues and habits and current neurosis-fueled mental breakdowns of the day of the post or of things meant to inspire thought. Or perhaps maybe a video game blog where I talk about my triumphs and failures. And of the final category I've considered, maybe not making a traditional, "blog" at all and instead writing short stories to it. Now, I'm going to make an effort to post every Friday morning from now on, I'd appreciate it if I could get some feedback from anybody who may be following me, as unlikely as it is that there is anyone at this point. As for the rest of this post, I'm going to write 1 example for each type and wait for feedback on what's the best in anyone's opinion and if there isn't anybody, I may keep doing that until there's enough people and enough votes consistent with the week to week to get a good feel for what's the best. Without further stalling, let's get into the first topic shall we?

The format goes:
RPG shit on top
Thought, in this case depression shit after that
Gaming shit
Story stuff

RPG:

This week's topic, Villains and Vigilantes, and why it's probably one of the best, if not the best super hero role playing games to date, specifically I'll be talking about 2nd edition (or 1st edition revised).
First, the issue of super powers. Super powers in Villains and Vigilantes is a topic that's quite topical to the genre of game. In V&V you roll 1d6+2 randomly selected super powers, the super powers are then selected by taking that number of powers rolled and choosing which table to roll on that many times out of the 5 available, those 5 being Powers, Technology, Magic/Psionic Devices, Magic & Psionics, and Skills, when rolling on a power table you roll 1d100, unmodified, to get whatever power is denoted. Now, of course there's an alternate method of picking powers, the game book just says that that's something you might want to do, instead of rolling, but it doesn't specify exactly how, this leads one to believe that you still get 1d6+2 powers that you get to choose, however, I house ruled it and said, you can choose powers, but you only get 1d4+1 powers instead, it seems like a fair trade for me in my games. Anyway, at this point we've just gone into the technical shit, what about the powers themselves? Well, the game gives some in depth descriptions of certain powers, Telekinesis for example taking up most of a column on one of the pages in a book printed in 2 column format for most of itself and on paper around 8 1/2 x 12 just about, and almost none for other powers leaving it entirely to your group, for example Body Power. Now, that doesn't mean that those powers are bad, those that are/aren't super complex, they're actually quite good, if you ask me. See, the powers in this game are meant to serve their purpose and that's it, they're meant to do whatever they're designed to do, and in the case of Telekinesis, that's to give the players and GM a clear definition of how it works in game so they don't have to do a bunch of guess work, and in the case of Body Power, that's to provide a giant framework for essentially what is a "Pick your power" roll result. It is for this reason that V&V manages to, in its less than 50 page length (and only pages 8 - 19 for power descriptions), allow one to create literally any and all super powers they could ever possibly desire. Quite a feat. That alone makes it one of the best superhero games ever. One might say "Hero System: Champions" or "Marvel" or "GURPS" even, would suffice and some might argue are better for one reason or another, but the thing that they fail at is by and large simulating the super hero feel and in the case of GURPS and Champions (possibly Marvel) they fail at doing it with ease and simplicity. See, go back to what I said a moment ago, V&V is just less than 50 pages long, 47 pages to be exact (2nd edition anyways and first was even shorter, 38 pages) and then compare that with GURPS with 3rd edition being 272 pages and 4th being 576 pages (all numbers are total page lengths including V&V) and Champions being 56 pages 1st, 80 pages 2nd, 345 pages 4th (3rd appears to have just stopped existing), and 240 pages for 6th edition (can't find 5th either, sorry). The point being that V&V is a much simpler game than the other two. Don't believe me? Well let's take a look at damage rules from V&V compared to GURPS and Champions, for sake of time and ease we'll assume our character in each example is getting attacked by a sword, doing a cut, in V&V the damage would be the HTH damage of the attacker (we'll say 1d4 in this case) + 1d6, in Champions (according to the rules I have) a Shortsword deals 1d6 damage and has a STUN multiplier of 1d6-1 and requires you have at least 8 Strength to use it, in GURPS 4th a Shortsword deals swing cutting damage or thrust impaling damage, we only need the former. In all we assume it's a hit, and so for V&V, the attacker rolls 7 damage (number I actually rolled) and the hero (Boomstick) has 9 hit points and full power points (53) and so he can absorb (Current Power/10 rounded down) or (53/10 round down) = 5 points of damage with his power points and take the rest to hit points, so 5 to his power score, 2 to his hit points, since it's cutting and not impact there's no knock back and then for purposes of knock out we roll 1d100 and the chances he passes out is the number of hit points of damage he took (2% chance), then move on. For GURPS, we'll say the attacker has 12 Strength and so deals 1d6+2 damage, Boomstick is not wearing armor and so he takes damage equal to the roll of 2+2 for 4 multiplied by 1.5, because it's a cutting attack, for 6 total damage, and then he reduces his Dexterity and Intelligence by the max penalty of -4 on his next turn and we'll say he still only has 9 HP, so he's reduced to 1/3 of his hit points and so halves his dodge and movement scores rounded up. We'll say for Champions that his Body score is a 9, that his Strength is the same as in his V&V counterpart, so 14, and that his Constitution is equivalent to his V&V counterpart's Endurance, 13, and that he's spent no points in raising his STUN score, so he has (9+7+6 = 22 STUN points), his strength of 14 also gives a PD of 2, which we'll say he raised to a 3 with a creation point (this doesn't matter though, since again, he's not wearing armor), now his attacker will again have 12 Strength, giving him no damage increase, because he's just shy of getting 5 over the min Str required to use a Shortsword, so when he attacks Boomstick he gets a 4 for damage and 3(roll)-1 for 2 STUNx, making that 4 BODY damage and 8 STUN damage done to Boomstick, and since the STUN damage is less than his Con score he takes no additional effect, except for the loss of STUN. So you see that damage can get really complicated, and that's not the end of it, it goes on and for tons of things. Now I'm not saying that V&V doesn't have its complicated moments, because it does (for example, max distance character can throw something (that isn't to say accurately) is equal to Carrying Capacity - Weight of Object / 2 feet, where Carrying Cap = ((Str/10)^3 + (End/10)) * Body Weight/2)), the point I'm trying to make is that, even with the complex parts of V&V it's still less complex than some of these other games and quicker moving. Which brings me to why it feels more like a super hero game, the pacing. Super hero action is this quick, fast paced action that goes by very, very quickly and may or may not destroy large areas in the process. If you've ever played a round of GURPS combat with more combatants than 6 ish (10 or 12ish to 28 being the largest group of enemies), then you know what I mean by it being very slow, and from the damage calculation of Champions, you can already tell why it's super slow. First of all, to hit calculations. In GURPS this is your base skill level - applicable mods (say Shock mentioned above) and then you roll 3d6 and try to get equal to or under, then your opponent rolls their dodge, parry, or block + their PD (representing the attacking getting through, but glancing off the armor) and they roll 3d6 and try to get equal to or less then that number, if they fail you hit, if you hit the damage done is rolled - the DR of their armor multiplied by the modifier for the damage type (crush x 1, cut x 1.5, impaling x 2). In Champions, you roll 3d6 and try to get equal to or less than (11 + your OCV - Target's DCV) and then if you hit an area with armor you roll damage for the BODY damage done and roll for the STUN multiplier and multiply by that amount for the STUN damage and if you hit an armored area you subtract the Armor's defense from the BODY damage and the Armor's defense + the target's PD from the STUN damage, if you hit an unarmored area you do the full amount of both, of course that's if you're doing a killing attack, if you do a normal attack you would roll damage done with the total being your STUN damage dealt and then dealing 1 BODY damage for each 2 - 5 and 2 BODY damage for each 6 for that and subtract the target's PD (+ Armor) from the STUN damage done and for the BODY damage done. For V&V, you roll 1d20 and try to roll less than or equal to the TN (Determined by type of attack vs type of defense) + accuracy + other applicable mods, then you roll damage as per the attack you're using and your target can subtract parts of that damage from their power, before taking the rest to HP (if they have armor (rare occurrence) they roll 1d100 and if they roll equal to or less than the Armor Score, the armor takes the damage for them and the Armor Score lowers). Of course that's all only when you're talking about the combat aspects of superhero rpgs, but as for the other things, they're not really all that important in determining what makes the superhero game all that good. If you wanted to cover those things in your games, you'll find V&V is probably better at it than other games, in its pace and simplicity again, if at the very least in setting it up. Compare the following. Buying a lock picking skill in GURPS, your DX is 10 and you want to get lock picking at 14, so Lock Picking is an Average level skill, bought at the tech level of at which your character learned it (for purposes of calculating what locks will be easier or harder to pick or impossible to pick) and that's 16 character creation points, 1 for Att -1 another 1 for Att, another 2 for Att +1, another 4 for Att +2, another 4 for Att +3 and another 4 for Att +4. Attaining lock picking skill in V&V, "Does your character have a background in crime in which they would have learned to lock pick?" if yes, then they start skilled with it and will roll 1d20 vs Agility to pick locks with mods as decided by GM, if no they roll 1d100 vs Agility with mods as decided by GM. Learning lock picking in GURPS, "Alright, so since you weren't around people who were using lock picking enough and you yourself didn't actually use the default of it at all this adventure, you're going to have to go see a trainer or self teach, since you aren't employed in a field utilizing lock picking professionally and can't learn on the job. You work a part time job, so if you self taught, you could only do 8 hours a day, luckily if you get a trainer the max any would be willing to do would be that much, but that would be a much higher cost, most definitely, unfortunately if you self teach, it only counts as 1 hour of training for every 2 hours. If you seek out a master to teach you it will be quadruple cost to teach you, but training will be 2 hours worth for every 1 hour. Final note, you need 200 hours worth of training to actually learn lock picking, that's 400 for self taught, 200 normally, or 100 with a master.". Learning it in V&V, "Does your character want to learn to lockpick?" if yes, treat it as inventing, after 2 months game time, 1 month if they sit out sessions specifically to work on "invention" they can spend an inventing point and roll their inventing score % chance and if they succeed they can now lock pick, if they fail, they'll have to try again, that's the way the cookie crumbles.". So yeah, skills are much more simple in V&V and it's not actually a bad thing, if you're a simulationist or some one who really, really loves complexity then V&V is probably not for you, but it's a super hero game, is realism what you're really after? Anyway, that's all of my rambling on mechanics, which in reality make up the game and are what would make it one of the best superhero games ever. Of course now we have to talk about presentation. First thing to note, the entire book is written in 2 column, centered text, font size 10.5 (I think) in Times New Roman text formatting, very par for the course, very simple to read, very standard looking. It has more art than you'd expect out of 47 pages, which is actually a bonus, because it's all incredibly appealing to look at and really sets the tone of the game that it is, without the art it wouldn't have the same appeal while reading it and it would probably only clock in at around 40 pages and that might be a bit of a stretch too far towards the higher end, long story short, there's a lot of really good art in the book. All information for stats or items is laid out in tables throughout the book, so that's really pleasing to read, it removes a lot of confusion that would be there without them and make the game actually unplayable because of the To Hit Table. Each chapter is laid out in very clear sections, e.g., 3.1E Acting out of Turn (where 3 is the chapter, 1 is the section, and E is the sub-section), which make reference and reading much easier to do than with other systems where you'd have to look through the table of contents or index or glossary for the specific thing you're looking for and generally the rules are simple enough that each rule is put into its own section based on chapter and can be found in a couple of page flips. I don't have much to say about the formatting, other than it goes above and beyond to make it very easy to reference, if I had a rating scale, this system, V&V, would probably have redefined it for me, because it's better than any other book in the format category, in my opinion. For me, personally, I'd have to agree with those who say V&V is probably the best superhero rpg, honestly, but that's just my opinion.

Thought:
Alright, so I'm going to preface this with stating that I've been diagnosed with and suffering from clinical depression for years now (2015 - now and beyond) and I'm not going to pussy ache about how hard it is, instead I'm going to try to make a point to describe how it feels for me and then I'm going to attempt to make a clear point of how it would feel, so that you, the reader, might understand what depression is really like.
For me it really, really started after my mother died, I was definitely depressed before then, but never to the extent of that before, not to where I was pushed, as it was my first experience with the death of someone who I actually cared about, it was naturally going to be one of the hardest moments of the concept of death for me, especially since I'm an atheist and that's gut wrenching with all that happened. To give full context of why this was even harder than just a regular death, I was the last person to listen to my mother's last words, she was an alcoholic and had been removed from the household about a little more than a decade ago, and the night she died she had called me, crying, drunken and having relapsed and it angered and annoyed me, I had guests at the time of the call and it was inappropriate, and she was apologizing over and over for everything she'd ever done, she was apologizing for ruining our family, she was apologizing for trying to get my father falsely imprisoned, just literally everything she'd ever done, and nothing I said could convince her it was alright. Further that same night I had a dream wherein my mother's apartment was burning and she was laying on the floor in the middle of everything, not burnt or what have you, but passed out while the building burned around her and I woke up after that terrified and also needing to take a piss, so I took a piss, convinced myself everything was fine and went back to bed, note it was 2 AM at the time (another note, I was 16 in 2015, so hopefully that makes me sound slightly less pathetic). The next morning, I awoke, enraged because my dogs wouldn't shut the fuck up, and I'd passed out on the living room floor that night, in eye shot of our almost entirely window door, and I saw my mother's entire family standing on our porch, they had me wake everyone else up and told us the news that my mother had died of smoke inhalation from an apartment fire that night, she was pronounced dead roughly at 5, the fire was called in at 3-ish. Of course, the depression I'd had before then, feeling like I had only one person who gave a shit about me, the dream and having time to do something, and so on all piled up and I felt like I had caused this all and it weighed on me and I just broke down, I couldn't find the motivation to go to school, barely even to get changed, to eat, to play games, just everything fell apart for me at that point. Now of course this was a big part in why my depression worsened, but it wasn't the only thing that made it worse and worse. After a suicide attempt I ended up in a mental ward for a couple of days, being released AMA after 3 days, 3 days isolated from anything except for playing fucking Uno (a fate, I wholeheartedly believe worse than death, being stuck with only Uno, for what felt like an eternity, seriously, if there is a hell, that's what it will be for me, just unending Uno), because I got pissed off (because there was no punching bag in the gym and all we got to play, because everyone only wanted to play just that game alone, was Uno and it finally got to me, and also because I was supposed to be released that day anyway) and threw a bean bag through one of the wooden cupboards in the lounge area we spent more time in doing nothing than actually getting help. After being released I more or less did jack shit, I went back to school, finished out the year by cramming, and then spent my summer trying to not die of boredom since literally nothing entertained me anymore. Eventually I felt more and more alone and everything was just dark and empty, my friends started feeling to me like strangers and I didn't have any serious relationships, not to mention everyone including my family was just pitying me more than anything and there wasn't anyone who I could have found a relationship with or that would want one with me (from the mentality in my head at the time that somehow having a boyfriend, some companionship and overt love would cure everything). So, at this point, I was a depressed, teenager, growing more and more bitter and cynical and just hating the world because of how shit it was and it looked like there was literally no way out of it all. Later that summer as it looked more and more to my friends, especially my best friend, that I was just going to fucking end it all, I was just that ready to leave everything behind, I was just done with the world and everything it offered. So therefore, that aforementioned best friend, set me up with my boy friend and it made me so happy for a few weeks that I thought I was fixed, until I found out very suddenly and painfully one night at 3 AM when I realized how alone I still felt that that wasn't the case. Of course, at that point, it became even more painful to be in a relationship, I had a responsibility to be alive at that point when all I wanted was death, so much so that it invaded my dreams for months on end. What made it monumentally worse was that one night my friend and I were at his house, alone, and he knew I thought he was attractive, and we'd been smoking a bunch of weed and drinking a bit of alcohol and I was so fucked up I literally could almost not stand and at one point, before not being able to stand, I hid from the television because I thought the movie we were watching was going to make me take bath salts. Of course, eventually I passed out on the couch, halfway on the floor and then the rest of the night was mostly a blur, all except for the part where I was in a different position and his dick was in my mouth. The next morning basically went as him thanking me, me being traumatized and terrified that this had happened and just wanting to get home, then actually going home as soon as possible to go take a shower and do whatever else I needed to do to feel clean again. I now know that it was definitely the wrong thing to do to wash my clothes, shower, brush my teeth, etcetera, believe me or don't, I literally can't prove it and I fucked it all up for myself because I'm a dumb ass, I was absolutely more mortified by the actions of that person than with any other actions anyone had ever done to me before, so I wasn't thinking clearly and I fucked up and it's awful. Again, you can believe me or don't, I wish I hadn't fucked up so I could prove it to you. There was a small, short investigation after that and he was put on a watch list and that all led ultimately nowhere. The only good thing to come of it was I finally could get a counselor from the Child Advocacy Center in my area. The counseling eventually ended when the counselor moved and I decided that I couldn't rebuild a bridge with someone new again in person and so that was the end of counseling for me. The counseling did jack shit though, it helped marginally, but during that time period of getting counseling I got so close to killing myself I had a shotgun in my mouth and was ready to pull the trigger, just looking for someone to give me a reason to stay and that day no one was available and the only "friend" who was said they literally would not care if I did pull the trigger, eventually I calmed myself down enough to not pull the trigger, although there have been plenty of times since where I wish I hadn't calmed myself down. Since then it's mostly been a bit of calm with a very periodic, cyclical series of mental breakdowns, slowly getting worse and worse to the point where I've been ending up in states of temporary psychosis or loss of motor and brain functionality. It's still happening, but I'm trying and I'm trying to get through it, but when everyday is misery time becomes this fickle thing where a day turns into a week by my perception, a week into a month, a month into a year, and all of it into a long continuous blur where nothing makes sense. Amazingly despite all of that my boyfriend hasn't left me yet, but I've already hemorrhaged most of my friends and I'm losing more still. Anyway, like I said above, I'm not here to pussy ache and it's time now to get into the how you might be able to, if you've not already suffered depression, maybe understand, apologies if it comes off cliche.

Imagine for me, that everyone in your family absolutely despises you, your grandparents hate you for a plethora of reasons, and have contributed to many of your fears growing up, your parents neglected you and one of them abused you and your sibling until your sibling began to abuse you mercilessly, pulling your hair, forcing you to the ground, kicking you in the teeth, the stomach, stomping on your throat a couple of times and so on. Now that you have the family hate going, imagine that no one likes you, everyone outside of your family also hates you, and your "friends" are indifferent to you and can change disposition at the drop of a hat. So, everyone hates you or is indifferent to you, disloyal and treacherous to the point of abusing you, all you feel is this feeling of being alone, even when you're in a crowd. Adding to this you can't feel joy anymore, everything is numb, imagine being bored, but have that feeling never end, the only time when you get a reprise from it is when you feel like your world is crashing in on you and you're in more literal pain and sadness than literally any other moment in your life and this gets worse and worse and worse every time you get this reprise. Now imagine that you have a responsibility to live, place on you or taken on by yourself, so now that reprise is triggered even more, because that cause is the be all, end all of everything you've ever worked for, a purpose, and no longer is death just a pleasant thought, now you realize how much pain the person that cause is devoted to, the cause of living, will be in if you're dead. Now just imagine that day in and day out, every single day for as long as your brain can remember until happiness becomes a distant memory and the sensation of that feeling is as alien and as non existent as a deity. Top that off with the physical sensation of always being cold, never being able to get warm and that's very close to how it feels, very close to how to describe it.

Video Games:
(3:31 AM) I just died on my second best run of Caves of Qud, because I forgot I had negative disposition with the goat-folk and for that reason I got swarmed and was forced to use my Disintegrate (4) power, 4d10+10 damage at that level to all organics in vacinity and 1d100+40 to all inorganics, but exhausted for 3 rounds, and that exhaustion cost me my life... i swear that I've never been more depressed or defeated and have created nowhere near as a great of a memory from a death of a character in a roguelike than right then, including the time I accidentally forgot to cure myself of poisoning in Keeper RL and died while moving.

RIP Psilluthu 13.346 points in rememberance to the fact that we could've gotten that cybernetic heart implanted if I didn't shit the bed on that one...

Also, get Caves of Qud if you're a fan of Roguelikes, just trust me, it's like Gamma World 4th Edition got turned into a video game and if you don't get that reference, it's like Fallout, but with permadeath, is even harder, and also you're a mutant with mutant powers. Do you want to be a Bird faced creature with night vision, flaming hands, and the ability to bend every creature around you to your will? Then play Caves of Qud, it's fantastic... also watch out pricker spores if you don't want to be forced into having an unremovable hardened spore coat... also watch out for goat-folk... and desert raiders with guns... and random turrets in ruins... everything, just watch out for everything.

Story:
The time is 8AM in the vast deserts of Meriga where we lay our scene. 4 wanderers, Parth, Mirriam, Carl, and Sugar-Cube, cross the Seer'aa Desert to reach the settlement of Vague Iss. Rations are running low and Parth thinks to itself that it might be the only survivor, being as it has enough nutrients from the ground and its stored water to cross the desert easily, and it thinks of how there may not be help for its friends-- its thoughts are interrupted by an irate Sugar-Cube, yelling loudly, "This is ridiculous! We'll never make it there, I'm starting to think this place doesn't even exist and Parth lured us out here, with the promise of treasures, to kill us and take our artifacts and corpses to sell to the highest bidder! Well cactus!? Tell me I'm wrong! How much further? How many days to our doom?"
"It shouldn't be much longer and I assure you my intents are pure."
"Pure!? Such words from scum such as yourself!? I spit at you!" before he could, however, 8 eyes, individually blinking meet him in the face, as Mirriam interjects, "Save the moisture if you're so concerned with death. If Parth wanted us dead it would have sold sold us out to Raider King Dorn by now or back in Feeniks when we were surrounded. We'll get there when we get there, until then spare us the annoyance horse! It's bad enough as it is with the heat..."
"Fine!" said Sugar-Cube in return
"Don't fret everyone, it's all going to be okay, Sugar-Cube's just antsy because his tentacles are all drying up and he's probably in a lot of pain." spoke Carl.
"Like you'd be so caring, 8 legged one. You tried eating me when we first met." Parth said.
Carl responded, "That's no fair, I was just succumbing to goat nature!"
"Yes, the same goat nature that drives you to spin webs?" Sugar-Cube interjected.
"Hey! I'm on your side! Don't start ganging up on me, you know it's hard living the duality of my exi-" Carl said, before realizing Mirriam was 20 meters ahead of them and he looked away from the other two.
Parth yelled out, probably the most qualified to do so, since it had the most moisture in it, "Where are you going Mirriam!"
"Anywhere there're more humans and less bitches!" They heard back.
It was at this point the rest decided to stop bickering like children and to start getting back to walking.

---

It was silent all the way until the night and Parth did not sleep, as it was a plant, and it was worried for its friends, it realized that it could not get them to Vague Iss unscathed and it battled with the decision to leave and go ahead for several hours, before it convinced itself only good could come of it. It woke Carl, the most sensible it figured, "Carl!" it yelled in a hushed tone, "Carl! I'm gonna go ahead, I can keep going even now for longer than the rest of you, it's a straight shot from here to Vague Iss and if I can make it there I can get some riders to come by steel buggy to get you all."
"But why?" said Carl in a similar low voice.
"Because I'm afraid you might not make it without aid, listen, just get everyone to stay here, alright?"
...
"Alright?!" Parth yelled slightly louder and slightly more agitated.
"Yes, sure, fine!" Carl snapped back at Parth.
"Good." said Parth, before waving one final good bye and departing.
Parth spent several hours traveling and pushed itself to the point of unhealthiness, so much so the sun rose before it knew it, but there it was, in the now heating morning air, there was the settlement Vague Iss. Parth headed into town, showing its writ of admission to the gatekeepers, "Do you know where I might hire some chaperones?" it said. The towering purple skinned creature it called a guard, clad in metal all over, hunched over Parth, blocking the sun mostly and said, "Over there in the 5 Legged Pig Bar." in the squeakiest voice Parth swore it'd ever heard. It didn't laugh, it was used to unexpected things by now and knew a high pitched voice like that meant the wielder of it was a powerful banshee, a creature with a vocal mutation to control sonic frequencies to the point of destroying materials as has hard as concrete, or at least it'd heard one had destroyed concrete once. Finally, Parth was in the bar, it went to the main tender and greeted her, "What can I get you?" she asked, eagerly.
"I need to get some chaperones for my friends, they're in the desert still." Parth responded.
"Certainly, here, use this." she said, pulling up a strange block with a button on it and a long metal tube that looked almost threaded, that was meant to articulate, Parth soon learned, the device also bore a fuzzy black head and a long black tail leading elsewhere from the back. The woman spoke again, "It's a noise loudener, speak into the fuzz while holding down the white button and everyone'll be able to here ya."
Parth pushed the button and a loud shriek went over the bar, everyone stopped and looked at Parth, "Um... Can I have your attention please, I need some chaperones, my friends are in the desert just out of town and they'll die without help. We can pay extremely well if you can help us. There's a human, female, 8 eyes, 4 arms, a horse with tentacles, and a spider-goat, they're directly in line of the main gate, come see me if you're interested. We're desperate, please, thank you." Parth released the button and turned to the woman again.
"That'll be 25 Domars Mr. Kind'n'Prickly!" she said with a shit-eating grin, her sharpened rows of teeth on full display.
"That's pricey! What about 15?" Parth returned.
"Flower power," she said, referring to the flower on Parth's head, "I'm lettin' you off nicely with 25 take it or leave in a smoothie cup." she finished.
"Okay, alright." Parth said, fishing for the Domars as he heard a semi-deep voice from behind, raspy yet pleasant.
"I heard you needed a driver?" said the voice.
Parth handed the scraps of currency to the woman, saying, "Oh! Yes, please!" while turning around. When it finished the movement it was greeted by a large, chitinous, black creature standing on 4 legs, its other 2 mutated into arms which were fiddling with its rather pointy tail.
"Well... let's get to it. The names Leonard, by the way." the scorpion creature said, it followed with, "Nice to meet you, we'll discuss pay on the way." to which Parth shook its head and followed the creature outside, they rounded a bend and Leonard spoke again, "Wait here." minutes later Parth heard a roar as a large, rattling, metal machine on rubber came into view, pulling onto the hot, black-stone road. "Hop in." Leonard said, Parth went around the back of the vehicle and started opening the gate when it heard a lout Honk! "Wrong door!" Leonard yelled, looking back at the cactus person, "What's the matter, don't want to sit up front with the mean scorpion man?" he laughed and Parth came up front, opening the door, and placing itself in the metal seat that had been welded in. "Hang on tight." Leonard told Parth as he accelerated forward and out the front gate.

---

When they reached the spot the party had been, a half hour of travel later, they found nothing except for signs of struggle, multiple tracks pounded into the sand by hoof and shoe and tire tracks, circling the grouping of foot marks, and finally shooting off in different lines into the distance, and all converging towards the same direction, back to the south east... back towards Feeniks.

"Oh no..." Parth said.