Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Brass Rings Session 9: Meeting the Great and Powerful Zo

From the journals of Havarti Quickquill:

This may be my last posted journal for a while - I think we may be off on a wonderful excursion to places never seen by the rodents of our kingdom! But let me start back where I last left off.

Bisquik, in an attempt to distract Miss Smokeveil, made a leap out of the air vent, landing right behind Mr Gogsworth. That mouse is a quick shot - she managed to get a shot off and hit Mr. Dusttail! Finster leapt up, I think to land on Miss S, but he missed and landed beside her. Vishy was a bit better, and did land on her, and John got a shot out from another air vent, seriously wounding the would-be assassin! I managed to cross the great expanse of that floor as Jasper made a giant leap to the table. He is certainly a jumping type of rodent! I saw his fighting spurs gleam as he jumped high above. 

As he landed, John rolled out of another vent and got a shot off at Mr. Cogsworth. Despite being wounded, that nefarious mouse pulled some sort of component out of the spider insides. That giant robot had just rolled up to the table and one of his arms reached down to make a ramp. John darted over and bopped him on the head. Cogsworth, much injured, held up the box and said:  "If I drop this, this entire structure will be destroyed, along with all of you!" The robots hand appeared to be moving closer to Mr. Cogsworth, as if to pick him up to escape. I don't think Jasper believed him as he jumped across the space and knocked out the mouse. Who dropped that box, and the robot immediately stopped moving. And Finster slipped Goudalyn S. off the table, who landed next to me on the floor. I rapidly tied her up, not knowing what else to do.

Then the giant mouse appeared on wall again, but this time it looked different. Older, a bit rumpled. He thanked us for what we had done, glad we had come back to the complex. Then he said he would be right there, and the giant image of him went away. A few moments later, a car came along with an elderly mouse. We got his story: he was the last of his clan, those that had learned the ways of the Forerunners. Fearing how the technology could be so easily misused, and based on the Forerunner history, his clan, while exploring and learning, decided that rodents were just not ready for that kind of power yet. Cogsworth and his bodyguard, Miss Smokeveil, had been making steady progress in getting deeper and deeper into the complex over the last few months. His goggles, as Finster and John found out, aided him in seeing the materials and power flows through various things. Including Forerunner technology. 

We had a lengthy discussion on what to do, and in the midst of this the elder mouse, who called himself Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs Ovider Zodenker Paneer Imsal Nazareth Hermelin Esrom Abertam Dorozhny, or Zo for short, said he would give us a ship that could traverse the rings faster than the Royal Train Line. He said there are entire worlds beyond our kingdom. Zo has explored a bit in his past but as age has creeped up on him, he just wants to stay here his remaining years.

We talked about how to keep the Foreunner labs safe, even if we had to blow them up. But Finster pointed out that the place was huge, and we'd never get enough dynamite to do it. Zo said we could probably close off the entrances better, and once he died he would have the power also go into what he called hibernation mode, locking the entire place up. We'd just to explore a bit for those places that no longer functioned correctly and would not close up.

We also had to decide what to do with Swiss Cogsworth and Goudalyn Smokeviel. Bisquik and Finster were concerned that any place we put them, they would escape and return or find another Forerunner location that was still active. Jasper was far more forthright about it. I shudder to think of killing anyone, but if they amassed the terrifying technologies of the Forerunners, who knows what they would do? 

I fear I also drifted off, so will have to write in the next journal entry what our plans are. But as I drifted off, I thought of wandering far above our part of the Rings. To explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no rodent has gone before! It sounds exciting. As long as there is cheese and tea.

And thus we ended the game with 9 sessions. Which is pretty good for me! It is also wide open for further adventures as they now have a spacecraft basically. They can really zip around the rings, and I can see other Forerunner stations far away with other rodent or other animal kingdoms to be discovered!

The ship is basically 0-Hr's version of a Space:1999 Eagle. I liked it and even got two of the minis.

The Prospector, available here

The Great And Powerful Zo


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