The story after "Scottish Play," was the first we managed to fit into a single evening's session. (Huzzah!) Mike, player of Timothy Hague, the Power of Accidents, got to pick the theme for that one. All he said was The International Space Station. As it happens, he had also just bought Tim's Realm score up to 4, and we hadn't had an in-chancel adventure yet. So naturally I wanted a story about the International Space Station that took place within the PC's chancel. Which is a ski resort. (And dude ranch. With beach access.)

SO! The PC's chancel is Important. (Why? They paid for it!) We've decided that since it is a resort, it's a place where Powers, but especially anchors can go to unwind when they're getting weary of the Valde Bellum. Plus assorted other mundane and mystical revelers. SO. I decided on the approach Bill outlined in his Bender-centric recap below: The Space Station is on vacation. That is, its spirit form appears in the chancel and doesn't want to leave. Since I felt the conspiracy angle overbalanced the previous adventure I was determined to have no wheels within wheels within wheels this time. Just your typical lonely, frightened space station, an attractive, engaging - if skinless - woman (Power, actually), and a contest: Get the space station back into space and get him to stay there.

Things I wish I had done better department: In my early notes, the Space Station was depressed at the halting progress of Manned Spaceflight and afraid that he was a prime target for the Excrucians. In actual play, the first component of his malaise almost entirely disappeared. That made the space station less engaging. Also: I realized the contest had "narrative structure" problems. Bill's post alludes to those too. I meant to have an NPC suggest a "pre-contest" to determine turn order.

Things I did that you might not have done, and I might not do again: Timothy, aka Realm Boy did indeed win. I let him use his Realm score as authorial power to find an appropriate ally within the chancel (The Power of Manned Space Flight, who acts and talks exactly like Flashheart from Blackadder). Needless to say, the Nobilis rules do not explicitly define Realm as in-chancel author power. The player seen his opportunity and he took it. It was getting late in the evening, and the players didn't seem to have an unhealthy investment in who actually won the contest, so I let it work. I've been encouraging the players to take more authorial initiative anyway, so this was a chance to put some force into the encouragement.

The Power of Manned Space Flight was the first high-Aspect character the players had the chance to deal with. He found the Space Station in line for you-know-which-ride at Disney World, and simply threw him back into orbit. This didn't represent a non-player character upstaging the PCs because in doing this, he was acting entirely along the lines that the player character intended him to act.