Session 35

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Next: Session 36

• The Serenade
• Vespucciano opened the door to the Shop and Save abt 10ish mins after ripley got woken up
• Did they all immediately try to shoot u
• “No i walked in first. Went down the hallway, and then some started phasing thru the doors and shooting at me.”
• Xep finds a Hardened chunk of something in the floor, dime sized, hidden under a washing machine
  • Finds a box wrapped in some sort of tinfoil, there seems to be a coin sized hole in it
  • The box thru the hole is made out of lead
  • Welded shut
  • It snaps open, reveals a noqual box. Anti magic material
  • Obiado snaps that open with his teeth
  • Reveals adamantine box
  • Various documents within, passports, id into the Solara Imperium, all of which made for a vesk man under the name Treslok Naviz
  • Credsticks, 10k
  • Name that is generic to not arouse suspicion, but not generic enough To arouse suspicion
    • This one fits anyone within the solaran imperium. This one covers a vesk man
  • Reading thru
    • Passes into imperium
    • Sim card that would let u into solaran imperium networks to allow u to make calls
    • Alongside reporting details depending on the time period we find ourselves in. arrival, 1 year after arrival, 3 years after arrival.
    • This spy was set here to hold orders for at least 50 years.
    • This an extreme level only for those in the circle, under the Solaran Emperor’s watch, or at least a few steps removed.
  • Many of the computers are glitching in here
    • Some is bitcrunched footage
    • 1 does show rin and len crying over their deceased bodyguard
    • Once we system restart, the program show various parts of the serenade
    • Infiltrated part that gives us access to cameras
    • Appears we have access to almost everything thats not the tower
• 26 finds the 1 tell sign of a vesk: scale cleaner in the bathroom. Definitely Graying Twilight
• Vespucciano finds a shit ton of weapons inside the master bedroom
  • “Hidin drugs and spy stuff is relatively the same, yknow?”
  • Ripley pulls the mirror off the wall
    • Safe!
    • Asper has to make a will save cause there’s an aura that specifically makes them feel sick
      • 1d6 persistent electricity as long as they’re within line of sight
      • Seems to just be for androids
    • Crack open the safe, have brain dance chips that have been modified hastily with a burnt out processor
    • Outside has an electromagnetic pulse that affects anyone with the tech trait
  • “This man, ya spy, we’re gonna see some fucked up shit or get some secrets!”
• There’s a long hallway service shoot to the docks
• Xep on cameras
  • Able to see what its showing, its last good data archive
    • The day before the shutdown/day Of the shutdown
  • See everything that was happening while summer was in the tower
  • Conrad and Othela going to the tower backrooms to do the switch with the party
  • See the lights turn off for a sec
  • Within the security room see the vesk man bashing his head against the arcade cabinet before ripping something out of his own skull
  • Ran in a panic
  • He threw it down the shoot with him
  • The shoot doesnt have a cam inside, but the docks do have one
  • Show him alongside a swarming mass of credites flying toward a ship and him jumping onto the blue angel mk 1, in its original red form
  • Not quite imperium red, but if you were an imperium spy you could assume the person inside was one too
• Side of the cabinet is sharp enough that u can use it to remove cyberware
• We go down the shoot
  • Obiado sees the ripped out piece of cyberware smashed to bits
  • Simple thought transmitter link, allowing basic telepathy
• Go back up bc we dont want to be at the docks
• Computers outside have now updated to show modern scenes with a slight delay
  • Check on Halrex Korr
    • Korr is drinking her heart out and getting absolutely blasted
    • Shes been doing this for at least a day
  • Check on ayla
    • Notably less cameras, entrance and exits
    • Many areas are very overgrown at this point
    • No sign of ayla or any other person
• Going back to Adma Heavenhands
  • “How was it?”
  • Many hardlight creatures there
  • “And wandering turrets?”
  • No?
  • “That’s good. There’s usually many of them in that district.”
  • Z: glad we didnt run into those
  • “You deserve a drink.”
  • Z: we do have smth we have to take care of, she seems to be getting blasted
  • “Well do you want her to be a good spy or not?”
  • Z: adma
  • “Yes?”
  • Z: this morning, ripley saw smth? A worker that seemed to disappear
  • R: he was there one moment, then gone. (describes)
  • “Uh… there’s a few ppl on the ship that look similar? But no one that should be able to get to your rooms.”
  • Z: any idea what that is abt? A ghost?
  • “Ghost tend to like space, they very rarely go into the ship.”
  • A: he was aware of vespucciano making contact before vespucciano made contact
  • “The 13 would know more. Theyre the best occultists on the ship. But id advise against it. Theyre dangerous and unhinged. They run a cannibal cult. They have the magics to make food and choose not. I also believe theyre powerful enough to leave the ship.”
  • A: thriving in the chaos?
  • “I believe so.”
  • O: we sent our friend to check out the druids, how safe is she there?
  • 26: she is a druid
  • “They are unstable there. The only thing they respect is plant and beast.”
  • R: oh she’ll be fine. Beast as in animal or. Pahtra
  • “Youre a humanoid.”
  • Obiado texts. No response
  • Vespucciano “any VR sets for us?”
  • “Vynaria, grab the disconnected from network ones.”
  • Come back with disconnected vr headsets
  • There are 200+ hours of footage
    • Lots of porn
    • Asper and 26 both get self-snuff of someone dying
    • After 7 hours. Zmena finally gets it. Does start as porn then cuts to a dream like sequence. See wheoever graying twilight was, then he’s struck down and see the person who did it be persanare who injects him with credicites and he loses his free will
      • Very dreamlike, odd
      • There are ppl in the background
    • Obiado looks in
      • Just beyond graying twilights vision, whispering in persanare’s ear. A grey cloud that has the fake lemdako ceo’s eyes
      • Dissolves part of itself, attach something to graying twilight’s brain
    • Depending on circumstances, could have delusions/hallucinations to complete mind control
    • Also would know that the blast that turned off the serenade would disable said mind control
  • Text korr to see how shes doing
    • M: hey lol whats up?
    • She responds in 20 mins “Doing good. I’ve managed to infiltrate fairly well. Even have my own room here.”
    • 45ccs or 3 57ccs?
    • “Cs are usually not done in groups of 7. If you want to ask, it is me.”
  • Send asper in
    • A: fun?
    • ‘Yes, they want to cash out their chips”
    • “Do you want to count cards?”
    • Asper awkwardly flirting with a woman, korr wins big
    • “They believe that having enough chips will let them buy out systems.”
    • A: do you have any timeline we should be aware of?
    • “I’m going to take you to a speed dating event after this”
    • A: why?
    • “If you’re gonna keep doing this you need to know how to handle human connection
    • A: i struggle with it
    • “I know
    • A: regardless of the situation u find urself in i trust you
    • “I plan on going to benali’s table soon and loosing almost all my money
    • A: that is a way to get his attention no? He’s trying to get a lot of money
    • “I don’t think it’ll make me stand out. Is miku good at math?
    • A: idk that miku has been to school
    • “Oh no i just need her to tell me the cards in his hand while she entertains
    • A: she can sing but i assume u mean conversation. I believe she would be willing
    • “They do have a killer karaoke bar if miku wants to go
    • A: i think hatsune miku the starlight idol would enjoy that
    • “Ur on vacation, enjoy it.
    • A: i’ve never been on vacation
    • “It’s all u can drink alcohol and besides the people dying it’s like paradise
    • A hardlight construct comes and takes asper’s order, they check off a random one
  • Xep fnaf
    • Finds a card on the desk waiting for them
    • 5 of diamonds there, written on it “to talk about your handsome friend. Please come to my tower.” there’s a map how to leave the location, go to an unknown part further where the turrets are
• Splitting
• 26 zmena obi xep
  • Pass a bunch of people with makeshift spears as we get to the grand ornate door in the side of a building
  • As we enter we enter a library
  • Card that says “please play a round without me”
  • Xep wins
  • Face appears on the card “good job!”
  • X: oh! Hey. oh
  • 
  • “So you had a dark skinned man come into you in your dreams?”
  • X: well one of our group did.
  • 26: one of our companions
  • “And what makes you all special?”
  • X: i mean the warning was related to the virtual eternity. We’ve run into it before? Maybe its that
  • “Youre also from off ship.”
  • O: there is that!
  • X: that too
  • “I have a suggestion. I help you kill the big pit and i get the ship afterwards.”
  • O: this ship??
  • “Yes.”
  • 26: is the big pit not deceased?
  • “Well yes. But dont worry, there are backups. And it seems that conrad has been sewing the big pits dna into him.”
  • X: oh! That’s. Not ideal.
  • 26: we can see where the issue arises
  • “Eventually he’ll lose all of his old dna and eventually he’ll become the big pit.”
  • Z: why help us instead of killing him urself?
  • “There are certain precautions this place has. I’m sure you’re smart enough lads that you’ve divined its true purpose, but know that i’m affected by it.”
  • 26: we are missing a bit of context you may provide about the true purpose of the serenade?
  • “Is this how they make cultivators nowadays?”
  • O: is that wahat they are?
  • 26: we suppose so? We’re rather self taught
  • “It’s evident. This place acts as a containment unit for creatures from outside of the world so to speak.”
  • Z: outside of the world?
  • “Outside of reality.”
  • O: like guys made of cards?
  • “Guys made of cards! Guys made of credits.”
  • 26: is this the nature of all of the 13 then?
  • “All of them? You’re talking to them.”
  • 26: we were mislead, apologies
  • “By the sex worker?”
  • 26: yes
  • “She probably doesnt trust you because she believes her man on the inside hasn’t been found.”
  • Z: keeping an eye on us?
  • “I’ve been keeping some of an eye. She found a man that felt repentance to his cannibalism, if u can believe such a thing.”
  • O: why cannibalism?
  • “I wanted to show the nature of power to these ppl and how luck affects them. I did it easily. I got scratch off tickets, those that got the lowest 10% got eaten by those that got the highest 90% of winnings. Then it just kinda continued from there. If we ever captured someone we would give them the chance. And i would pick who they scratched off against. Could be a fellow captive or me. One did win but he didnt find me very delectable.”
  • Z: what happened to him?
  • “Died from papercuts. Eventually the cards wanted to be back to their normal form, they kept scratching until they came out.”
  • Z: that happened to the man on the inside?
  • “Hes still alive and well. Just- listen, i get rid of him, she sends in another spy. I dont get rid of him, he stays right here and ik where he is. I could even call him in if u want to see him.”
  • X: i dont know that we need to see him, we trust that he exists.
  • “You trust me?”
  • X: ummm. Iiiiii. Um. no? I think u may hold values that are incompatible with life.
  • Z: i do wonder. So. your goal is to take down the big pit and be in control, right?
  • “Of course.”
  • Z: why? Seems like things are going well for you.
  • “I can leave whenever. I want in.”
  • Z: in the tower?
  • “Of course!”
  • Z: also looking to worship?
  • “No. nonono i can summon a giantess here if i wanted.”
  • X: wahts in the tower that’s beyond your vast arcane might?
  • “Mine has limits, you need a group to do it. This is a piece of old tech that lets u imprison any outside entity. U could even bring it to heel. The fools that ran this place thought abt containing the dark skinned man. And they did!”
  • Z: is he one of the ppl u talked abt that was outside reality?
  • “He was one of the original- i believe u call them credicites. He was one of the originals.”
  • X: is there only 1 imprisoned here, or a number?
  • “Only the 1. But it was pretty powerful.”
  • X: we saw them escaping with a very big creature. Leave behind this heart?
  • “No. i believe u brought him back somehow. I intend to find out where.”
  • Z: wdym where?
  • “I intend to find out how you managed to bring such a thing back. No one knows where they went after they escaped ship. They didnt go to their original destination.”
  • Z: original destination?
  • “They were supposed to go to a moon near the aetherion homeworld.”
  • Z: to be imprisoned?
  • “No. but that’s not important for my purposes. I just need to know if the man you brought is a threat to my goal or not.”
  • 26: i dont believe so?
  • X: your goal of taking over?
  • “My goal of running this place. But if some of them have come back for revenge.”
  • O: theyll probably go with us
  • “Perfect! So you kill the new big pit, ill take over, and we’ll do that.”
  • Z: why havent u enlisted other ppl?
  • “To build the serenade”
  • 26: so if we assist with taking over in giving u control, what do u intend to imprison with the tech here?
  • Looks over 26 “I think the solaran emperor would be a good first one. See if that bastard is really immortal.”
    • Solaran emperor is incredibly strong. The issue is if u imprison them, they have the threat of releasing it against all immortals until u start paying.
  • 26: why would capturing the solaran emperor- why would they not just pick another one?
  • “The serenade holds the soul, power, sense, and essence. I believe itd be able to stop the transference of the emperor’s power thru ritual.”
    • The serenade acts as a giant android that holds a virtual/out of reality soul
  • X: and what of the ppl On the serenade rn
  • “I’ll let them go of course.”
  • X: bring them somewhere safe or?
  • “Somewhere safe.”
    • He plans on making no particular effort on saving or harming. If its easiest to kill he’ll kill, if the easiest is to let them go, he’ll let them go.
• Asper ripley miku casino
  • Man moves asper ouit of the way to shake korr’s hand
  • “I dont think i’ve seen you before. Did you all crawl your way out of the slums?”
  • As: yes (grimaces immediately)
  • R: yes archibald ripley
  • “Good, good. Your friends the only one that i’ve seen at the table.”
  • R: yes, we havent had the privilege of at being at the table with her yet
  • “Where’ve you been then?”
  • R: working our way up!
  • “All of you?”
  • A: i am no good at cards
  • “Are you as charming as your friend?”
  • A: i would like to think that i am
  • R: they tell interesting stories
  • “Well hopefully they will tell me interesting stories while we play.”
  • M: can miku watch the first game? Shes not very good
  • “What about you archie? And asper?
  • A: i will join you
  • “That’s good. Confidence in the face of utter defeat”
  • Benalis wins and uses a magic luck thing to get advantage on his next roll.
  • “I wouldn’t want to lose our new friends now
    • Returns all the chips he just won and fucks off
  • “It’s beautiful the planet below us, isn’t it?
    • The planet wasn’t there when we first got in
  • M: is it real or a hologram?
  • “Oh it’s real but also virtual in a sense
  • A: where are we?
  • “In the middle of nowhere and paradise
  • R: real like projection of a real place?
  • “Real like real phenomenon. Virtual like virtual image
  • A: it is quite beautiful
  • “Ty. i like the high roller’s suite, we get to look at it a lot. U don’t know what ur looking at do u
  • M: no
  • “That’s a black hole. The stuff coming out is the remnants of a planet, that they sometimes do”
  • M: do we know what it is?
  • “Probably lost to time. But you plan on getting into the tower right?
  • A: well, it would be nice to get into the tower
  • “Great. I’d rather buy it off you than conrad.
  • A: what are you offering?
  • “I presume u don’t want my chips
  • A: ur chips don’t mean too much to us
  • “Oh then u hold the winning hand. What do u want?
  • R: what do u have? Besides chips. Genuine question
  • M: what do u have the ability to offer us?
  • “Great wealth in ur adventures going forward. All the treasure won’t be available immediately, but i could ensure a portion goes to u going forward
  • M: we haven’t had a good record with money-obsessed people
  • “I’m not money-obsessed. I have it already have the money but keep gambling. I’m thrill obsessed
  • M: it’s fine to be into the thrill, but we don’t really want wealth in exchange for the ownership of this ship?
  • “Well what’re u gonna use it for?
  • M: sir we mostly just wanna free the people here.
  • “They will! And i want to ensure this wondrous craft of human ingenuity remains a wondrous craft. Sailing across the stars so people can gamble
  • M: like the way it is?
  • “No not the cults. How it was 22 years ago
  • A: what do u get from this?
  • “I get to sail the stars on a giant casino forever
  • Miku holds out a pinky “as long as u promise to let everyone get off safely
  • “Once we get to a good enough place” pinky swears with miku
  • A: how did u win against the previous head of the casino?
  • “I noticed something no one else did. That he communicated with his powers. I’m a cleric and he’s a mystic if ur familiar. And he would always hold his grand shows in the stadium.
  • A: so he needed a performance?
  • “No he needed an audience
  • Korr fidgets with her hands here
  • “So i just had to find who was in his line of sight and they had an unfortunate accident. And adter that a fair card game became a sacred law around here. And we would hate for that to happen again.
  • A: i can agree with that. You are quite a lucky man
  • “Yes and luck is great. I’m not super smart, so i’m lucky to have other people
  • A: ur a v lucky man to have communicated like this
  • “Yeah baby im so lucky (idk i lost it i started yelling)
  • M: to our new friend?
  • “Ofc. there is the question of the black hole matter. If we were to evac people, one idea people might have is to take the serenade to a star system. But that would be taking a black hole to a star system
  • A: and the black hole is intrinsically tied to the serenade?
  • “It’s part of the power source and i think part of the magic source.
  • A: possible we might be able to get other ships to come and evac ppl with the stipend u provide
  • “If i don’t have to buy the rights out, i can use the money i wouldve spent to get construction ships which leave their equipment and take the people out
    • he has enough money in his budget that he could buy it and pay for the ships
  • A: what’s the harm in buying it off us and we send people back with more money. We have miku
  • “Idk what that is
  • A: interstellar popstars. With their popularity we could drum up a lot of buzz
  • “I could offer the restoration of the stage. There used to be a floating platform that would go between the areas that would allow concerts for all the serenade. We could restore it and allow for a home away from home. I assume aetherion product?
  • A: aetherion discontinued them
  • “See no issues. This could be a permanent home for them, the discontinued line
• Other group
  • O: how much room in the prison?
  • “Enough for a twink?? Wdym”
  • 26: do u know of persanare from the board of aetherion
  • “The cultivator?”
  • 26: yes
  • “I know of him.”
  • 26: we have… somewhat of a grudge with him
  • “The prison only holds things that dont count fully of this world. He was born here i believe?”
  • 26: mmm likely
  • “I believe that persanare was born in the Teissundulse System. I doubt itd be able to imprison him. But it could capture the thing that he used to get graying twilight to his cause.”
  • Z: are you aware of how the thing that he uses came into existence?
  • “Oh the credicites? I know some of how they were made, but a lot of the details were lost to time. I know the thing that he uses was the one bit left out of the captivity that managed to escape.”
  • “I believe that one was the creature’s ambition that got out. I dont know why it would allow you all to come back, or even part of it would come back to the place it was imprisoned.”
  • 26: we do not know. Maybe it believe that there is something left to do here.
  • “Maybe.”
  • X: anything we could use on the ship to communicate with it?
  • “Well that depends. Do you know its location?”
  • X: i can hazard to guess there’s at least some pieces on the tech i’m carrying, but i don’t think the grand majority of it is actually on the serenade rn. I think its…
  • 26: elsewhere.
  • X: yeah. The vast majority on our spaceship.
  • “I could drag it out.”
  • X: we’re friendly. We think its love
  • “Then it’ll be easy enough to get to answer some questions.”
  • X: it talked to us voluntarily! It takes effort to manifest. But it takes the chance whenever it can
  • 26: if your method involves coercing with force, then we would not like to proceed
  • “Then we wont proceed.”
  • 26: is there anything else u can tell us regarding persanare?
  • “I dont know. What do u want me to talk abt? Hes a cultivator that works for aetherion.”
  • 26: do u know his role there? He is rather mysterious nowadays
  • O: isnt it concubine
  • X: i mean. If title is concubine why can he teleport us to dimensions
  • “Related to his cultivation technique i believe. There’s a technique that…” rubs a card. “I think that its about opposite and equals. And his unique ability allows him to remove an aspect from reality itself. Or send someone to a reality with that aspect removed.”
  • 26: we are aware of that
  • “How is that ur aware of that but not the situation u’ve found ourselves”
  • 26: we’ve experienced that for ourselves
  • “And u’ve experienced this for urself, and u seem to know nothing abt where u are”
  • X: any areas of this ship we should explore so that we dont burden u with these endless questions that we can find out for ourselves?
  • “I mean what is there that u need to know. U accept my offer, u teleport into the tower area, and u just take it over!”