M7: Distress Call
Date: 4518.545
Location: Airia, Laxion - The group lands on Airia and find the entire city covered in static screens. A tangle of wires lining the floors. All the residents are seem lost and not quite there while staring at the screens. In the basement, the group learns about Malar’s Disciples; a thieves guild that hides under the city of Airia. There, they meet Lost Trick, the leader of the guild. He tells the group whats been happening here. He says “the mayor made an announcement on the radio about a week and a half ago saying they'd be installing these “tvs” to better help our economy cause things have been running a bit dry recently and he said not to worry about it. And we thought it would only be like a few but he kept putting up more and more and [Lost kinda shutters a bit] When people would look at them they said their head felt all funny but they were able to pull themselves out of it and now… yeah… we decided to stick down here but resources are running thin right now and i dont know what the fuck im going to do.” He gives the group a janitors key as it isn't much use to him.
Exploring the shopping level, they find another Murmur’s shop and meet Winter Miller. They say they don't know a lot because they stay inside all day with the curtains closed but a week-ish ago people stopped coming in but they thought people just stopped wanting information from them. [might have said more in each group ill do that later]
On the housing floor, they peak into the lives of Monica Sterling and Jocelyn Padavano, two tabaxis who both plan on purposing to each other soon. They see cute vacation photos, sweet letters, and Monica’s keycard in Jocelyn’s apartment. Using the keycard, they're able to get to the next floor. They find a portrait of Monica in the hallway leading up to the higher ups' doors.
They find office rooms, meeting rooms, and computer rooms but they’re all abandon. The computers just show static and the cadets have to be careful to not stare at it too long. They hear a crash in a nearby storage closet and find a disheveled Monica, wide-eyed and terrified. She tells the group that the labs were once used for science and discovery, trying to put their name on the map and do something good, but recently were gutted and fully used for programming and computer engineering. She set up shop in this closet because everywhere else is full of static screens and when theres not screens, theres guards. Monica begs the group to help fix this and tells them the elevator code to get to the top floor.
They make it to the Mayor’s family apartment. Among the fancy furniture and intricate decor, they find a family portrait of 4 tabaxis and a plaque reading ‘Here lies Paris and Aganus Aydin’. After solving the clock puzzle, they're able to open the weirdly modern and technologically advanced door. [continued in the saturn conversation transcription for m7]
TLDR; They meet Saturn. Saturn makes a comment about how “Neo smells like Abyssal Blight” and that Novia and them are half-siblings, born from the same stars. Alex says the cube he got from a warlock named “Mercury” stopped working a bit ago and he tried fixing it but nothing worked. Got really obsessed over it and eventually “Mercury” came back but acted weird. Everything is blurry from there. Something about 7 more and a key. It was hard for Alex to retain information especially because of how much they talked.
M8: Lost to Time
Date: 4518.550-560
Location: Perditus - The cadets are sent to an abandon planet for a distress call, a white 2 (regular planet-person is safe for now). They land in the middle of a dense jungle and head in a direction from there. The jungle seems…off. Everything feels wrong here but they finally find the village they’re looking for. It’s been abandon for centuries. This planet seems very under-developed and had very primitive technology. Looking around, they learn these people worshiped Leira, the goddess of illusions. In the center of the town lies an optical illusion triangle statue. Their final stop is the biggest structure towards the back of the village. They hear faint ballroom music as they approach but when they enter, it’s no longer playing. The interior doesn’t match the exterior, polished wood lines the floor while the walls are made of neat stone bricks. Going further in, they see a hallway with their loved ones waiting, asking them to dance.
Tylo: Brother
Bellatrix: Sibling Arabella
Neo: Little brother
Basil: Daffodil
Kara: Mom
Novia: Eleanor
Aurora doesn’t see anyone. The illusion replies on sight alone. For the cadets who resisted the mimic’s charm, it almost hurts to look at these creatures. A black figure that seems to glitch and fade in and out of reality with only a mouth for a face and a large purple tongue that begins to slither around the wrists of anyone charmed. Any attempts the cadets made to touch them are fruitless as their hand goes through the illusion. The mimics lead the charmed into a rundown ballroom with more mimics dancing with what questionably looks like people, but heavily decayed. There’s empty bowls and plates, very little furniture, and no music. The charmed see their loved one asking to dance and follow them into a gorgeous ballroom that glitters gold and white. The loved one sounds slightly off but the charmed pay very little mind.
Through various methods and means, the group frees their charmed friends and they run for it, the mimics giving chase. With the front door locked, they race upstairs and eventually loose them in the maze of hallways. Heading through the first door they find, they encounter Mira, the person who sent the distress call. Trying to leave, the hallways don’t let them. They keep going despite it logically not making sense. Eventually, they find a different door that leads to an office. Bookshelves line the walls although the books are absent, leaving the room looking barren and empty. There’s no chair at the desk, only a single piece of paper lying on the desk. It’s map, leading to a river with a big circle where the river ends.
They also find a bronze key inside the desk, inscribed with the words “good luck”. Inserting it into the door, it leads them outside of the building. They follow the map, kill some mimics on the way, and find an abandon boat docked on the river. Getting on, they wind down the river to a waterfall, they head through, expecting to end up in a cave, they find themselves on the planet Havet, in the city of Regnving.
M9: Another Festival?!
Date: 4518.560
Location: Reignving, Havet - What originally looked like festival setup, now looks more like the chaos of a fight. They see smoke billowing from somewhere deeper in the town. Racing to shore, they see a baby bulette followed by three spined devils. There’s a fourth spined devil that is playing a violin instead of fighting. When one of the cadets spots them, they wink and continue playing. (it’s for sure Saturn). They prepare for a fight and head into the chaos. During the fight, Basil catches a glimpse of long dark blue hair and a commanding voice shouting that she’d recognize it anywhere. Across the battlefield, she also sees her father stationed next to her mother, seemingly preparing strategies while popping shots at a different bulette. He makes eye contact with Basil and his face breaks. He gives her a soft smile before continuing the fight.
After the fight is over, people crowd around trying to help the injured making it hard to find Basil's parents in the chaos. The townsfolk thank them for the help and say they've been trying to get a barrier built on the east side of the city as that's where a majority of the monsters have been getting in from but the newly instated queen has stopped funding and production of the project. Basil knows there was supposed to be a new king not a new queen. The group hears rumors spread from the townspeople that say how the prince “ran away”
“I heard that he got exiled for attempted regicide”
“oh? I heard they he got kidnapped and they’re in negotiations with the smugglers who took him "
Some of the townsfolk ask the cadets if they could help find their prince because the new queen cut their funding for it and that’s how the monsters got in. Eventually, after making sure everyone’s okay and shoving through crowds, the Brinefelt family is reunited. Their interaction ends with an offer to have dinner at home tonight before they head out for the rest of their mission.
As they wander around the city, partaking in the festivities, they come across a well that stands out to them. Basil always heard rumors and warnings about the well, something about it being weird and dangerous and to not play around it or you'd fall in and never return, but a lot of that sounded like parents scaring their kids into not causing trouble. Looking down it, They start to get a sense of vertigo and only see darkness at the bottom; but something draws them to it. It doesn't seem like something malicious or bad but just a pull that they feel; before someone pulls them away saying to not go near it. It’s dangerous. They realize if they want to investigate the well, they’ll have to wait till there’s less people out.
During the Brinefelt dinner, they eat together and her parents apologize. Her parents tried looking for her but their resources got siphoned with the rise of Avalon Wavebreaker, the new Queen in power. They apologize for not trying harder, for suffocating her but explain they only wanted what was best for her. They didn't want her to get hurt and she got hurt and they blame themselves for that. They know she can't be sheltered her whole life but they sure as hell wanted to and wished they could.
Once it got dark and dinner was done, the group heads out to the empty streets of the city and down the well. After getting through some annoying traps, they find the hidden base of the Siren’s Shadow thieves guild, run by the missing prince Zephyr Wavebreaker. Zephyr seems like he recognizes Mira but Mira doesn’t recognize him back.
He tells them how he didn’t like their future plans or how the royals were treating people. It was too tricky to change it from the inside so he decided on taking over/helping Siren’s Shadow. He mentions some kind of cube that saved their city from monsters in the past but it's broken. They don't even know for sure as it's in the abyss zone of the undersea and very hard to reach.
Eventually Zephyr sends them off to bed and tells them to meet him behind the abandon Paradise Care tomorrow morning. He’ll bring a contact to help get them into the Undersea without going through customs and security.
They meet back up with Zeph. He tell them there's not much they can do to fix the cube or the situation from here but hopefully the people in Mersus will be able to help. He takes them to a hatch with a staircase half submerged in water in Paradise Care. He gives them potions of infinite air that they have to drink it while underwater or they’ll will just suffocate. There are some side effects including a more fish-like appearance. He doesn't know much as it's his own recipe. He says to give him any metal or magic items to “get through security and customs easier” but no one buys it. He also brings along Lyra Wellfield, a triton that was his previous retainer and now person on the inside. Everyone besides Zephyr drinks a potion and they head down the stairs.