Monday13

What happens to Cain

• Cain in floating in space, on the far side of the Sun from Earth (4 hours from the Boneyard).
• Unfortunately, Aben’s ward to learn of Cain’s location was triggered, and he learned where (when Eddie came on board).
• Adana ordered Seth (the shipmaster) to take two of their new prototypes to stop DEE without destroying the vessel.
• DEE destroyed Seth’s ships and killed him, then went on a rampage in Pax Artificium, but not before ejecting Cain into space.
• Before he left, Seth told his love, Selena, where he was going.
• Selena then informed Scorpio (her pirate connection via Pandora’s Children) about the coordinates.
• At this point, Scorpio is occupying another of his three asteroid bases, the Hive. Its defenses include a huge number of tiny robot space drones that fire tiny projectile at a rapid rate (bees with machine guns). They also carry poison, which they inject into ships’ hulls to weaken them.
• Scorpio sends spy drones to those coordinates to watch the ship, and feed information back to him.
• Once Seth’s operation fails and DEE ejects the cargo, Scorpio takes a ship himself to recover Cain. His bodyguard, Bruce Freeman, the android who the evil Zodiacs hacked and who helped Scorpio escape from Magitech, goes with him. He still wears his Magitech uniform, since Scorpio finds it amusing, but it utterly loyal to Scorpio. However, his LORE chip prevents him from doing certain really egregious things. Scorpio finds these limitations annoying. In addition, he wants to hook up with Cain, who he knows is incredibly powerful, and potentially vulnerable to his mental powers.
• Scorpio arrives 44 hours after DEE dumps the body. He takes the chamber on board his ship, realizes it is no longer functioning (it has been damaged by micrometeorites), and opens it up. Cain awakens, and Scorpio strikes a bargain with him (with help from mind control coupled with Cain’s still-weakened mental state), and dumps the now-useless chamber back into space.
• Since the UNF has ships searching for him (possibly including Claire’s ship, the Reliant, and Waterton’s ship, the Behemoth), Scorpio has rigged Boneyard 47 to explode with antimatter bombs obtained from the defunct Volokhov administration. (This fact, however, is more relevant to the Wednesday group.)
• Cain agrees to become Scorpio’s vessel, since is floating in space, with nowhere to go, and figures if things go wrong he can just devour Scorpio. Scorpio believes he has the upper hand.
• Cain/Scorpio travels to Arcadia to get cybernetic implants, and pursue some of Scorpio’s shady business goals. He is currently lying low, while Freeman has been sent to Laboro to purchase slaves with technical knowledge and bring them back for Cain to devour. (Officially, there are no slaves, but children are sold into indentured servitude under the table. Cain/Scorpio reasons that these types of people are the least likely to missed en masse.) He may also devour a criminal or two locally.

Cain’s powers

• Stats: Str 8/10, Dex 8/10, Con 8/10, Int 30, Wis 20, Cha 20
• Read minds (DC 22)
• Devour souls and absorb their memories
• Magic used on or near Cain does nothing, but instead backlashes 100% – Cain may choose to rejuvenate himself 1d6 per mystic sphere instead of "releasing" the backlash
• 50 foot aura canceling all active mystic effects, converting them to backlash as above
• He possesses memories from the pre-undead-lives of all undead he personally turned; since he cropped up several times throughout history, he remembers certain eras, including the most current one, due to the Mars incident
• Pseudonatural touch

Arcadia NPCs

• Boris, Josef & Annika
• Lincoln Evans – drug dealer; big muscly guy, wears lots of jewelry; crosses his arms a lot; outgoing, says "Ayup" and "Nope" a lot
• Norris Harrison – runs the "pawn shop" (huge block of warehouses; largest concentration of stolen goods in the galaxy); wears a felt hat over his shaved head and constantly adjusts it; reserved, says "Hmm" and "I’ll see what I can do" a lot
• Felicia Worthington – a fence, and one of Boris’s informants; plump woman with a mohawk and lots of cybernetic body art; fidgets constantly, probably on drugs; rude, says "Fuck off" and "I ain’t payin’ for that" a lot

How they can learn what happened

• Nikolai can make a Navigate check to remember the star configuration properly, and determine the location using star charts and computer-assisted bullshit. If Nikolai fails this roll, the droid knows the general area, which can be searched.
• It takes 18 hours to reach the location from Arcadia, assuming no extensive searching is required.
• The droid has some sensor logs of some asteroids in the area. It can use its memory of individual asteroids and their projected paths to narrow down the location, but only to a certain extent. If Griffin does well enough on a navigate roll, the droid realizes that something was there and disrupted the asteroid pattern. The gravitic pattern leads in the direction of Arcadia.
• Cain’s empty stasis chamber has a computer monitoring its status, and logs activity, such as when it is opened, and how (e.g., from inside vs outside). The micrometeorites damaged it, but it can be repaired.
• The slaves are being purchased with Scorpio’s bankroll, which is in stolen mechanical goods. But the mystic transports must be paid for with credits, which Brice could trace. (Though Freeman does not in actuality return to the Lunar station, the tickets were purchased.)
• Once they return to Arcadia, they hear from Boris that some residents have gone missing.
• They also hear about machines "coming to life" on Laboro.
• Some of their more valuable stuff was sold on the black market in Arcadia. If the characters are clever enough, they may be able to retrieve it, and even trace it back to Cain/Scorpio’s hiding place.

Sartus Morningdew

During the night of the 18th, Sartus contacts Brice with what little is left of his strength, and tells him about Cassenti’s condition. He explains that Brice’s power is like that of the wraiths, and that in the past they have been able to transport people successfully through the digital realm, as long as a wraith acts as a guardian.

Jasmine

After Sartus contacts Brice, Jasmine contacts him while the party is in transit. In tears, she asks how to find him. If he tells her, she shows up. Maybe he even transports her back to Arcadia, in which case she sees the tapestry then. See Talk20060305 for details.

Jasmine’s prophecy: "Thrice doth That Which Is Written become known, and with each revelation, failure."

The Syndicate suicide

Emilio Falconi wants to meet with Vittorio in a crowded place – a restaurant (but not the family’s restaurant in New York). But before Emilio can tell Vittorio about the mass suicide planned for the night of July 22nd, he dies, from poison. It causes a stir in the restaurant.

Though Vittorio won’t be able to stop the mass suicide order, he might be able to save his family, particularly his mother, who his father plans to murder.

The Brotherhood

Does Cain’s association with Scorpio give the party another foothold into the Brotherhood? Perhaps they approach it from the "top down," due to Divin’s dialogue with Erik Lensherr. Maybe Lensherr is slightly impatient and wants to meet with Meechum (now Unity) in person to make the argument face-to-face?

The "juice" that Divin ingested was defeated by his body, but he still absorbed the DNA, in a profound way, the end result of which is his transformation into Unity. Because of his integration with Fearful DNA, he learns to control his powers of mystic absorption. He can now choose whether to absorb any amount up to 1/2 sphere total, at will. In addition, he can ready an action to attempt to absorb (counter) enter effects (Fort save DC that of the mystic effect).

To focus on Joey’s character more, we can emphasize the Gaddelsmocks/Pipwhistle stuff enough that the party ends up desiring a foodhold into the Brotherhood.

Deblin Gaddelsmocks

If Ariona chooses to respond to Gaddelsmocks, she is very communicative, and suggests an in-person meeting to discuss the situation. She reiterates her conspiracy theory, that the Cassenti divorce is a sham, Magitech and StratCo are secretly the same company (they are working together), and that they have ruined her life for getting "too close to the truth." Her career is over, as she has been blacklisted from working for any news source, reputable or not, due to the scandal when she "falsely" accused Magitech of the Bernstein abduction. Her husband Rupert Pipwhistle, currently in prison for embezzlement, is convinced she is insane, and has asked for a divorce. Her son Reginald, who works for StratCo, refuses to speak to her, or help her in any way.

Deblin is not sure what to do next, but believes that StratCo may have brainwashed her son. "Surely he would help me, if they hadn’t gotten to him!" she says. She also says that it is quite the "coincidence" that Ariona’s old boss, Bernstein, is now working under her son! Hopefully, this line of accusation will trigger Ariona’s suspicions relating to Bernstein’s strange behavior. If not, Gaddelsmocks asks Ariona to contact Bernstein anyway, as an alternate "in" at StratCo. Deblin’s ultimate goal is to confront Evan Cassenti himself with her accusations, and get an honest answer out of him. Though if the party has a better plan, she might listen…

Bernstein has been assigned to Nald’s project, to bring him up to speed in case Nald defects (which Evan suspects he might). He is friendly to Ariona if she contacts him, but initially declines to reveal "company secrets" regarding his current work. If she asks again, he says he can ask the company for permission to allow her access, but that he doubts they’ll bend for him, since the policy against visitors is very strict. He also says he can inquire as to a job for her there, and act as a reference.

He knows a bit about the juice, but nothing unexpected. Pipwhistle told him to study its mystic inhibiting properties, which Bernstein has been happy to do thus far.

Further investigation could lead to another link to the Brotherhood (if Nald talks), which might encourage Unity to step up a meeting with Lensherr. And Nald might talk if they PCs indicate knowledge of the white substance’s origins or properties beyond what he knows. Still, he would want to meet at a place not controlled or monitored by StratCo.

Xela

After hearing from Max on the 18th, Xela eventually sends the entourage again (led by Pandemonium) to retrieve the sword, with the promise that Gerald will attend the Deus rite to make sure everything goes smoothly. (It was Gerald’s idea; he talked her into it. She will secretly attend as well, but tells no one, not even Gerald – she loves him, but does not want this weakness known.)

Xela’s current orders for Max involve something other than the Deus rite, involving the Saturday group. More details fleshed out in the Saturday13 notes.

World Mystics Union

The WMU issues an official statement about StratCo’s control over genetically engineered mystics: they oppose one corporation having sole control over the knowledge and technology rights.

Also, regarding the Deus rite the WMU makes no official statement, but Lefty knows it is important, and gets involved somehow. Again, details fleshed out in Saturday13.