RB 6-4: Top 10, Lornok, & Traveling to Brightwool

Mission Report

Sat, Feb 3, 2018 ((Jul 19, 2020))
Party: Jane Irwin (Cael), Shiro (DragoN), Kromrak (Sielic), Isabelica (Basil), Sylvena (Daewendriel)
Negotiating with allies: Lyndi Fletcher (Aslene)
Leading the team of rogues: Proud Flame (Aunne)

The team continues preparing for Operation Stabbing Caterina. Max and Nails are processing Proud's theories on the Adintech Conspiracy. They note that much of the team is on the side of change and entropy, while the Black Pyramid seems to push for stasis. Change may be the True Order that Primus wants protected. Max explains some details of SigilNet. She explains that the system implies there will be 10 factions. This may intensify paranoia and conflict among the factions. Lyndi's at a meeting with allies to discuss this possibility and their best response. Lornok Bittercoat introduces himself and asks for a place at the Tower of Brass Leaves, focusing on the defensive runes. Max and Ordin Zarn have tracked down one of Ordin's contacts, a cleric named Dris Snowtrapper. Dris is from the village of Brightwool on Theros, where the Circus Divergia buys its tents. The team travels to Theros. They're promptly attacked by a storm giant named Samant Stormgird. They defeat him.

Further Preparations

• Late Friday night…
• Build hologram projector and record hologram message: Shiro will do this, with help
  • First model is a fire hazard (n1)
  • With Sylvena's help, next model works smoothly
• Prepare shaped charges: Shiro done this
• Jane texts Victor

• Rogues are off trying to steal Adaption Group credentials to counterfeit some (Proud, a rogue from Skyblue 9, Dia (from the Last Word), and Lyndi's apprentice Vyn)
• Lyndi is representing Raptor Blue at an important council of allies regarding the Top 10

• Nasha Pogray offers to share intel on one of the factions of Sigil, in gratitude for Raptor Blue keeping her safe (Positive Wheel dinged)
• Team decides to wait until Lyndi can be part of the decision

Max on Proud's Theories

• Shared with Nails
• We're both still processing
• We're revisiting a theory we had originally discarded
• Exannarq interferes to protect the True Order
• We often think of order as a fixed thing
• However, order can be dynamic
• For example, the natural order of mortal life includes birth and death

• We're reasonably confident that the Black Pyramid is trapping its victims in stasis
• We also notice a trend among Raptor Blue
• Lyndi serves trickster gods, maybe serve isn't the right word, but anyways Faces of the Traveler
• Proud serves the Dancer, a Face of the Traveler
• Jane serves Dolmodeen, who hates stasis
• Incidentally, on the Invictus, Raptor Blue received help from Thassa, a Theros god who hates stasis
• Kromrak serves a god who hates bondage and plays a disruptive role in dwarven society
• Shiro, shipbuilding, pushing the envelope
• it seems like much of this fist of Unbound has come together on a shared opposition to stasis

• Some discussion of the implications of this theory
• Jane mentions that the Rational Ascendancy also seems to dislike change

The Top 10

• Max
• Update on SigilNet
• Thanks to Shiro for helping me make sense of this

• Software side: object-oriented, packet-based communication, strong systemic redundancy for error correction, strong systemic encryption, blockchain-like tamper protection, supports distributed processing
• Hardware
  • Earth tech: circuits are mainly copper (with silver, gold, and/or palladium), on-off, electricity flowing or not, binary (1's and 0's)
  • Now, the flow of electricity generates an electromagnetic field
  • Most devices are built to reduce how much electromagnetic radiation they scatter, because background radiation that can affect other devices
  • Sensitive devices are specifically built to be shielded to protect them from background radiation
  • SigilNet uses crystals responsive to frequencies of magic, especially the frequencies by a general magical field around Sigil itself, which tynkers are calling the Lady's Song
  • The crystals are quasi-trinary. Due to the continuous, ubiquitous presence of the Lady's Song, they're always vibrating. They vibrate at low, medium, or high frequencies.
  • Here's where it gets particularly interesting
  • Any kind of wave can interfere with another wave. This can be constructive or destructive interference.
  • The SigilNet hardware seems purposefully built to take advantage of constructive interference
  • In a particular magitec device, such as a DABOS terminal, one crystal can vibrate strongly enough to influence all the other crystals in the device
  • For example, a DABOS terminal seems to have a crystal designed to detect tampering, which the tynkers call a Watchdog crystal. The Watchdog can use destructive interference to destroy all the other crystals, rendering the tampered terminal inoperable.
• Fascinating stuff!

• Anyways, here's the part that matters right now
• The 15 factions of Sigil are fundamental to its government, peace, and social order
• In the SigilNet software, there's a variable that recurs many places
• It's starting to look like this variable represents the number of factions
• For example, there's a private communication system, essentially email, that uses this variable for the number of sender and recipient domains
• Anyways, the number isn't 15. It's 10

• Sigil history is imperfect, but we know that in the past there were many more factions than 15
• As more tynkers discover this variable, there's a good chance it will fuel a conspiracy theory that the factions are going to be reduced again

• Lyndi is meeting with allies to discuss the possible scenarios, if reduction and consolidation is happening (e.g., the most important leaders and other talent that the Tide wants to land safe regardless of the final new set of factions)
• Some discussion of other implications

Lornok Bittercoat

• Grump dwarf (he/him cis)
• "I'm not good with people. I'm not good with words."
• His family built the Tower of Brass Leaves
• He was in Sigil when the Fourth Reset happened and the Redeemers were mostly wiped out
• Offers to move into the Tower to repair the runes in the walls and teach others how to use them

• Offers to teach stonecraft and runecraft
• Max will vet Lornok
• Team will recommend accepting Lornok's offer

A Lead on the Circus

• Max: I debriefed Ordin Zarn
• Together, we identified one of his past contacts
• She has news of the Circus

• Dris Snowtrapper (human, she/her cis), cleric of Karametra
• White falcon, Gleam
  • Grapevine twined around her left wrist
• Village of Brightwool
  • Hills northwest of Setessa, at the foot of the Katachthon Mountains
  • Dris shares a vision of the village
  • Blessed by Karametra, God of Harvests
  • Silver cotton
  • Hearty sheep
• Our village began as a trading post for local farmers and shepherds
• Grown into a modest village
• The Circus Divergia buys their tents from Brightwool
• With the new portal, trade will thrive

• Circus buyer traveled to Theros
• Buyer is Jagdro Greenhand
• Max privately shares that Jagdro is a fiend (he/him cis)

Traveling to the Portal

• Flying in Bron
• Bron into Shiro's bottle
• Oneg's Exchange
• Held by goblinkin
• Lots of traffic through the six portals
• Dris shows the portal key is praying hands

On Theros

• Portal to Brightwool on the slopes above the village
• Samant Stormgird, storm giant (he/him cis)
• Greets the team
• Jane tells him they're Raptor Blue
• He attacks
• Samant: There's a contract on your life. It's nothing personal. This is just business.
• Sylvena casts Otto's Irresistible Dance
• Team follows up with Fireballs and Firestorm
• Team kills Samant

• Shiro releases Bron
• Plan
  • Kromrak joins with Bron
  • Transforms to robot form, sits on Samant
  • Belica revives Samant