RR 1-5: More Evidence in the Bunker

Mission Report

Tue, Jan 29, 2019 ((Jan 8, 2022))
Team: Delly (Cael), Fonn (Dragon), Ikhilzis (Blank), Lae'eni (Aslene), Lottie (Basil), Smokes (Aunne), Ulthane (Sielic), Zenovi (Dae)

The team vanquishes the last of the MForms. They continue sweeping the Bunker. They find the Brigganocks of Clan Stronso, hiding in the pantry. Lottie negotiates with the clan to finish the retrofit and perhaps co-own the Bunker. Smokes and Lae'eni study the damage to the Weave by the Frayed skitters. Ulthane receives a gift of an artifact compass from the Mordinsamman. Lottie and Delly save a R3M trooper, Jarred, from his imprisonment as a tinman. They place him in a stasis tube to heal. Zenovi accidentally trigger's Brother Iron's Bed of Holding and it tries to pack up everything and everyone in the room, until they stop it. Delly prepares to use the moonlight dust pool to learn more about Brother Iron's fate.

Details

• Lottie: Lottie likes to race, running, completing a task, whatever. She likes the quickness of it.
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "This is why I adore you Lae'eni - you always seem to make work with you easy. That or you actually listen when we chat over tea. Or pretend to listen well."
• Lae'eni: Lae'eni shifts through the shift like a skater sliding down a pipe, her arms out to the sides like she's balancing and her eyes lit in delight, ghostly cyber wings spreading out behind her in a shade of neon red. Her hands lift, glowing circles spreading out from her palms, and one sends out crackling ball that goes wide. The other has that rainbow ball of code and her tumb triggers it, the digits briefly lit up in rainbow matrix-code like falls of light. That hits.
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "Also, I have done as you asked and prevented significant enemy movement - but it seems to be causing more trouble than it's worth. Shall I get rid of that, or would you prefer it?"
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "Especially since we're charging.. through. Instead of ducking into corners and letting them come to us. I shall incorporate that into future tactical decisions."
• Lae'eni: La'eni briefly falls into Smoke's eye-view and looks at the black ribbons and messy floor. "Oh. Well, that's effective. We'll need to run some virtual drills to see how best to combine our melee talents at that spell. Perhaps Kilz will work it with you..."
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "If we /are/ going to charge, next time I'll simply fire heavy objects at them. I suppose I'm more used to operating with restraint as a priority."
• Lae'eni: "For now, since our people have moved beyond the square, dropping seems prudent, but that's sort of up to Lottie."
• Delly (Delsari Orist Nym Galadant): Seeing through Snow's eyes is interesting: an angle close to the floor, looking up, and a wider field of view from eyes on the side of the head. The colors are mostly the same as a humanoid's vision-they must see well.
• Fonn Razorenth: When Fonn briefly shifts into the swift, those around her notice. She's not skilled yet, there's a stumble, but she manages. Her half-cloak is much longer, swallowing her in city gray fabric that blurs at the edges. Her eyes have no whites and are completely gold, seeming to glow. Small silver wings sprout from her boots and her billowing hood forms a vaguely horselike silloughette -- reminicent of a knight chess piece.
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "Lottie, dear girl - be careful. You are terribly exposed."
• Lae'eni: Lae'eni comes out of the swift, one leg to either side of the small white creature, as if in a protective stance. "Hello, fellow scout." She murmurs down towards Snow, her powersuit covered foot shifting slightly to provide safety from the tinman's shot.
• Lae'eni: "Oh... um... well..." Lae'eni mutters as the woopertinger screeches out from between her feet and flies at the enemy. "Goodness." She gives Delly a bright smile as she flips by and calls out, "Well done!"
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: *Amused, through the chain* "I wish I were half as acrobatic. A quarter."
• Delly (Delsari Orist Nym Galadant): Delly is huffing slightly, returningto a guard stance as the tin man sort of peels apart into two halves not fully seperated.
• Fonn Razorenth: Fonn loads her gun as she moves, not looking at it. She's done it plenty of times
• Lae'eni: Lae'eni makes eye contact with Fonn, and when it seems appropriate nods so they can breach simultaenously.
• Lottie: Lottie's head stays tilted as her body rotates around to match it. She's a bit creaky, and as she opens her mouth a bit before her voice actually comes out. Her gears literally whir as she thinks about the area, but despite all her struggles, she is very careful not to budge the warrior from his perch on her shoulder.
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "I appreciate where your family took refuge, Grusol - if I were in the midst of a zombie assault, I'd choose the place with the chocolate and eggs, too."
• Lottie: "Oh I love chocolate. We had some to drink at my wedding."
• Delly (Delsari Orist Nym Galadant): Delly blinks. "You were married?"
• Delly (Delsari Orist Nym Galadant): "You never told me that."
• Lottie: "Only for a year. Was a nice man. Didn't see him much."
• Delly (Delsari Orist Nym Galadant): "Oh. I... my apologies."
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "Intriguing - only for a year? Was it an arranged marraige?"
• Lottie: "Yes. Though I hear that's less common these days."
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "That depends - it's certainly prevalent in many cultures throughout the multiverse. I've learned, over the years, there's no real difference in the success of an arranged marriage against a love-match. It is a different sort of .. transaction, I suppose. Did your parents arrange it?"
• Fonn Razorenth: "There's quite a lot of them in my family." Fonn offers. "It's more convient."
• Fonn Razorenth: Fonn is irritated. In her defense, who would trap the pantry? What are they keeping in there?
• Lottie: "I don't remember. That's peculiar"

Memory Bead: Clara Nores

• (Nails is talking with Lisette.)
• Nails: How can you be sure she's not an operative?
• Lisette: She's thirteen, sir. I did a thorough background investigation--
• Nails: Which RJ reviewed?
• Lisette: Which RJ reviewed, sir. And she's just what she seems. Clara Nores, 13 years old, She's in 8th grade at Eliot-Hine Middle School. She lives with her aunt Soledad Nores on Penn.
• Nails: And she just happened to find some stray paramatter, and then ask about it on the Internet?
• Lisette: Only the dark web. She's very skilled. I mean, for 13, sir. She made it almost impossible to trace the postings.
• Nails: Almost. If you traced her, others could.
• Lisette: Wait. Are we worried she's an operative, or a target... sir?

• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "Perhaps. We can explore that later, if you'd like. I do enjoy tea - the ritual is as useful as the consumption. I'd be glad to share with you."
• Lottie: "I don't know if I can drink anymore, but if I can, I'll try."
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "Even if you can't, company is always welcome."
• Fonn Razorenth: "Smokes makes excellent tea."
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "Thank you. I have found it a very useful skill to cultivate. You know, Fonn - I'm comforted by you being here in all of .. this. It gives me faith that things will turn out as they should."
• Fonn Razorenth: "...I agree. I still don't fully understand what's happening -- we died but we didn't? It's reassuring to have something familiar."
• Delly (Delsari Orist Nym Galadant): Delly flicks ichor off her blades and wipes the rest off on her pants. She gives a smile to Lae'eni. "Well. Couldn't just let the bastard stand there after knocking Ikilthis on the head."
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "I have been giving that too much thought. At the end of the day, however, we are here. In this place, dealing with this location and its promise and worry, in some place we'll eventually explore. Regardless of what came before, and what its ramifications are, we are explorers in a new world, and that is never a truly awful thing. Seeing the new is a great gift."
• Fonn Razorenth: Fonn smiles. "You put it quite nicely."
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "A gift of my advancing age." She grins. "Comment and I'll throw a rock at you."
• Fonn Razorenth: "Rocks don't scare me."
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "... I can throw them at several hundred meters per second."
• Fonn Razorenth: "Some rocks scare me."
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "... dear girl, when negotiating with the Good Folk, especially the smallfolk - consider what they want. And they assume you own this place - so... ... wait. What is /that/?"
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "Can... can I try a 'Ritz Peanut Butter"... thing?"
• Delly (Delsari Orist Nym Galadant): "There's quite a lot in the pantry I believe."
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "I don't think I've ever had 'peanut butter'. And whatever a Ritz is..."
• Fonn Razorenth: "/You/ can check the pantry. I will stay over here."
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "I'm /working/. After working! ... do you think they've got salted fish?"
• Fonn Razorenth: "Watch out for tripwires. Apparently."
• Fonn Razorenth: Fonn looks at the designer mug. "I wonder how much gold I could get for this."
• Lottie: "Well I can tell by this one's skull that when it was alive it was very friendly. See these two bumps on the skull there? Oh, maybe those are from the clobbering we gave it. Either way, he's pretty friendly now. We could put Zenovi's glasses on him and take him to tea"
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: *quiet snickering in the chain*
• Lottie: "Phrenology isn't an exact science."
• GM: Ikhilzis almost gets sucked into Brother Iron's portable bed
• GM: Jarred Tyrrell Former Marine, then R3M Trooper, then tinman
• Jarred is Hispanic and served in the Gulf
• GM: Jarred is trying to reanimate his body under his willpower
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw watches the tapping, leaning, and listening avidly.
• Delly (Delsari Orist Nym Galadant): Delly spares a moment, post sticky note, to look up. She rubs her forearm for some reason. "Thank you for allowing that," she says,quietly, to the air. "It's not perfect, but it is better."
• Fonn Razorenth: Fonn eyes the chapel. She hasn't been one to directly pray to the gods, but after all that's happened it might be wise.
• Lottie: Lottie pats Delly reassuringly on the shoulder and says "I'm sure my lady and her are having the most regal of arguments right now" and laughs awkwardly "Not even she expected that to work"
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw "Pick me up. I need to reach that spot in the corner. " And yes, chalk is handed out.
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw hisses absently at Snow when she gets too close to a long word in Draconic on a tabletop.
• Lae'eni: Lae'eni quickly picks up Snow and offers her a shoulder to perch on.
• Delly (Delsari Orist Nym Galadant): "Well. I, ah. I hate to bother Her unncessarily, you know. I don't want to presume- fuck!"
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw: "..... I am having difficulty *writing on a wall* when it becomes *a mountain in the distance.*"
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw huffs.
• Delly (Delsari Orist Nym Galadant): Snow seems startled and is disinclined for pickmeups until hegives Lae'eni a good sniffing over."
• Lae'eni: '... No, but look... it's showing the tear lines like the shimmer on snow..."
• Topi "Smokes" Smokeclaw 's expression grows more and more sour as this... god.. talks. A dark cloud, of sorts, has her frowning.
• Delly (Delsari Orist Nym Galadant): Delly is quiet,still, and wary, lacedwith stunned surprise.
• Delly (Delsari Orist Nym Galadant): "That was the second most nervewracking encounterwith a god I've ever had."

Memory Bead: Mr. Smith's Apprentices

• (Nails, Brother Iron, and RJ are talking.)
• Nails: OK, from the top. We know that the dracolich, Mr. Smith, served Nicol Bolas. Smith, in turn, had several apprentices. They were running his operation...
• RJ: The Gray Vault. They were information brokers, more or less, as you know. They were a secretive cell of Nicol Bolas' Death Dragons.
• Nails: The Gray Vault. Right. Raptor Blue... terminated Smith...
• (Nails looks distacted for a moment, as if troubled by his memories of deliberately OD'ing on Wasteland to catalyze those events.)
• Nails: ...and later one apprentice, Caterina Berrett.
• Iron: Correct. We know that Berrett first killed two of her rival apprentices on Earth. And earlier, on Tessera, the Titan Breakers killed Vesperchoke Thorntail--a black dragon. We thought the only other apprentice of Mr. Smith was Nasha Pogray.
• RJ: The Drow tynker? She's in the Keyes Lab in Yalod Angara. Raptor Blue gave her that facility. That seemed like a questionable choice.
• Iron (frowns): Only if you see her as a Lolth fantatic. Nasha is secretly a follower of Dolmodeen. House Pogray is part of the alliance to free the Drow from Lolth's control.
• Nails: A righteous cause. (He says that with calm sincerity and a touch of true faith.)
• RJ (still skeptical but moving on): OK, well, Nasha gave Proud Flame valuable intel on the Gray Vault and the Death Dragons. It helped bring down Caterina.
• Nails: So then how does Joseph Rossman fit in?