Pirates Of The Azuraean

FREELANCE PIRATE-HUNTERS NEEDED

The Azurian Spiritual Leaders seek assistance in addressing the recent rise in illicit activity in the Azuraean Sea. While Azuria maintains amicable relations with privately managed oceanic explorers in the area, certain groups have been agitating beyond what can be tolerated.

Freelancers are therefore sought to address the issue with the groups in question - henceforth branded Pirates - and restore peaceful relations in the area, by force if necessary.

Success will be compensated greatly.

- 81st Century Admirable Perch

• Heightened Serendipity - Tamsin
• Manifold Ghosts - Phil

• Serendipity and Ghosts are hired by Admirable Perch to hunt down one Captain Mist of the Decaying Hand who has been head of a smuggling and poaching operation for a new psychoactive drink called “Scrum”. The drink is refined from parts of Scourges and the increased poaching is riling them up, which is in turn frustrating the efforts of the Craruan Defence Force who are threatening martial law to deal with it.
• The party head out on the trail, deal with some pirates and crabs, and come across members of the Hole Gang who tell of their horrible time in the Scourge's Hole caves where they found themselves haunted. This being the party's destination they head on in and indeed find themselves haunted. They take some Scrum and some documents detailing a meeting place for Mist's crew, then Ghosts uncovers a hidden passage down which physical spectral forces flow and attack them. At the bottom of this passage they find a psychically powerful Scourge Brain Stem which they call in an attack from the Craruan Defence Force to deal with.
• The party head to the meeting place for Mist's crew and are disturbed on the way to walk out of Ship Heart range. They strongarm First Mate Rusty Meathook into giving away Mist's location and head there. They travel and encounter a strange cave guarded by a forcefield of some kind and are told by three skulls perched outside to solve a riddle to be allowed passage. With application of logic and Starsighted foresight they solve the riddle and enter the cave where yet more impossibly animated skeletons are found.
• The skeletons dealt with, the party delve down and confront Captain Mist who insists as long as there are Scourges there will be Scrum and as long as there is Scrum there will be those willing to smuggle it. Mist raises a skeletal crew who attack the party, but the pair dispatch them and Serendipity executes her Elegy Target. Ghosts touches a glowing ring on Mist's hand and their head is immediately filled with memories of their past life who attempt to torment them. Ghosts gets a grip on themselves, mastering the ring and pocketing it.

• The pair return and report back to Admirable Perch, filling them in on what they found. They confirm the CDF were called in to destroy the Scourge Brainstem, that Mist was killed, that Scourges are all apparent sources of Scrum and that there is Decay up north. Perch is very grateful and rewards the party accordingly.
• Manifold Ghosts heads to Mytene where the Mytenean Societal Corps is able to pull in a junior Mystic of the Arcane to ask about the ring and what happened. The Mystic examines the ring cautiously and tells Ghosts that they believe the Ring has equivalent power to a Startouched Star Pact Gift given to someone a long time ago. By examining the markings they believe it must have been in circulation for some time. The exact power of it is unclear, since items like this are rarely found not attached to the one who was given the gift, and there's no immediate Ship Heart link to follow, but it seems that the Ring has power to meddle with imprints of the deceased in the world to greater or lesser effect.
• Heightened Serendipity returns to debrief with Spectre Vyix 9a who congratulates her on a job well done. Her next target will come soon - likely to be one of the Chorister's associates when they're taking a trip to Ace's World as currently the Chorister isn't making obvious moves. Serendipity then visits Starlight Ebbing where she trades the Scrum and Scourge Juice samples as well as all her notes on the subject for help working on a refinement of the Scrum effects. They are more than happy to help, but warn her that while the effects should be significant there could be danger in using a refined form of Scrum. They give her a working pack of what they call “Scrum+” to experiment with to train her brain.

• Breakdown of consequences for characters - rewards, effects, contacts.
• Also mention any wider consequences for the world

• +3 Clout with Azuria or +1 Clout with another faction of your choosing.
• +2 Clout with the Craruan Defence Force.

• 3 Bottles of Scrum
  • Spend 5s roleplaying drinking to gain a pool of 3 uses of MISS which can be used against melee blows.
  • You may do this 3 times per Bottle and a Bottle once opened must be finished by the end of the Encounter or it loses its potency.
• Ring of the Dead
  • Once per Encounter: gain a use of YOU: EFFECT BLIND as you cause impressions of death nearby to rush your target.
  • Once per Mission: you may attempt to revive a dead thing. Perform a Tinkering:
    • Minor Success: the dead thing is revived for the duration of the Encounter. It has 5 hits and whatever weapon it had in life. It cannot speak but can understand simple instructions.
    • Major Success: the dead thing is revived for the duration of the Encounter. It has 10 hits and whatever weapon it had in life. It cannot speak but can understand simple instructions.
    • Perfect Success: the dead thing is revived for the duration of the Encounter for combat with 10 hits and whatever weapon it had in life, or for 60s to hold a conversation. It will not be distressed that it is dead.
    • Failure: you receive a traumatic impression of how the thing died, reliving it as if you were dying.
    • Consequences: for each Consequence you receive, the difficulty of Maintaining Control Of The Ring is permanently harder (see below)
  • Maintaining Control: When you receive a Severe Injury while wearing the Ring, you must fight for control of the Ring. Call a TIME FREEZE and request 4 enemies to attack you inside your mind. For each Consequence you have received from using this Ring's effects, add another Monster (they can wave as necessary). These enemies take the form of people whom you have killed or seen die in the past, and they want to destroy you. Each has 3 hits. If the Ring wins you are unable to use it for the rest of the Mission and you must tell Katie during your downtime in order to receive further effects.

• +5 Clout with the Elegy
• Elegy Contract Complete: gain a Boon (you may have the CLUNK gun if you want it to be that)
• 3 vials of concentrated “Scrum+”
  • You may spend 5s consuming Scrum+ to gain for the rest of the Mission a use of MISS that you can recharge with 5s of meditation (sitting on the ground out of combat, no weapons in hand).
  • There is no bonus to consume multiple vials.
  • Once you consume your third vial you will gain the following effects:
    • Psychic Power - you may call YOU: PUSH once per Encounter and always have a use of MISS that recharges with 5s of meditation; OR you may choose the ability to communicate silently with your allies (put two fingers in the air when talking to them).
    • Reliance - you NEED more Scrum+. If you are unable to access Scrum+ during a Mission then you will lose 2 maximum body hits.
  • If you start taking Scrum+ and then stop before taking a third vial, you will gain the following effect:
    • Withdrawal - you have a stonking headache for the duration of your next Mission.