All Your Base

# Incoming Transmission
# Source Identifier: Reflective Scale # Mytenea, Mytene c/o Starlight Ebbing
# Destination Identifier: TE3-Firebrand#Her Glorious Command#Starlight Ebbing#Muse IX#Unquiet Journey#*
# Subject: Equipment Malfunction; Help Sought
# Message Begins

Aspexx Corporation seeks motivated individuals with expertise in one or more of the following fields:

• Close-quarters combat
• Tactical decision making
• Computer repair
• Hostage rescue
• Immediate availability

to assist our in-house security teams with an ongoing equipment malfunction in one of our state-of-the-art facilities on Mytene.

Prospective applicants to present themselves at the Aspexx Legal Offices in Mytenea, Mytene. Ask for Reflective Scale. Discretion is required; successful applicants will be required to sign an NDA before mission briefing.

# Message Ends

• Red Nine - Katie
• Minted Parade - Anna
• Endless Flame - Rory
• Iron Cold - Robin

• The party meets with Reflective Scale, Aspexx's Junior Legal Counsel to Mytene, in their office in the city of Mytenea. Before anything else, Scale has the party sign standard NDAs. Red Nine uses an Intervention to make their NDA appear signed but actually be non-binding.
• Scale explains that Aspexx has a facility on the outskirts of Mytenea that produces specialised equipment, and in particular security robots. However, the facility recently went haywire - Aspexx suspects a cyberattack - and the security robots have gone rogue. An elite team of non-robotic Aspexx security personnel was sent in to contain the situation, but contact with them was lost when a signal jamming field activated around the facility. Scale doesn’t know whether the security team are alive or dead, but is concerned that they have not reported back. They requested backup from Aspexx, but no other security teams are available - Aspexx has plenty of robotic security but doesn’t want to send those in for obvious reasons, and is unable to supply further organic units. So Scale has hired the party to deal with the situation.
• The party escorts Scale to the facility, protected them from the local wildlife along the way. Arriving at the facility, built atop an abandoned mine, they find the perimeter littered with destroyed robots. Scale wishes to remain outside away from the danger; Red Nine calls in a favour from their Mystic Sect to bring in a team to look after Scale and guard the perimeter (as well as establish a foothold here to exert influence).
• Inside the facility, the party are set upon by rogue security robots, speaking phrases such as 'aspexx sux' and 'destroy aspexx stooges'. At the main production line, the robots are stacking a large pile of mining explosives, brought from elsewhere in the facility. Once the nearby robots are defeated, the party debate what to do about the explosives, eventually leveraging Minted Parade's knowledge of thermal countermeasures to damp down the pile enough that it shouldn't spontaneously combust.
• Moving deeper into the facility, the party locates the elite Aspexx security team that Reflective Scale had previously sent in, barricaded behind a large pile of destroyed robots. The squad is severely injured and unable to proceed. While fending off an especially persistent forklift robot carrying more explosives to the previous room, the party try their best to help the squad, and find out about a control room from where they might be able to remotely shut down the robots. The security team hand over an access card, and thanks to the party's help should be able to fend for themselves while waiting for rescue.
• In the control room, the party fend off an endless stream of robots while trying to reboot the control terminal. Eventually they are able to issue a shutdown signal that disables every robot in the facility. After this, a message appears on the terminal, seemingly from the perpetrator of the cyberattack, congratulating the party on their success and suggesting that they should meet up if the party want to know 'what Aspexx are really up to'. A map to another part of the facility is provided.
• Before moving on, the party examines the terminal. Red Nine spots a memory stick, decorated with an image of a hand holding a playing card, plugged in to the terminal. The device is already loaded with various bits of malware, but Nine copies a bunch of interesting looking Aspexx files onto the remaining space on the device and pockets it.
• The party arrives at the advertised location, where a human introducing themselves as 'Hand Owning' decloaks, surrounded by holographic duplicates of themselves. Owning explains that, despite the party's actions, their cyberattack was a success: the point was not to compromise the facility itself, but rather to cause a large enough distraction that Aspexx's elite security detail would be forced to intervene. Owning's group of hackers-slash-conspiracy-theorists, Card Table, had uncovered evidence of a top secret Aspexx base on Kylal, established in the last few months, and wanted to break in to find out what nefarious conspiracy Aspexx was up to this time. However, the site was guarded by the elite security team. Since Aspexx is short on non-robotic security teams after the Orion Gate Incident, by manufacturing a distraction that required a non-robotic security response, the Kylal facility could be made unguarded long enough for Card Table to sneak in.
• Hand Owning further explains that the hackers sent to Kylal have fallen out of contact, and offers to the party that rather than continuing to work for Aspexx, they could head to Kylal on behalf of Card Table to track down the hackers and find out more about Aspexx's secret base. The party confer amongst themselves, and agree to help so long as Owning promises not to attack the Mytene facility any further (which they agree to as their distraction mission is already completed), and if Owning provides some way to monitor the robots to ensure they don't wake up and cause more trouble, which they provide in the form of a PDA linked to the system.
• On their way out of the facility, the party track down the persistent forklift robot which they earlier trapped in a cupboard, so that Endless Flame can take out their frustrations on it.
• The party speaks to Reflective Scale outside the facility, explaining that the robots have been neutralised, and that lax cybersecurity seems to have allowed the attack to take place. They do not mention Hand Owning or Card Table, but present evidence of passwords written on sticky notes from the control room to back their story up. They also provide directions to the security team, so that they can be rescued. Scale is happy with this, and the party departs, with Red Nine ensuring that the Mystic Sect has some influence in the facility's recovery.
• The party rendezvous elsewhere on Mytene with a pirate who appears to owe a favour to Hand Owning. The pirate seems especially competent and well-equipped, sporting a mid-sized vessel with its own Ship Heart. They aren't willing to name themselves, but don't ask for the party's names either, and are instead happy to ferry the party with minimal fuss.
• A while later, the party touches down in the frozen wastelands on the surface of Kylal, far from any established settlements. Card Table don't have an exact fix on the location of the Aspexx base, but the pirate is able to drop the party off near a trail left by the previous hacker party. They leave the party with a communicator to call the pirate back for later extraction.
• Following the trail of footprints and discarded hacking equipment, the party fight ice beetles and a horde of decaying creatures (perhaps made from the discarded tech), before arriving at the entrance to a cave. This appears to be the entrance to the Aspexx base - a semi-circle of beetle corpses and rusty dust surrounds the entrance, as though an elite Aspexx security detail had previously been stationed here.
• Uncertain of what awaits, Red Nine blesses Endless Flame with the power to telepathically ping back to the rest of the party if they encounter danger, then Flame heads into the cave alone.
• The cave is sparsely inhabited: there is zero technology to be found, and the caves walls are entirely natural, with the only additions being occasional wooden furniture and bioluminescent glow sticks to provide light. Aspexx appears to be going to great lengths here to avoid summoning the decay. Swatting away some insignificant decay creatures, Flame gathers notes and journal pages from the tables and summons the party.
• Sitting down to read the notes, the party discovers that the base was recently established by Aspexx in response to the discovery by Zeitgeist and the Borderlands Botanists of a gate-like connection between Hive IV and Kylal, each within the ruins of the ancient 'pentagonal civilisation' whose ruins are often found on Kylal. The project appears to be run by Melodious Solution, Aspexx's Chief Mobility Mystic. The party debates for some time what to do with this information, and whether it is right for Aspexx and / or Card Table to have access to it.
• Moving further into the cave, the party comes upon a host of powerful decay creatures trying to gain access to a safe room. Destroying the creatures, the party find the safe room to be a large stone door, bolted from the other side. Shouting through the door, they determine that both some Aspexx staff and some Card Table hackers are inside, and persuade them to let the party in.
• Within the safe room, it becomes apparent that Melodious Solution is not present, having left the base in the past few weeks. The only Aspexx staff are technical staff, as the security team had also left to go to Mytene. On the other hand, the hackers had shown up a few days ago, laden with technology, and thus been pursued by the decay into the base. Overwhelmed and without a security team, this forced both Aspexx and Card Table into the safe room, where they have been trapped bickering with each other ever since.
• The Aspexx staff, including one Elegant Solution who seems quite concern with 'when my mother hears about all this', are adamant that the hackers must not leave the base alive, due to its top secret nature. The hackers want to get to the bottom of the conspiracy so they can unmask Aspexx's schemes. Red Nine and Minted Parade appear minded to side with Aspexx, but are afraid that Iron Cold's code of honour will prevent them from killing the hackers, so collude to have Iron Cold escort the Aspexx staff out of the cave first. Once this happens, they murder the hackers and blame the whole thing on decay.
• With everyone fleeing the cave due to the apparent threat of decay, the party heads back out in the wasteland and summons the pirate ship to pick them up.

• The party returns the rescued Aspexx staff to the Starlight Ebbing, where they meet with Reflective Scale and several other Aspexx representatives. The party shares most of what happened at the facility on Mytene. They then explain how they took a job from a nameless individual to rescue their friends from the facility on Kylal, and saved the Aspexx staff there. Aspexx seems especially grateful for the rescue of their staff, but is also very keen to stress the importance of the NDAs the party signed, and that these also cover the Kylal facility.
• While Iron Cold and their pesky sense of honour are distracted, Red Nine and Minted Parade take Reflective Scale and the Aspexx staff to one side and confirm the deal they made to 'handle' the hackers on Kylal; in exchange they want extra payment for the work on Kylal. Elegant Solution agrees to pull some strings with her mother, so long as Red Nine returns the journal pages she picked up. Red Nine returns the documents, claiming she had forgotten to have taken them, and secretly hopes she has memorised enough of their contents from earlier meditation.
• The party leaves the Starlight Ebbing, agreeing to reconvene on Ace's World. Red Nine first takes a detour to track down Hand Owning first; Minted Parade refuses to join her as he feels increasing guilty about what happened to the hackers on Kylal, while the rest of the party would rather go straight to Ace's World.
• Red Nine lies to Hand Owning, telling them that the Aspexx staff were capable of defending themselves even without their security team, and the Decay had killed the remaining hackers. Nine further explains that the purpose of the facility was an archaeological dig into the pentagonal structures, with Aspexx being very careful to avoid the Decay, and it being too early for them to have got anything from the project - this is all true, strictly speaking, but elides the key detail about Aspexx's motivation for doing so.
• The party regroups at a casino on Ace's World, and everyone agrees with Iron Cold that giving away the information found on Kylal would be bad. Since the notes were given back to Aspexx, there's now no chance of that happening, so all is well!
• As soon as Iron Cold has left, Red Nine explains to Endless Flame and Minted Parade that she memorised at least a substantial portion of the notes before handing them back, and that if Aspexx ever examine the NDA she signed, they will find it unenforceable. She is thus in a position to sell the information that “Aspexx are working on Intrasystem Gate Tech based on the Kylal Gate that involves Permissions and Interfaces” to Aces High for a tidy profit. The three agree to this course of action - but also that they should find some way to cut Iron Cold in on the deal without revealing their betrayal.
• Aces High is a busy woman, but the group are able to get an appointment when the nature of what they are selling is made clear. When it becomes clear that the information is all in Red Nine's head, rather than there being any physical evidence, Aces is dubious of its veracity, but through Nine's connection to the Aces's World ship heart, she is able to provides assurances as to the information's integrity. With this established, Aces seems quite interested in buying the information, so long as she is the sole purchaser. Endless Flame makes a show of their unique role in the data's retrieval, in particular how he was the one who scouted out the cave and gathered it all in the first place, and is able to wangle some extra compensation as a result. With all agreed, the trade is made. Red Nine sends Iron Cold's cut in the form of casino chips.
• Minted Parade returns Hand Owning's memory stick to Red Nine, in exchange for gambling lessons. The pair take a tour of the casinos on Ace's World, with Nine covering Parade's costs. One training montage later, Minted Parade is now less terrible at gambling than before.
• Minted Parade also meets with Endless Flame, who wishes to negotiate for Hand Owning's PDA. Flame agrees to make some introductions and put in a good word with some pirates they're associated with, in exchange for the device, which Parade agrees to.
• Iron Cold writes a letter to the King of Fableland: “King Valiant, I send this message as your humble servant who remains loyal despite the challenges I have faced. I have continued to investigate the horrific event that lead to the death of my dear friend and squire, sod poor. While discussing the events with outsider pagens who described what caused the event as a “granade”, and I was horrified to learn that such dangerous things are not only manufactured but also carried freely by outsiders! They are weapons of warfare unlike any we have. You are certainly true when you say that outsiders are insane, which has been reinforced by the other interactions I had with other outsiders. I plead with you to understand that this event was not my fault.”
• A while later, Iron Cold receives a letter in response: “Those who live beyond our realm indeed possess many such strange and powerful weapons - oft do we see them deployed when outsiders partake our Tournament. You have shown your understanding, Iron Cold, of the dangers posed by these creations. Now you must put this understanding to action. Go forth, and save another from repeating your past mistakes. When you can prove to me that you have prevented another from unintentionally causing grievous injury to their brethren with such a weapon, then I will consider the debt of your poor judgement to be repaid. For the truly honourable warrior, saving many in this way could become a lifetime's calling, but that I leave to your own judgement. - King Valiant”
• Red Nine encourages her Divine Sect to seek out the town of Fableland on Ace's World, and proselytise there. An interesting challenge for a settlement that appears to shun the protection of the ship hearts, but one the Sect is prepared to attempt! A few missionaries are dispatched to the town.

• Status of facility on Mytene: under repair
• Status of facility on Kylal: [REDACTED]

• Now has a small amount of favour with Aspexx for their assistance recovering the Mytene facility.
• Has established the beginnings of a presence in Fabletown. The citizens regard these 'cultists' as bizarre for the most part, though some are curious about what they have to say.

• +2 Clout with Aspexx for recovering the facility on Mytene
• +1 Clout with Aspexx for dealing with the situation at the facility on Kylal, even though they weren't asked to and should never have known about this facility in the first place
• +1 Clout with the Card Table hacker collective for at least investigating the facility on Kylal, even if no-one could be saved and no grand conspiracy could be uncovered
• OR +1 Clout with another faction of your choosing, instead of all the above

• +2 Clout with Ace's High for sale of valuable information
• You still remember the information from the Aspexx notes that you memorised, however you are also aware that so long as you remain linked with the Ace's World ship heart, it will also know what you do with this information. Should you ever attempt to sell this information to anyone else, in contravention of the terms of sale to Ace's High, the Ace's World ship heart will know. Whether it would tell Ace's High is another question, of course…
• -2 Clout with Ace's High spent covering Minted Parade's casino costs during training
• Hand Owning's memory stick
  • A memory stick with an image of a hand holding a playing card engraved into the side.
  • Contains hacking tools written by Hand Owning. A character in possession of this memory stick may, by plugging it into a computer system:
    • Without the Specialist 'Hacker' skill, use it to hack the system by picking some malware to run at random.
    • With the Specialist 'Hacker' skill, use it to greatly speed up the hacking process.
    • Either way, this malware is rather showy, and may have unexpected side-effects at GM discretion as it pwns the system.
  • Also contains a trove of files belonging to Aspexx, of a medium-security nature.
    • With access to a computer terminal (or some other means of reading the memory stick) and sufficient time, you may browse the files for information they might reasonably contain, at GM discretion.
    • If Aspexx discovers any character to be in possession of this data trove, they will immediately lose 10 Clout with Aspexx. (Consequences may be reduced for characters already trusted by Aspexx; a character with 15 Clout 'Trusted' status with Aspexx would be of sufficient clearance to own this information without consequence.)

• +2 Clout with Ace's High for sale of valuable information
• +2 Clout with Pirates from trading the PDA with Endless Flame
• Beginner's Luck
  • Thanks to Red Nine's instruction, you feel a bit luckier when gambling. Once per mission (including Downtime), while playing a game of chance, you may perform a Tinkering to let luck guide you. Exact consequences may vary depending on the nature of the game and the stakes being played for, but the following is provided as a rough guide:
  • On a mundane failure, your fate at the game is unchanged. Which probably means you lose.
  • On a minor success, you minimise your losses.
  • On a major success, you break even with some slight winnings.
  • On a perfect success, you win big time.
  • On a failure, you lose big time.
  • For each consequence, your poker face slips. Perhaps this increases your losses, or perhaps the other players believe you to be cheating.

• +3 Clout with Ace's High for sale of valuable information and your valuable role in its discovery
• -2 Clout with Pirates paid to Minted Parade for the PDA
• Hand Owning's PDA
  • A handheld device with an image of a hand holding a playing card engraved on the back.
  • Can be used to remotely monitor a computer system, if the system is hacked first.
    • Requires 30 seconds uninterrupted hacking roleplay at a computer system to connect the device to the system.
    • The connection only requires 10 seconds to establish if performed by a character with the 'Hacker' skill.
    • The device can then be used at any time to monitor the connected system, and send it simple commands.
    • Only one computer system can be connected at a time.
    • The connection expires if the device and computer system go out of range of each other. The exact distance is at GM discretion, but in general will not exceed the size of a city. (It is certainly not interplanetary!)

• +2 Clout with Ace's High delivered by Red Nine in the form of casino chips for… some reason?