Final Chance

# Incoming Transmission
# Source Identifier: Captain Violet Afterburn, Justification, Siruta
# Destination Identifier: TE3-Firebrand#Her Glorious Command#Starlight Ebbing#Muse IX#Unquiet Journey#*
# Subject: Assistance Needed
# Message Begins

I’m offering a sizable reward to the party who can locate and rescue a trusted crewmate of mine who has gone missing.

Find me docked at the port in Azuria for further details.

Captain Violet Afterburn

# Message Ends

# Incoming Direct Message
# Source Identifier: Vyix 9a
# Destination Identifier: Heightened Serendipity
Accept transmission? y/n
Y

# Message Begins

See attached. If you are at all able to answer this request, do so. Of relevance to your active contract. Contact me once you are en route for further briefing.

# Message Ends

• Heightened Serendipity - Tamsin
• Languid Relaxation - Mike

• On route to Siruta, Heightened Serendipity contacts Vyix 9a and learns that:
  • An Altarian by the name of Imminent Descent requested a contract on Violet Afterburn with a hefty bribe attached, for the crime of being rank 37 and not fulfilling the duties of a high-ranking Altarian. This was (obviously) refused but Vyix 9a has put this together with other information to deduce that Violet Afterburn and Dazzling Amethyst are the same person - Amethyst having been the survivor of the Immersabilis disaster who might potentially be harbouring Ninth Chance, the final remaining terrorist, Heightened Serendipity’s target. Vyix 9a therefore wants Heightened Serendipity to take this mission as a way to get into Violet Afterburn’s inner circle and find out what happened to Ninth Chance.
  • Violet Afterburn is not a contract Elegy target - this could change depending on what Serendipity learns, but for now there is no contract
  • Vyix 9a has not attempted to ask Violet Afterburn where Ninth Chance is - or threaten her into revealing this information - because Violet Afterburn has successfully hidden for two decades, they do not want to risk spooking her into running again - far preferable to become her friend and wait for information to appear.
  • There is now a contract out on Chorister Vitruvius but they have not been seen since the peace talks. Since, strictly speaking, contracts are supposed to be approved by the Chorister, this is obviously a slightly unusual contract - but as the Elegy is now essentially split down the middle, you can be confident that the rest of the Elegy who are opposed to the Chorister will consider it a legitimate contract.
• Languid Relaxation also contacts Pentagonal Pectoral and learns:
  • Violet Afterburn is continuing to help with governance
  • As is Pentagonal's new pal Imminent Ascent, who’s helping them set up a zoo on his island
  • Violet’s been distracted by this kidnapping thing, Pentagonal needs her attention on governing, sort it out
  • Also Pentagonal has been trying to convince her that you (Languid Relaxation) are a good person but she’s holding a grudge, maybe help her with this and we can all work together
• The party meet in the port on Azuria and speak to Violet Afterburn on her ship, the Justification. Violet shares the following mission information:
  • Violet's quartermaster, Third Time, has gone missing. She went into Azuria alone to collect supplies (as quartermaster) and deliver edits on some new legislation to Pentagonal’s office. She did not come back, after a day Violet sent out a search party but they haven’t come back either so Violet is now hiring adventurers. Go follow Third Time's trail into the city, see if you can figure out what’s happened.
• The city contains many crabs. These are fought while the party follow the trail. They find out from a crab-beleaguered warehouse manager that Third Time did indeed come and collect supplies on schedule, followed a day later by the pirate search party which Violet sent out.
• Heightened Serendipity uses her drone to plot a crab-free route onwards to Pentagonal's office, where they find Pentagonal Pectoral 313, His Lordness Imminent Ascent 1404 and an office lackey (Shining Star, 23rd Century) mostly paying attention to Timmy the adolescent Mega-Crab who is set up in a pen in the corner of Pentagonal's office. Pentagonal is clearly mostly focused on their new zoo project but the party learns that they did receive the edited legislated from Violet, confirming that Third Time made it this far. Heightened Serendipity recognises the name Imminent Ascent from Vyix 9a's information and psychically communicates the details of his attempted contract on Violet Afterburn to Languid Relaxation. The office lackey is able to add some additional information, namely:
  • The pirate search party came here too, a day after Third Time, and saw the lackey because Pentagonal and Ascent were off viewing the island for its zoo potential.
  • The pirates discussed among themselves what to do and agreed to go to Hibiscus View, a nearby village, with discussion implying they thought there was a chance Third Time might have gone there.
• The party set out towards Hibiscus view, but on their way through the jungle come across a large pit of quicksand, which appears to contain a) some debris b) some quicksandsharks and c) a screeching parrot flying around overhead.
  • Languid Relaxation wades out into the quicksand, resisting most sandshark attacks but getting moderately stuck in quicksand before successfully retrieving some bones, some pirate weapons and a hat bearing Violet Afterburn's symbol (a skull eating another skull) - it looks like this might have been the end of the pirate search party
  • Languid Relaxation tinkers with their Eggs-Ray Scanner to scan for more items within the quicksand
  • While he is doing this, sandsharks continue attempting to attack but cannot leave the quicksand, however a hat is dragged back in with them
  • Heightened Serendipity tinkers to create sandshark pepper-spray and attach it to her drone, which she then mind-melds with to control it into the middle of the quicksand and retrieve the hat
  • The parrot flies around squawking various phrases which imply it might have seen what happened here, so Heightened Serendipity tempts it over with food and then captures it in a bag.
• Continuing onwards, their way is blocked by a large dam, which looks like it was built by Sirutan Armourdillos. The party attempt to gain the high ground over the Armourdillos by standing on top of the dam, which instead makes the Armourdillos charge the base of the dam until it collapses, causing some slight injuries. However the party is able to flee and escape the angered armoured beasts.
• Before entering the village of Hibiscus View, Heightened Serendipity tinkers with a portion of Squeeple Juice extracted from her drone (removing her second mind-meld ability for this mission) to create some 'mind-meld juice' which she and the parrot both drink half of. This leads to a 5 minute two-way mind-sharing experience between Heightened Serendipity and the parrot.
  • Heightened Serendipity learns: the parrot belonged to one of the pirates, but flew up in the air when the pirate search party were ambushed here by someone she recognises as the Chorister. They were tortured for information about Violet's ship, her security and crew routines, which they did not share many details of. They were then killed and pushed into the quicksand, where the sandsharks ate them. The parrot flew around sadly for 3 days until the party showed up. The parrot hopes/believes they are more pirates to hang out with.
  • The Parrot learns: What a gun is; What grief is; Heightened Serendipity's knowledge of the Chorister and the outline concept of the Elegy.
• The party continue on to Hibiscus View, where the villagers share:
  • The search party never made it here, the route to Azuria city has been blocked for weeks by the armourdillos and their dam. The villagers are initially hopeful that the party might have cleared them out (the general sanctity of animals means the villagers can't directly attack them), and are sad to hear that is not the case but do ask the party to pass on news of their plight to someone in Azuria city when they return.
  • Third Time has not been seen within the last few weeks, however she did used to live in a hut near this village for nearly a decade before becoming Violet Afterburn's quartermaster. As far as the villagers know, the two came to Siruta together just over a decade ago, and Third Time lived here while Violet Afterburn went off and built her piratical reputation. The villagers direct the party towards the hut.
• At the hut, the party look for booby-traps before entering, at which point it becomes clear that a) yes, this hut was heavily booby-trapped but b) a lot of the booby-traps have been set off by someone else, possibly quite recently given how at least one fire is still burning in a corner that might once have been a bed. The party manage to avoid most of the remaining traps while observing the following things:
  • An antique bracelet with the following names engraved inside: Luminous Sky, Luminous Star, Luminous Diamond, Dazzling Diamond, Dazzling Citrine, Dazzling Pearl - which Languid Relaxation recognises as likely to be all related names from a single Altarian family, i.e. this is an heirloom
  • A photo of Violet and someone else (presumably Third Time) having a romantic dinner on what appears to be the poop deck of the Justification
  • A map of other systems which are connected to the Keter System, which is annotated such that it looks like a map of options for places to travel to
  • Fake IDs with the following names:
    • Ninth Deal, Ninth Fortune, Third Chance - the photo here is of the person sharing the romantic meal with Violet in the other photo, and also conceivably looks like an older version of the person that Vyix 9a has described as Ninth Life
    • Purple Charge, Bright Tanzanite, Lilac Memento - the photo here is of Violet Afterburn
  • A trail of blood and damaged plants leading out of the hut in the opposite direction from where the party entered - it looks a lot like someone with a broken leg went that way.
• The party follow this trail along the cliff edge past some cliff-face eels and up onto a plateau with some Skitters, where they can see a shack in the distance. The party sneak past the Skitters, avoiding giving themselves away until they reach the hut, where they hear the Chorister's voice and then choose to enter. The Chorister, with a broken leg, is inside and appears to be torturing/questioning someone who the party assume to be Third Time, who is tied to a chair. Some discussion ensues, amongst which:
  • Heightened Serendipity informs the Chorister that they have been selected for pruning
  • A fight kicks off, and they manage to free Third Time from her bonds.
  • After a tough fight, the Chorister is defeated and executed. Heightened Serendipity calls Vyix 9a over a vid-link and shows them the head. Vyix 9a is impressed. Heightened Serendipity puts the head in a bag, and the party plus Third Time head back to Azuria city. In their discussions with Third Time, they learn that Third Time was kidnapped by the Chorister in Azuria City, and that the Chorister was looking for the same information they tortured the pirates for - i.e. how to infiltrate Violet's ship. The party also return the various fake IDs to Third Time.
• Heightened Serendipity has not yet connected Third Time with Ninth Life, and therefore the party return her to Violet Afterburn's ship, where a tearful romantic reunion is had. They tell Violet that they are a little worried about Imminent Ascent, who could be a threat to Pentagonal Pectoral. Violet is aware that the two of them have gone out to Imminent Ascent's not-yet-renamed Plundarr Island, and orders her ship to set sail for there. Languid Relaxation also manages to send an instruction to his own personal ship to follow them
• On route to Plundarr Island, Heightened Serendipity suddenly realises, from all the circumstantial evidence, that Third Time is her original target, the terrorist once known as Ninth Life, who helped to pull of the destruction of Vyix 9a (the moon). This leaves her in a tricky situation, since they are now at sea onboard Violet's ship, surrounded by pirates.
• Heightened Serendipity devises a cunning plan to make certain of Third Time's identity, which involves Tinkering. She purchases a portion of Crystal Scrum from Languid Relaxation at market value (where market value is determined by what the market can pay for it), and tinkers using pharmaceuticals expertise until she has a potion which will make the drinker telepathically but indiscriminately broadcast their thoughts for a minute. Heightened Serenidipty, with a Scrum addiction, is unable to resist sticking her finger in this and licking it, whereupon Languid Relaxation learns that Heightened Serendipity has identified Third Time as her target and plans to prune them. The rest of the potion is tipped into one of the mugs of rum which they bring to Violet and Third Time to 'celebrate' Third Time's capture, and Third Time drinks it.
• This causes a minute of Third Time broadcasting all her thoughts to everyone within a 5m range, and so:
  • Heightened Serendipity starts asking questions about the Vyix 9a disaster, and learns the following:
    • Third Time is definitely Ninth Life
    • She was involved in the plot but had regrets, but then couldn't undo anything
    • She was on the Immersabilis, where she met Violet
    • She loves Violet
    • They ran away together to escape their pasts
    • She doesn't want to be thinking about these things but is struggling to think about anything else
  • Violet and her crew also receive the telepathic broadcast, causing Violet to work out what's happened and try to move Third Time away from Heightened Serendipity and distract her - eventually leading to Violet jumping off the side of the ship with Third Time as they approach the shore of Plundarr Island
  • The crew are, mostly, confused. They do not act either for or against Third Time while all this is happening.
• On the shore of Plundarr Island are Imminent Ascent and Pentagonal Pectoral, who are also confused by everything happening here. The party disembark and Languid Relaxation explains the situation (somewhat) to them while Heightened Serendipity focuses on Third Time.
• Heightened Serendipity informs Third Time that she has been selected for pruning. Violet informs Heightened Serendipity that she will very much have to go through her. The situation, plus what was learned about Third Time's regrets, makes Heightened Serendipity suggest a parlay with Vyix 9a - however, when she calls Vyix 9a to attempt to arrange this, Vyix 9a is unconvinced that any argument could lead to the contract being lifted, and tells Heightened Serendipity to go ahead with the contract. A tough fight ensues against Violet Afterburn, which Heightened Serendipity is starting to win when Violet - clearly begrudgingly - calls an Intervention from her Ship Heart. It becomes apparent why this was begrudging when the ship heart (Afterburn: personality untrustworthy) interprets her words in the most literal way possible: the party see both Violet and Third Time suddenly yeeted into the air at high speed in the general direction of Crarua, where Violet asked it to 'move' them.
• The party are unable to immediately follow. Behind them, the Justification leaves shore and powers in the direction of Crarua, as Languid Relaxation's ship comes up behind.
• Languid Relaxation also takes the opportunity to indulge in:
  • some light intimidation and blackmail of Imminent Ascent, with strong subtext of 'I know everything you are up to and you are going to have to watch me take everything you want.'
  • some schmoozing with Pentagonal Pectoral, using a Gambit Tinkering to attempt to get Pentagonal to adopt him.

• Heightened Serendipity takes the Chorister's head to Vyix 9a: the Elegy is still split but this now gives a major advantage to Vyix 9a's anti-Chorister-Vitruvius faction. However, Vyix 9a does not plan to immediately appoint a new Chorister, preferring to avoid the appearance of a coup - instead, they send out word that the Elegy within the Keter System will confirm no new contracts on targets until contact is reestablished with the world outside. This puts a hold on any remaining internal power struggles for now.
• Languid Relaxation, meanwhile, asks the Elegy for proof of Imminent Ascent's attempt to secure a contract on Violet Afterburn. He is provided with a copy of the request which Imminent Ascent sent, confirmed identifiably by name and signature. (Note this request also mentions that Violet Afterburn is an Altarian of rank 37, should this paperwork be shown to others in future).
• Languid Relaxation also uses their dynastic connections to try to understand the general Altarian understanding of a high-ranking Altarian involved in the Immersabilis disaster and how they might be viewed. General 'knowledge' is that Dazzling Pearl and Dazzling Amethyst, the last of their line, died in the Immersabilis's destruction. There are no rumours among those you speak to of a high-ranking Altarian in hiding in the Keter System. (Note: you are unable to speak to anyone belonging to Violet's crew but you can be fairly sure these details not more widely known.) There is no unified way in which those you speak to respond to the idea of a hypothetical hidden high-ranking Altarian: the two main schools of thought are that if they are high-ranking, they should be deferred to no matter their history; the other that someone high-ranking had a duty to make themselves known before now and thus have abandoned their duty to Alta (unspoken: and should be dealt with). It's the hiding that people care more about than the tangential-involvement-in-terrorist-disaster as far as you can tell.
• Heightened Serendipity goes to Crarua after seeing Vyix 9a. Asking around, there are humourous stories of Violet Afterburn and a companion arriving unexpectedly from the sky (several days ago at this point) - it's the sort of story that's getting expanded every time someone tells it while drinking rum, but the truth of the matter seems to be they did arrive at speed, maybe broke a few bones but were not killed, and as far as anyone you're talking to knows they're long gone - the Justification docked a day later and quickly bought some supplies before heading off again. The stories dry up, however, as soon as Heightened Serendipity mentions her name - it's clear that Afterburn's crew have put out word on you and anyone affiliated with pirates sees you as a risk to work with. This unfortunately also affects your attempts to get hold of any Scrum - on top of the fact that Violet's organisation is in some disarray means the pirate smuggling rings may be operating at less than full capacity, whenever you think you've made a good contact you also find that someone has told them who you are and they no longer want to sell you anything.

• Violet Afterburn's pirate organisation is in some disarray, and smuggling rings on Siruta are currently disrupted
• The whereabouts of Violet Afterburn and Third Time are currently unknown [speak to refs if you want to write them into an adventure]
• There is a parrot on the Justification which has been fed Squeeple juice.
• OC the following information has been defined about star systems which were reachable from the Keter system through the Orion Gate:
  • The Orion Gate led to the Candiope Gate in the Fjenix System
    • From the Fjenix System, the Topaz Gate leads to the Sapphire Gate in the Ferris System, and the Lightning Gate leads to the Cloud Gate in the binary Solus System.

• No shared consequences! You made your choices.

• +3 Clout with Azuria, gained in trade for -1 Clout's worth of Crystal Scrum
• Nemesis: Imminent Ascent
• Your relationship and Clout status with Violet Afterburn and her crew is unchanged, due to both positive and negative interactions on this mission
• Possession of an heirloom bracelet which, according to its engravings, last belonged to Dazzling Pearl.
• Pentagonal Pectoral, impressed by your professional attitude and personal assistance to them, publicly announces their intention to formally adopt you - if you show your respect for their lineage by changing some part of your name to reflect the new relationship. [OC: this means taking some part of Pentagonal Pectoral's name and combining it into your name in some fashion. Let us know.]
• +1 Clout with the Altarian Dynasty (+3 for continued helping out, -2 for Gambit consequences as others react negatively to your sudden elevation)
• Mk II on the eggs-ray scanner: this is no longer an egg/box scanner, but is now a generic object scanner. Loses ability to see inside boxes but can now detect objects of significantly varying density within other objects (e.g. metal weapons inside quicksand), with a 10m radius. One encounter per adventure gain SCAN: OBJECTS once per 10s (brief GM ahead of adventure). Every third SCAN call MASS CURSE as you irradiate everyone including yourself. It vibrates sufficiently when used that anything sensitive to vibration will notice (GM discretion).

• +2 Clout with the Elegy
• +3 Clout with Vyix 9a
• -3 Clout with Azuria, traded to Languid Relaxation for Crystal Scrum which was then used
• Nemesis: Violet Afterburn
• Nemesis: Third Time
• -3 Clout with Sirutan Independents (pirates)
• An Elegy boon for completing the contract on Chorister Vitruvius [OC: we will reach out to discuss this and your other outstanding boon]
• Mk II mind-meld-mix: You can sacrifice a use of your Mk II Psychic Drone Connection to instead extract a single paired dose of liquid which, when drunk by two separate people/creatures, creates a 2-way mind-share between them which last 5 minutes. An equal quantity of information can be expected to flow both ways during this time.