2024/08/14: The Concert Begins Report
General Summary
Terana, Knight, Kal'vus, Buzz, Zaran The party slept for the night and then took the last day before the concert to tie up loose ends, rest up, and prepare. News from Miles: Miles has talked to a lot of friends, even got free tickets for some of them, so the party is going to have a good amount of backup. And they aren't going to be the only backup. Zyth is very popular among military personnel. There was a lot of information on the picture of a cube left by the god the party freed a few days ago. Turns out he's a deity of puzzles and code and intelligence and technology. He got himself uploaded to the internet thanks to Tev, Lev, and the paper. His name is Erethenar the Wise. (The hacker kids call him Technogeezer. He actually responds to it, he thinks it's funny.) Halloran actually has three different internets that work on different principles. They sort of interconnect. One tech, one magic, one dimensional stuff. Boons from Erethenar: Terana: set of coordinates up in mountains in hidden area Humphery: tech specs for a device that will detect neogi out to a range of thousands of miles Kal'vus: name and an address Knight: a dungeon map to an item Knight might find useful The party decided to check the coordinates quickly. Terana's first. Teleported in, found themselves in a blasted wasteland. Very worn and weathered. Sickly and poisonous-looking weeds. Crater nearby with suspiciously cylindrical rock of great size. Blends in well but probably artificial. Terana went to take a look. As she got closer, Terana was hit by panicked, tortured thoughts. Presumably an animal mind. Sword attacks revealed that the cylinder was really tough stone with metal reinforcement mesh. After further hacking, the rock started bleeding blue-green antifreeze stuff. It was whatever the creature she was sensing was floating in. 20-25 feet long without the tail. 10 feet tall at the shoulder. Big. Made deep kicked puppy sound when the rocks landed on it. Bright orange. Stiff and spiky fur. Terana pulled it out. Sort of canine, sort of feline, and a little ursine. Maybe sort of like a tyrg? Like a big, bright orange tyrg. But also rounded and soft. A giant puppy-kitty. And it actually is that, it's young and in its fat, round, cute phase. Gonna be big when it grows up. The orange was turning slowly brighter, almost glowing, now that it was free from the poison/acid/radioactive goop. Then there were little wisps of smoke and fire. Actual race: "apocalypse tyrg". (Thankfully it can tamp down the flames at will.) The party went to Knight's dungeon next. Came out in front of a dingy little dungeon that was once a minor little fort. Some crude traps, some little rubble golems. Very ineffective against high-level adventurers. Some copper and silver pieces and mummified food. Amidst all that, there was a really big (foot and a half long), funny-looking brass/bronze key with several black and white stones with swirly marble. Dream nailing it just got the message "Activated". Zaran smelled some old blood on it that wasn't anywhere else in the room. The party went back home after failing to find any more information on it. Buzz identified it when they got home. It's a "mortality key". Knight was very glad he didn't put it in himself while trying to figure out what it did. Kal'vus's coordinates led to an apartment complex. He searched inside. Scared off a guy. Found an apartment with a shirtless young human man. Black hair with a white streak. Looks vaguely familiar. Was working out when Kal'vus got there. It turns out this was the underdog Kal'vus was betting on back in the underground fights! Kal'vus really respects this guy. He may not have won much, but he could take a beating, and he had that really big energy attack sword thing he did against the cyber-boss. Kal'vus got himself a follower! The guy had a lot of weird training. Seemed to be trying to use some "lightning" fighting style. Kal'vus thinks he can make something of this guy. Kal'vus is willing to pay the guy to train him. (Guy is training up to get revenge on a guy he needs to kill. Guy's name is Nas Avight-Striveblade: Hero swordsman. Goes by Nas.) Meanwhile, Buzz helped Anastasia do a ritual so her rapier could eat some of the other cursed items. It ended up as a cursed-looking black dagger. Much more wieldy for her. The next day, the party headed for the concert. Anastasia, Ngel Sfet, Nas, Gork, and Sally were in the wienermobile. There were lots of other food service vehicles and the like. Without warning, there was a sonic boom and a six-meter-long sword dropped into the ground 150 feet in front of the crowd. An air show flew over with more sonic booms, and once they'd passed they flew back over again, with some craft transforming into mechs to do little salutes as they went. This is unusual: The military may sponsor these shows, but they usually don't show up with anywhere near this much strength. Then a whole formation of battlecarrier airships flew in. One of them was pulling the entire stage for the performance. An illusion live feed was activated to show Roen singing on the stage as it flew. (There were guys with chain safety harnesses still setting up some lights in the midst of the hundred-mile-an-hour winds. Roen was ignoring the wind entirely. It was very dramatic.) The battleships slowed and began to lower the stage, which included its own backstage. The ship also started dropping stands for the audience. It was just getting dark. Opening acts started up. (Mostly happy, hopeful songs, but with a militaristic/war bent.) The wiener business was going well by the time the first intermission started up. James reported that he was actually backstage, keeping an eye on things. Miles was talking to guys in trench coats who turned out to be adventuring buddies staying low-key. A stranger in a cloak asked for six of the wienermobile's "biggest, toughest wieners". After considering some options, the group permanently enlarged the casings and filled them with meat from other hot dogs. Kal'vus, looking closely, was pretty sure the person in the cloak was Oracle, from Zyth. She's known for her strange sense of humor. He gave her a wink and waited to tell the group until after they'd armed the known prankster with giant wieners. She was last seen attaching handles to the meat monstrosities and bringing them backstage. Buzz's Necrosa sensor finally got going. It started pinging immediately. It detected a lot of Necrosa signals on the battleship, some amongst the crowd, some downstairs. The battleship in question is the one "landed" some 60 feet off the ground; the others are notably less badly infiltrated. Buzz sent out a communique informing the other defenders, then cast Encounter Manager. It was time for the party to take the initiative. The team found 6 of those super-soldier enhanced guys like Gork had been. Mid-combat investigation revealed that their super-soldier devices appeared to be gone, or so buried that they weren't relevant. Death was the only solution. The party was as subtle as they could manage with the killing, and Lume covered for them by making the puddle of blood and bits look like vomit to any passersby.
Rewards Granted
Character(s) interacted with
Humphery, Miles, Erethenar, Anastasia, Ngel Sfet, Nas, Gork, Sally, Roen, Oracle, James
Created Content
Erethenar the Wise, Oracle
Notes
Apparently the party has gathered a lot more support than the DM initially expected. Things may have snowballed. Necrosa herself might be on the field. The Sword of Kings is about 2.5 meters long. That's Humphery's sword. Slightly curved blade. Buzz got Meatcrafter proficiency from long conversation with the meat packing meat grinder guy.
