Convergence, Session 10

General Summary

Cyborgs versus Furries

The Convergence Player Characters continue the fight against invaders from PAA Corporation, in protection of the Dogpeople. Some of the invading troopers are killed as they reel from the destruction of their sergeant's equipment. Dvorak-46 intimidates the remaining few into surrendering.

Cyprian and Spider Sketch by Phoebe Herring

PAA Trooper by Ché Wilbraham

The surrendered troopers are eager to remove their weapons and armour. Through interrogation, they reveal that they are akin to conscripts, mind-controlled into fighting for PAA. When in their armour and accompanied by a sergeant (or higher rank), their own thoughts are almost completely overwritten by battle directives and conditioning. As such, they aren't able to give much information about current circumstances (seeing as they hardly experience what is happening around them), but they give general information about PAA:

• PAA is an incredibly exploitative (stereotypically evil) corporation that owns a city and oversees all trade and manufacturing. Everyone "legitimate" in PAA City works for PAA in some manner. People who don't work for PAA are effectively second-class and criminalised. Those who work for PAA are exploited for the corporation's maximum gain with little compassion.
• In the last few years, PAA uncovered a mysterious element with supernatural properties within the ground under the city. They began extensive mining operations, shifting almost all of their focus into gathering this element. The began researching ways to harness it, developing technology that seemed to bend the laws of physics when crafted with this element. The mind control and incredible weaponry started to appear.
• It was discovered that the element had somehow been absorbed into some of the citizens of the city, granting them unusual powers. PAA started to round them up, both to quell any potential resistance to their supremacy and to harvest the residual amounts of the element from their bodies (killing them in the process).
• Having established a great network of mind-controlled workers and armed forces, PAA began work on the PAA Cuboid Mobile Headquarters, above the city. It is a gigantic white cube - a new headquarters and fortress for PAA that will be mobile when complete. Its construction requires vast amounts of the special element, so PAA step up their harvest and exploitation, consuming any worthwhile resources from the city to further completion.
• The troopers are hazy on the details of the converging realities, but are vaguely aware that something must have happened to have put the unfinished Cube in the Underwater Desert, without access to PAA's mines. Since arrival, PAA have had to adapt and try to find new ways to finish the Cube. They have been squashing the nearby resistance of the dogpeople, while also capturing some of them to see if they contain any harvestable energies akin to their special element.
• It is unclear if they know about The Source, but its power is likely to allow them to complete the Cube, which could spell disaster for almost everyone else in the Convergence Universe.

PAA Sergeant by Ché Wilbraham

Iolo, Trace and Dvorak spend some time deconstructing and analysing a set of the troopers' armour. They discover many complex systems relating to mind control, combat effectiveness and ability enhancement. They get a good understanding of how many of the systems work. With Leofe's help, they understand a little more about the mind-control network:

• Individuals are generally connected to a nearby person of higher rank, feeding them information as well as receiving commands. With their sergeant dead, the trooper's armour is still open to connection, but not currently receiving anything.
• Higher-ranked members of PAA generally have more autonomy and are in more control of their actions. They can assume control of nearby lower-ranking people, or simply issue standing orders, etc.
• It seems that the armour of these troopers was particularly disrupted because of the outright destruction of the sergeant's equipment - an incredibly unusual occurrence that caused glitches in the control systems. It might not always be so simple as killing the sergeant to release troopers.

Trace is able to modify a set of armour to only receive information without transmitting any data, which he may be able to use to spy on the PAA network. He suggests the group take the armour sets and disguise themselves. The group discuss plans for a while.

Looking Out

From the Convergent Blasted Lands, the group look out towards the Cube. They see a sort of encampment around the one partly-open side of the Cube. It seems to be a staging ground for the armed forces - they see massed troopers and sergeants, as well as heavy combat suits and executives or leaders of some sort. There is a lot of activity, with groups coming and going with captives and scavenge.

Heading to the Battlegrounds

The group decide to head to the Battlegrounds, to see if they can find anything that might help them deal with PAA's forces. On the approach, the come across old ruins, implying that this area may have been a city a long time ago. Temporary encampments and resupply stations litter the area, implying that combatants frequently stop to rest and refuel wherever they are able, before re-joining the fight. As they travel, they claim a Walker Gear, though nobody is particularly interested in using it. Through the dust clouds, they see lesser kaiju in combat with mechs. These kaiju have the aesthetic of live action TV show kaiju - people in low budget outfits - though it is clear that they are actual monsters once an observer gets close enough. The group also see packs of roving bandits involved in fights. These bandits seem cartoonishly evil, with strange, brightly-coloured clothes and hair and ridiculous behaviours.
Cyprian Kernow uses magic to understand more about this place. With some incredible insight, he learns that this area perpetuates combat - it will always be a place for battle. When foes are defeated, more will mysteriously emerge somewhere else in the area. The fights are provided by this place for whoever comes here seeking them, to get stronger, find loot, or whatever. The foes here will not leave the area (or even chase combatants very far, if they flee), meaning that it poses no real threat to other parts of the Convergence Universe. It's equivalent to an area of random battles in a JRPG.
As the group discuss this place, a great roar is heard from further north. Mothgdanon emerges from the dust cloud, chased by laser fire and rockets. It flies upwards, through the ceiling of water and out into the rest of the Convergence Universe. Taxi uses a Cypher to hit it but the attack is completely ineffectual - Mothgdanon is utterly gigantic and would be nearly impossible to defeat with standard weaponry. The group are worried about Perpetual Bernville.
Toho "Ultrathem" Tanaka uses a Cypher to gain a single-use jetpack and flies out of the Underwater Desert in pursuit of Mothgdanon. They see it repelled from the town to the south, though it isn't clear what force managed to turn it away. It flies off to the west, towards some of the other circles bounding other realities. Perpetual Bernville seems fine.
As Toho swims back to the Convergent Source Tower to re-join the others, they notice that some residents of Perpetual Bernville are constructing a sort of transport tube to aid travel between the two sides of the water. The group meet at the tower to discuss their next steps.

Rewards Granted

• 4 Post-Session XP for all
• A Walker Gear (a level 2 mech)

Created Content

Many of the details of life under the PAA Corporation were part-adlibbed and part-half-remembered from when I've used them in previous games. It seemed to go OK and present a reasonable picture of the villainous force.
I had the idea that the battlegrounds was inspired by JRPG random battles, but wasn't expecting to have to give much detail or even necessarily reveal that. With Cyprian Kernow's spell and great roll, I had to adlib the history a bit and explain more than I intended.

Notes

Unexpected Occurrences

This happens basically all the time in GMing, but Cyprian Kernow's great spell unveiling all the details of the battlegrounds, not long after his dissolving the armour of the PAA Corporation sergeant necessitating the release of some troopers, is a good example of a one-two punch of unexpected player actions leading to completely unplanned in-game events. I know that I'd been running this chapter very loose anyway, but much of this information wasn't really intended to be uncovered (and I hadn't really written much of it).

What Next

I wonder what the group will do next. I have no particular forward path in mind for them, and I wonder that I've established a number of threats that seem insurmountable, or like they might have a solution elsewhere. Notably, the Cube. I'm interested to see what they come up with, but I'm a little worried that it could get a bit unfocussed here. It might be a good idea to come up with some ideas for things I can use to gently nudge them into action if they start to stall. There are still a lot of threads, but I don't want to just continually drag them around the map.

Related Adventure

Campaign: Convergence, Chapter: The Desert Under The Water

Report Date

18 May 2021

Primary Location

Convergent Blasted Lands

Secondary Location

Battlegrounds