Convergence, Session 3

General Summary

Picking Up Where We Left Off

The Convergence Player Characters have some time to speak to Sheriff Ragoczy. He reveals his identity as The Comte de Saint-Germain and talks a bit about how reality is more broken than he understood. He thinks that they are all displaced from their own realities and that the group may be able to help fix things. The Comte and the group discuss the situation and the Comte's history / role for a while - many of them seem distrusting of him. He claims to be the literal First and Last Man, a member of some clergy of 333 archetypes, but that is in his home reality and he is removed from there. He says that he can sense a hole in the world, somewhere to the west. He says that he can sense other realities encroaching on this one - at least one to the northwest, one to the northeast and a population centre to the south. Before he leaves to investigate, he tells the group that they will soon meet a friend, here.

Group Discussion - Getting Bearings

The group spend a while discussing their strange circumstances. Foci include:

Whether or not to trust / believe the Comte
Where each member of the group is from - both time and place.
Culture clashes between ideologies and behaviours.
Any figures or concepts of worship for each member.

A Friend Arrives, Injured

Inquisitor Gallia Euphrati limps towards the group from the north - the direction of the forest. None of the members know who she is, though Dvorak Four Six recognises her status as an Inquisitor. She is injured and exhausted and she needs help. Under the guise of helping her, Iolo fails to pick her pocket and is rebuffed. Leofe scans her to discover that she is incredibly capable / dangerous. While the group break into the nearby warehouse and set up a place to bed down, Euphrati tells the story of how she arrived here. Part of her ship crashed somewhere in this reality - in the chaos she was separated from her allies. She had to flee as she had various clashes - with a rival, with some people who initially seemed to be Imperium forces but had different insignia and customs, with some greenskins and with some strange people with pieces of black rock in their flesh. She fled through a primitive settlement, then a forest (in part of which a large fire was burning), then spotted Perpetual Bernville and headed here hoping for respite.

Getting Connected (To The Internet)

Trace, Dvorak and Leofe establish a connection to the local mobile network, including internet, using their gear and skills. The connection is incredibly slow and unreliable, but leads to them discovering that the date seems to be sometime in the early 2010s and their location is Bernville, in the northwest USA. This leads to revelation and discussion. They also browse the internet for other information, discovering data about the world and that the Warhammer 40k Universe exists as fiction (impacting Dvorak in particular).

Getting Connected (With The Dead)

Cyprian Kernow, Taxi Varlik and Iolo leave to find a graveyard so that Cyprian can get some information from the dead. They find a small one nearby and search for a recent grave of a learned person. None of the dates of death are later than 2010, so they find the grave of a doctor who died that year. Taxi keeps lookout while Cyprian and Iolo dig up the coffin and break it open. Cyprian performs a ritual to cause the corpse to answer some questions. The following information is gleaned:

This doctor felt that the biggest threat to Bernville when they were alive was the decline of the logging industry.
When asked about strange occurrences in town, they said that there were rumours that people suddenly vanish or appear, usually linked with mysterious circles. Less frequent rumours also mentioned monsters appearing from circles, but this doctor didn't believe them.
This doctor knew Bill Toge as an unfortunate kid (late teens) who ran away from an unhappy home a while ago.

Sleep

The group back at the warehouse prepare to bed down. Leofe is very familiar with the place - in her home reality, she and her group used this building as a sort of base of operations (though this version isn't quite the same and isn't kitted out with their gear). Trace asks a tech spirit for information about the building: It was a textile production factory that was inherited by a local teen quite some time after it ceased operations. It isn't worth very much either. After the graveyard group clear up and return, everyone retires for the night to rest and recuperate.

The Morning - Clearer Views and a Meeting

In the morning, with the daylight, the group make out some more details of their surroundings:

A circle of blue light seems to ring the town, casting a faint, shimmering field upwards.
The outskirts of the town near their location seem to be abandoned.
There are signs of fighting - some damage to buildings and streets. Also, some of the routes into town are barricaded or otherwise have defences set up.

They notice a small group of people approaching from the direction of the town's centre: four humans (one wearing parts of a police uniform) and one who appears to be a fantasy dwarf. They are wearing mostly modern clothing, though some of their garments seem unusual or anachronistic. They are all armed (mostly with quite primitive gear), though their weapons are all stowed. They look like a scouting party or patrol. They notice the police cruiser that the Comte abandoned here and approach the building. The one in police garb calls out: "Hello? Have you just arrived here under strange circumstances? Don't worry, that happened to many of us. We can help you." All but Trace go to meet them. A long discussion follows as the Perpetual Bernville residents lead the group to the centre of town to get aid and support. Much information about the town is revealed:

Bernville was cast adrift from its own reality some time in the early 2010s - before that it was a fairly normal US town. It's unclear exactly what caused this - the residents have different recollections about what was happening at the time. Some remember a cataclysmic event involving invading monsters, a group of brave defenders and a negotiation with a god. Some remember that this was proven to be an elaborate hoax. Some don't remember anything like this.
Whatever the cause, Perpetual Bernville has been drifting between realities for an indeterminate amount of time. Time and reality function strangely here - some people feel like this reality-hopping began a few months ago, while others feel like it's been going on for years. Nobody has actually witnessed it happening, but sometimes the space outside the circle changes completely as the town jumps from one reality to another. Anyone and anything inside the circle is taken along, while anything outside is left behind. In each reality, people and things can enter and leave the circle as they please - this is how some of the residents of Perpetual Bernville leave or arrive (deliberately or accidentally).
The other notable method of entry / exit from Perpetual Bernville is the mysterious perfect circles that either deposit or remove beings and objects within the town's borders. They appear without warning and stay briefly or permanently. Often, sentient, neutral or friendly beings from other realities are brought here (not unlike the group, though people have never simultaneously arrived together from multiple realities before). Sometimes, aggressive, wild or monstrous creatures are deposited - these can wreak havoc, so the town has grown accustomed to having regular patrols and keeping its defenders well-prepared.
The residents of Perpetual Bernville are estimated to be made up of roughly 50% people from the original town before it was cast adrift and 50% immigrants who have arrived from other realities and settled here. The functions of the town have had to adjust to account for its strange circumstances. Almost all essentials (food, clothing, shelter, etc.) are managed by cooperatives and resources are shared as needed. A defence force operates out of the police station, managing patrols with a very loose structure of command.
The current reality the Perpetual Bernville finds itself in has been more trouble than any they've experienced before. They've been under repeated attack from various other forces - notably some green-skinned creatures and humans with black stone in their flesh from the northwest and various monsters and undead from the northeast. This reality has also brought new allies, though. Rainy Day arrived fairly recently and has applied her expertise to managing the defence efforts, keeping the town relatively safe by setting up effective physical defences, patrols and combat tactics.

As they all walk to town, the residents point out a few buildings where the group could be granted lodgings, places they can collect food and other essentials, the defence headquarters and the hospital. Iolo runs off to grab the weirdest clothes he can find. It becomes apparent that Perpetual Bernville is home to a great many different species, cultures and races, from a large number of realities. The group see various typical fantasy races, alien races from the Warhammer 40k universe, multiple clearly-different types of humans, etc. Dvorak asks if there are many Adeptus Mechanicus in town - the residents say there have been some before, but they think they left.

In Town - A Gambling Den

Iolo heads off to find a seedy gambling den. There, he plays some games and picks up some rumours:

People speak of Mothgdanon in hushed tones, with dread.
There is a hole in the world.
A green-skinned man with red eyes has been seen in several people's dreams.

In Town - Rainy Day

Taxi heads to the police station to talk to Rainy Day, who gives more info about the current situation and threats:

The current reality that Perpetual Bernville sits in is particularly unusual because it seems to be a convergence of several realities. This has never happened before - the town will jump from one distinct reality to another, only ever being in one at a time. This convergence seems to be a source of many of the current problems. Evidence includes the invasions by very different forces as well as the immigrants arriving reporting that they are also from different realities.
Some of the different realities reported are:
- Perhaps two to the northwest - the green-skinned creatures and the humans with black stone in their flesh don't appear to be from the same reality.
- One to the northeast, where the undead and other monsters seem to be coming from.
- Perhaps multiple in the town to the south - Rainy Day says that she arrived there, but it isn't where she was from and there seemed to be various clashes happening there.
- Multiple near the town to the south - several people reported seeing impenetrable circles, presumably containing pieces of other realities.
- At least one wherever the Molepeople have been arriving from. They have all been very whiny, so most of the other residents don't like to deal with them, but they say they are from a building in the middle of the sea, that there is a source of power there (that it was too hard to learn from) and that large robots can sometimes be seen fighting in the distance from their home.
The defenders have their hands full repelling invaders from the north and dealing with the monsters that still occasionally show up in circles in town. Rainy Day would love to organise a party to head out and deal with the sources of some of the problems, but she can't safely spare the resources. If the group were able to take the pressure off, it would free up some potential support in town.

Meanwhile, Trace asks around town to find a space and gather some tech he can use to establish a hacker den.

What Comes Next?

The group reconvene to share info and notice various details of the surrounding landscape, indicating potential courses of action:

To the northeast, where the undead and monsters are coming from, a faint, red circle can be seen. This probably indicates a converging reality.
To the northwest, where the greenskins and black-stone-humans are coming from, the Comte suggested that there is something in that direction that could help the group.
To the west, a perpetual fire consumes a section of the forest. If left unchecked, it could become a big problem.
In the ocean, the top of a building can be seen - this is where the molepeople claim to be from. There might be a source of power there, and maybe giant robots?
To the south, across the water, another town can be seen. Rainy Day says there are conflicting realities there, and that nearby there are other circles that seem impenetrable.

The group consider their next steps.

Rewards Granted

4 post-session XP to all.
Subtle Cypher for Iolo from gambling.

Missions/Quests Completed

Finished Introduction: Bill in Three Persons, Redux.
Escorted Inquisitor Gallia Euphrati to get some medical assistance and learned about her experiences in the Convergence Universe.
Learned about the history and current situation of Perpetual Bernville.

Character(s) interacted with

The Comte de Saint-Germain, Inquisitor Gallia Euphrati, Rainy Day

Created Content

I had to adlib information about the internet connection and what is available, including that 40k is fictional. I just went with what "made sense" given the time that the town was last connected. I hadn't really decided that Perpetual Bernville was cast adrift around in relation to the (non-)incident involving Ages and the monster invasions. It sort of made sense as people were asking questions, and I guess the reality-bending nature of that campaign (and its ending) kind of fit the theme. The cop-out solution was to say that it isn't quite the same place as that Bernville, and that different residents remember the events very differently, but that also fits with the themes, I think.

Notes

(Still No) GM Intrusions

I had GM Intrusions on my mind this week, after last week's reflections. It didn't feel like any opportunities presented themselves to use them, though. They are meant to be for adding interesting complications and twists to the action, but this session was very much about exposition and finding out about the place the group finds themselves in. It didn't seem like slowing that down or adding barriers would have been appropriate - I feel like it only would have contributed to missed / misunderstood information or frustrated progress. From next week, the sessions should have much more action / momentum, which will mean more suitable opportunities for GM Intrusions. Does this mean that this session was not "playing Cypher System correctly", though? Following on from that, it does feel like GM Intrusions generally will only slow down or frustrate progress (especially with eight players). I get that this aspect is offset by the XP gain, but the nature of the mechanic is quite strange. I'm looking forward to testing them out because I don't currently feel very positive about the idea of them.

Heavy Exposition and Discussion

This session almost entirely featured the group being told things about the place they are in and them talking about the information. There were very few rolls and basically no action. I don't know if this is a problem - I quite enjoy sessions like this, but I'm unsure how the group react. It felt a little like some were disengaged at times, but the nature of playing online and having so many players (meaning any one player's space for engagement is reduced) makes this hard to read. For me, I enjoy exploring the implications of a narrative or fictional world, via the personae of the player characters and NPCs - it feels like a very fulfilling kind of abstract play. I mean, that's just roleplay, I guess. But I get that the action sequences and crunchier mechanics really help to keep interest up, keep the story moving and increase the value of these kinds of sequences by contrast. I suppose it's just a matter of pacing. In this instance, I think it was fine - the intro sessions were pretty fast-moving and railroaded, with little opportunity to take stock, ask questions and discuss. As long as things get moving again next session, I think we're doing good.

In-Jokes

The nature of the Convergence Universe setting means that much of the meaning of many of the elements is derived from the players' prior contact with the content. I think this has led to some good, meaningful, emotive moments so far - familiar characters and elements being recognised and provoking a reaction. I also feel bad because the nature of this kind of content is inherently exclusionary for those who aren't part of the in-group who have that prior context. One of the players and I laughed a little about mention of Bootleg and Sheepish, which we enjoyed, but it felt like it was at the expense of the others. I need to find a balance of including this stuff to leverage its value for those in-the-know, without dwelling on it in a way that makes others feel excluded.

Handing Out Cyphers

I've come to quite enjoy dishing out Cyphers as rewards. They're nice, useful things for the players to have that don't completely take over because of their single-use nature. I must remember to keep up the rate of rewarding the players with them. I might ask them to tell me when they think they should be rewarded with a Cypher.

Related Adventure

Campaign: Convergence, Introduction: Bill in Three Persons, Redux, Chapter: A Home in Perpetual Bernville?

Report Date

30 Mar 2021

Primary Location

Perpetual Bernville

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