Session 10: Dying to enter the Graveyard Report

General Summary

The crew drifted into the Hersperus Nebula: Graveyard after their harrowing experience traversing the Asteroid Field in the Hersperus Nebula. As they did, they were immediately approached by a Court of Scavs: Hornet Pods. They were briefly interrogated by Scav: Taylor Mormont and Scav: Luke Warzen, the Captain and Second of the Pod respectively, but were able to pass with the information given by Chiara Mekiee regarding Lady Ash Reparl, the woman who helped her escape Sihnon II for a favor. They were taken to the Ship Hull: KPO Demorte to meet with the Court itself. Taylor offered a potential future race if they were interested for "a bit of entertainment". Jason and Kyra remained on the ship with Chiara as she hid. Syndicate Thug: Georgie-Boy was released into the Courtyard as promised. They made their way through the Courtyard, turned in weapons at the guarded door to the Interior, and the rest of the Crew made their way into the Court itself. They were greeted with only Scav: Anderson Harbro sitting with the legs over the side of his chair, robe opened, and smoking a U-Pen. He was accompanied later by his male and female consorts who he sent to retrieve the rest of the council. He sat there smoking and offering it to the Crew while they waited in awkward silence. Soon after, Scav: The Brothers Shieldbrov entered and made their entrance. Scav: Lady Ash "Duchess of Dispatch" Reparl entered afterwards. She recognized them by reputation after they gave her a note with the name of the person who had told them her name. She gave them permission to use the Court Squib but the Shieldbrovs refused. Anderson, riding the high, told them that he'd give them permission if one of them promised to party and hit the U-Pen. Li stepped forward to accept the deal, took the hit, and they were guided to the Squib. They met Mad Al in his overcrowded office accompanied by Botley the tiny robot on his desk. They brought him back to their ship where he examined it, gave them a quote of 10k, then they together negotiated down to 7,500 along with him getting to add an AI into the system. They offered another 1500 for a cherry red paintjob which he agreed to and got his assistant Slade Troal on the job. They paid 5k credits up front but held the last few thousand as they were trying to gather it together. They spent a few days of downtime as things were prepared. During that time, Li was approached by Slade Troal with the offer to essentially betray Mad Al in exchange for him doing the work and not adding in an AI (that he assured them wouldn't have a kill-switch). Kyra remained on the ship researching information about her uncle and composing, deleting, and recomposing the response to him. Anna went to Mad Al's and spend some time each day befriending him and Botley the tiny robot in an eventual successful effort to convince the little robot to travel on an adventure with them. He eventually accepted and joined her with his tiny umbrella and little leather briefcase. Jason went and explored, met the Shieldbrovs out of the habitation zone of the ship near the gaping hole in the ships side, and spoke to them as cyborgs to cyborg. He shared memories and saw snippets of their mind and life while they claim to have seen nothing from him. He pounded back a few Gutbusters and almost passed out but openly ripped the growing Utopia out of his arm and ate it. It seemed to be very obvious in the bar that he'd done it and a few people left suspiciously soon after. Li took up his party offer from Anderson and spent a night together. After an evening of debauchery, he was then offered a job to return the drug Sprin to the Graveyard (having negotiated out of taking it to its final destination) in exchange for 1k credits up front to pay for it and 1k credits off of his bill to the Squib. He was offered a bonus should he secure a written contact for future Sprin supplies. Afterwards, he approached Taylor about their offer for a Race and accepted in exchange for weapons (her modified kinetic to energy pistol vs his tanto). Dash investigated the names he had on his own with the Farseer (information broker of the Shades). He followed up with Lady Ash and rode in her Ship Class: Chariot-Class Scout Ship while they discussed Mad Al and Sloan in exchange for a favor from her. He managed to gather information that William Blake was last seen on Xanti after an incident happened with a family that got the entire Bounty Hunter's Guild on his back. He also learned about The Seekers of Sprague and Soul Vacancy enough to learn that Sprauge was on the Port around the same time that they were last. After the 2 days, Li and Taylor went out on Hornets to race while Luke and Dash stood recording the whole thing as Seconds. Taylor kept an early lead but ended up botching it while showing off inside of the Carrier's hull that they raced through. Li punctured his suit on his leg early on but managed to take the lead by zipping over an obstacle that Taylor careened into. He kept the lead all the way through the exit with Taylor just on his tail and won, though Taylor did flip from their Hornet onto his to have one last moment of showmanship before accepting their defeat. They all went back, Taylor's gun now in Li's possession, and partied at a local bar with the praise of the hornets all around. Anna bought an entire bottle of Marispan wine to drink later while everyone else indulged in beverages (except for the ever-sober Dash).