Session 19: A Sanguine Offer Report

General Summary

Introduction

Flashes of consciousness. Warmth. Darkness. Comfort. Throbbing, relentless pain. Two, strong, warm arms. Searing heat arching through a body that is growing numb far too slowly. The crumbled body against a large torso with a strong beating heart pounding a rhythmic tune next to its ear. Cobblestones beneath straining legs. Shouts up ahead. Cold…a cold that burns deeply all over charred skin. The flashes fade. A large form in a disheveled suit holds a sizzling body that could easily be mistaken for a corpse against it. The corpse has a mask half-melted into its face. Shouts echo in the distance and start to fade off. The world is lost in the turns and twists of the alleyways.
The charred body faintly whispers up in the darkness…crackling, horse, and feeble. “It’z….gone…Finally…gone. At lazt….I can…zee…” The man’s ragged breath mutters back, short, heavy, and laden with veiled emotion. “They. Hurt. Me! They. Don’t. Hurt. You. They. Hurt. Me. So. They. DON'T. Hurt. You.” The cracked voice faintly trails off “I can…zee you…at last... My…Beazt.”
The darkness wraps around the remnants of a dissolving consciousness. Pools of darkness wrap around us as we feel ourselves pulling up, up, up through the surface of a shimmering pool in the center of a small villa. We pull up through the open roof covered in a humming blue hardlight barrier above a wide atrium up into the sky above.
-Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE_jOCqKE3w -
The Yellow Sun from up above reflects down on the sprawling Metropolis, Hakuna, sectioned into Districts and surrounded by the luscious Jungle on the Pangean continent on the planet of Paphadis. The distant call of alien fauna echoes from the swaying trees rising high over the edge of the towering walls surrounding the city. It is a far cry from the barren Icy tundra of the planet Xanti or the sprawling purplish-green Nebula surrounding the "Graveyard" where you so recently found yourself. The city is buzzing with a nervous hum as groups of people gather by the massive gates leading out to the separate Spaceport district. Guards stand at attention around all major attractions of the city, each having abandoned the carefree togas for their heavy combat armor, helmets, and rifles swung over their shoulders. Staff members wearing a white cross on their sleeve push large, hovering metallic carts around the city from one Villa to another. The toga-wearing Concierges seem to have their hands full dealing with Guests checking out and fleeing this purported "Pleasure Planet" after the supposed 'terrorist attack' your party thwarted last night.
We are pulled back through the Villa's open roof and into the Atrium surrounded by the only people in the city who know exactly what happened at last night's Midnight Masquerade. Li, Dash, and Warren sport their obvious, near-fatal injuries from the assassination attempt on one of their own. Anna, the target of the attack, is storing her incredible device after removing Li's incredible disguise. Your crewmates Chiara and Mark lounge on couches nearby, both obviously incredibly injured from their willingness to assist in last night's plot. Truly, only Kyra, William, and Jason seem to have survived the assault without physical or emotional injury, the latter 2 by virtue of not having been there.
The assassination attempt having been survived and thwarted, the focus can now return to your purpose for being here at all. The meeting with the Sanguine Sultan, leader of this planet, is scheduled for 2 days from now on 28:3:2352. Your deadline for returning the promised batch of the highly dangerous drug, Sprin, to Anderson Harbro at the Graveyard to make amends for the loss of life inflicted there encroaches, 5:4:2352. You are left with 2 days to recover, take in more of the sights of this "pleasure planet" (currently on high alert), or prepare for your meeting with this mysterious leader.

Game Start

Dash spent his time before the meeting with William Blake. He created the symbol of distorted Fate on the floor and took his position in the diamond. He tapped into Fate, gained an understanding of how he was interacting with it, and carved a symbol of his distorted fate into his wrist using the threads. He then spent the next day tapping into Fate and unraveling the threads of fate around the Mark of Fate with William's name on it until he could fully shred the object.
Guru Kevin attempted to get to the main table for Greaters at the Midas' Chest again. He was informed he had to play up from the Moderate tables. After some frustrating confrontation, he relented with the ID codes of both the Staff member and guard that refused him entry. He returned the the villa and rested. The Concierge did inform him of Thessa's price and allow him the opportunity to buy her out as thanks for their "assistance" at the Midnight Masquerade.
Li refocused himself and rested during the two days after one brief visit from Thessa Wheeler with the attempt to set up an opportunity to talk with James Rowner Jr, as did Kyra and Mark. They ended up assisting Anna. Chiara escorted Jason back to the ship (PC Absent) for him to recover and process his discovery during the flight.
Finally, Anna used the help of others to start to fake her own death. She tried to find a coffin but discovered interestingly that there were no funeral services on the planet. She investigated further and the only records with the deceased simply had their date of birth or arrival and "Oz" as their status. They ended up buying a crate, adding holes into it, and creating a psuedo-coffin for Anna. They requested that Anna's bracelet be taken off (her account was able to pay for itself). Li convinced Marla to let him buy a bracelet for himself AND keep Anna's old one. JJ was brought at request with some convincing to help take Anna's body to the ship but didn't recognize Kyra as she remained disguised.
They were escorted by Marla and 2 guards through the streets while carrying the box. Kevin started to preach while walking, but was quickly shut down by Marla and complied. They managed to sneak Anna's "body" to the ship with Li holding a hand on the box, Kyra carrying it with JJ's help, and eventually the aid of one of the guards. Anna didn't make a noise despite the jostling. Anna came back in with her new hastily made identity, "Alicia Candler", and rejoined the others.

Meeting with the Sultan

Dash, Li, Guru Kevin, and Kyra all were escorted to meet the Sanguine Sultan, Ameir Binsell. They were taken back to the damaged room inside of the Sanguine Heart and escorted to a table. There, they negotiated with him for some time while sitting around a Hookah-like device with a U-Pen core. Dash remained silent but noticed the red door in the room open to show a wall of servers very briefly then close again.
After a long negotiation, they eventually discovered that he would not sell any Sprin batches to them, had refused Anderson Harbro before, and the price was far higher than Anderson had paid Li. He wanted them to help him root out the terrorists in the jungle. They eventually settled on leaving the planet with 1 vial of Sprin and a contract stating that should they return and help him root out the terrorist leaders, he would provide them with an entire batch for free and Thessa Wheeler's debt would be paid and she'd be freed. If they return in 2 weeks to complete the mission, he will add a letter of intent to sell more batches regularly to the Scavs.
He ended the negotiation with the offer to take them to "The 10th Pit" behind the 2 interior doors. Kyra and Dash refused and left while Guru Kevin and Li agreed. Kevin mentioned his complaint with the guard's refusal. The Sanguine Sultan immediately ordered the guard brought to him. The guard kneeled before him and Kevin and he waited outside of the 10th pit. The guard came up to him and he kneeled before the Sultan. The sultan quickly slit his throat, pulled out the vial of sprin, and handed it to Kevin to satisfy his contract. Kevin and Li went into the pit and the doors closed behind them as the drugged mists and sounds of carnal pleasures surrounded them.

Rewards Granted

1 Vial of Sprin
Contract with the Sanguine Sultan

Character(s) interacted with

Sanguine Sultan 
Concierge Marla

PCs Present

• Dash Reynard 
• Kyralin Straussedorph 
• Alicia Candler 
• Guru Kevin 
• Tumerian Li Shen 

Campaign

What Hides Behind the Void?

Protagonists

Guru Kevin

Tumerian Li Shen

Kyralin Straussedorph

Jason Black - Player Copy-

Savannah Cruise

Jason

Dash Reynard

Report Date

21 Aug 2021

Primary Location

Hakuna

Secondary Location

Paphadis