Session 7: Defiant

Part 1

Following last week’s leads, our heroes have planned an epic show to draw new followers to the Defiant’s recruitment and win their affection. The first run went over beautifully at the Hoot n Booz, but the situation is rather different at the Parsons Nose. Taia, the Defiant contact Jack and Lorenzo’s friends told them about, seems skeptical but willing to see what they have to offer.

Meanwhile, Devon’s been tracking down his missing belongings from the previous night’s celebrations, and with intermittent help from Sivv is closing in on the most important one – his pocket watch.

Part 2

Devon traced his watch to an old friend, Bub, who’d grown up alongside Devon under the care of the kind old tinker who fostered them. Bub and Devon had a falling out when Devon strayed from the path of tinker apprenticeship, seeking fast money and highs. Nonetheless, Devon knew he could be entrusted with the watch and dictated revelations – the Lithics are not gods, blah blah blah, kinda sounds like Sam to be honest. I mean they’re obviously gods right? Right??

The performance at the Parsons Nose was a smash, the crowd fired up and ready to… punch a famine, or something like that. Definitely smash robots. Unfortunately, the crowd that’d been swarming the street to listen in despite the venue being overbooked began to panic as soldiers sent by the Unseen closed in on them, seeking to capture Taia and the Defiant operatives.

Taia asked Lorenzo and team to help stall the Unseen so that she could escape with her crew, and they fled through the kitchen and across the rooftops, with Drop shadowing them. The rest of our heroes managed to draw the attention of the Unseen and then escape – Coal and Devon through a new hole in a blocked alley, the rest right past the Unseen clergymen who were directing the Knights.

At the rendezvous point where Drop tracked Taia, she also discovered her old mentor – and she slipped away unseen, not ready to confront that revelation as of yet.

Rumors

• The ruins of Rohesia are home to a portal to the Fade, currently reburied at the request of the Eternals.
• The city of Quelimane in the periphery is suffering from a terrible famine. Some say terrorists of the Defiant are responsible.
• The party has rescued or identified all of the Unseen researchers that had been lost beneath Luxor, and recovered a large stone key that had been entombed there.
• Babis in the Periphery has become a hotspot in a war between two Lithics.
• There are reports of the failure of magic in the town of High Nest in the Periphery.

General options:

• Expedition into The Dark.
  • What rumours have you heard about your destination?
• City mission in Aynuk.
  • Intrigue/diplomacy, stealth, or intimidation?
• Trade mission to The Periphery.
  • What kind of goods are you transporting? What’s the place you’re trying to get to, and what makes you think you know where it is?
• Discovery: A new discovery session is always an option, for example to define a new region.
  • What are we most excited to learn about?
• Downtime: If people want to allow the passage of time and have their characters pursuing some downtime activities (like researching something, training, building things, etc). This combines well with Discovery or Bottle eps to fill up a shorter session.
  • What are you trying to accomplish? How long do you think it wil take?
• Bottle episode: Roleplay-focused episodes are welcome for nights when the group is in the mood for it. Shipboard hijinks, hometown visits, whatever.
  • Where are you? Who is with you? What’s everyone excited/concerned about?
• Hero smash: If the group is having a night (…or week) where they want less thinking and more heroic smashing, we can always create a combat-focused mission.
  • No question, just smash.