Driftwood/Session 6

As Job is lying on an operating table in the Hourglass Clinic, about to go in for major brain surgery (and not restorative prostitution, despite many protests), we flash back briefly to our return trip to manage some lingering questions:
*Who do we decide to keep around, and for how long? Engineers are hard to find around Tarim, and they'd likely have to be press-ganged into service. Fritz lobbies to keep Doctor Metapis around for the sake of exchanging notes and learning more about weird occult soul medicine. Ossirc keeps Kasta on board as a potential protégé and more likely bullying target. The rest of our interviewees (minus Agna, obviously) are sold off.
*What about Fulton and Zeta? Can we trust Fulton with a contract of some sort? How much freedom of movement do we afford him? He has etherics and engineering skills, but he also seems knowledgeable enough about the more obscure occult engineering we've run into on the ship. He's leveraging that knowledge as his pitch to stay.
*Georg apologizes to Fulton for what Tog did, saying revenge isn't completely out of the question (note he didn't offer to fix Fulton's injuries at all). On another note, why would Fulton be willing to join us at all? He says his alternative is to go into hiding, because he's already spent three months in jail and doesn't want to go back.
*When Georg and Darius go over the Shantine codebook, Fulton adds his two cents on the matter, recognizing the Fugitive as an old Celestial vessel the Shantine repurposed for spying and running blockades. It was then pressed into service as an escort craft for refugee ships once the war escalated. When Job explains his (insane) theory of dimension hopping to Fulton, Fulton says he's heard about something like this before within the occult engineering circles (The Underside is real?). He's heard stories of it being used as a smuggling route, as well as the Fialta using it to win a war against the Veiled Dominions.
*He also checks for old cargo records, illicit or otherwise, the Fugitive may have been running via the Underside. He concludes the ship was once used before the Shantine takeover to smuggle technology and belonged to the GCC government in exile. He relays all of this to Georg for the sake of gaining trust and earning a contract.
*Georg, seeming to be in good spirits, doesn't offer Fulton a soul contract, rather offering him a normal one. This comes with one month of required probation, which Fulton is fine with. He reiterates, though, that Fulton will have to put in work like everyone else, and if he slacks off too much, Georg will dole out punishment with prejudice. This is met with no objection from the party, and he's now qualified to get his eye and ear fixed.
*The positions for our (PC) crew are now as follows:
**Georg – Captain
**Job – First Mate/Political Officer
**Fritz – Chief Surgeon
**Ossirc – Chief Engineer
***Huggins – Senior Engineer
**Darius – Communications Officer
***Fulton – Communications Deputy
**Tog – Quartermaster
**Zeta – Occultist and "Quartering-Master"
**Drakr – Security Officer/Boarding Sergeant
Back to the Clinic, and it's time to get everyone fixed up…
Job gives us "finger guns" as he's put under an anesthetic. Fritz is allowed to watch in front of the viewing window, and Georg asks what this operation is going to run. The Chief Clinician tells him there's no way to restore old tissue without previous brain scans, so the grafting process might incur some memory loss. She says he should be left here to recover for around a month, and the operation would be 25K ducats (15K for the procedure, 10K for brain scanning equipment and some fancy '90s fast food training VHS tapes). On the other hand, there's a ~10% reject rate, and side effects could include the brain attacking itself, leading to significant personality changes or total brain death.
Georg asks where the brain tissue is sourced. She tells him that human brain tissue is hard to find, so they've had to diversify their supply chain. This sounds less than ideal, but for some reason, we never shopped around for pricing. This is just the first place we were dragged into and decided to go with it. Fritz asks for time to shop around, and the Clinic offers to hold Job under sedation for a nominal fee (1250 + 150 per 30 minutes of sedation). Fritz scours the ads and brochures, finding this place to be on the reputable end of the "graft clinics," but the DeNovo Clinic, which offers lab-grown tissue, catches his eye. They offer clean, customizable tissue, a rejection rate of ~5%, and "generous financing plans". Their rates and policies are relatively transparent, offer better performance with lower risk, and could in theory augment one's brain if they wanted.
This is convincing enough for Fritz, who power walks his decrepit ass over to the DeNovo Clinic, brushing aside anyone who tries to shove ads for a walking brace or some procedure to "restore vitality and virility" in his face. This place is well-maintained, even having granite walls. The staff are exceptionally polite, even if their sallow appearance is a bit unnerving. Fritz gets right to the point, asking about their financing options and benefits. He signs a contract with them (without reading it) to get Job out of his hold at the Hourglass.
With time to talk, the DeNovo staff explain the benefits of lab-grown tissue and how it can more easily take to existing structures. They also offer, for a small upcharge, to tailor it to him directly, essentially cloning his brain tissue. They also detail their range of cybernetic neural implants (which they don't recommend for Job), and Fritz takes a brochure. The increase in performance, lower risk, accelerated recovery time… it all sounds great until they say the price. A customized operation with everything would run 70K ducats.
Finding this ludicrous, Fritz asks again about financing. They mention possible methods of collateral: the ship (which we can't use), payment plans (at an exorbitant interest rate, especially since we can't get enough credit) … They offer a package deal to us for everyone's procedures, as well. For 95K ducats, we can get Job's brain done, as well as Georg's arm, and Tog and Fulton's ears and eyes. It's still too expensive, especially since we have weapons to stock up on as well, which would add another 15K to our total.
An uncollateralized loan at 100% annual interest, compounding daily, is the best they can give us. This is clearly a terrible deal. After much deliberation on how badly we need the weapons, and whether we want to just kill Job off instead of fixing him, we opt to leave Job how he is, heal up everyone else, and buy the weapons (this will not backfire, I swear). Georg, Tog, and Fulton wait patiently to get operated on, Fritz goes back to the Hourglass with Huggins to collect Job against medical advice and take him back to the ship.
Job wakes up in his quarters and sees Fritz, who asks him how he's feeling. Thinking he's been operated on already; he seems to feel just fine. He eschews the idea of feeling just as mentally ill as he was before, seeming to be just peachy and downright sane (he's clearly not), and that this experience has helped him greatly (it hasn't). As much as the operation must have cost, he thinks the crew really cares for his well-being. He manages to mask his insanity with more insanity and is now beyond help (OOPS).
Darius, meanwhile, heads over to a Dalthadi temple to get more drugs. He finds a place called the Perfumery. They ask him if he's Dalthadi, and he says he converted a few years ago. This seems to be sufficient, and they give him a variety of drugs, as well as a nice little sample box of their tea for the next time he's portside.
Zeta spends her time looking around for occult information repositories. Her best bet seems to be either a bookstore, a library, or the Thannasid Embassy on the "Boulevard of Nations." (OOC the lore of the Thannasids is explained a bit, like their blood magic, interplanetary relays, and how they were "eradicated" but managed a major comeback. There's a callback to the White Pyramid Campaign, then a revelation that they survived and are currently chummy with the Aeldmen.) Zeta opts to check out the Embassy but is turned away since they have no public services available, and she lacks an appointment. She checks for book dealers next, finding a few: a dealer under a bridge (obviously), a pre-GCC bookstore that's assuredly haunted, and the local Noloth Society chapter.
She makes her way over to the Society to find Fritz already there. He left Job under the care of Huggins so he could do some research himself. Job asks him on the way out to pick up a picture book, acting even more off than normal. Zeta and Fritz make their way into the building, which is much nicer on the inside than it appears on the outside. They have tea and biscuits, then head over to the underground library, which is essentially a fancy bunker. They're stopped by a guard who scans them for etheric devices. Zeta is nervous about this, but Fritz covers for her by making up a bullshit story about her being in a terrible accident. Somehow, the guard believes this and lets them through.
Zeta checks the card catalog for information on the Veiled Dominions. She finds some interesting stuff about the war, their influence on elder lore and knowledge, and some occult rituals for knowledge transmission. Fritz finds information on cell cultures, soul technology, artificial souls, and genetic engineering (more on that later).
Back on the ship, Ossirc has been "swinging his perfectly proportioned engineering dick around," looking to bully 3-5 of the crew, including Kasta. His insults aren't all that intimidating, and the junior engineer asks if Ossirc is negging him. Ossirc orders Kasta to punch the engineer in the face. Kasta misses and hits the wall. The engineer asks permission to punch back, Ossirc grants it, and he also misses. Ossirc is disgusted and takes Kasta aside to teach him how to hit people. Kasta learns how to position the thumb when punching, but more importantly learns how to abuse power.
Ossirc decides to call a standup meeting with the engineers. Huggins leaves Job alone for a moment to do some freaky Michael Myers-type shit. Ossirc asks Huggins where he was. On telling him he was watching Job, Ossirc moves the meeting to Job's quarters, so his "sunny disposition" could reign over the meeting (Job is indeed happy to see the boys). The new crew consists of Kasta, 2 Fialta, and an Alusian. Ossirc asks for a debrief on the state of the ship. Huggins has learned a new resonant frequency thanks to Fulton's thorough examination of the ship, so it's easier to find those hidden nooks and crannies. The loading bay is disabled from our last boarding action, but the ship is still fast and maneuverable. We have an auxiliary boarding craft and two shuttles. The fighter hangar is also destroyed, but we can repair that and get fighter capability with enough time. There are no etheric weapons, only kinetic. The etheric shields are good, however.
Ossirc asks the crew for their suggestions on how to make things better. Kasta says before our takeover, the crew was focused on improving the engines but should the need for something higher priority come up, he can switch over. He also recommends we disable the guns and torpedoes should we focus on boarding. Ossirc hates this idea. Finally, he mentions the idea of adding etheric weaponry, as our capabilities will be cut severely if our shields are unusable. Satisfied, Ossirc dismisses everyone so he can drink himself into a stupor. Job pulls rank and warns him not to hold any more meetings in his quarters. Everyone leaves the quarters except Huggins, who offers to stick around and tell Job some scary stories about engines almost exploding. Job really enjoys these stories…
Category:Session Summaries