Session 34

← Session 33 | Session 35 →

Kuno has a visitor, Nyx conducts an interrogation, Colby continues making friends, and Sam tags along on a jailbreak.

## Characters

* The Party
* Silas Vance
* Kitty Vance
* Emmett Malek
* Na'arisiel
* Hollis Tucker
* Fiorella Fells
* 0-771534
* Zaida Loch
* Jamie Nejem
* Weston
* Pax Furyk
* Monday Hackett
* The Sculptor
* Absinthe Romero
* Tressa Gillespie
* Callum Eldridge
* Legacy Byrnes

## Rumors

Sam doesn't trust Nyx, and gets a rumor about Night. He runs into some wolves.

Nyx doesn't trust Asa, and is given Mortality. She visits the Vances, and listens to the Dusk Radio Program.

Asa doesn't trust Nyx, and is given Power. He visits Zaida with Sam.

Colby is kicking himself for joining UNITY; he gets a rumor about Wild. He sees some interesting figures talking to Fells.

Kuno doesn't trust Asa, and is given Wild. He gets a visit from Na'arisiel.

## Summary

##### **Sunday, May 2nd, 543:**

On the way to visit the Vances, Nyx notices posters plastered all over the streets. These posters bear a drawing of Colby's face, with the phrase JUDGEMENT IS COMING as a caption. Nyx takes a picture and sends it to the group chat.

She learns the Vances are doing well, and spends a nice afternoon with them. Silas provides her with a radio, to replace the one she lost when her apartment burned down.

##### **Monday, May 3rd, 543:**

Nyx has been listening to the Dusk Radio frequency, and finally catches a broadcast. The program is less lighthearted than it has been previously, and the main report is on the famine. The food shortage has spread to the middle class. After the broadcast from Paragon made by the revolutionaries, the City was paying attention, and though there's been lots of general discontent no one is willing to make the first move. Emmett remarks that something has to happen, but that needs a spearhead to kick things off and give the discontent direction.

While Sam is out on a walk, there is a knock on the door of Kuno's apartment. Kuno opens the door to find Na'arisiel on the other side, and though he's confused to see him, he lets the seraphim in. Reis explains he wanted to see if he could make it to Kuno's, which he evidently can. Kuno becomes more concerned when he learns Reis left while Hollis was out getting groceries, and didn't leave a note, since he doesn't know what languages are still in use. When Kuno calls Hollis, Hollis is glad to learn the seraphim is at Kuno's apartment rather than wandering the street, and heads over immediately.

Kuno and Reis chat until Hollis arrives, with Reis mentioning they've been working on getting his memories back, and that he used to be a pilot. The process of jogging his memory is difficult, but productive and helpful. After some time, Hollis makes it to the apartment, and berates Na'arisiel for wandering off. He apologizes to Kuno, who offers tea, and the three of them spend some time in Kuno's apartment, with Kuno happy to be hosting for once.

##### **Tuesday, May 4th, 543:**

On another of his habitual walks, Sam finds himself further from Kuno's apartment than usual, and is cornered by a collection of werewolves. They can smell the demon on him, and accuse him of being a mercenary sent to raise trouble, which has been a problem recently. Sam has taken a punch and a fight is about to break out when Jamie calls the wolves off, saying Sam is fine. The wolves are a bit disappointed to be deprived of a fight. Jamie uses Sam as an in-between to Kuno, since he's here, and schedules their meeting for in a few days.

When he gets back to the apartment, Sam gets some first aid for his black eye, and tells Kuno about the encounter. Kuno follows up with Jamie, getting a date and time for their upcoming meeting.

##### **Wednesday, May 5th, 543:**

Sam and Asa drop by Ollie's apartment. They explain the situation with Colby, which catches Zaida's ear. She wonders what they could want with Colby, and realizes UNITY is behind the recent posters. Ollie and Zaida still don't trust the party near UNITY, as it's outside their area, and they tend to be destructive. It also tends to be easier to escape than to break in and be rescued, though both methods have a low success rate. They suggest waiting a week and seeing what happens, and if he hasn't gotten himself out by that point they can go from there.

##### **Thursday, May 6th, 543:**

Pax shows up at Nyx's door, with Monday in tow. After making his opinions on Nyx's (lack of) decor very clear, Pax mentions they're visiting Eldridge in two days. Monday knows an address, and a break in won't be necessary. He's looking for answers about what Devereaux said, specifically what Gray is for, along with any kind of motive for Eldridge's work and his mistreatment of Pax in particular. With this information conveyed, Pax and Monday leave. Nyx starts looking around for s'mores supplies, and ends up receiving some from Kuno.

Two days after Sam ran into the wolves, he and Kuno visit Jamie. Kuno explains everything the party has learned about UNITY, particularly that they were working with Morena Adams. Jamie, upon hearing they're still in business, starts plotting to take care of the threat to her people. Kuno warns her to be careful, which sparks some indignancy. The argument gets heated, but draws Tressa's attention, and she helps her girlfriend calm down. Jamie asks to be kept in the loop about UNITY, and offers to help the party however she can. Sam mentions it's likely just the power structure that's causing problems, and recommends learning what's going on before taking UNITY out of commission, which Tressa acknowledges. On the way out, Kuno asks after Fillan, and learns he burned his hands.

##### **Friday, May 7th, 543:**

After one of his morning recording sessions, Colby isn't immediately escorted out, which is odd. He notices Fells talking to two identical businessmen in a corner. On their way out, he gets a glimpse of one; it's completely featureless aside from a large, pale orb emerging from a split in the flesh.

##### **Saturday, May 8th, 543:**

On his early-morning walk with Weston, Colby mentions the orb-faced businessman he saw. Weston isn't supposed to talk about them, but sets aside his concern given Colby's position. They're Heavenly bureaucrats, which have been working with UNITY since before Weston got hired--a fact Weston is slightly surprised to learn Colby doesn't know. According to him, they're mostly good for doing paperwork and being obstinate at meetings, and he's glad he doesn't have to work with them anymore, as he doesn't like them.

   Pax and Monday drop by Nyx's apartment again, and the three upyr head for Eldridge's residence. It's a long trip, since he lives in a nice part of the City, at the top of a building. The penthouse resembles a park or a greenhouse, with plants taking up any available space. Along with the plants, the building is furnished well. The three find Eldridge in a sitting room, drinking tea.

Finally face-to-face with Eldridge, Pax has to take a moment to collect himself, but starts in on asking after Eldridge's motives. Eldridge is dismissive and arrogant, but does convey that incorruptibility was a side effect of an experiment rather than a goal, but mainly a means to achieve effective immortality, since an incorruptible upyr can't be further consumed by the Starving Plane. There are other benefits, but not ones Eldridge can be bothered to explain. This trips up Pax, who doesn't take well to the knowledge he's been killing and eating people just so the Hunger won't kill him. He blames Eldridge for all the murder he's done, but Callum refuses to take responsibility for the murders caused by Pax's mental block--a phrase that shuts Pax down hard, leaving him curled up on the floor. Monday sits next to him.

This leaves Nyx the only one staring down Eldridge, who apologizes for Pax's behavior. Nyx starts asking her own questions, interspersed with Eldridge's musings about not expecting dinner guests, and a one-sided introduction where Nyx doesn't explain anything about herself. She learns the Starving Plane is an extraplanar space, altered somehow to create an all-consuming void. Eldridge doesn't have the ability to study the plane itself, but is an expert on its effects. An attempt to list off his crimes has no effect on the man, as he believes the ends have far justified the means.

The two talk for long enough that dinner is prepared, which results in Nyx sitting across a long table from Eldridge, with Monday to her right and Pax still on the floor. Nyx continues her questioning of Eldridge, and has an illuminating conversation. Devereaux's work was on siphoning what Eldridge calls soul, or orgone, or ether from the environment--not enough it couldn't be replenished, but something to keep upyr from having to feed on live humans.

Incorruptibility might be inheritable, though that hypothesis would have to be tested by exposing a possibly-incorruptible upyr to the Hunger to see if they survive, and Eldridge doesn't know of any upyr sired by Gray or Pax to conduct such an experiment on. He needed someone incorruptible to ensure some peoples' safety from the Starving Plane, though he doesn't elaborate more, citing an extensive amount of context. Since Pax was (and is) unwilling to take directions, he brought in Gray.

The hunger upyr feel is a direct link to the Starving Plane, and thus insatiable--which Eldridge finds reassuring, though others might not. It can't have any motives, since it's uninhabited, and is not much more than a hole. This makes going to the plane likely impossible. The plane's effects, which make up Eldridge's field, manifest generally as shifting and the parasitic nature of feeding, typically as upyrism and lycanthrophy. Lycanthropy differs from upyrism in that wolves don't get the same long-term resistance to the Hunger upyr do, though they get more than ghouls do. Because of the general nature of planar interactions, with the vertical axis trumping the natural axis, which wins over the etherial axis, which in turn beats the vertical axis, holy damage is particularly harmful to upyr.

Eldridge is in the middle of musing about the nuances of planar interactions when Pax jumps him, kicking off what becomes Nyx chasing Eldridge around his sitting room while he keeps slipping away. Catching him is further complicated by the fact he's protected by something with similar effects as the spirits in Deveraux's lab. After some time, when she hasn't managed to make progress against Eldridge, she realizes she might lose this fight--and remembers everything Eldridge did to Pax, all the reasons he deserves to die. This motivation punches through the force keeping her from throwing herself wholeheartedly at Eldridge, and she finally takes a chunk out of him.

With the reassurance that he can bleed, Nyx goes after him with a vengeance, managing to corner him. He's escaping back to the dining room when Monday appears in the doorway and snaps his neck, before going to calm Pax--who has been fully feral--down. Nyx wraps Eldridge for immolation, handing the lighter over to Pax when he's regained his faculties, and Eldridge is thrown on a pyre of furniture broken up by Monday. The three upyr have s'mores made from marshmallows Pax has been carrying around before heading out of the penthouse, leaving the building to burn.

##### **Sunday, May 9th, 543:**

The next evening, Colby decides to attempt an escape from UNITY. Having gotten good at evading the guards during his late-night wanderings, he has a starting place picked out, which takes some breaking and setting off the alarms, but he manages to make it into off-limits territory. Guards start swarming, and he escapes being cornered once, but isn't so lucky a second time. Running out of options, he calls on the holy power at his disposal, but the android security force is not impressed, and shoots him.

Colby is surprised to find himself alive and uninjured after being shot full of bullets, which is somewhat explained by the Sculptor's presence in the hallway. The security team is strewn around the hallway, pieces of which are stuck to the walls by tarry ooze. The Sculptor suggests they run, which Colby takes him up on. They make their way through a few side hallways, to a lab space. The Sculptor barricades the door with more of his black ooze, which bubbles out from sheets of paper taken from a case.

With a second to breathe, the Sculptor asks what Colby was doing trying to escape, since he signed the paperwork, but Colby explains he didn't read the contract. The Sculptor also technically works at UNITY, though he does more getting in trouble and trying very hard to leave than any actual work. The leaving is easy, but the getting dragged back is when things get tricky. He's still curious about Colby signing on, but thinks the goal of trying to learn things is admirable, even if it likely won't end well. He helped Colby escape partly because it'd piss Romero off, and partly because Colby being dragged in and not allowed to leave is less than ideal of UNITY.

There's a knock on the door, as opposed to the banging of security trying to get in, to which the Sculptor takes the ooze off the door. Romero is on the other side, irate, and disappointed in the Sculptor--even though he saved her poster child from being filled with bullets. The Sculptor leaves, and Romero wants to know what Colby was doing. She'd been under the impression his manager would make sure all the paperwork was clear, and to learn otherwise reflects poorly on Fells, and she regrets not having heard anything earlier. Colby is escorted back to his room, with Romero apologizing the terms weren't fully explained and promising to sort things out. His door is locked, however, which doesn't bode well.

##### **Monday, May 10th, 543:**

The next morning, Colby has an unproductive meeting with Romero, where he is taken off of having to do things until his contract is cleared up. He is again locked in his room, though the Sculptor drops by to tape up the cameras and recommend he doesn't mention any of this to Weston.

##### **Tuesday, May 11th, 543:**

By this point, it's almost a week since anyone heard anything meaningful from Colby, so the party gets together at Kuno's apartment. They all catch up, with Nyx explaining what she learned from Eldridge, and mentioning she forgot to ask him if he knew anything about UNITY. There is a brief tangent where Kuno realizes the krov operation is likely a way to take care of all the people in the City who wouldn't believe Colby is the messiah just because he can summon lightning and heal people.

After catching up, Sam suggests the party visit Ollie and Zaida tomorrow, to see what they could do about getting Colby out of UNITY, which everyone agrees is a good idea.

##### **Wednesday, May 12th, 543:**

As planned, the party drops by Ollie's apartment. There, Zaida and Ollie explain they have a plan to break Colby out of UNITY. They're worried about him becoming unnecessary once there's enough footage of him, and what UNITY could do with a face like that. While they still don't want the party near UNITY, they agree to bring one or two people along, provided they're unarmed. Sam volunteers, and Kuno expresses a desire to go but the party talks him out of it. Having been party to plan-making, everyone leaves.

##### **Thursday, May 13th, 543:**

The next evening, Sam and Zaida break into UNITY. As Colby noticed, it's unassuming, across from a train station with a garden pavilion in front of the building. Zaida takes a krov capsule before surrounding the two in a shield, keeping them from being shot by security. Inside the building, she gives Ollie remote access to the system, which sets off the alarms.

Colby is sitting in his room, having been locked in, for several days, when he hears the alarms. The Sculptor shows up soon after, having taken care of the people sent to retrieve Colby, and recommends they leave, if Colby wants to. Colby does in fact want to leave, an endeavor that is slightly delayed by the Sculptor mentioning he used nanites to keep Colby from dying. The two leave Colby's apartment, heading for an exit.

Meanwhile, Ollie has been directing Zaida and Sam through the building, towards Colby. Sam and Zaida walk through security fire unscathed, courtesy of Zaida's shield bubble, while Ollie rambles over the loudspeakers and sets to work on the security system.

Before he can take control of security, Colby and the Sculptor run into some trouble, and end up barricaded in a room. Soon after, Ollie gets control of the system, and all Zaida and Sam have to do is find Colby. They make it to the barricaded room, where Zaida and the Sculptor recognize each other, and Zaida admits she agrees with some of the Sculptor's thoughts about Romero. Ollie interrupts the reunion with the fact someone is going the other way of the evacuation--someone Zaida ought to go find. Zaida tasks the Sculptor with getting Colby out of the building, taking Sam with her to go find who she calls her idiot boyfriend.

Sam and Zaida find Weston, whom Sam doesn't recognize but Zaida obviously does. Weston knew it would be her breaking in, and Zaida ends up carrying Weston out of the building, swearing at him the whole time.

Just outside the building, Colby and the Sculptor run into some security not under Ollie's control. The Sculptor gets shot, but floods the alley they're cornered in with his black nanite ooze, dismantling the droids before collapsing. Colby heals him, and the two head back to Ollie's apartment.

Both groups get to Ollie's apartment at roughly the same time, resulting in a very motley crew knocking on the door--which is answered by Legacy, who almost doesn't let them in, until Zaida convinces him to. While everyone is catching their breath, Zaida makes introductions, and Weston is very glad to not be in UNITY anymore. Evidently, they had cut off his food and medical services, which he isn't a fan of.

A few minutes later, Ollie emerges from the back, and Weston is impressed by how realistic he looks. Legacy is confused about this, to which Ollie tries to break his nature slowly, and Weston blurts out that Ollie is a computer. Legacy doesn't take this well, which is only exacerbated by the Sculptor making his presence known. The Sculptor goes to leave, and Zaida tries to convince him to stay, not understanding why he would go back to UNITY. He has what reads as a slight panic attack at this, so Zaida lets him go, but expects he'll be back.

Sam has a few questions about the fact Zaida and Weston apparently know the prolific serial killer (who's also supposed to be dead), but the two are confused that he's known as a serial killer. Weston doesn't think he could kill anyone, and while he thinks the nanites and warping people is odd, it's also reversible--the Sculptor would spend time twisted into a pod shape, when things got too much.

With questions vaguely answered, and everyone tired after the break-in, Sam and Colby leave. Colby ends up staying at Kuno's apartment, along with Sam, since all of Colby's housing in recent history has been funded by his church or UNITY.

## Quotes

**Kellen:** “Mr. Urban Shadows says kill your PCs.”

**Parker:** “There’s nothing in Colby’s moral code about orb men.”

**Kuno:** “Did Hollis kick you out?” | **Reis:** “No—although now that you mention it I suspect he’d be quite upset to learn I left.”

**Kai:** “I’m gonna do just a little tiny bit of paperwork called I have plus three blood now.”

**Kellen:** “They really wanted to beat the shit out of some weaselly little bastard.” | **Kai:** “They can join the club.”

**Pax:** “I’m not legally allowed to have an apartment, and I still have more furniture than you do.”

**Kai:** “Nyx is only ahead cause she like has a girlfriend and admitted she cares about Pax.” | **Kellen:** “That’s pretty fucking far ahead.”

**Kellen:** “Listen, if Reis is allowed to do crime, Jesus is allowed to do crime.”

**Parker:** “Fells: don’t do crimes. Colby: sorry what I heard commit crimes?”

**Kellen:** “One day I will not take psychic damage when a PC tries to do something cool.”

**Ollie:** “Wow, it sucks to be back! I did ­*not* miss this.”

**James:** “We got Colby out of Colby jail.” | **Kai:** “No, we found Colby—" | **Parker:** “Not yet.” | **Kai:** “--in Colby jail.”

**Kai:** “We’re stealing an extra man today.” | **Abby:** “Colby’s friend gets to come too.” | **Kai:** “Both of Colby’s friends.” | **Parker:** “Two men for the price of one.”

**Kellen:** “…a very disheveled man.” | **Abby:** “Hollis… two!”

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