Session 3: The Rock of Bral

### The mysterious villain escapes

* The party experiences visions as their ship folds through time and space, and then appears near Bral. All party members are stunned for a round as they reappear.
* They each hear a sinister voice echoing inside their head and feel distinctly that it comes from the dark armored warrior floating toward them that they have brought along with them. He raises his hand with an open palm, and says:
* “So... it is indeed the Key you carry. You may have escaped the exile world, but you can’t hide for long, adventurers. The Key has shown me the future. It has shown me my fate. It has shown me your deaths... by my hand.”
* Then he grasps his palm into a fist. In a split second, with a fizzle of unnaturally deep-red flame, all of the other warriors dissolve into ash, contorting in agony in their last moment. An oval-shaped portal of spinning red fire, crackling with wild electricity, explodes open behind him, sucks him in suddenly and violently, and then winks out of existence, leaving only a curling wisp of smoke behind where he once floated.

### The Bral Perimeter Fleet apprehends the party

* Ships are approaching from Bral. Deg sprints to the deck, snaps his fingers, and with a fwoop sound, the painted letters of the ship’s name disappear. “Don’t tell them who I am, do not mention the Coalition, do not tell them this is the Valiant, and for the love of the gods keep the artifact hidden. You are refugees fleeing your world on your way to Bral, I’m one of you. Okay? Remember that. Refugees.”
* Menny hides the Cube of Portage.
* A Hammerhead Ship and two Squid Ships surround the Valiant and Shrike Ship wreckage. Several figures in navy and bronze uniforms assemble on the deck of each ship. One of them is a large Loxodon. The Loxodon releases a small fluttering shiny thing into the air.
* A modron monodrone - a small round creature with a single huge eye, thin limbs and thin wings, its body seemingly a mix of flesh and gleaming brass - flies up from the Hammerhead Ship, approaches the Valiant, and speaks: “Attention, unknown vessel. This is Commander Branta Thaldrom, of the Bral Perimeter Fleet. By the authority granted to me by her highness the Merchant-Prince Cosar, you are hereby commanded to disengage from your weapons, heave to, and prepare to be boarded. Failure to comply will result in your swift, certain, and excruciatingly painful deaths. Rock your vessel if you intend to comply.”
* The Hammerhead Ship unfolds a long boarding ramp onto the deck of the Valiant, which lands with a thud. Several soldiers and the Loxodon commander come aboard. The commander whistles and a blink dog teleports onto the deck and then begins sniffing around.
* The commander introduces himself and demands the passenger manifest and cargo manifest. Meanwhile, his soldiers begin searching the ship.
* He questions the party, The initially stick with the refugee story cover. Thaldrom has never heard of Pryzonis. They party tries to explain the attackers. Thaldrom identifies them as some Neo-Vessic faction (there are many). He is very skeptical about their claim of a giant ship (there's no way Neo-Vessics could afford such a vessel, he says) and scoffs at their description of the warriors turning to ash (this seems to be a specific ancient curse called the 'shadowveil').
* When the conversation gets contentious, Thaldrom pulls Razznoff aside. Under intense questioning, Razznoff admits that it's Deg's ship and that he crashed, but stops short of mentioning Deg's affiliation with the Coalition. With this new information, Thaldrom becomes suspicious of Deg and takes him in for questioning, while letting the party walk free. He tells the party they can strip the Shrike Ship for supplies but Bral authorities will then need to haul off the wreck. The Valiant is theirs and they may dock at Bral.
* The party searches the Shrike Ship, which is oddly spartan. In addition to the focus turret, two ballistas, some food and water, and wood taken from the hull, they find two magical ballista bolts which never need to be reloaded.

### The party arrives on Bral and gets a guided tour

* The Shrike Ship wreck is hauled off, one of the soldiers guide the Valiant to its assigned slip, and it docks. Menny casts Charm Person on the pilot and asks him to be a tour guide around the city.
* The pilot, whose name is Scarp Borbo, gives them a tour of the Low City while answering a lot of their questions. The party gets Scarp to a tavern called The Rockrat, run by a wererat named Maya. They proceed to get him hammered drunk while he talks. He says:
	+ The leader of the city, Merchant-Prince Peyta Cosar, is an elected leader from the legislature, and Bral is a mercantile republic. It exerts vassalage control over handful of other systems along major North Quadrant trade routes, but is a friendly and neutral ground where many species go to trade, including even Mercane and Mind Flayers. A Nautiloid is docked outside the city, as evidence of this.
	+ Bral is the last vestige of known civilization for the sparse edge of the Outer Rim. It was founded by pirates centuries ago, but evolved into a republic.
	+ The holiday being celebrated is called Victory Day. It commemorates the day 1137 years ago when the people of the galaxy rose up in the Galactic Rebellion to overthrow the evil Vessic Empire, finally capturing the Vessic homeworld of Vessica. The empire had ruled over the galaxy for nearly nine thousand years.
	+ Bral is famous across the North Quadrant for its Victory Day celebration, which spans the week leading up to Victory Day. They are on Day 3, during which there is a carnival. On day 5 there are executions of Neo-Vessic pirates and on Day 6 there is the Blessing of the Fleet.
	+ After the Rebellion was successful, the planets that had aligned under it tried to form a new galactic monarchy, the Coalition, but it fell apart in less then two years and led to a brutal series of galactic civil wars. A Second Coalition was formed, but it only lasted for a few more years before it fell apart as well. Over centuries, subsequent attempts tried and failed over and over. The current iteration is the Seventh Coalition, and while it has held strong for several decades now, many doubt it can escape a similar fate, despite being a beacon of hope and justice.
	+ The Vessic Empire has many pretender factions trying to claim its mantle. These Neo-Vessic movements all claim to be the resurgence of the original empire, and they are generally despised pirate bands with little power. They include the New Vessic Front, the Order of Revanchist Vessicism, the Heirs to the Empire, the Vessic Crusader Legion, and others.
	+ The main libraries are the Library of the Spheres, the library at the Mages' Guildhall, and the library of the Natural Philosophy Society.
	+ Star charts can be purchased from Elmandar's Star Charts but they are very expensive.
	+ Another famous Victory Party is held by crimelord Cel Carconis in the Carconis System. She is known for hosting kindori polo games that involve the deaths of many participants.
	+ Deg is likely being held and interrogated in the Donjon, a keep that is the headquarters of Bral security forces.
	+ There is a system called 'Mexico' that may include a planet called 'French' and brew a drink known as 'tequila'.
	+ Scarp has never heard of phlogiston.

* Scarp passes out in the Rockrat. Maya promises to get him back to his garrison.
* Most of the party returns to the Valiant to rest for the night.

### Razznoff goes on a quest for a space guppy

* Razznoff, who is by now quite drunk, is intent on looking for a space guppy.
* He finds the carnival and eventually wins one, after many tries. It is very large (2-3 feet long) and wrapped in a net bag.
* On his way home, he meets a snooty and racist elf who insults him. Razznoff trips the elf, who breaks his nose in the fall and calls for the guards, but he slips away into the crowd before they can arrive. He heads back to the ship as well.

### Locke finds the clock shop from the vision

* Locke finds the clock ship from the vision at 5438 Nebula Avenue: Borrowed Time Clock Rental & Repair. As Locke walks in, the Githyanki woman at the counter, who is fiddling with an ornate box, looks up and speaks the words Locke foresaw during the Cube of Portage's teleportation sequence.
* She says Locke experienced a timeshift, which is when a fold in time connects you to a different point on the timeline of your life.
* She asks Locke to open a locked box. Locke tries to open it and succeeds because the check has a +20 modifier. Timeshifting seems to grant you a single extremely high roll bonus if used within 30 seconds.
* The woman is awestruck. She tells Locke when she was young, the Oracle of Cagliari told her she would one day meet a timeshifter, and play a role in the fate of the galaxy. It inspired her to become a Chronomancer, and she has been training for years to detect a timeshift when one came.
* Locke looks inside the box. It contains an ancient manuscript with writing, a figure, and five objects encircling a split star. The woman says "It's them... the Five Keys."