Session 01

The party is convened, and meets a mysterious supercomputer.

## Characters

* The Party, including Aurora
* Benjamin Richards
* 0-771534
* Nestor Shields

##### **Wednesday, September 16th, 542:**

The party are all watching the evening news at their respective news-consuming locations. It opens with a report that has been running for a few weeks: bystander cell phone footage of a man in a business suit jumping off the roof of the bank with security guards keeping the crowd at bay. According to the news anchor, this man is still unidentified and anyone with information is urged to contact Astra authorities.

The next story is an update on the Sculptor, a serial killer known for being able to bypass any security systems and manipulating their victim's bodies into household objects without leaving any obvious injuries. The police have very little to go on, since the victims seem random. The few blurry photos of the Sculptor show a figure wearing a paper bag with eye holes and sometimes a black jacket. The report provides an update that their body count is now up to ten. The Sculptor has been operating for the past month or so, yet Nyx has foreseen none of these murders.

#### **Saving What At First Appears to be a Very Fancy Roomba**

##### **Thursday, September 17th, 542:**

The next evening, Nyx and Asa meet up at the former Little Pleasures Cafe so Nyx can give Asa his nightly briefing. Asa is walking out from the diner, looking at the files, when he hears running: a group of Salvagers are chasing someone into an alley. He gives subtly give chase with Aurora keeping tabs on the situation from a distance. Asa and Aurora confront the Salvagers in the alley, killing one of them and chasing the rest of them off. They move to check on the person the Salvagers were chasing and discover that he's a beat-up android.

#### **Nyx Has Several Questions**

Nyx arrives in the alleyway after calling Asa to ask about the fight and finds Kuno there as well. The four of them, Asa covered in blood, start leading the android back to Aurora's apartment to take a proper look at him. Nyx runs into Sam, who was out for dinner with Ben, and recognizes him from one of her visions. Sam tries to leave, but Nyx insists he come with her. There's a brief struggle during which Sam's scarf gets pulled off, exposing his slit-throat scar. Sam reluctantly agrees to come up to Aurora's apartment and drags Ben along. Colby, who has been watching from the street, is concerned about these people covered in blood and heads over as well.

In Aurora's apartment, Nyx tells Sam she had a vision where he died, but Sam doesn't give much of an explanation. He opens the door to leave, letting Colby in, and Colby explains that he saw Asa was wounded and offers to help. Nyx tries to read Colby's surface thoughts, receiving a jolt of holy lightning for her trouble. Sam senses the surge of power from the hallway and, curious, sends Ben home and goes back to the apartment with questions. Colby introduces himself, and Sam recognizes him as being from a "rival church." Colby heals Asa, leaving him with some faint lightning scars. Nyx asks Sam again why he isn't dead, and Sam cites a spooky bird following him around and offering revenge, which is accepted.

#### **He's a Real Boy**

In the meantime, Kuno has been looking at the android, which has a backpack full of assorted circuitry and LEDs plugged into its body. Asa sees that one of the cables is unplugged, and the android powers fully on after the cable is plugged in. The android panics, checking for his backpack, when Asa explains the situation and he calms a bit. Kuno asks what's in the backpack, and the android replies "memory" in a stuttery, glitchy voice. The party learns that he ran away from somewhere, is looking for an ID chip, and can explain everything if he gets a new voicebox.

Asa has a black-market contact who will know how to get the ID chip and Kuno has a way to get a voicebox on short notice. The android gives the party a plastic bag full of credit cards which together contain more money than the party could hope to earn in several lifetimes. Everyone returns to their respective apartments except for Nyx, who plans to crash on Aurora's couch. Nyx asks the android for his name, which he gives as 0-771534, then pauses and looks sad.

##### **Friday, September 18th, 542:**

The next morning, Kuno visits an old friend who does underground prosthetic work and uses some of the credit cards to buy a new voicebox. Aurora makes breakfast, which 0-771534 watches intently. Kuno arrives with the voicebox and the rest of the party trickles in.

The android replaces his voicebox and calibrates it. He is very happy to be able to talk again and introduces himself properly as Oliver, Ollie for short. Ollie explains that he was created by an organization called UNITY to calculate multiverse probabilities and that he ran away in order to be more than just that. He's working on becoming more human, and needs the ID chip to be able to legally pass as one. This chip would allow him to do things like have a job and make purchases. The party resolves to visit Asa's contact and Sam volunteers to stay with Ollie, who does not want to go on the black-market adventure.

## Quotes

**Nyx:** "Great, we've killed one person to save zero people."