Prologue

ARTIFICIAL HEART // PRELUDE, known by the episode title "prologue", is the first episode of the arc ARTIFICIAL HEART, and the first episode of MONOLITH as a whole. The session took place on January 14th, 2023. It has a runtime of 04:38:05. In universe, the episode takes place on New Years Day (the 1st of Neverwinter) of 2466, from 09:00 to 16:28, with a brief flashback at the start of the episode that takes place on the 15th of Ickasha, 2465.

## prologue

### Time (IC)

15th of Ickasha, 2465 (flashback)1st of Neverwinter, 2466, 09:00-16:28

### Runtime

04:38:05

There is no previous episode in this arc. The next episode in this arc is deal with the devil.

ARTIFICIAL HEART // PRELUDE is covered in chapters 1-4 of the manga.

## Plot Summary

### Chapter I: The Bag Job

* On the 15th of Ickasha, 2465, Nakamura Runin (aka Stroke) and her gang, the Chalice Club, are assaulted by unknown assailants in their hideout, the Kormanov Warehouse.
* Stroke flees to the roof but is unable to escape. She is shot in shoulder and falls forty feet into the dumpster below, falling unconscious.
* Stroke wakes up in a dumpster, seemingly uninjured though with a splitting headache. She is assaulted and interrogated by two E-SEC officers, "Johnson" and "Miles", before the two are scolded by another officer, "Cpl. Joshi".
* The Corporal questions Stroke, before placing her under arrest, saying she just needs to check her in for a little while they investigate, driving off to the facility.
* There is a six month timeskip. Cut to Diamant waking up in her ELITE apartment. She begins the long process of getting ready for the day before receiving a call from her friend Panda.
* Panda requests some help, saying he is investigating an old crime scene for his forensics class. They say they've hired two Wastehunters, and request that Diamant brings her valet, Azat Bosko, along for the ride. Diamant agrees.
* Diamant is introduced to Auntie and Ringer. The group has a brief discussion about the plan, before setting off.
* Along the way, Ringer looks up the area and finds the police report, informing her there was only one survivor and it was ruled a gang dispute. The group discusses their skepticism about this story.

### Chapter II: The Rebel Path

* Auntie receives an urgent called from her fixer Ardove, asking her to deal with a sudden situation nearby, reporting that a Fey royal had some kind of accident and is being attacked by a creature in a homeless encampment, and there may be multiple deaths.
* The group agrees to assist, and takes a detour, parking on the side of the road and moving towards the area, a sewage drainage canal, where they see a massive disgusting creature.
* The group began to fight the creature, a massive sludge monster with two mouths, assaulting it with both magic and martial attacks. The Fey woman began to be protected by a series of seemingly arcane controlled cryptids, which she boosted with some kind of spell.
* Eventually, Azat hits the creature with a massive anti-material rifle, exposing it's heart. Ringer fires a shot into it, killing it.
* The group chats with the woman, an Eladrin named Peppermint, who is rather vague in her answers, saying she suffered an accident while transporting herself via a teleporter.
* Ardove calls Auntie, and upon confirming that Peppermint is alive, she is asked to keep her with them until they can get back to the Sandman Arena. Peppermint asks who wanted her kept safe, with Ardove confirming it was a man named Erlareo, who Peppermint informs the group is her brother.
* Peppermint agrees to stay with them, at least for now. The group makes their way back to the car and finishes the drive, with Panda showing signs of shock after the fight.
* Cutting away to an AutoDoc Industries corporate building. Stitches gets off of her break and is about to go back to work. She is summoned by her boss, Anthony Silvers, who informs her the companies Vice President, Jocque Murr, needs to see her.
* She enters the room and is checked by a muscular Tethyrian, who then locks the door behind her. Murr asks if she had been assigned to a human patient recently, and she says she has, but he was unidentified and she was asked not to ask any questions. Silvers hands Murr a shard, before leaving the room.
* Stitches inputs the shard, displaying footage from a secret camera inside of a small pillar that stores an unknown object, showing Stitches sneaking into a room and looking around before approaching the object, and then seemingly leaving.
* She attempts to argue her case but is dismissed, with Murr ordering the Tethyrian to kill her, cutting to black just before the shot fires.

### Chapter III: Kormanov Warehouse

* The group arrives to begin looking for clues, though Azat remains at the vehicle to keep watch, as the group feels like they're being stared at by other people on the street.
* Diamant begins an Astral Projection, and searches the area, finding a bullet on the roof with heavy rage and satisfaction mana, and a fading imprint of a person with strong fear mana. One of the dumpsters behind the warehouse also seems to have conspiracy mana attached to it.
* Ringer, Auntie, and Panda begin searching for clues. Ringer finds that almost all of the electronics and clues have been ripped out or cleaned up, and instead only a small graffiti tag of the Cramoisis is left. Ringer immediately deduces this is fake, as the Cramoisis do not operate anywhere near here.
* Meanwhile, Panda and Auntie find a bloodstain outside. Auntie uses her olfactory booster and deduces the blood is around six months old and from a Sopratonian with AB- blood. This matches the description Ringer got earlier of the person who survived the attack.
* The group goes searching on the roof, finding a scuff mark implying a fall, and a bullet casing that Diamant had seen earlier. The casing is a .JHP, which is very strange, since E-SEC uses .FMJ rounds do to armor issues. The group concludes whoever did the shooting, at least, was not E-SEC.
* They also do some number crunching and figure out the fall should have been fatal, except that Stroke landed up a dumpster, which investigation reveals has been replaced with a new dumpster.
* After some discussion, the group concludes that all roads lead to Stroke, and therefore make their way to the Arcanum Northside Correctional Facility. Diamant sends a text to Cpl. Joshi, who is a contact of hers, and informs her the group is on the way.

### Chapter IV: Nakamura Runin

* The group arrives and heads inside, where Cpl. Joshi, called just "Rebekah" by Diamant, dismisses the others before informing the group what's been going on.
* Rebekah explains she's been fighting to get Stroke released for months since she hasn't been charged with anything, but has been repeatedly told to leave it and her requests to the warden have been ignored. Rebekah confirms that she believes there is an ongoing conspiracy.
* The group checks all their stuff at the door and is signed in by Rebekah, who uses an emergency signal to clear out the visitation room. She brings the group in, calls down Stroke from her cell, and dismisses the guard on duty.
* Stroke is brought in, and the group begins questioning her. Stroke is very paranoid and reluctant to give information, but is willing to say that she was the only survivor, the people who attacked them were well equipped, and she has no reason to believe anyone in the Chalice Club did anything to provoke it.
* The group discusses with each other, and Panda suggests that it could've been a Private Corporate Army based on the equipment.
* The three upper class girls ask the others to step out for a moment, and Rebekah is brought out of the tank and calls down the warden, Wakakoa Wright. The group sits down, and Diamant, very calmly, threatens to report the incident to the media after explaining what was found and saying she knows Stroke is innocent. Panda and Peppermint back her up, threatening to inform the Red College who are major funders, and the Seelie Court who just has generally a lot of political influence.
* The warden silently signs for her release and leaves. Rebekah brings the others in and gets Stroke's stuff, telling them all they're free to go. Stroke reluctantly heads to the car with the others and Rebekah thanks Diamant, before saying she's going to probably get yelled at.
* Cuting back to the car a few hours later, traffic randomly stops. Auntie rolls down the window and sniffs around for explosives. She smells plastic explosives nearby in the building next to the car as well as burning gunpowder. Half of the building explodes and everyone is momentarily deafened, though the group luckily remained unharmed due to being a fair distance away.
* Stitches sits up, rubs her head, and looks around the destroyed room. She's alive, and confused as to why. The man with the gun that was pressed to the back of her head is now a corpse on the ground, and her old boss is an arm, and nothing else.
* Not wanting to take any chances or waste time she grabs the gun off of the Tethyrian and jumps out of the window towards the group, using some kind of strange thread to grapple down.
* She approaches the group and requests assistance, seeing as they look like riots, but before they can figure out a plan, Panda yells that PCA vehicles are coming down the road. End of session.

## Characters

### Major Characters

* Nakamura "Stroke" Runin *(debut)*
* Diana "Diamant" Bernhardson *(debut)*
* Pandora "Panda" Oliveberry *(debut)*
* Azat Bosko *(debut)*
* Mya "Auntie" Li *(debut)*
* Farrah "Ringer" Silverlock *(debut)*
* Arandyl "Peppermint" Peyzazh *(debut)*
* Anthony Silvers *(debut)*

### Side Characters

* Rebekah Joshi *(debut)*
* Nishiyama "Ardove" Asuka *(debut)*
* Erlareo "Candlewax" Peyzazh *(mentioned)*
* Wakakoa Wright *(debut)*

### Minor Characters

* Officer Johnson *(debut)*
* Officer Miles *(debut)*
* Jocque Murr *(debut, death)*
* Tethyrian Security Guard *(debut, death)*

### Creatures

* Toxic Avatar *(debut, death)*
* Sanatris *(debut)*
* Virodal *(debut)*