Nacrine Tide 04 — Interlude 2

***Interlude 2*** was the fourth session of Nacrine Tide, played on the 17th of October 2021. It was the second interlude, which included the second Conflict Turn, and the Muted Requiem's second Downtime.

## Cast

* C, a former cop in hiding. (they/she)
* Danica Arkose, a spy of many faces. (she/her)
* Meory Virgo, a self-taught tactician. (she/her)
* Symbol, a mysterious Psalm. (she/her)
* Bite Killbite, a scrappy logistician. (it/its)
* Lambros Fern, a sporting mercenary. (they/them)
* Pace Ouedraogo, an incorruptible leader. (she/her)
* Pom Soeric, a governor willing to hear all sides. (he/him)
* Joule Europa, a patient strategy officer. (he/him)
* Osmium, a professional bandit leader. (they/them)
* Bonnie Dart, a lean and tough bandit. (they/she/it)
* Brittle, another bandit. (she/her)
* Rookie, a rookie bandit and a pretty good runner.
* May Cape May, a spiteful prisoner. (she/her)
* Laconia, a regretful prisoner. (he/him)

## Conflict Turn Summary

### Across the Fjords (A Chase)

Far in the north of the Wolfram taiga, a lone person races down a hilly road on a hoverbike with a cache full of vital supplies. Bite Killbite takes the hairpin turns hard, chased by the Pseudoceros, as its pilot, Lambros Fern, guides it down the hill after Bite with a mixture of burrowing, slithering, and gliding movements. The chase breaks through a small town before coming to a stop as Bite takes its hoverbike across the water to the shore on the other side of the fjord, and Lambros decides it deserves this win.

### The Art of Compromise (The Discourse)

In a fancy restaurant in Lullaby, a city governor by the name of Pom Soeric is treating some members of the Nacrine Tide to a good time, and a chance to broker a deal. Among them are Captain Pace Ouedraogo of the Muted Requiem and her strategy officer and right-hand-man Joule Europa, as well as some members of the Obsidian Fermata. As discussions proceed, the topic turns to what to do to ensure the Ivory Crown don't pick up the scent of the tehoma portal placed between the Nacrine Sea and the Napitok Dam, and while Captain Ouedraogo expects to be able to convince Soeric to take an active role in preventing it from ever being discovered, Soeric is much more partial to the idea of bribing those who do spot it, not wanting to be seen as taking aggressive action against the Wolfram Union. At this unwillingness to back up the Nacrine Tide in any meaningful way, Pace laughs and leaves her seat.

### Tehomic Bypass (A Covert Op)

Somewhere in the craggy desert outside of Ornstead is a weapons testing facility said to house blueprints for an unknown mech design. Stealing it could prove very useful to the Nacrine Tide, and so, the Rusted Scrappers are on the job. The leader of the Scrappers, Osmium, is bringing along a squad comprised of the bandits Bonnie Dart (lean and tough, with a waistcoat and a shapeless hat) and Brittle, and a rookie that they simply call Rookie. They cut the wire fence and head in a side entrance, and are able to evade the guards with the help of Rookie making a diversion. However, when the rest of the crew reach the data storage room, an alarm is triggered, and before they're able to do anything about it, guards swarm them. Osmium, Bonnie Dart, and Brittle are arrested by the Ivory Crown, while Rookie takes off running, as they've been instructed.

## Downtime Summary

Back on the Muted Requiem, the crew is given a while to recuperate after their last mission. Captain Ouedraogo instructs Joule Europa to give Meory a crash course in his own brand of battlefield tactics after Meory's rash decision to rush off before the last Sortie. C finishes affixing armour plating to the AQA's biomechanical arm while Danica works on a new set of implant claws for one of her hands. Symbol meditates in the water of the Nacrine Sea, while some of the crew joins her for a beach day. Danica (bringing C with her for assurance) talks with one of their new captives, May Cape May, but her attempts to be friendly and warm with her are met with fury, as May loudly and angrily rejects Danica's pretense of friendship after capturing and imprisoning her. Finally, Symbol gives a burial to the Carapace, the reanimated Bell belonging to Laconia — both of which were also captured at the end of last Sortie. While the Bell is little more than the body of the Psalm that it once made up together with Laconia and his Chord, its burial is still a symbolic burial of the Chord in effigy. Laconia is asked to attend, and though he doesn't speak to Symbol, she notes an expression of true exhaustion on his face.

As downtime comes to a close, the crew learns of a ruit that has just broken out in a western city named Rauberg, after a police raid left two dead, three arrested, and one on the run. They're thought to have been 'anti-government' actors, but seem unaffiliated to the Nacrine Tide. Still, the crew of the Muted Requiem finds it their duty to assist the protestors to ensure the Ivory Crown is driven back, the people of Rauberg are kept safe, and the detained protesters and mysterious like-minded agents are rescued from their imprisonment.