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westwhere2022-09-03 10:17 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2022-09-03 10:17 pm
plot roll | lights out
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LIGHTS OUT | MINARAS
Critical systems at various military, academic and medical institutes in Minaras malfunction, suffering anything from brief but recurring glitches to complete breakdowns. They require urgent, expensive and sophisticated repairs linked to gears: cogs, wires, keys, grease and steampunk microsystems. Corrosion appears to be the main culprit.
Unfortunately, the industrial barons of Minaras are unenthusiastic to donate the necessary repair resources. In a public message, high councillor Arabella and other government officials subtly encourage good citizens to liberate the supplies, alluding that light crimes committed in the process will be pardoned.
Careful: the barons didn’t make their wealth by leaving their assets unprotected…
✘ OBJECTIVE: Barter, win or steal parts from reluctant industrialists and study the repair areas.
- ■ Characters working at Minaras public institutions notice a sudden spate of operational errors: lights go out completely or temporarily, while watch ship communication systems are frequently disrupted. Civilian clockwork droids stop moving or fleetingly refuse to acknowledge citizens (this does not apply to droids assigned to the party). Several factories suspend work.
■ Brief light outages strike residences and public areas. Citizens stumble or drift on unlit roads — a few approach you mutely with unshed tears in their eyes, catching your hand to drag you to their homes. If you go, you will find nothing amiss beyond the eerie quiet, while your hosts pointedly stare at you as they enter their beds and silently weep. This stops once lights come back on. Citizens cannot explain what they were doing and remembering their own actions in a haze.
■ Characters with access to the military may overhear that basic production services have not been performed in Minaras for some time. Some say the current outages were inevitable: lubricants, routine parts and processed coal are in short supply, with the army considering whether to requisition.
■ Eager to turn distress into dance, the wealthy aristocracy hold several candle-lit parties. Here, characters can overhear Minaras’ industrial elite has long felt the brunt of the government’s fixation with medical progress. Much of the processes that keep the city running have been relegated to private suppliers, and the barons feel pressured to sustain Minaras. Some favour rebelling against the high council, with a few admitting they have been contacted by Remembrance terror group leader Chrichter.
■ Those affiliated with medical units make dark discoveries: in the absence of light to support cryogenic conditions, several living and dead subjects seem to rapidly deteriorate. The dead show signs of internal rot, while the living cough blood and develop high fevers. They are swiftly isolated.
■ At the government’s behest, public service buildings, formal bounty hunter abodes and several taverns offer pamphlets, maps and instructions to steal repair parts. The government will not pursue this theft. Read the fine print: this pardon does not extend to major crimes (permanent injury, murder, the annihilation of a baron’s home or factory). You can trade parts in for a handsome 30,000 governmental coins.
■ The pieces needed are: specialty factory cogs, pipes, high-density fuel — a precious handful of which can power an entire watchtower — and product or recipes for efficient lubricants.
■ If you enlist to hunt parts, shady bounty hunters will share loose maps and observations on the basic daily patterns of the barons’ factories or households, to help you infiltrate. You will also receive basic weapons and a stiff drink.
■ Some of the items you seek sleep in safehouses, others in the barons’ own homes, while some are in factory warehouses. Most parts are secured with codes you can learn by following your targets, or receive from government sources. You may need to pretend to be a factory worker to enter work spaces, or a servant to infiltrate a baron’s home.
■ Beware droids, guards and berserk watch ships. You’re safe if you’re trapped and turned in with public authorities, who will furtively release you — but you may need to break yourself out, if barons take justice in their own hands.
■ Those with technical ability can also offer to conduct repairs once parts are secured, gaining access to one institute of their choice: a watch tower, a medical unit (pick between academy or care centre) or a factory. Pair up for this one, and ask up to three specific questions!
■ Report in with your liberated goods. No pressure, but we will need at least three parts recovered by 20 September to return Minaras online.
NPC ACCESS: ARABELLA
no subject
The last thing she says is so similar to Diego's catchphrase he actually grins. 'Yell if you get in trouble.' Like he can't handle anything he comes across. If there are guards mixed in with the factory workers, he'll deal with them.
They barely know each other, but he already has more faith in her than he has in his brother for getting in and out of here quietly. ]
Same to you. Don't take too long.
[ And he's gone again, to see what he can scrounge up. ]
no subject
so, rather than skulking about in the shadows, una steps out, walking through the factory, acting just like any of them do in getting around to their jobs.
it perhaps takes her a little longer, looking in place, slipping back away, scavenging the items required. she can carry more, her enhanced strength making this no issue, though carrying anything she finds would look suspicious in the end. una doesn't find a bag but a box, thankfully lidded that means she can move things around without too much notice.
she ends up finding a pipe that she needs, a couple of others in various sizes just in case, and two cogs before slipping back out, being more careful about where she walks now that she's carrying something. just moving something across the factory, right? )
no subject
By the time he returns to where they started, it's full of pipe, some tools, and whatever else he could get his hands on when they weren't looking. Really, it was easier than he thought it'd be. The hard part is going to be teleporting back out with the extra weight.
He's setting it down when someone, that really should have been Una, approaches him from behind. An actual guard this time. So far he's done well not to murder anyone while running this errand. He'd like to keep it that way, but he's ready to make a move if he has to. ]
Just taking out the trash. [ He holds the bag behind him, his hand gripping a wrench just out of sight. ] You really should do it more often, you wouldn't attract so many rats.
no subject
so she watches, waits to see how he handles it, hoping that it goes well on his end. if he's carted away... she doesn't need a rescue mission too )
no subject
His eyes track him as he dares to get close and bends down to look into the bag with a deep scowl on his face. Can see as soon as he opens his mouth with a "Young man-" exactly how this will go.
It's at that moment when a real live rat leaps out of the bag and scurries between the guard's feet, causing him to fall on his ass and even Five jumps back in surprise. ]
Son of a bitch. [ He looks back at the man, eyebrows raised. ] What did I tell you?
[ The guard's attention darts back to Five and the bag that's now spilled out on the floor. He barely has time to get out a few choice words before Five swings and hits him cleanly in the temple with the wrench, and down he goes in a heap.
Five is starting to gather up the bag again when he spots Una out of the corner of his eye and gestures at her to hurry. Hopefully she got what she needed. Time's up. ]