Life in The Rave

Participants

• Tingle
• David the Gnome
• Arden Rook
• Bharash of Norixius

Recap

Arden groggily awoke to the blare of an industrial alarm, punctuated by the high-pitched shriek of steel scraping rock. The room swayed slightly from side to side, making his stomach lurch. Gathering his surroundings, he saw Nox, David, and Tingle hunched nearby, examining wounds on Becky, who lay in the far corner.

Gathering himself, Arden simultaneously set himself up to assist, while learning of what he missed over the last few hours. As the lift he found himself on slowly crept upwards through the dark stone shaft, the bard had plenty of time to learn the details of the crash, the encounter with the crew, The Underhive, and a narrow escape that apparently scarred Tingle's mental state pretty badly.

Nox felt it first, but it was Tingle who began investigating the sudden feeling of colder air, as he noticed the lift had slowed to a crawl, then came to a stop. Examining his surroundings, the gnome's eye's widened as he saw a circular patch of the rock wall begin to smolder and crumble before him. The disintegrating rock fell back into the lift-shaft revealing the edge of an old piece of the city, long built over and buried by progress and time. On this small piece of exposed beam, the golden glow of some kind of symbol emanated through the dark. Two figures, standing before a sphere, casting a singular shadow before them, the gnomish words "two winds blow one change" encircling the visage.

Before the party knows what to make of it, the symbol floats off the surface of the ancient structure like a bolt of silk floating on a breeze. As it moved out of the dark crevasse in the rock, the symbol grew in size while it dissipated across the space of the lift, until no trace of it remained. The lift spontaneously began its journey upwards again, quickly reaching its slow, but expected pace.

A faint point of light above creeps closer, as the stone side of the shaft give way to packed sediment, then finally a complicated series of pipes and duct-work carefully curled around the lift's path. The rusting contraption finally stops overlooking an industrial setting, with a series of gangplanks and walkways crossing over different batches of tanks and large pools of water. Two hobgoblin workers were taking readings on the tanks when the group approached them.

The workers, Grehl members Grig and Lotar, were rather upset that there were trespassers in a restricted area, and summoned their half-ogre supervisor after the party was not quickly able to get through to them. While reasoning about their migration tragedy elicited little in terms of response, the hobgoblins did pale at the mention of a horde of fish-like people overrunning the area.

Luckily, the boss had heard of what happened to their migrant ship as the long-trusted spin-barges don't go down often. Seeing their ticket stubs helped sway the Grehl supervisor. He made a deal with JKS that he would look past the trespassing and paperwork headache, if they kept their mouth shut about the incursion they saw below. A deal was struck.

The group was then ushered out of the large utilities facility known as the Hydro-Cut by Grig, as the boss directed them to go seek out migrant registration, as they'd be currently counted among the missing from the ships that went down.

JKS entered the main space of Section 6 of the Rave for the first time, and the stimulus was almost overwhelming. The variation of citizenry, the varied hodgepodge of architecture, the claustrophobic crush of Gamut's Alley market in the shadow of the tall, gothic reaches of the cathedral-like entertainment club The Embrace, it was all so much to take in. Not far beyond the polished steel halls of the Autorus Reign's headquarters, The Precinct of Divinity, the group turned south down the street and arrived at migrant registration.

The older structure had the sterile decor one would expect of a minimally funded public-services department. The waiting area kept new arrivals closely penned together while the 2nd half of the large main hall housed the clerk's desks, who took down vital information of Spire Primus's migrant entries. The squeaky whirring of the gnomish auto-writers filled in the awkward silence between the mildly invasive questions and their mandated, but often hesitant responses.

Nox was called up, and the golden dragonborn gestured for this companions to join him when prompted to do so. When the group could not produce their normal registration papers, the clerk become very nervous at the revelation that these were survivors of the Galewind's crash. Explaining that due to an issue with the proper logging of the accident, their original housing assignment was given away. Their group had been reassigned to an arguably better space, but as the clerk apologized, it had yet to be "sanitized" to public works specifications. If they wanted to move in right away, they would have to take it as-is. Nox gave the issue almost no thought, as he cared little for anything but to be done with this administrative nonsense and get to establishing his smithing livelihood once JKS had a place to stay. He signed the parchment with his name and guild sign and the group was free to meet up with the majority of their guild, who they were told were waiting outside of the newly assigned building. Not all members had yet registered, but a large contingent of the group would need to be moved in soon.

Arden, David, Tingle, and Nox made their way towards their new home, weaving through the various twisting avenues and making note of the more overt displays for sanitation equipment available in local shops. While coming close to to a purchase from an elderly elf's rather unique sales pitch, the group ultimately passed on getting anything before seeing what they were to be dealing with.

They were met by a large group of their guild milling about outside of a nondescript corner building on the south side of section 6. A young JKS member, Lief, saw that no one else was taking initiative, so he informed the group about what was happening. The lavender-skinned tiefling explained that the first arrivals tried to begin moving in, but there was an equipment malfunction that looked dangerous so they had decided to wait.

Without hesitation, the group went inside to investigate and "sanitize". Immediately apparent to them was that their new headquarters had some badly damaged lighting equipment that posed a hazard. David suffered some icy burns trying to get closer to the issue, but Arden managed to figure out the workings of the damaged mechanism and with the help of Tingle, was able to prevent further harm and allowed at least some dim light to stay on throughout the facility as they began to explore deeper.

Not long after winding through some older, rusting corridors, did they hear the faint sound of crying. A small set of metal steps led up to a crowded pantry area where an adult human male crouched against the storage cabinets holding a trembling young boy. As the hulking form of Nox curled around the doorway, he saw the fresh corpse of a young woman laying in the far corner. The man, obviously in shock, said they were here as part of the original housing mix-up, and they had nowhere to go. While they were staying in the building to try to figure things out, "something" came for them. He described it as tall, dark, and blurry, before succumbing to heaving sobs.

Not sure what to make of this, the party told them to hold fast, and Tingle surrendered an older coat he fancied, found along the way, to cover the body of the woman before they moved on.

Carefully moving in readied formation ahead, the building's structure became more uniform, and obviously newer and better maintained the deeper they ventured. Inside of what they imagined to be the primary common area is where they met the things they sought. As the group cautiously checked room to room, some kind of magical phenomenon caused Nox to suddenly lose consciousness as two dark figures materialized through solid walls on either side of the room, shrieking horrible wails and charging headlong at our heroes.

David struck the shadowy figure across the room from him with an arrow, but was quickly overcome by the second, which emerged through the wall behind him, cold dark hands crushing his ribs. Tingle darted away from danger, while magically rousing Nox from his slumber from a distance, hoping to tip the odds back in their favor. Arden whirled and tried to put up a fight, but was struck down mere feet from where David lay. Nox flailed wildly, trying to keep them at bay, and as the wailing figure lashed back out at him, he thought he heard voices whispering about "the two winds". Tingle screamed, beating his chest to try to attract attention while hurling firebolts into the shadows. His tiny gnomish cries were ignored, but after a few more horrifying seconds, the figures retreated almost as quickly as they appeared.

The anxious members of JKS waiting outside were not calmed seeing their enforcers come running back through the main entryway, two of their members battered within an inch of their lives. Assuring their people this was just a setback, JKS rested, turning their attention towards recovering their wounds, and deciding on a new course of action for clearing the rest of their home. Arden focused his magics on David's multiple broken ribs, saving his compatriot from days of pain and suffering.

Immediately after recovering enough to safely venture back inside, JKS wasted no time, departing the main entry hall in the middle of the night, while their displaced guild tried to get some sleep in the crowded conditions of the entry hall. After finding what looked like set of scholarly supplies stashed in a hidden safe, the group made note of writings in the notebook they found, speaking of "the prophecy" and the "mark of the prophecy". Somehow it seemed either related to this place, or the author themselves. The writings stopped shortly after the entries in the notebook become less coherent.

Moving down towards the last corner of the building, it didn't take long to route some goblin looters who had pressed their luck, trying to ambush the group when they heard the loud approach of the dragonborn coming down the steps. With his two accomplices quickly dispatched, Kiplik the goblin surrendered, sobbing and apologizing, thick mucousy goblin-tears dripped from beady his yellow eyes. Arden was the first to sheath his weapon, declaring enough bloodshed had occurred.

The JKS home base was clear, and affectionately dubbed "Squadquarters" henceforth. As the group decides where to go and what to do next in making their way through a new life in Rave Section 6, Tingle flips a business card he found through his hands from the "Tin Gemeni". Arden considers the writings in the notebook, Nox ponders how a newcomer would approach the dangerous, but skilled Goliath smiths, and David drools at all of the clueless marks he has sized up already.

Life in the Rave has just begun.

Loot