Session Notes:
-Mayor Wallace wants to talk with us
-Passing the water fountain in town, but there’s no water coming from it
-Mayor Wallace, a portly man with a big ol walrus mustache and small round spectacles. Tells us that he’s having an issue with the Cult of the Elders.
-There’s a priest named Azphar who is claiming that the wagon will be coming soon, which he wants us to investigate as these claims could cause civil unrest.
-Wallace tells us that in an hour or so that he should be in the village square prophesizing again.
-He has spent some actual time in the archives, so its possible that his claim to have learned about the cart from something within the archive could be true.
-Azphar emerges from the clocktower wearing raiments that are clearly far above his station and moves toward the fountain to begin his speech.
-Claims he has found books/video tapes in the archives and that the Elders have spoken to him that the wagons will come in 2 days or so and will fix the water. These claims seem to be true after reading him, but he’s being vague and nonspecific and pushing the community to use up the rest of its store of goods to prepare for the arrival of the cart.
-We go to the archive, which has some books, but primarily has computers and tablets with movies, interactive tools and programs, etc.
-In the old Wagon records, I find an occasion in which the wagon was a little late by a handful of days or so. (Theory, Azphar read this book and is predicting that the Elders’ wagon will come)
-Dip found a propaganda piece about how the Elders first found the villages and started providing technology in exchange for an individual per visit, with no explanation as to why.
-Azphar looked at the Wagon record I looked at, he also requested to look at books that were specifically on rituals and such.
-These books looked at some of the basic rules on how to do the Celebration of the Wagon as well as other special ceremonies and rituals, what the Elders look for in terms of goods being back, or specific traits.
-Found some videos he looked at as well that are like a week to or two old which is strange (potentially unlocked as well), one called “Elder Emergency Protocol”, “in the event that the ceremonies fail and things start being difficult, there will be a period where the elders do not arrive. At some point after that, there will be a time when the wagon shows up again, but do not be afraid.” Next one is a video of a grayed out motif of a person “Azphar you have come because we have shown you this was going to be. We will be at the village in a weeks and will come with supplies to bring things back. We will bring those that know to become part of your town to help with the tech, and we will not ask for anything in return.”
-Hans attempted to record a video on the computer, but was unable to.
-We find Elder Magamar while visiting the Cult of the Elders temple. He confirms that Azphar has stepped far beyond his station and has gone off the deep end. He gives Abe a voucher to Rose’s to pick up some supplies after requesting that we go and intercept the wagon in the scrublands.
-We agree to go to Rose’s and pick up supplies before waiting to head out in the morning. Rose provides us a tent, dried jerky, waterskins, and some cyphers: an oblong device with a spider’s web, a strange peppermint colored sticky disc, and a tablet like those in the archive that’s a little see through
-We hit the road in the morning, sneaking out of the main gate with little to no one noticing (except Azphar who we convinced we were just going out to collect supplies).
-We traveled until sunset, at which time we set up a camp. Abe and I took first watch which was generally uneventful. However, during Kalea’s watch, a pair of horrifying hyenas (one of them had tentacles!?) appeared from the shadows attacking the party.
-The glitching Hyena turned into a horrifying tear in reality
-We beat them, the hell gate closed, then we continued on the next morning
-We found a shimmer in the distance that Dip walked through, after which we all followed. It was an illusion held up by weird tripod things, one of which Dip immediately broke, after which an alarm was sounded and then two soldiers and a scientist greeted us.
-The scientist fixed the broken tripod and then we were escorted into the town, the center of which had a very large cart that the village is filling up.
-The villagers claimed to be The Elders, and took us right up to the wagon. A shorter woman in full camo met us named Commander Jenkins of the OSR (Office of Strategic Recursion).
-Negotiated with them cause they needed our help and we needed theirs cause they’re stuck here. Suggested that they lie and pretend to be East Village Refugees to smooth things over with the council until they could decide what to do next.
-They agreed to this and we brought a cultural specialist back with us in the wagon loaded to supplies, with the rest of OSR following a day behind. -We approached the council first who would decide what to do next.