Synopsis
Khalid received a report that the radio equipment has been receiving strange interference. It turns out that the static is being caused by radio broadcast. The signal has been triangulated far to the southeast. The strangest thing is the signal is broadcasting music. Even more unusual, Khalid noted, is that the music is popular music from 1940s Terra. The signal isn’t causing any real issue, but he is interested in investigating the source of the signal broadcasting the signal. However, since he has been made a temporary council member, he can’t go himself and is in need of a few volunteers.
Session Expectations: More Than Meets The Eye, Should’ve Read the Fine Print, It’s What’s on the Inside that Counts
Content Warnings: violence, language, body dysmorphic themes
Notes
Southeast Village
The group of you are called to council hall and Council member Khalid requests you join the group being sent to investigate a signal that had broadcast from somewhere in the southeast. Before heading out a transport vehicle is assigned. You're traveling to SE Village the radio broadcast cuts out.
Greeted by a Council member Maxson of Southeast village and a Handyore (Mr. Handy) who will welcome them and take them on a tour and afterward they will be offered a meal and given a place to stay for the night.
Apartment
Reactor Complex
The complex was covered with crystal fragments with a purple haze gathered about the fragments. Corrupted security robots attack the group, and they discover the same corrupt had covered the atomic reactor. An odd device seemed to be the source of the purple crystal that expanded out covering the everything in a spiderweb of purple crystal. The villages offer support to the Atomic Reactor as it was suffering through its painful translation process. Thanks to the group the creature chooses to leave instead of going on a rampage.
Summary
Discoveries
OSR Brand
OSR Branding was all over the city promoting products and services on billboards, holo-ADs, and other advertisements.
The Council
Councilor Maxson and Handyore, a robot servant for the council, seemed to be hiding something during the visit from West Village. Maxston goes out of their way to avoid parts of the city and mentions the security in place. Handyore is courteous but will cut in at any negative and on several questions the West villages ask.
Time Gap
There is a gap in time for Southeast village where it appears the same day occurred over and over for centuries. The restoration of Southeast village started on the villages last day before succumbing to the Fringe. The intervening centuries were filled in with a copy of the same day over and over.
Power Fluctuations
OSR had tampered with the village making it an highly advanced futuristic place well out of sync with the recursions premise.This instability lead to the destruction of the village and the creation of the Fringe. The instability of SE village technology was a symptom of the instability beginning again. This threat was ended after the PCs assisted Atomic Generator in its transition into its new form, a Kaiju, and it left the city without power.
Personhood
Objects in Southeast villages sometimes gain a spark like people of other villages. OSR tampered with the village with the belief that more advanced technology could gain the spark in a similar fashion to the primitive tools SE village was using. After initial success OSR scaled up increasing the size of the village in the hope it would see an incremental increase in technology receiving the Spark. They further tampered with the village by instilling the belief that sentient objects were second class citizens who are meant to serve the humans of the village, now city. A belief DJ Steam Train and others were fighting against prior to the village cataclysm that created the Fringe.
The Salesman
Is a figure that SE Village claims to have arrived over a month ago despite the village having only appeared at most a week or two before. He struck a deal with the council to repair the failing technology. Once established, he started making deals with the awakened objects, preying on the Sparked beings' brainwashed servility. The Salesman fulfilled their wish to transfer their sparked consciousness to objects of their choosing. In exchange, he demanded contractual loyalty which included spying on the council and visitors from other villages.
The Salesmen had convinced them that the other villages were hostile and that once they discovered their advanced technology, they would want it for themselves. The council was convinced to make a bad deal with the Salesman to repair their failing technology. They had started construction of a bunker, stockpiling resources, and agreed to begin the creation of security androids.
The Salesman was speeding up the corruption that was infecting reality through the technology of SE Village. Infected technology, those lacking the spark, toaster and several futuristic appliances, appear to have transformed into odd robotic creatures and attacking the PCs. It was learned that a similar situation happened to an unfortunate group from SW village. The infected tech was discovered to have been covered in crystal and Brachiastone dust.