Present Party: Aria, Claudia, Emori, and Steve
World Setting: Sci-fi, aboard what is known as a “galactic starship” which is essentially a space cruise ship. This ship is called Icarus.
The party, now in near complete darkness save for Steve's Light spell and Claudia's awakened spellbook, start making their way down the stairs to meet with King in the lowest decks of the ship. When they arrive, they find the humanoid-eating alien king sitting on a crate in a storage area. On another, larger crate in front of him, Confidence Milton is bound and gagged. There are four chairs, one for each party member, around this "table."
The party takes their seats, and King greets Aria and Steve as old friends. He met them 18 years ago in this world, while they were on a short side-mission in the same world for Hacker. Oddly enough, they haven't aged, but a careful deception check regarding skin care routines made perfect sense to King. For their help all those years ago, King owed them a favor. Steve asked if King knew about a "small, white, glow-y thing" that might have been around the ship.
"Sounds like the life support system," King mentioned. "That officer Daedonis guy unplugged it. That's why all the food is dead. We have it down here still." He smiled. "But that information was your favor... so if you want it... we're going to have to work out a separate arrangement."
King wanted to eat Confidence, but after some debate amongst the party about whether or not they should offer one of themselves, a piece of them, or one of the survivors upstairs, they opted for the last option. King assured them that he would not bother Confidence again as long as they provided him with different food for this dinner. They also offered to help steer the ship to a new planet, after hearing that the entire IMP population in Polus was essentially dead, save for a few clusters, much like this one, scattered throughout the galaxy. In return for that, King would give them the Shard.
Claudia and Emori freed Confidence, who struck out on his own, but not before Emori, using her kalashtar mind link, said something to him. Jack Daedonis, the mastermind behind this massacre, left a message for Confidence saying that nobody would mourn him if he died.
Emori told him, "Just for the record, if you died, I would miss you."
She received no reply.
Aria and Steve walked with King, up to the base of survivors on the UR Deck. King devoured Evie Allard, Daedonis's ex-wife with whom they'd argued before. The other seven survivors scattered, running and screaming for their lives.
The four of them regrouped and made their way up to the Bridge again, where they charted a new course for the ship. Instead of flying to Faerun, which would take about 8 years, they changed course to a planet called "Cemos 17." King assured the party that he and his people would be able to survive there. The journey only took 3 years instead. When they finished, King told them they were free to take the Shard and leave at their leisure.
Emori wanted to say goodbye to Confidence before she left, so she and Claudia went looking for him. In the mean time, Aria and Steve traveled back to the Lower Decks to learn the IMP language (or at least the basics.)
The girls found Confidence on E deck, playing his guitar. Emori spoke to him, and found that he was surprisingly willing to talk to her despite the fact that he'd been particularly stand-off-ish this time around. He played a song that a previous iteration claimed to know. Emori confessed that she'd heard him play that song before. Confidence seemed confused as to how or where. She asked what the song was about.
"It's not so much what it's about," he said. "It's... what it means."
Emoria asked, "And what does it mean?"
"It's... the song I play when... when I feel like nobody cares and I need to remind myself that I matter."
"Well... you matter to me."
She learned more about his career in this world as a musician. She and Claudia both listened to his music on his phone, including his personal favorite song: "Venus." It was about a beautiful woman who lived in a beautiful place. She had a smile that lit up the world and she loved strawberries. According to Confidence, there was no specific person that inspired the song. It just... struck him. "Venus" was also the name of his new album.
Before they left, Emori left her dagger with him to protect himself, in case he needed it.
The whole party also raided the storage room for merchandise of his before they left. However, when they took the Shard and returned to the System Space, only Steve kept his items - a copy of the album and a player to listen to it - because he put them in a Secret Chest. Emori's dagger also returned to her possession.
They successfully collected their seventh Shard of twenty, and watched a vision of the future where the IMPs and survivors created a colony together on Cemos 17.
Then, they left for their next world.
~~~~~
Credit to @ijaymendell inspiring this awesome campaign!
Credit to @bandcat5313, for the creation of the character: Venus Milton.
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