Present Party: Aria, Claudia, Emori, and Steve. Aria and Claudia's players were late to the session this week, so when those characters appear in the world is when the players arrived at the session.
Setting: Semi-modern city with sandstone buildings and an Arabian bazaar aesthetic. The city is very beautiful, clean, and has a heavy presence of some kind of law enforcement. There is also a wall, about 40 or 50 feet high, surrounding the whole city.
As Aria's vision faded away from the System Space, she suddenly found herself in a light red void. A voice called out to her, one that she didn't recognize. They dared her to be a little more curious. They wanted her to ask question. They also stated that her goal was a very noble one.
Aria asked, "Is... having a noble goal... rare around here?"
The voice replied, "It's not uncommon, but not as common as you might think."
~~~~~
Claudia faded from the System Space, and landed in a place that was familiar to her: a black void. In the distance, there was a green dot. She approached warily; the last time she'd been here hadn't been a pleasant one. Still, she approached.
This creature apologized for "as mortals say, getting off on the wrong foot" and introduced itself as the System Hacker.
It offered a proposition to Claudia, and told her that it could offer her "a guarantee." It said that it could ensure that she kept what she wanted at the end of her contract. Claudia was skeptical.
Further into the void, a green path lit up, leading to a girl in her late teens with yellow eyes and short brown hair. She said that she never completed her contract, and that she'd been around for 1700 years, give or take. She advised that Claudia ask System about Cal and Amaya. That would show her what the System was capable of. This girl never gave her name.
Hacker said that when she had the information she needed, she could come back. Just find the black door, and don't get caught.
~~~~~
Emori and Steve arrived in a city with buildings that appeared as though they were made of sandstone. They were in the middle of a bazaar or marketplace, which was bustling at the moment with people wearing 21st century clothing. Surrounding the city was a large wall with towers placed at regular intervals along it. Aside from the surrounding chatter, they could hear something being broadcast further down the street.
They followed the sound, and discovered a large jumbotron that appeared to be playing a news broadcast. The woman at the desk said, "Princess Dahlia the Courageous was kidnapped by the Bardic Captain Theron, of the ship Cave of Wonders. The pirates are demanding ransom. The Esteemed Royals have yet to respond. There is currently a fifty million credit reward for the capture of Bardic Captain Theron."
However, this was only mentioned once, and then never again on the cycle of news.
Steve had an idea, thinking back to his adventure with Aria in World 7, where they'd been disguised as inspectors. They wanted to look into why the city had a wall around it, though the fact that there was a heavy law enforcement presence made them think they may have to be sneaky about it. Steve suggested getting a pen, paper, and a clipboard, and pretending to be inspectors. Then, he'd use Modify Memory to make any guards think that they were meant to have an inspection today. They'd be allowed in to one of the towers, and they'd be able to see over the other side. They picked up the stationary at a shop run by a fire genasi gentleman before heading over.
When they arrived though, there was no entrance to the guard tower. They walked along the wall until they were accosted by two of these guards - men in green uniforms with black weaponry that reminded them both of guns. One of them said that the wall doesn't get inspected, and that they had five seconds to move along before they were both arrested. Steve decided that this might not be the way to go, and the two of them moved along.
Instead, Emori turned into a spider and decided to climb up the wall once the patrolling guards had passed. She noticed that the guard towers had strange black devices with little blue dots inside that swiveled from one side to the other, looking over the other side. When Emori scurried over to see the other side, she saw what appeared to be a shantytown, or some kind of slum. Here, she could see people in dirty clothing, walking on dirt roads, very tiredly. At the base of the wall were several guards in heavier, black kevlar armor, carrying the same guns. They also wore gas masks. Emori saw two people run for the wall. One was caught and beaten down with the butt of the gun by a guard. The other person hit the wall, and appeared to get electrocuted.
Emori went back to Steve, and they decided to reconvene and decide their next move at a strange place they saw earlier. It was advertised as a cantina. It was a building, floating off the ground with a ladder leading up to the door. The place called itself "The Magic Carpet."
While they were there, and discussing, Aria and Claudia appeared. They said that they'd both been sidetracked for a bit, and Claudia said that she had something to talk about with the rest of the party when they were in a more private setting.
They asked the bartender, a tabaxi named Song, if she knew about Theron, and what happened with the princess. She claimed not to know much, except that Theron was notoriously annoying to the city, and that no one knows how he managed to get into the castle. She also mentioned something about Theron doing this despite being an "elite" but nobody asked what that meant.
When the party expressed interest in going after Theron, she said, "You know, I have a friend of a friend who actually works at the royal palace. I bet the royals would be interested in some help! I don't know your skill levels or anything, but... I could talk to my friend and have him meet up with you here later."
The players agreed, and in the meantime, went down a quiet side street to talk some more. With the help of some magical protections, they hid themselves. Claudia explained what had happened with Hacker. While that definitely intrigued and concerned the party, especially regarding Mod's warnings about "the black void" and that "the green thing is scary."
They decided to try and contact Mod, but instead, they got Playtester: another co-worker of the System who went to worlds and recorded bugs for Mod to fix. He didn't know much, but he knew that somewhere along the line, a man had met a powerful being that had granted him wishes. That man was now king, thanks to that being. He'd never heard of anyone named Theron, or of Princess Dahlia.
After spending some more time exploring and getting to know the culture of this place, the party returned to The Magic Carpet, where they met up with Song and another tabaxi: a tiger who introduced himself as Raja. Song left them to continue their meeting.
Raja asked if the party had ever committed any theft, and although the party was hesitant at first, Raja insisted that he wouldn't say anything if they had. They admitted to having broken into a few places and stealing a few things. He claimed that he needed help with a heist - or rather, the prince did.
The prince was planning on stealing from his own family's royal vault, and was looking for people to hire for that... and then to go after Theron.
~~~~~
Credit to @ijaymendell inspiring this awesome campaign!
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