Present Party: Aria, Claudia, Emori, and Steve.
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. They spend this session inside the royal palace.
The party is escorted into the large marble palace near the edge of the wall, and they're admitted inside with Raja, who claimed to be a member of the prince's guard, escorting them in. The palace was one of the most ostentatious places they'd been, covered in bright rugs, tapestries, colorful mosaic tile, and clay pottery. They were brought directly to the prince's bedroom.
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| Prince Ali the Amorous Human (Art by toherrys on DeviantArt) |
Ali needed help from the party because his sister had been kidnapped by an individual named "Bardic Captain Theron." The party already knew this; they'd seen it on the news. However, although the royal family had been given a ransom, Ali told them that his parents had no intention of paying it. The king and queen were content to let their daughter and heir die. Ali was very much not. So, he needs the party to break into the vault and steal a few precious metals and gems that were listed in the ransom:
- 75 golden camels. These were essentially gold bars. Each bar weighed about twenty pounds.
- 53 purple peacocks. These were small purple gems that were shaped like spades.
- 95 white Persian monkeys. These were pearl-like gems that were slightly translucent and very delicate. They could be crushed very easily.
- 60 elephants. These were silver rods, which didn't weigh as much as the camels, but were definitely very dense.
There were a few other things that Ali mentioned about the captain and the vault:
- The vault itself was guarded by six people and there were two doors to get in. Once inside, there were four drones that patrolled the inside. According to both Ali and Raja, the drones were very easily broken and if they were broken, the only person who'd be alerted would be Raja.
- The vault was also flanked by two other rooms. One was the armory, the other was a study, and there was also a servants' hallway in the wall nearby.
- The contents of the vault were counted every night at 7 pm, and it took them about 2 hours to count it.
- The ransom needed to be delivered in the form of a parade. Theron had assured Ali that he would take care of the logistics as long as he could get the ransom to a place where a float could be built.
- Ali had arranged for the air force base in the city to hold the float.
- Ali had never met Theron in person. He only knew that he was powerful, and that his ship - Cave of Wonders - flew all across space. His only personal contact with him had been a maroon tiefling with short dark hair and golden eyes. Other than that, he had a phone that only texted from one number, and he wasn't even sure that it was Theron who was texting him.
- The party immediately latched onto the suspicion that this person was probably Confidence.
With this information, the party set about planning their heist. They were also given a room within the palace, should they need it. Raja would be able to grant them access to servants' hallways if they needed them. Ultimately, the party decided to wait until tomorrow night, after the vault had been counted that night.
They settled into their room. Steve emptied the contents of his Secret Chest, so they would be able to use it tomorrow for their heist. They hid the other items in the room. From there, they had a talk about Confidence, where Emori admitted that she felt like she was in love with him. She wanted to find and protect him, especially after not knowing what happened to him in the last world, and now believing him to be working for some kind of evil pirate.
Emori also admitted that when it came time for them to complete their System contract, she would wish to be with him as well as get her original wish.
That sparked the conversation topic of what everyone's wishes were... and the party decided that they were close enough, at this point, to share their wishes.
- Steve wanted 8 weeks of paid vacation time at his job, which was accounting for space pirates. The rest of the party was shocked by this wish, especially Aria, but then she recalled something an unknown being had told her about wishes from other transmigrators: "Having noble wishes isn't uncommon... but it's also not as common as you might think."
- Aria had failed to protect her coven of witches, and that displeased her goddess. In retaliation, her goddess had taken the love of her life, Silas. She wanted to get him back.
- Claudia is engaged in her home world, to an elven woman. She wanted to share the same lifespan as her fiancée, so that she would not die so far before her.
- Emori's older brother, Emmet, had been taken by strange creatures who were trying to open a portal from the Dream Realm into the material plane. However, he was wrongly taken; she was supposed to have been taken. She wanted him back, and wanted to make sure these creatures couldn't escape into the material plane.
After the party shared these wishes, they realized something. They had never told their wishes to the System beforehand... but that didn't mean that it necessarily didn't know them.
Claudia decided to try and reach out to Hacker again. It seemed to have taken an interest in her last time. She hoped it would again, and that it would be able to elaborate on the situation and on some things it had mentioned to her the last time.
~~~~~
Hacker answered, and Claudia asked it for more information on the offer it had given her before. What exactly had it meant by "a guarantee?"
It explained, "When the System grants wishes, it does so by taking the most logical route to come to that conclusion. It also takes free will into account. I do not. I will give you what you want exactly how you want it, and I will ensure that you do not lose it. It is a guarantee."
"Do you know what the System would offer me?"
"It would give you the same lifespan as the woman you love... by turning either you into an elf, or her into a tiefling. You would be the same race, and therefore, have the same lifespan. However, if one of you died earlier... the other would still live."
"And what could you offer me?"
"I would soul-bind you," it declared. "You would live as long as she lived. She would live as long as you lived. If one of you died, both of you would die. Literally, you would have the same lifespan... and nothing would be able to take that from you."
Claudia said that she would speak to her party about it, and Hacker reminded her that if she needed to find it again, to look for the black door in the System Space.
~~~~~
The party had a brief discussion when Claudia's mind had returned from Hack Space, but they ultimately settled on the fact that they didn't know who they could trust now. Emori tried contacting anyone else - Mod or Playtester specifically - but she received no answer. They wondered if they were overstepping their boundaries; they knew that Mod had gotten in trouble before for being "too helpful." They hoped that wasn't the case now.
~~~~~
On the night of the heist, the party was escorted by Raja through the servants' hallways, which were very empty by the time that midnight rolled around. They used Dimension Door to get in, and Magic Missile to disable the drones. Steve summoned his Secret Chest, and the party investigated the room. They were able to find and collect everything they needed, even ensuring to be extra delicate with the white Persian monkeys. Then, they used Dimension Door to get out again.
From there, Raja helped them get out of the palace, and escorted them towards the air base. As they arrived, they saw someone waiting for them. It was Confidence Milton, but a slightly younger version of him, somewhere in his early twenties.
It seemed like it was time to plan a parade...
~~~~~
ART LINKS:
https://www.deviantart.com/toherrys/art/commish-Dmitri-700365428
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Credit to @ijaymendell inspiring this awesome campaign!
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