Today’s post is a report of Undercity Noir game 2, session 7. It has been a while, but we finally got to session 7. There aren’t really any spoilers to be had.

session 1, session 2, session 3, session 4, session 5, session 6

The session consisted three main scenes. It is actually a bit tricky to summarize this particular one, so I will keep this relatively brief.

Simon’s player was not available, but we already finished the most important things for him to do.

Planning

The crew met at the diner outside the keleni enclave to discuss plans. It is at a location not too far out of the way but far enough to avoid major scrutiny. Having a character from an isolated community certainly helps in this sort of situation.

Gleep obtained schematics for the artifact from Yuan Tino. Obviously, we didn’t receive any schematics from him. He is a legitimate businessman. He asked Dr. Buttons to use them to manufacture forgeries. Dr. Buttons doesn’t need to sleep, so we should have plenty by next night.

We discussed several plans for getting in, finding the artifact, obtaining it, dealing with unforeseen situations and getting out. Getting out was the weakest part of the plan since we will be on a space ship without a clear way off. We may have to rely on Luck, luck charms and Impulse Buy points to get through it, but it should be possible.

We still need to get a ticket for Ceres, but we should have a way to get everyone else on board. We have Simon as an insider and Petro Magnum as a sleeper agent. Blake and Xaka will have an opportunity to authenticate the artifact. We also have a few ways of dealing with security cameras temporarily.

With the information we gained, Blake’s Oracle ability and Xaka’s Intelligence Analysis, we were able to reduce BAD from -5 to -4. That should be doable.

Visiting Lady Heshathim

Gleep went to visit Lady Heshathim to return the mask of Sefelina Midra that Cherry stole from Lady Heshathim’s temple. Anastasia decided to tag along. Lady Heshathim’s temple appears to have been a theater (Lady Heshathim insists that it was a temple before that).

Piker greeted them as they arrived (Bog Mono was notably absent). Piker made it clear that he doesn’t really understand Lady Heshathim since she is actually from the Umbral Rim, but he knew that she had a bad or at least mixed relationship with Cherry. He warned Gleep about said hostility.

When Gleep attempted to return the mask, Lady Heshathim asked why he was returning it instead of Cherry. Did he steal it from her? Does he understand the mask’s significance? They both speak Lithian. Gleep has Empathy, and Lady Heshathim has a psionic blood sense, so they spent some time reading each other until Lady Heshathim explained Cherry’s curse and conditions for “petitioning the gods” to remove the curse. (Lady Heshathim made an outward appearance of coldness and even hostility toward Gleep, but she secretly likes him.) Gleep noticed some sort of supernatural reaction when Lady Heshathim touched the mask.

Before they leave, Anastasia asked about “how to deal with Arkhaians.” Lady Heshathim pointed at Gleep with a confused look and then realized that Anastasia referred to the Eldothic servants. She became worried and gave Anastasia some charms that may provide some sort of assistance (free of charge).

Temple

While Simon was doing his thing (presumably security related; his player was absent) and the others were visiting Lady Heshathim, Xaka went to attend temple and brought Blake (an act that was a bit unorthodox, but we can hand wave it). This keleni temple is in an old water reclamation site (which is a good candidate for a keleni temple in the slums).

The current priest, Kira, told stories about treating outsiders as family (the kīr stem refers to kin in Kēlen; I am not certain if Mailanka had that fact in mind when he made the character). Kira has a mixed reputation in the community as an outsider who came to run the temple and is allegedly planning to announce an engagement to a non-keleni. Xaka turned Kira’s analogy back on him by muttering a bad Kēlen “dad joke” to his wife, Ana, indicating his disagreement with the heterodox priest but meditated afterward. As he pondered the situation with the Empire and the new governor, Xaka decided that he may need to flee Kronos and take as many of his clan as he can to Covenant or even into the Umbral Rim.

Blake watched in the back. Many of the congregation eyed her with suspicion (Blake was not in her full Imperial uniform, but she didn’t hide her status as an Imperial) and they even indicated their disapproval to Xaka for bringing her there. Lana thanked Ana and Xaka for taking care of her daughter, Lisa. Lisa blurted out that Xaka is working for Yuan Tino and doing “cool criminal activities” which made everyone around uncomfortable and Lana embarrassed. Xaka explained to Lana what Lisa had been doing and to Lisa that Piker was “too old for her.” Lana was further embarrassed that she was unaware and resolved to discipline Lisa (Xaka hopes Lana isn’t too harsh and plans to show Lisa additional kindness to avoid resentment).

After the services, Xaka took Blake to meet with Kira to discuss matters related to his people’s safety. Kira helped Blake meditate on her moral question, and Blake received some sort of Communion blessing. Xaka asked Kira to help prepare for evacuation while Xaka attempted thwarting an immediate disaster. Xaka plans to (or actually did) send Mira to speak with Kira to help with her trauma.

Other Things

Note: Psi-Wars may have a significant amount of lore, but it isn’t necessary to know lore to run or play Psi-Wars. I mention it for reference and for fun, but I not everyone knows nor cares about it. I know for certain that Anastasia’s player picks things that seem Psi-Warsie and wings it.

We have one more ticket to procure. We also have to deliver the artifact safely and get it off world. We expect opposition even after leaving the Prestige. We also need to keep Mara from assassinating Mortimer Sallow at least until after he releases our money. However, we do want to allow Anastasia to assassinate the Slug. We don’t need him alive, and Mortimer Sallow is willing to pay us to get rid of him.

We should get onto the Prestige next session.