Stories Of Lore 3

 

This is Exme Faythe reporting live from the studio here on Thenica. The Kar’Soluth have announced that one of the most wanted criminals in the system was discovered to be operating at a frontier outpost named Somnus, a space station located in the Z-68 system, also known as Auwana.

This is Reika Kazamisha, a slave from the Vloz’Khress mines who incited a riot leading to her own escape. She is known to have killed Ilia Vel’Vloz’Khress, the former Val and matriarch of the Vloz’Khress clan. She has also been confirmed to have killed sixteen members of the Vloz’Khress family and over three hundred and sixty two Vloz’Khress personnel. The Vloz’Khress have assured us that the standing bounty of twenty billion credits for her head still stands to this day.

According to our resources, she is operating openly as a member of a group known as the Astral Order, living on Somnus station. Sol Media would like to remind viewers that it does not encourage the pursuit of bounties. Reika is extremely dangerous and should be approached with caution – if at all.

We also learned that Somnus station has recently reached out to Alnae in order to have an embassy with the empire opened on its station. We reached out to Grand Marshal Kaylen Yuriko though she declined to comment. All members of the high council could not be reached either.

Song Clan has moved to intercept Sarghess’ incursion on SV2 beta. The fighting has begun and the war-torn colony is now plunged into war once more as forces from House Song and House Sarghess clash in its streets. More on situation as it unfolds.

The Valdir Empire has been reported to be colonizing three additional planets already, notably forming a line as you can see here, moving deeper into the galaxy.

 

Not sure if you keep up with the news..but Hylavi’s job is about to get a lot harder.

They left some details out when it comes to the prototype cruiser. You’ll get there fast but you won’t be in good shape when you do…unless you’re First Officer Riley apparently.

Anyways, Hylavi has gone digging into Raiben Hayl a little more. He’s currently in Hylavi’s holding cells and his assets are being broken up as best as possible though it would seem some of his conspirators were quick to run off with the money while throwing him under the bus. I find it mildly surprising that such men think themselves harmless criminals compared to violent pirates, yet have vastly less loyalties than those of the dirtier sort. Maybe there is something to be said about bonds forged through combat.

As for the university idea, Renjala doesn’t seem interested in creating such a thing for fear of angering the other powers that be in Sol. Which is a fair point, the first alien to learn pandem from us is bound to become a target. As well as whoever taught it to them.

There may be some interest from the jydoq in the sanctuary of Somnus, if nothing else Hylavi probably makes them feel like it could be a good idea. Though we’d have to help transport them here, keeping in mind very few people who are in a bad position also have the ability to just pick up and move elsewhere. That being said, until the hydroponic towers reach production levels we might want to slow down on just inviting everyone in before we start running out of sustenance for everyone like the rest of the galaxy. Especially with ARK transporting refugees here in their freighter.

I went to Estelcar on Thenica to speak with Kaylen. She’s at least easy to talk to, and seems willing to send someone as an ambassador to keep in touch or help out with things between us and them. Since we have a bunch of empty buildings that wasn’t too hard to sell since someone just has to show up. One of the nicer places have been renovated to provide a facility for this embassy. Currently they sent a small staff including Ambassador Nelan Elwys.

As for domesticating the local fauna, we have a few researchers working on that. Though that could take some patience I am told as they try to domesticate and breed a new form of life into something we’d be able to eat in any particular quantity.

Construction work on AZ68-4 has begun, though it might need a proper name once it has a formal colony and no one wants to refer to it by its serial number anymore.

The offices on Koura have been made into a proper government office. Though I’m not sure it counts as provisional since we definitely own that place.

As for the matter of the Cult Warlord, Hylavi is currently searching for the assassin’s who tried to kill her. Though they have been particularly hard to find. With the exception of their attack they disappeared without a trace. We know one is elven and female though the other could be a golem for all we know. Hylavi suspects they have civilian identities instead of hiding in a dark corner, though that just makes it harder if they’re actually good at hiding their identities like that. We are already doing a lot to track what is going on around Somnus and Koura and Hylavi thinks the only way to really track those two down would be to create even more paperwork and security checkpoints to keep track of people’s movements to try and find any suspicious activity. Though the colonists at large would probably not appreciate that, as many do come to the frontier to escape larger more controlling governments.

We’ve been keeping Cassir under intense watch to make sure no one is sneaking up on her. Though she has left the station already so there’s only so much we can do at that point. It is unknown if her assassin’s followed or are still here on the station. Apparently these are old enemies of Tyne and Whitetalon, though they never could really figure out who they were either.

Okay but quick question, were we ever conservative with who we accepted as squires and students? I’m pretty sure its an open-enrollment program.

We’ve won the survey report, apparently by a factor of 24,999,998. Someone bid with an extra 2 credits it looks like. Cheeky, yet calculated in case someone else did the exact same thing. Here’s the initial survey report.

So far our alien slave friend is just being a matter of trying to communicate with them. With Hylavi’s help we’ve been able to deduce it is a grouchy thing that keeps threatening to kill us soon as it gets out. So hope you’re having fun with that. It appears to be a soldier from an alien race that is actually on the Sol’s list as ‘actually dangerous’. Many alien civilizations are not as powerful as we are militarily or their anatomy just doesn’t suit warfare as well as ours does. This thing looks like it’ll fuck up a dragonborn. We’re not actually sure how it got captured in the first place. It definitely seems very aware of what happened to its ambassadors last year though.

The third lance continues its campaign with Madhammer across the planet, and they have found some level of intelligence though definitely towards the minor side of the scale. It’s more comparable to an octopus. The underground dwellers have a multi species civilization like  hours, though those at the top are really just a little clever not quite writing with language or anything. Do with that what you will, in the meantime Madhammer bombed thousands of them out of existence already.

Reika took the first lance to confront the Jaal’darya. It turns out to be a politically complicated situation. The Jaal’Darya decided to just leave when confronted by Reika instead of requiring much direct bloodshed. Though it is inevitable that Kar’Soluth will be taking an interest in our order and Somnus station soon given her notoriety among the Vloz’Khress.

In other news, I got an email asking if we would be willing to do an interview with Sol Media. I will remind you, you are a lich.

 

Company reports, 40th Day has been extracting samples of the atmosphere from AZ68-3. It appears to be a gaseous form of the arcane disintegration effect, which is why it is so spectacularly destructive. The magical effect can already be replicated with a spell, though the sheer mass of it that is in the atmosphere is definitely bizarre. Other gases in the atmosphere are responsible for the signal blocking however which has created the current mixture. Armed with this knowledge, a survey team was able to send a probe to the ground that was automated to return despite the lack of signal. It was discovered that the disintegration cloud only exists in the upper atmosphere. While that is a very thick layer, the ground itself does not have this effect. The cloud is magical in nature so does not effect the rain. It was suggested that the cloud is basically impassable without very serious scientific effort, though we could get onto the much safer surface by use of a pandem rift from another plane. Just…wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone while there. The atmosphere below the cloud is not quite right for habitation but at least it doesn’t melt your skin off in seconds. The oxygen content is too high, so just adding some other stuff and filtering out some other contaminants makes it habitable enough.

Az68-4 efforts have begun with the construction of a basic colony with which to use as a base for attempted seedings later. There are definitely a lot of possibilities with this planet overall. The only real issue is the reason it’s so cold is that it’s quite far from the system’s star so we’ve been experimenting with things that don’t need quite as much sunlight.

The New Age laboratories are continuing their experiments on the strange creatures we captured samples of. With Vasia’s pet projects doing well. Currently the laboratories are making room for Vasia’s new test subjects that are being…imported with some help from their new friend Ohalyn. Also there is that whole report she gave a presentation of at the recent meeting. I’m not going to pretend to fully understand it.

ARK has been beginning to look for the rogue cults and bring them to Auwana. Cassir has been spooking a few of them, as many signed up for yoga instead of being a part of a crazy war cult. Though the enlightened seem to like her.

Speaking of which, Cassir has taken one of the starships alongside her closer crew to go and deal with some rogue elements out there. She is currently in transit.

Currently Linsun doesn’t seem all that eager to help sponsor a university on some colony deep into the frontier. They’ve historically used their universities as a position of power to exert over the other houses of Shetou which establishing one on Somnus wouldn’t quite do. Not to mention with the state of things, not sure how many people are all that concerned with their higher education. If anything trade schools are doing well, particularly the trade ‘hunting edible monsters on alien worlds’.

As for space to begin the university, that might be easier on Koura, simply  since space is at a premium aboard a space station. Technically there are some areas it could be done, just more expensive. Depends what everyone really wants to get done.

Related to this, getting a skyscraper on Koura is plausible…but I’m not sure the cult can use all of it. Then again who knows what kind of paramilitary force it might become if Cassir has her way.

 

We’re looking for the Revenants once again, though they are still elusive. Our closest thing to a lead is that the crime boss Laura King seems to know something about them. She also seems to know something about the parasitic infection and is making us choose between the pieces of knowledge for now. If we cannot extract the information Laura knows, we at least know that the Revenants are in some way tied to the criminal underworld to move around and get what they need. There is a high chance they rely on Laura directly and if we keep an eye on things around there they might reveal a list of candidates to us. How many elves can Laura really be meeting with?

On that topic, contact with Laura has been interesting. Though its worth remembering she has taken down rivals before by joining them. She is a clever person but those are often the most dangerous. Though as it stands right now, she does not know who we are and is likely to try and figure that out as time goes on even if she is being cooperative. When we recruited Sophia we only had to pull her out of prison, she had very few options from there and just went with whatever we told her. She was a natural #2. Laura is a matured crime boss on the other hand, and may be a little more difficult to control. We could watch her attempts to deduce who we are as a sort of test of her abilities, or just keep her in the dark as to maintain distance from someone who specializes in being an information broker. Alternatively, she does have a record of appreciating loyalty and some code of honor among thieves so bringing her into the fold more fully might make her a little more endeared to us. Up to you.

Raiben is currently in jail for an indefinite period of time. Somnus’ justice system isn’t too specific and Hylavi is just holding onto him while doing the math over the matter as slowly as possible. Contact with him has been far more predictable. He would of course take any offer we make him that gets him out of holding and back to making money. He is pure greed and selfishness, and lacks the physical danger crime lords like Laura have at their disposal. easy to predict or control as desired if you really want him around here playing with faking taxes and the economy of the system. Though we would have to get Lancaster to let him out.

Ohalyn has been approached by Vasia for actual business purposes so we just kept track of her report on the adventure to see what we can learn about Ohalyn. It’s quite evident that Ohalyn is of the ‘dead inside’ type of criminal and that has made her merciless. Her slave trade has reached into all aspects of the profession. While this isn’t anything new, this may affect Alnae’s ability to look the other way. The Astral Order’s version of slavery might be okay, and taking in prisoners or voluntary slaves might be easy enough for Alnae to accept. Though Ohalyn is definitely stocking people that have been outright abducted, and also prepping some to become mana batteries. That last one is something Alnae has a very strong stance against. However that leads to another problem…if there are mana batteries we don’t know about in the Auwana system, what are they powering? There are no battleships besides ARK’s parked in the area or mysterious colonies we don’t have any insight to. Using slaves as mana batteries is also a way to keep off the power grid so no one can see how much you are using.

Vanjin is currently en route to the Solvang station in the Sol system. She still has our membership credentials so should be fine. She will report back once she gets over there. However, Aryn points out she unfortunately cannot confirm what the Siwa factory was making as that specific facility is on a closed network. Though she was able to pull up past assets that have been moved into less discreet hands to get an idea. She’s actually pretty sure this particular factory is a layered front. It appears to be an arms manufacturer, but underneath it is producing and selling slightly more illegal weapons. Particularly viruses both physical and cybernetic in nature. However, that is also likely just to explain why its being kept a secret. Aryn found a few records still flying around Sol that indicate it has received shipments from third parties for resources that are not used in the production of…really any of that. Said shipments are not inherently that strange, but if you compare it to the things we know the factory has produced it doesn’t quite match up. That being said we just might not be catching everything they make, though judging by the shipment quantities, there is something strange going on in there and no criminal elements seem to have any idea what it is. At least not the ones we can get in touch with. It’s as if the factory is producing a lot of something that it isn’t selling to anyone.

As for the drugs on 105th, most come from independent manufacturers on Thenica. Some of which is actually from our old friend Aberhoff’s factories. Some of the more recreational ones are grown here since we have less restrictions on those kinds of things as other settlements and its easier to do so that way. The coffee comes from a plantation in Shetou space. The drug store’s records aren’t as shady as most other things we’re dealing with and a quick check in their inventory records seems legit. Notably, there are certain drugs they don’t have, but Laura King does. The really really illegal kind, used not for recreation but assault. We’re not sure where she’s getting those from as obviously she doesn’t even keep inventory records.

The war with the underground bug monsters is going…well. We’ve lost about a sixty five men so far, though have killed thousands of them for it. Granted they are just bug monsters for lack of a better word. As the battle goes on, we’re seeing more advanced tactics being deployed by the enemy. They’ve also become less of a passive seismic seeking threat and started to launch ambushes on our forces in the middle of the night.

Our continued adventures also include finding some much larger versions of these creatures. Samples have been handed over to the colony that originally hired us to see if they have any researchers who might discern something about their anatomy. Apparently they can exist in a form of hibernation, which might be why they’re just buried all over the place waiting to pop out.

Their counter attacks have been growing steadily more and more thought out though, and the types of monsters that appear seem to be different as if adapting to what we’re doing to eliminating them.