The party began being run out by Buddy Buttons, a Killer Klown. The party was brought to the Backlot where Patches was patched up ;) and the party was given water by the Street Performers. They were told how they had been run out by the Killer Klownz, and how some of their props and whatnot were taken along with their performance space.
The party was led to Augustus who was having a crisis, but felt "inspired" by the party and asked them to go off and get Eliwicke from District 8. The party was unsure if it would be safe, as they did not have much luck against the single Klown. Augustus tried to convince them that it would be okay, and that he'd go himself if it wasnt for the Killer Klownz that could invade at any time.
The party accepts, but asks for payment that is based on how difficult the job was when they return. The party sets off and berates Patches for a while. Andrea and Gesiqu'h briefly discuss the Wastewater Treatment Plant and how the city layout truly is very different.
Eventually, the party reaches the Junkyard. They briefly look for interesting pieces of trash to trade to potential Junkyard Rats that won't give out information freely. Eventually, this comes in handy when Gesiqu'h gives three Rats an 8 ball and they tell them where Amakiir is.
The party reaches the Autoshop and initially mistakes Osborn for Eliwicke. The party then realizes that he sounds like the little robot that helped them out of the flipped truck. After the confusion settles, Osborn brings the party to Amakiir who starts to lead the party to the shed with Eliwicke. The party talks to Amakiir about the symbiotic relationship he has with the Junkyard Rats for a moment, until he asks about everyone's ages. Gesiqu'h being young, he asks if she is in the Children of the Apocalypse. He describes them as trouble makers who talk big game about some New World Order they seek to create.
Once the talk is over, Amakiir opens the gate to reveal a box with a crank. He cranks the box and out pops Boxy Squeaks. He is confused about where he is, but is happy and willing to be taken back to the Street Performers.
After a while, Boxy pipes up and starts asking a Lot of questions and starts to get overwhelmed. Andrea tells Boxy to focus on just one question. After the question loads, Boxy asks if the party are brave adventurers. Dianna says yes, and is given a map. The map is crudely drawn, as if by a child. At first glance, it seems like a bunch of nothing, but Dianna recognizes a few features and finds that its actually a map of District 19. There are happy clowns, angry clowns, a bird in a cage, a big dollar sign, and a dotted line. The dotted line leads to a set of poorly drawn horses with the descriptor "Test of Willpower!" The line continues and leads to a Very Realistic Inky Eye that has lots of scratches around it.
When asked about the bluebird in a cage, he mentions that there was a performer named bluebird and that she sang a song about feeling trapped and wishing to escape.
When asked about the strange Eye, he short circuited and shut down. Patches cranked him up again and he was back to being confused about his surroundings. The party moved to bring him home again.
Session 2
The party returned to the backlot, where they returned Eliwicke. Augustus asked for their tale to see how much he owes them. They lied a bit, like Dianna being bit in the ass and Gesiquh's magic 8 ball being stolen from them. He ended up giving them 10 ration cards. He offered the party a place to stay, and offered Patches the ability to stay with them as a new member of their clan, but he declined-- as he realized the value of the the team he had beside him, and that he did not want to abandon that.
The party moved along back to their home, but many events transpired. The group initially discussed Patches' decision, and momentarily passed Phiphine-- no one spoke.
The party then was walking down alleyways when Gesiqu'h heard a manhole cover move. Radmar and Patches spotted Ahzid staring at them, waiting for them to move along. He growled "Walk away-- now." Gesiqu'h froze as the party ran off. Ahzid stood before her, causing her to remember Bruniik's bloody encounter with him in the sewers. Radmar pulled her away (and got zapped), as Ahzid told them to run along.
The party runs along and tries to comfort Gesiqu'h who is having a panic attack. Dianna attempts to lighten the mood by talking about how great she is and how she totally could have taken that guy-- pulling on how Gesiqu'h makes fun of her for being so cocky. Andrea sees that this isnt really helping and tells her to shut up, and then attempts to comfort Ges. Patches then emerges from a trash can and makes some silly jokes, including slipping on a banana peel. Gesiqu'h begins to feel better and the party moves again. Andrea embraces Ges and tries to comfort her. They talk, and Gesiqu'h gets Andrea to remember the fight between Ahzid and Bruniik. Dianna is angry about the situation and Patches literally hangs onto her. He then tries getting Radmar in the hug, but he declines. Patches then moves up to Radmar and picks him up and carries him for a few blocks.
The party arrived back at the apartment complex, where Dianna threw 8 of their newly earned ration cards at the party and storms off, telling everyone not to talk to her ever again. The party goes upstairs, where Patches tries to comfort Dianna from outside her door-- telling jokes and making fart noises with a balloon. Radmar joins in the dad joke sharing. Eventually, the party goes to sleep.
Gesiqu'h dreams of Caiphon being eclipsed by Hadar. She sees people with colorful halos, some with facial features, others with their faces scratched out. She wakes up to the sound of a clown honk from behind her. There was no one in the room. She can barely make out her purple aura, but it is there. She goes over to Ceridwen, who gives her tea and listens to her new plight. She explains her dream to Ceridwen, and she tries to advise her on what she knows. She points to Hadar and explains that Hadar is a dying star that has been dying for millennia, kept alive by cultists that sacrifice in its name. She warns not to go near those cults, or cult-allying individuals. Gesiqu'h asks if she has heard of the children of the apocalypse. She mentions that an abundance of people born at the same time as her congregating would be strange and improbable; however, she mentions that as long as an elder evil is the brightest star in the sky at the time of one's birth, they may be influenced by its madness. Hadar shined bright around blackouts and massive sinkholes, Zhudun at the fall of an ancient Eladrin city in the Feywild, and Khirad after many atrocities, such as the invasion.
Dianna gets dressed and struts out of the building, looking for someone to fall in love with her. She gets passed Radmar who is smoking on the porch of the building. He sees a gith woman who nearly runs into Dianna run up to the job board and add some wanted posters. He approaches her, and asks about what she's doing. She mentions that her friend is missing. The two discuss how similar their situations are when your friends don't get along-- except that B'nestre is considered a warcriminal to some extent and could be horribly punished if she gets captured by the Gith. She introduces herself as Yala. She tells Radmar to tell B'nestre that she is looking for her, and not that Qin'lal is looking for her. She then runs off, leaving Radmar to wonder what B'nestre has done and how he can find her before Qin'lal and the Gith do.
Session 3
The day began with Andrea and Radmar meeting up, and then going and retrieving Gesiqu'h. The three started to make their way over to the Market District in order to find B'nestre and Dave.
Dianna had ran off to find someone to love her, attempting specifically to find Ahzid again. She was listening to her music when it began to skip a bit, creating a strange warning in her ears. She stopped and saw a harpy walk by without noticing her. She heard some strange noises, and peered around the corner. She found that a wire got caught up on the harpy's leg and another had "conveniently" come unplugged and electrocuted the harpy. She ran off.
The trio passed through the park, seeing Prof Sulvok giving a lesson on the biology of plants to a few students. The continued on.
Dianna reached District 13 and looked for the alley she and her companions had fled from Ahzid in. She found a similar one with Yala inspecting a banana. She snuck passed and found some manholes. She threw the cover off and hopped down. Hearing the sounds of something echo from one of the pipes, she followed. Eventually, she found herself in an area that was controlled by the BDG. She found that the place was empty, until she reached a large door. Peering inside, she found that there were many creatures and people perched and sat all over the room, staring at the two in the center. Ahzid was sat at the end of the room in a makeshift throne, gold and riches sitting behind him. <redacted> stood across from him. The two discussed a recent deal, and proposed new ones. <redacted> threatened Ahzid, mentioning that within a month-- he might require his "protection." Dianna grew tired and sat on a large pipe above the door.
The trio moved through the college district and found Maxwell. He was painting a willow tree that was old and crumbing-- but painted it as if it were in full bloom. The party talked to him for a bit. Gesiquh asked if he was as student at the college, and Max mentioned that the college does not operate, though he does go and try and scavenge art supplies sometimes. Andrea offered to purchase the painting, rather than have Maxwell paint over it for another project. Gesiqu'h asked if he would be willing to paint something on the walls of her apt.
Dianna had a mechanical rat run by her, but acknowledge her.
The trio found their way to the market place. Andrea sniffed out Dave and the party met the two deserters at the stand of Zaatar. B'nestre was trying to find her book, with no avail. Radmar asked if B'nestre was willing to talk alone, and with some minor convincing, she accepted. Dave stayed behind with Andrea and Gesiqu'h who noticed that he is always producing smoke, even when not smoking-- and that his smoke reminds them of the infernal smoke from the fields of the other universe. This made Ges upset and the two left.
B'nestre talked with Radmar about the wanted posters. She offered little clarification, but did end up introducing herself as B'nestre Kith'rak. She asked for his aid in looking for her journal, bound in mind flayer leather-- as well as her old silver greatsword. She mentioned that that could help should she cross paths with Qin'lal. The two returned to the rest, but the girls walked off already.
Dianna eventually saw a flood of people leave, and decided to go to the door again. This time she knocked on it, having Ahzid scream out at whoever knocked. <redacted> was headed out already, and offered to get the door. Dianna attempted to get out of the way by climbing back onto the pipe above, but she slipped off-- falling face first onto the ground. <redacted> helped her up and offered to walk her out. She was reluctant at first, but he persisted. The two walked and talked. He asked if they had met before, as he thought she looked familiar. He recognized her from the EHA and gave Bluebird a glowing review-- and he offered to send a review into the opera house to put in a good word for her. She tried to refuse, but he insisted. When the two said their goodbyes, he said "Goodbye Dianna," though they had never exchanged names.
The trio went to Corkin's stand and traded a few things. They then discussed their next move, and decided that they needed a map of the city. They found a shady man in the corner of an alley, the Cartographer.
Session 4
The session began with Patches waking up, getting ready, and realizing he is the last one up and everyone has left without him. He goes into the lobby and meets 7282, or Fractal. He asks if he has seen his friends, to which 7282 mentions hearing them talk about the Market. He heads off, wandering his way to the Market.
Dianna crawled out of the sewer and felt that she may have caused a big scary evil man to go and bomb the EHA under the guise of "good reviews." She headed off and made it to Hermia's office. The two discussed this potential threat, making Hermia concerned that Dianna is *too* invested in the business. She suggests that she needs more time off, to which Dianna retaliates. The phone begins to ring, and Hermia picks up. After a few affirmatives, she hangs up and offers Dianna a role opposite Bluebird in a new show. She is to arrive the following morning at 6am for the rehearsals. She excitedly hurries off.
The trio of Andrea, Radmar, and Gesiquh meet The Cartographer. He seems mysterious at first, but brings them inside his shop where he is very chill. They trade 5gp for a vague map of the city. He offers the detailed map at 50gp, but with the knowledge that there are some holes in it. If the party is willing to help him fill it out, as well as providing maps of additional locations or buildings he hasn't had the time to get to, he could lower the price. Gesiquh notices his purposeful strokes creating the map, while Andrea notices that the hand he is drawing with trembles slightly and he seems to hesitate slightly due to seemingly pain.
Patches wanders through District 4, and sees Plunger. He gives Plunger a ration card and Plunger asked "what's up?" to which Patches asks in great detail about his friends location. Plunger gestures to the road leading to the Market. Patches attempts to get Plunger some more money, but causes a minor commotion instead. He then tries to play a tune on his flute, to which he does receive some funds. He continues on. He meets with Maxwell in the next district, and the two have a conversation about the meaning of their art and the duty to uphold a legacy with it.
Dianna decides to wander south towards District 17 to find a rough guy to have on her arm. She gets distracted in District 10 when she notices a gaggle of Fiends exiting a secret tunnel. She enters the tunnel, finding an infernal sigil on the ground made of blood. In the center, a bleeding, paralyzed Bruniik. She tends to his wounds, and finds the large vial of paralytic poison. She picks him up and wanders into the tunnels.
The trio meet up with Patches in the Market District. Andrea and Gesiquh have a moment where they scoff about Patches following suit regardless of their desires and a possible deeper resentment. Radmar tries to play to Patches's distraught tone and tries to get the girls to play nice. Patches wonders if they have developed a fear of clowns after the Killer Klownz situation. This is brushed off and he party makes up. They begin to make their way down to District 17, in order to find out more information about the strange noises in the basement.
Dianna stumbles through the tunnels beneath D10. She finds a safe house, but decides not to stay there. She moves on, eventually finding her way to a buried parking garage. She hears noises from above, so she brings Bruniik down the ramp to a security office. Inside, Benji and Igna are sitting, tending to wounds. Their jaws drop upon seeing Dianna and the bloody body of Bruniik. Igna tries to wrestle Bruniik from Dianna, who thinks they could be trying to trick her. Benji tries to convince her that its alright and that he needs to tend to his wounds. He even offers her to set him on the table and hold his hand if need be-- but he needs to be able to help him. She accepts and watches carefully as Benji tends to the wounds. He notices something strange in his blood, to which Dianna drops that there was a paralytic poison used on him. Benji administers the antidote and Igna is having a crisis. Benji and Dianna try to chat. Benji offers her water and some crackers as a "reward" and she scoffs at that reward, but takes it anyways. Benji tells Dianna to get comfortable, as he doesn't expect her to leave any time soon and that it will take some time for Bruniik to wake up.
Session 5
The session began with Andrea, Gesiquh, Patches, and Radmar walking from District 5, through District 7, to District 17. They talked about their families for a time. Patches mentioned his sister Bingles Bam Bam who enjoyed playing with fire. Radmar had a similar feeling towards his youngest sibling.
Dianna watched Bruniik awake. The group discussed what happened, briefly, and then Bruniik got changed. The group headed out, spotting a strange shadow in a carlight.
The rest of the party arrived in District 17 where they came across Simon. After some heckling, Gesiquh asked him out to lunch the following day. He accepted. The party then asked him to guide them to the Fisherman's House. They arrive and meet N'cki Snapjaw. He explains that he is too old to go into the basement to figure out what the sound is. He moved in maybe a week prior and has heard the sound the whole time.
The group goes down into the basement to find a musky damp cellar. Radmar finds that there is a strange panel on the wall. He goes up to listen for thoughts and is met with a buzzing and an image of Zhudun. He tries to open up the wall, but he was being too cautious. Patches takes the axe and Disintegrates the wall. It reveals a Faceless person, that was tied to the wall with the symbol of the Children of the Apocalypse.
Radmar realized that this guy had something to do with the Cult of Zhudun, but took the CotA symbol as a symbol for Zhudun. Simon, without revealing too much;) , tried to correct Radmar's theory. The party was still confused as to why the guy was there in the first place, but eventually decided that they should free him. The party met back up with N'cki and started off for Dra-gone Fishin. When they opened the door, Dianna was already there.
Session 6
The session began with Dianna and co sneaking out of District 10. She talked with the crew about what happened down there and what she was doing. She eventually mentioned that she was a performer, to which none of them recognized her for. Bruniik said that the three of them were private investigators looking into some rumors regarding the district when they were split. He wasn't sure if the Infernals were there on purpose or if he was just in the wrong place and at the wrong time.
Eventually, they reached District 17 and Bruniik led them to Dra-gone Fishin. Dianna met Gruner and the two hit it off. She went downstairs, Bruniik falling onto her. She heroically saved him, again. The group went over to the bar where Dianna met the crew of Dra-Gone Fishin. She retold her story to Rhogar and Hah'nu.
The rest of the party showed up, led by N'cki. Andrea went off on her own to make notes on her map, Laine went to talk to Dianna, and Radmar pulled Patches aside for a moment to chat. Laine apologized to Dianna and reintroduced herself to Bruniik. Patches asked Radmar about how it seemed like he was conversing with the Faceless. Radmar alluded to his stunted ceremorphosis, to which Patches felt bad for Radmar and promised to keep it a secret.
Patches runs up to say hi to Dianna and introduces himself to Bruniik. He was entertained by Patches's confetti and ball tricks. The party began to talk about what happened on their own time. Dianna had Bruniik talk about him getting saved. The rest of the party brought up the Cult of Zhudun and the Children of the Apocalypse. Most of the people in the conversation believed the CotA to be a bunch of rambunctious teens causing trouble, but news of them going after the Cult of Zhudun set Rhogar off. They pulled Simon over to give his two cents, not long after which Benji got up and went outside.
Andrea tried to apologize to Dianna who sort of accepted the apology. The party slowly moved on to trying to set up Dianna and Bruniik up. The party got a bit suspicious about Bruniik being gay all along, but it seemed like that wasn't quite it. Bruniik mentioned that if he was ever needed, that they could find Igna and she could go looking for him.
Andrea went to go for a walk and ran into Benji outside who was visibly upset, but trying to contain himself. The two talked for a moment, with a brief intermission from Patches. Benji mentioned that it's hard to be in a room with someone you cared about so deeply, but got none of that in return. He mentioned that he would talk to his therapist about it later and that everything was fine. He warned Andrea against going out on a walk and gestured for her to return inside.
The bar was starting to "close up" and the party was asked if they would like to stay the night as a complimentary gesture. They all decided to stay, but room assignments have yet to be determined.
Session 7
The party had a Slumber Party Night at Dra-gone Fishin.
Dianna tried to keep talking to Bruniik but Rhogar ended up asking her a bunch of questions and Bruniik left to change his bandages.
Attention was brought on Andrea who then slipped out, followed by Radmar. The two discussed their aversion to attention and lack of reliable friends in their past.
Gesiqu'h and Dianna talked briefly to Simon before he left. Gesiqu'h noticed that Benji was suddenly a lot calmer from across the room, and went to talk to him about it. Dianna blurted out that Gesiqu'h was going on a date with Simon the next day and bluntly asked about their past. Benji feigned ignorance and the two left him alone.
Patches went to look for Andrea and met Hah'nu in the bathroom. Patches tried to recruit him to help find Andrea but got side tracked asking about himself. Hah'nu took a a while to answer how long he was in the city, making Patches believe he was MUCH older than he looked. He said he was 200 years old and Patches moved on.
The party reconvened and went to their rooms.
Dianna and Radmar finally had a moment alone to talk where Dianna asked Radmar a few questions. Radmar went to ask Dianna questions and she did not want to answer them (yet) so Radmar tried to ask other questions. She did ask Radmar to convey her pain to Andrea and asked for an apology in a drunken round-about way.
Gesiqu'h and Andrea were getting in bed when Patches came out of the bathroom de-clowned. Taking the two by surprise, he reintroduced himself as Pepper Babbage. The two questioned Patches about his normal-sona. Eventually Andrea felt comfortable enough to officially disclose her vampiric nature to Patches. He was pleased she felt comfortable sharing that and he felt that he needed to reveal a secret of his own (because Pepper wasn't much of a secret to Patches). Pepper went in to the bathroom and knocked on the door from the inside. When the two opened the door, Pepper was a Bear.
Session 8
Bear patches talked with andrea and laine before bed.
Dianna ran off to the show for practice. The show changed last minute, from a tale of a cursed child who became a devil and haunted the countryside to a strange new one. The script Dianna is given is a show about two star-crossed lovers. Bluebird is taken captive by a dragon and Dianna defeats the dragon via dance-like choreo and the two live happily ever after in a castle. Radmar woke up and she was gone so he went to get breakfast. Andrea kept being sad. Michelangelo was sent by Dianna to invite Bruniik and the party to the show that was that night. The party went back to the apartments where the party started to get ready for the show. Patches got ready and invited Maxwell to the show. Benji and Igna showed up and they were invited to the show too.
During the rehearsal, Dianna saw that Bluebird isn't acting like her normal self. Her acting isn't acting-- its almost as if she is reliving a memory. Dianna looked into the rafters and saw a strange, large figure standing there wearing a mask.
The final session of arc 1 started with Gesiqu'h and Simon heading towards the suburbs for their date. the two explored new areas of the map, seeing the two industrial areas of the city before stopping to chat in front of the quarantine zone. Simon expresses a distrust in the resistance, saying that if they win, they'll just be the powerhouses and establish governments that they want and still no one will be free. the two kept going and found an old diner with some spam and coffee and cooked it up. Gesiquh explored the cash register, the stove, and the fridge that had exploded moldy milk. Simon gagged and waited outside.
Dianna had a moment to feed herself and collect herself during her real lunch break, but noticed that bluebird was not there and that there was a strange man in the rafters. she got nervous and started to ask around about it. no one seemed worried. she checked the dressing room and found lady Hermia talking to bluebird as she ate her lunch and drank a strange liquid. she got scared and left.
Andrea and Radmar rejoined patches, Maxwell, and Benji. they started off for the theatre. along the way, they found Hapa who became Patches's new best friend. Hapa said they were a really good finder and found a sketchbook for Andrea and said that they'd look for a purple journal for Radmar (for B'nestre). they also mentioned they were from the astral sea and scoffed when patches said that magic didn't exist anymore-- prompting a lot of confusion from the party.
After some time, the party gathered in front of the theatre. they went in and got the tickets they had set aside by Dianna. the party sat down to watch the performance when Andrea got overstimulated by the murmurs of the high patrons. she had a vision of dusty falling on a far off plataeu in City 12. Radmar took her out of the theatre, prompting rage from Dianna. this rage blinded her during the rehearsal where she cracked a wooden sword over Michelangelo's face on accident. Linnette pulled her aside and scolded her and told her to get her shit together.
Andrea started spilling the beans about her time doing jobs for civil protection as it tied into her explaining her episode. Radmar calmed her down and brought her inside. Tybalt met them and told them they could not come in until the actual show.
some time passed, the party gathered in the lobby where Igna and Bruniik showed up. the party entered the theatre. the show ended with Dianna getting a pendant on her and Andrea and Gesiqu'h saw a figure in the rafters. patches noticed the trepidation in bluebird's waves to the audience. when the lights came back up, everyone began to notice how uninterested the crowd seemed in the performance, given how much Dianna talked it up.
