Season 1, Episode 4: "Station Doody" Report

General Summary

Mining Team 6 hovered around their toilet, transfixed by the portal that had found its way inside. It seemed to connect to a similar toilet in Mining Team 4's cell, where the crew (sans-Skittles) were discussing their concerns about recent events. Specifically, they were worried about the sudden interest of Nakira, and whether or not Mining Team 6 knew about their recent betrayal. After they left their cell for roll call, Balio slipped through the portal, and found Ooblat's prison-sanctioned lab, where he builds C4 for the Blasters on Varos, and experiments on Wachowski. As he slipped out, Balio pulled a mugshot of Tesin from under Neighbor's pillow, and tucked it into his jumpsuit.
Without preamble the Warden arrived, claiming that a "gas leak" won't get them out of station duty, and had the party escorted to the locker room. While getting ready, Lucky and Deku came to casually inquire about the ruckus, but got few answers.
Throughout the day (Wednesday), the team completed their station duties. Of note:

• Horchata pulled Chad aside, telling him to "cool it", and was afraid he was about to start a war.
• Livewire worked with Lockette during inventory, and warned her that Nakira wasn't entirely convinced of Mining Team 6's innocence, and that Mining Team 4 and Mining Team 5 would be headed to Varos to settle things on Friday.
• Poppy visited Isra during maintenance, and revealed her knowledge of Cornelius. She hinted at having taken something from the Shape Squirrel during his adventure (later discovered to be a box of keys from the Warden's office), and offered some animal feed in return for the next thing found during their work. Isra agreed, and much to her surprise, Poppy discovered a wrapped package soon after, quickly pocketing it and finalizing the deal.
• Tesin found a crate of service drones going haywire in the processing bay. They destroyed themselves as soon as they turned on, activating the next drone in service, continuing through a suicidal loop that littered the floor with parts.
• Balio saw through a window while on hull patch, and noticed the Warden giving a speech to the guards. It seems they decided to discard the rifles from the recent conflict, rather than filing a report...

The group then waded through dinner, shared what they had found during recreation time, and tumbled into sleep. First, they shared a vision of the Warden, Alexander Marcus, and Dr. Uma Pencile. The trio talked about the recent conflict, and how the party had attacked the Warden - although he himself had no direct memory of the deed. Then they argued about the results of an experiment revolving around the prisoners, and Marcus gave a deadline of one month to find "a team". It seems that the Warden favors Mining Team 5 for their consistent results, whereas Uma preferred the party's "interesting numbers".
Second, they saw a vision of Lockette's past, which included a desperate threat from Atticus McCallow - Director of Stewards Ops - surrounding some secret project and a deadly encounter with Old Man Langdon. The last memory showed the present Lockette snapping awake, with a hole in her clothes and a pool of blood beneath her.
On Thursday, everything went to hell in a hand basket. Tesin and Skittles were assigned maintenance duty together, Balio and Lockette got put on a service job on the other end of the station, and Chad and Isra were given completely different tasks. The two failed to complete their work quickly, and ran into a screaming Miguel Schwartz in the service tunnels, trying to pull himself together while Shi-Shi comforted him. While nothing escalated, the Deliveryman seemed uncomfortable about the two knowing of his affliction.
Meanwhile, Tesin and Skittles had already begun combat, as the Skittermander seemed to confuse the Lashunta with his "Mama". Luckily Skiv had been waiting in the wings, with Turk as a somewhat-willing backup. Although the Vesk was immediately killed, it gave the remaining two time to make a plan. Skiv erupted with sonic force, going head-to-head with the Solarion, while Tesin fled down a service hatch, landing in a tank of viscous fluid housing a tentacled creature. She fought desperately to escape it, with sounds of battle erupting just behind her, ending with Skiv swimming away from the chaos, teleporting Tesin behind Skittles, kicking him into the tank, and sealing the door behind him. Skiv then revealed his true colors, as a smooth-skinned Tiefling capable of necromancy, using arcane magic to resurrect Turk from the dead, and dragging him back into the shadows.
This left the unskilled Tesin to fix the original problem, in which she completely and utterly failed. She spent several hours sealed in the humid service corridors before Balio and Lockette arrived, quickly fixing the issue with their engineering expertise. However, disaster struck when the Warden arrived, questioning both the damage and the missing Skittermander. When threatened by a weekend on Varos, Balio bit back with his usual retort, but Lockette tried for a different gambit... She alluded to knowledge of Marcus' scheme, and the Warden immediately activated the Marks of Justice on all of Mining Team 6, sending them unconscious.
The party slept through the rest of Thursday, and vaguely remember being sedated on Friday, meaning they spent quite a bit of time hovering about the Land of Dreams. On the first night we visited Chad's past, who seemed to have been stolen from a research facility as a child... The heist went wrong when the man tripped, shattering the Barathu's pod, but the baby was saved by Phillis, an elderly Halfling woman living nearby. We see flashing of her raising Chad, and protecting him from the agents of Confluence, up until her death. From here, we see Chad's rise to fame, his fall, and the murder Bernard Faust.
In the next dream, we see the past of Cornelius, and the painful trials he endured at the hands of Entity and Cromwell. Helen shared information about a "Shepherd" and "Sheep", giving painful visions of the past, and alluding to a connection between Isra and her rodent friend. At the end, we see Cromwell tucking Cornelius into Isra's arms, and a strange ritual performed by Helen in her Linnorm visage.
At last, early in the hours of Saturday morning, Mining Team 6 awoke. On a dropship with full downward burners, plummeting towards Varos. In a panic the group snapped into action, breaking locks, disabling traps, and hacking computers. They reversed thrusters in the nick of time, causing a rough (but non-lethal) landing into the side of Sauna Station, damned to the fiery hellscape of Varos for at least 48 hours...

Rewards Granted

Tarot Deck

• No Changes

Missions/Quests Completed

• The Countdown: 15 Days Remaining
• Mining Quota (Week 1) - Complete

Created Content

Several WIP articles, that I will fill out over the week, for:

• Mantle of the Shepherd
• Phillis
• Bernard Faust
• Old Man Langdon
• Lockette Endrinmaster the 1st
• Uma Pencile

Other:

• Article for Atticus McCallow.

Notes

I owe updates for Skittles, Miguel Schwartz, Lucky, Turk, Pin, and Neighbor.

Campaign

The Centurion's Riddle

Protagonists

Tesin Movahesh

Thunder in the Mist

Lockette Endrinmaster 12 2.0

Isra

Chad

Stamina

/

Health

/

Resolve

/

Report Date

04 Oct 2020

Primary Location

The Sauna

Secondary Location

Varos

Related Historical Events

• 317 AG
  Station Doody