Session 10 - Chapter 5: Blackout pt. II

In the aftermath of Beaumont's bombings, Sanctuary Inc. found safety in the one location they've all managed to hide in: 147 Copperwing Crescent, Gearhaven District, Ellisbeth, Pægor. With lockdowns now imposed nationwide making travel even outside of Ellisbeth challenging, conversations shifted towards the targets of the recent attacks. Theories zipped around the room like flies though none could be confirmed nor denied without more information.  

• Why were 11 countries untouched? Would the world's collective eyes turn to them as responsible parties or as future targets?
• Are the culprits trying to disrupt travel? Manufacturing? Communication? Leadership? All of the sites hit were either capitols or military bases.
• What are they trying to accomplish? Almost all of the attacks were near a coastline, are Beaus being funneled inland somewhere? Savior? Why?
• Are there future bombing sites? Where are they?

  News continued to drone on the telecaster in the living room confirming the world -both Pægor and Kiqueo- had completely shut down. Travel, commerce, economy, communication, education were all postponed as the first shockwave ricocheted throughout the confederacy. Whomever was responsible for the bombings had perhaps accomplished more in the terror following the attacks than the attacks themselves. By lunchtime news of the BRN's nationwide deployment struck mainstream media, confirming soldiers would be deployed to every country, state and city around the continent; Martial Law had officially been declared. In Kiqueo, a state of emergency echoed throughout the continent meaning every Coalition member would be responsible for maintaining order.   Agent Silas attempted to reach out to the Blackaxel Cartel but found his holodisk unresponsive. Even backup methods were unable to reach HQ leaving the agent isolated and alone, save for the few members of Sanctuary Inc. in his midst. News continued to trickle in now from Kiqueo which confirmed air travel from the Blackaxel was suspended indefinitely, reserving any and all travel for Cartel members only. With nowhere to go and no way to get anywhere, Sanctuary Inc. looked at the facts of the bombings to draw their own conclusions. Through their theory-crafting and investigations they discovered:  

1. No highly-magical areas were struck which suggested the need for mana still.
2. Attacks on Pægor seemed to encircle Savior, which could be a trap.
3. Solusi Simoli was not struck at all.
4. Only one country's capitol was destroyed.
5. No immediate religious, economic, faction or otherwise pattern to the cities was noted.

  The evolution of the shadow corporation began, the group now understanding their role as an information outlet of the truth that other sources are not addressing. Using Lux's influence over social media and a shadow account, Sanctuary Inc. could post information, theories or questions and utilize the masses to find answers on their behalf. Echo held up the Deremitru badge he identified, suggesting this be broadcast to the world as a symbol to identify the extremists and encouraged people to speak up if they see it anywhere.     Conversations were cut short however when every screen in the safehouse suddenly went black. Slowly the snowy static of a signaless screen took over the devices before a chilling warning played worldwide:  

Static erupts, swallowing every channel, every device. Screens flicker into black, radios drone with distortion, phones vibrate as if seized by unseen hands. Then the voices come: layered, discordant, fractured across octaves, as though dozens of beings speak in unison through a tunnel of broken glass. The cadence is cold, detached, and inhuman, each word echoing with quantum distortion.   Peoples of Beaumont,   You cling to your festivals, your technology, your companies and magic… and yet you do not see that your days are already numbered. Last night’s sky has burned with your first warning, your cities erased, their light snuffed out in silence. But understand: this is not conquest. This is not war. This is inevitability.   Your world is sick with its own heartbeat. You measure your time in hours, in years, in lifetimes. You scurry, you build, you explore, you hope. But all of it, all of you, are grains in time’s inevitable hourglass, unaware that you’re moments away from your final fall.   We are the viewers of the glass: watching, waiting for the final grain to tumble down.   From this day forward you live on borrowed time. In one year on the turning of Finis, our world will fall silent. Time herself will cease to move. The pulse of every living thing will still. The cycle will end.   Do not waste your final year with delusions of resistance. Do not search for us: we are already within every breath you take, every second you count, every lull between your heartbeats.   We are the Deremitru. Destined by the Gods of old. Ordained to stop time… and end all life alongside it.     The static swells, drowning out the voices until nothing remains but silence. Then, just before the transmission cuts, a single phrase lingers—a promise, or a curse:   The end is not coming. The end is here. We are not destroyers. We are not conquerors. We are extinction.

  Panic set as existential dread washed over the inhabitants of the safehouse. The Deremitru had claimed responsibility of the bombings. This lead to more questions still as the busy minds of Sanctuary Inc. immediately returned to work. They deduced that the bombs could not have been airborn as it would have been impossible to time all of them in unison. Instead, they theorized, the bombs must have been subterranean; this fit with the tunnels they had already discovered at Scorpion Pointe. Gidget suggested they notify the world to look out for their tunnels and report any underground paths Beau's locate as potentially Deremitru owned.   Conversations drifted toward travel and how the group could move between countries without being detained or denied entry. BAC and BRN credentials could help at some checkpoints but not all. The Keepers' presence would certainly help as a humanitarian effort and Lux could announce a tour to travel to the destroyed sites -not reduced to ash- to bring awareness and people to assist with the efforts. Thus the Hope Tour 9999 was born, though the means of travel was far from solidified. Xhoya, oddly quiet until this point was working on mask designs for the party when her curiousty overflowed her mind. Somehow Z3r0 knew they were still alive, somehow Z3r0 knew a lot of things immediately after they happened and she was going to find out how. The piano was her target and Identify was her means of understanding.   What appeared to be a normal piano was actually a highly advanced communication device with unique passcodes for each Cartel member that could broadcast on quantum-encrypted channels into the skies above. Recalling the tunes she had heard both Dodson and Silas play the youth struck the keys until the piano lid lifted and the ivories lifted and reattached themselves to the inside of the lid. A makeshift waveform appeared as the voice of Z3r0 overtook the room, silencing the party.   Z3r0 questioned how they were communicated with on this line and Xhoya quickly claimed responsibility, hoping to keep Silas out of hot water. She identified she was a child and saw this work before, the Keepers also spoke up informing the mysterios agent of their presence. Given the direct line to the only person who they believed could help them right now, Xhoya and Silas grilled Z3r0 who was willing to offer information and upgrades under the pretense that they'd never communicate this way again. Z3r0 clarified with humbling authority that under no circumstances could the relic Sanctuary Inc. possessed be brought near them and told the party they were to remain where they were for now and within 2 days, nightshade would find them. The safehouse would be key to their strategy and while they could not ensure its survival through a blast as large as the ones that destroyed the capitols, Z3r0 would provide upgrades to the home to fortify it as best they could. Once nightshade was delivered the group could freely travel to the Ash Sites which, given the recent happenings, Agent Silas fully understood what foreshadowed event Z3r0 saw.   Back-and-forth conversation shed some light on the reality of the world right now: The BAC & BRN are both compromised. Z3r0 believes it to be the same mole working against both sides. All existing BAC protocols that have been broadcast are compromised and should not be followed. Silas' holodisk should be destroyed at once. Sanctuary Inc. is not to follow any military orders, Z3r0 believes the BRN is being fed misinformation which will not only be harmful to the group, but to humanity. Once their orders are confirmed, Z3r0 severs the line which causes the piano keys to fall down and the communication device is rendered unusable. Within moments however every wall, ceiling, floor and surface in the safehouse turns a deep black and lines of script begin flowing from what appears to be distant locations into the walls. Everybody watched with intrigue but Ildris seems to understand it, at least in part.   Curiosity caused the Keeper to draw his magic from the ceiling to the wall which created a bridge of code between the two. While a bit more advanced than his current understanding, Ildris revealed that the information flowing into the safehouse was not only fortification enhancements but also memory magic, possibly originating from Ereshkigal Herself. What was happening around them was a complete erasure of this safehouse from every record, memory, image, video, everything. By the time it was complete this safehouse would exist only in the minds of its current inhabitants and to the rest of the world, it would have never existed. With his purpose now clear to him Ildris applied this advanced magic to everything around him that would prove beneficial to their cause. Ildris' runic ribbons soon wrapped the party's phones and vehicles rendering them impossible for others to see or track, creating a safe method of travel for the time being. When the Cindercleft returned with Gidget, who had gone into town to purchase materials needed to fully repair it thanks to Lux's credit lines, it too would be rendered forgotten.   When Gidget did return with her parts she delivered bad news to Lux however, that her credit cards were no longer functional and that the money they had on hand was everything they had to pay for whatever necessities they required. Upgrades continued to flow into the safehouse, greatly enhancing it's barrier protection and a modification to the hamborghini removed its gravitational requirement granting the two-seater limited flight capabilities. MAT received treads which made travel easier for the six-legged companion and Gidget set out to a field south to begin repairing the Cindercleft for her upcoming travels.   Back in the safehouse the party questioned Ildris' magic which he revealed came from Komana itself. He demonstrated by touching the floor and pulling magic from the ground, wrapping it around a can of preserved food to transform it into a plant. From there the plant was transformed into a live white turtledove before turning back into canned goods. The party stared in awe. Ildris noted that in his time magic was freely given from Komana and the need now for magic in cans was not something he was familiar with- Kiiellien confirmed her magic back home was also free to take but wasn't sure if it came from the ground like his. After a few theories about the magic in the cans Ildris finally sampled the magic and theorized it was foul, possibly poisoned. Kiiellien's old Blastcan was tolerable but sickening and the newer Blastcans, as offered by Gidget were downright poisonous. Xhoya offered an empty Blastcan, her own, which had no signs of foul magic at all. One by one Ildris extracted poisonous gas from each party member's Blastcan, verifying that something was within that was microdosing them with poison. Now able to eliminate the Blastcan as the source of taint, theories then migrated to the mana itself.   Was the extraction process responsible for the poisoning? Lux theorized that the deeper Monokomanika drilled the more raw and unuseable the magic became, perhaps natural barriers were in-place deep within the world to stop the poison from eeping through the soil. Other theories suggested the refinement process added a byproduct that was poisoning individuals or the government itself was intentionally adding something to poison the population. Perhaps the use of raw magic itself is incompatible with Beaus and there is a natural source that transforms mana into mortal-consumable magic. The world may be overconsuming magic which could be depleting the natural sources from being able to replenish mana - if people stopped using magic for a while could the world heal? Maybe the volume of mana being used per-spell was too high which not only exhausted the world's mana supplies but could be unintentionally dosing people with manasickness by overexposure. Gidget took the theory and ran with it, constructing an inhibitor to add to her Blastcan to reduce the amount of magic that was released per-spell. No immediate answers were found in the theories but Sanctuary Inc. did agree that the extraction and overconsumption of mana was unhealthy both for Beaus and Beaumont alike.   The group's final thoughts came from Echo and Lux who assessed the magic they had around them. Lux was born a magical being and had an inherent sense of magic in her every action, though she did recently come into possession of a belt buckle that required no Blastcan to charge. Ildris investigated and confirmed the buckle was not of Beaumontian origin. Echo cited the upgrades to the safehouse and confirmed they too did not originate from a Blastcan but from Z3r0. Their understanding for now was that Z3r0 and Ildris had a similar understanding and deployment of magic, both sourced from the world itself and required no container and contained no ill side-effects.