Agents Of Empire/Turns/25/Interstitial

Overview

We'll be having a pause of a (real) week or so between turns 24 and 25, and also doing some updates.

New Mechanics

The new mechanics are now officially in effect. Research and exploration changes will be coming real soon now, roughly like they're described on the page now.

Fate Point Refresh

Characters all refresh fate points between acts, as usual.

Character Revisions

If you would like to shuffle around skills or aspects on your characters, feel free to do that between acts also.

Clearing the Backlog

Any missed PC actions are lost as of turn 25, so if you have an action you want to take, do it before we resume play.

Battlefield Promotions

The Fightin' Fighters, having survived battles in both Act I and Act II, are hereby promoted to rank-3.

Spoils for the Victors

When all is said and done, the Colonies are awarded 50 mega-credits in reparations for the Gwyne invasion, due mostly to the succession of cocktail parties held by Basingbloke, and also the strong support of Reeft. Furthermore, success in war leads to both popularity and power -- the Colonies receive 20 Influence and 20 Fame for their victory.

Plot Twists

On Elvis, Rick explores the mysterious tower and outbuildings, and discovers some interesting botanical reference material on the shelves in one of the outbuildings, which he carries off. After some effort with a blaster and crowbar he gets the door to the tower opened, where he is somewhat surprised to see the whole thing seems to be centered around an enormous plant: the ground floor of the tower has a giant half-buried rootball, and then a stem extends vertically up the tower (surrounded by a spiraling staircase allowed access upwards), up to a bud at the top underneath a sealed dome. Levers on the top floor appear to cause the dome to open, but Rick isn't totally sure what else this will kick off. The metal structure atop the tower seems to be some kind of parabolic mirror structure, but of unusual shape and texture and unknown purpose.

Dark engages in some negotiation and six-hand-poker with certain members of Kresht. They are curiously reticent -- either they know something but aren't willing to tell it, or they don't know something and know they don't know -- but they are certainly willing to agree to a policy of information sharing for mutual protection.

On Grazene, Seve beats a hasty retreat, leaving a diplomatic contretemps behind. There are rumors he brought Lady Celeste off-planet with him as well, but he refuses to say anything to confirm or deny the matter. Grazene similarly denied rumors that it had sent astro-polo advisors to Topni.

Seve proceeds on to gather new members for his galactic astro-polo team and election campaign, adding, among others, Suzette (formerly a sous-chef at the imperial palace), Sergeant Sideboard (of House Kresht, on leave for insubordination), Antonio Antonio (of House Vegas, probably there to oversee their investment), and Cosmowinkle Sonata (of House Canterina, fascinated with the colony worlds as an extended performance art piece).

The field for the emperorship has grown and shrunk over the last weeks -- Seve achieved some press for entering the race early, but as the current emperor continues to provide no guidance whatsoever for the selection of the new emperor and make only rare public appearances, others have eventually moved to press their claims. By the current date, the field has narrowed to four besides Seve: Pentavian Maximus (of House Tipno, a prosperous slave-trader and agriculturalist), Gynxya Qwert (nominally associated with House Taba, practically speaking a protest candidate for non-human races), Lord Vonfen Pasa (an important figure in House Reeft), and New Lower Prices (from House Krazybuys, probably not a serious candidate but who knows with Krazybuys).

But back on the colony worlds, attention has been distracted from the imperial race by other events: a red light has begun a slow but steady blinking, signaling that Iavo's wormhole monitors have begun to detect something. And elsewhere on Elvis, a giant bud begins to open.