Idraluna Archives

Odradek's Drift Session 4: Share A What with Rudiger?

Players

Summary

After the altercation that concluded last session, Dr. Aarav was allowed to return to the ship after giving a brief statement, and Castrucci went underground, spooked by the heat. Minnow was held in a detention cell for several nights.

Aarav gathered up fellow Krongu employees Evie and Pliny and recounted the events. The fight with the soldiers had been on the way to address the issue of Rudiger Kreft, who has been loudly, publicly denigrating the Krongu brand (after he was paid to promote it and then abandoned). Thus, they decided to resume their efforts to neutralize him.

Evie suggested that they frame him for a crime, simultaneously taking him off the street and potentially de-legitimizing his anti-Krongu activism. After some discussion, they came up with a plan: Dr. Papadopoulos would compile a fake dossier such as a whistleblower might compile. Pliny would pose as a whistleblower and earn Kreft's trust, then direct him to pick up the package of whistleblower materials. And Evie would plant the package at a dead-drop, along with contraband -- guns or drugs. Then, the police would be alerted.

To begin, Evie spent some time surveying the gentrified neighborhood in which Kreft was last sighted.1 After wasting a moderate sum on quinoa salads and adaptogenic lattes, she spotted Rudiger getting out of a public elevator. While leaving, he shook hand with a man clad in a red sash, with a rapier at his hip.

Intrigued, Evie took the elevator up, hoping to spot the man. Six floors above, she glimpsed a man in a red sash disappearing into a crowd of business-people. Though he was gone by the time she was able to exit the elevator, she spent some time exploring the area and found a huge, brutalist building emblazoned with red banners upon which a single argent word was printed: "ENJOY".

Perturbed by the implications, the crew spent the next day investigating. At the public library, Dr. Papadopoulos learned that the building was licensed to something called "Coca-cola Inc.". Though not well-known in the Pleiades, he was astonished to find records of its existence stretching back thousands of years.

Pliny and Evie went directly to the building as soon as it opened at 8:00 AM. In the lobby, they met a man in a red sash, who explained that he was a brand ambassador. When asked about Krongu, he replied: "Damnable upstarts! Where's the Legacy? Where's the Brand Identity? Where's the Enjoyment?". He went on to explain that the servants of Coca Cola corporation pride themselves on their brand's venerable pedigree, allegedly stretching back to a mighty empire that ruled Old Terra for many millennia.

Evie then submitted an application to be a warehouse worker. Pliny posed as "Render Freely", owner of a bodega known as "Render's Vendor". He secured an audience with a Vendor Sales Associate named Mekhanora Bing and succeeded at bribing her to serve as an inside source for further interactions with the corporation. He also learned that there is a bottling plant situated 150km south of the spaceport, along a rail line.

Having satisfied their curiosity, they decided to resume the plot against Kreft. Their patron Tucker Hogarth was able to hook them up with an unlicensed revolver and 20 pills of Substance D (15 of which Aarav pocketed to sell at a later date).

At this point, Minnow Blux returned after several days in lockup -- ultimately, his involvement in the altercation was deemed short of a full crime. Intent on cleaning up any loose ends from the Pistachio affair, he gathered the crew and went in search of the remaining Cicelian soldiers.

The soldiers were tracked to a seedy dive bar on the arcology's lowest levels. Minnow, Pliny, and Evie took up positions in the alley outside the back door, while Dr. Papadopoulos drunkenly walked in, exaggeratedly recognized the soldiers, and then fled out the back. Somewhat savvy, the soldiers sent two of their number after him, both of which were promptly dispatched by Minnow's shotgun. He then ran in and shot the other three as they were fleeing, sending their bodies smashing through the glass of the front door. Some warning shots from Evie kept the other clientele from opening fire, and quick action by Minnow kept the bartender from calling the police.

Their bloody work complete, the crew fled down the alley.

Will they get away with having killed the remaining soldiers? What nefarious schemes could the Coca-cola corporation be implicated in? Will Evie's job application be accepted? Will the Krongu team successfully frame Rudiger Kreft? And on the eve of the year's biggest cage-fight, one question is one everyone's lips: Will Tulip Driblette finally make the Krongu brand worth something?

Notes

  1. For those following along at home, the party remains on the planet El Zocalo, a polluted industrial world with a population in the billions. All the action has taken place in the planet's largest arcology, a giant cube next to the spaceport.↩

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