TSGL3 Week 2 Mission Report: The Museum of Brez gets a New Attraction

#1

Prologue

Curator Onalna placed the last of the items inside the vault below the Museum. She had gotten the directive directly from the Council who ruled the United Tribes of Refuge, and confirmed by Secret Royal Decree of King Urog. Every item inside the Museum had a perfect modern replica on the main floors. And even the Leyas artifacts were replicated with the full effort of the United tribes. It was beautiful to see such a concerted effort. Here in the vault below the Museum would go the true relics, and everything of value. Well almost everything…her head adept had warned her not to move one item into the Vault because it would single handedly put the entire museum’s collection at risk. She had worked with this specific adept, a foppish Earther who went by the handle Maverick Multimancer, for the past two years since the Museum was reopened for operations. She felt he was as reliable as an Earther could be.

Curator Onalna passed by the restoration room of her head adept, noting there was a line of Olgog statues crowding the hall. These were new additions sent by the Yagogi’al tribe, and some were amazingly lifelike. She swore one of them even blinked at her.

Apparently she would have to have a talking to with Maverick, he was so behind his work it was now cutting off fire exits. She knocked on the door to the restoration room and it creeked open under its own accord. Inside she found a pair of Olgog guards standing there. They were shockingly graceful for burly Brezans, as they searched the restoration room top to bottom.

“What are you doing here?” asked Curator Onalna with an accusatory glance.

“Just looking for the crystal stone on the catalogue, Curator,” said one guard, “We were told all items had to be stored down in the Vault and the checklist we got doesn’t show it as being checked off.”

“Yes, the plan has changed for that item,” replied Onalna, “But I do have some work for you. It is still a few hours towards closing time, and there are enough visitors still in the museum that we cannot fully lock this place down.”

She quickly looked at the Olgog statues, relaxing her sight to see the Leyas flows. She was seeing the expected Earth Leyas and smattering of others that would make sense for a crafted flowing moving statue. Nothing to make her worry, after all these were gifts from members of the UtR Council. If the Yagogi had been tricked into helping the thieves it was an inside job, and almost certainly their entire collection would already be stolen. That was the hardest part for Curator Onalna.

For the past two years, the Museum of Brez had been supported and protected. Except for a small brawl with the Olgog who popped out the crystal there really hadn’t been much violence surrounding the Museum.

King Urog and the other Brezan gang leaders saw the Museum as a point of Pride. It was something even the haughty Tla’loc’alans came to Brez to see. So the Brezan Olgogs went out of their way to protect it. King Urog’s Treasure for the People theme had spread everywhere, and since every Brezan native had free admission, it did felt like a shared treasure. So Onalna was struggling to accept that she shouldn’t be trustworthy of their allies. She only hoped her trust in the UtR was not misplaced.

“Place these Statues in the corridor leading to room B13, past the exhibit about the Gor’abs of Karov but before the exhibit on the lines of aristocracy including the Bloodline of the Mag Buskt, and the Bloodlines of the Shattered Suns, the Bloodline of Protodoxa and the other famous lineages.

You will know you have gone too far, when you reach the area where Godart is setting up the rocket model in the Hall of Olgog Aviation. They are setting up right next to the flight suit and portrait of Ogur Whakkau the first Olgog EEF pilot to travel into space back using human technology. So if you see either the Ur’sa Rocket or an Olgog sized flight suit you’ve gone too far.

She paused and added, “You know we got a lot of flak from some corners about allowing Godart to assemble his model of the Ur’sa Rocketship. Despite not being the first Olgog Astronaut, or first Olgog in space (sadly that role probably goes to the poor Olgogs taken by galactic slavers and space pirates during the “Golden Age of Earther Space travel”), Godart and his Rocket do represent a great accomplishment by the Olgog peoples. A first in the use of only technological propulsion to send an Olgog explorer aloft, designed and built by an Olgog scientists. Do you understand how exciting it is to live in an age where Olgog scientists loft rockets into space? No longer are we thought of as dirty savage and feral Goblins…”

The voice that cut her off had a subtle nasal whine to it, and was definitely Earther, “Instead they think of you as dirty, fossil fuel using Orcs riding polluting chemical rockets in some vain attempt to get Humans to look at you as anything more than stupid animals who can learn from their betters.”

The voice was attached to none other than Mortis Leonin, though he was not dressed in his customary Inquisitor’s robes. Instead he was dressed as a middle manager at an IT firm might dress in the late 2000s CE. He dropped his briefcase with a yawn, and it snapped open and a pair of mekanoids popped forth. They trained their weapons on the guards but made no move to fire, much to everyone’s surprise.

“So Animal, I am kind enough to warn you,” said Leonin, “The Warmonger has aims for this timeline, and your actions here tonight, might just make or break his success. I have seen the future where the armies and fleets of Lalder breach a treaty that causes the death of…well everyone. That benefits me even less than you creatures.
Wherever you move the mirror crystal it will be found. The only question is how do you mitigate the damage animal, only how you mitigate the damage.”
Leonin reached his hand into his inner pocket and suddenly a flash of light made him and his meks disappear.

Curator Onalna wiped away a few tears. She had genuinely expected the meks to kill her, and still didn’t believe her luck. All her sense of safety had evaporated in moments.

The guards tried to console her, but she pushed them away.

“It seems my adept was right in his own assessment as well,” said Onalna, “You two get the statues moved where it told you. I have to see Maverick.”

#2

Part 1: How I learned to Love the Sniper Laser Rifle

Bobby Ving had grown up in Brez since the age of who the fuck knows. He was a street kid and had been taken in by The Lobbas, a gang of Brezans who kept the neighborhood in the south shadow of the Reservoir safe from Raiders and other ne’er do wells. They had clashed with King Blood’og and his son King Blood’og II, and survived.

It helped that Bobby Ving had gotten real good at soaking up injury. He could pull the hurt out of just about any of his brother and sister gangers and still not pass out like the weaker pups. As a result they had started calling him the Lucky Ving they carried around with them. Since he was a smaller Olgog he got the reference, and ran with it, even adding the Ving to the first name the Earther missionary had given him at the orphanage.

They were just down the block from the museum. They could see its great big doors, and victory was so close they could taste it. Bobby Ving looked over at Moose-face the ganger leading the attack. Moose-face had gotten his name in a far worse way that Bobby rather not think about right now.
Then the signal was given, and they were charging the walls as a horde. Bobby looked between the legs to the side as they charged, just out of instinct. He saw a large, mechanical strider walk from the nearby street, flanking them in seven steps of the vehicle’s massive legs.

Its artillery cannon descended, the accordion-like barrel shroud pulled back and it fired.
There was a blast in the center of their horde, and Bobby Ving found himself hurled into the air. The wind whipped at his furred face, and he hit the ground with enough force to bounce. During the bounce he felt a rip snap, and pain radiate up his side.

He hoped this merc named Burke was paying them well, because Bobby Ving could hear blood gurgling up in the lung right next to the snapped rib. Every time he breathed, he could feel a stabbing pain.
Bobby forced himself upright and saw the gangs bearing the banners of King Urog who rushed at his own ganger brothers. One of the Uf Mag’og Vandals bearing a giant hobtor hammer, swung it down and crushed Moose-face’s head. Bobby was splattered with the gog’s blood, and shuddered. Then he drew his own weapon, a gnomish springshot he had modded to fire a wide array of arrows, bolts, even sharpened utensils. He cranked the weapon rapidly as a Raider dressed in heavy armor charged him.

The ogre of an Olgog left the hammer lodged in Moose-face’s spine, and lifted up a pair of sharp Hobtor axes and joined the Raider. Bobby prepared to be cut apart by the Vandal and the Raider, but then to his shock, both fell down dead. Each had a hole cleanly burned in the back of their head.
Bobby didn’t know what killed them, but suddenly wondered if this Burke had planned backup for them. Bobby let out a sigh of relief, vamping what lifeforce he could from the bodies with a tendril of shadow leyas. He felt the rib reset itself and the blood drain from from his lung. Releasing the tendril before he got too addicted to it and became a vampyr, Bobby began looting the bodies. Grabbing Uf Mag’og marked armor, and weapons, he outfitted himself, hidden in the shadow of the Museum.

Then suddenly the walls of the Museum erupted in fire and exploding rubble, with holes punched right through the front walls. Raiders and Vandals had been killed in the explosion, but as Bobby watched massive stone structures flew above the city. From them projected beams of healing light, that made all those dead touched with it rise alive once more. Bobby felt one ear bleeding from the explosions, and knew if he waited any longer it would be him against the entire Uf Mag’og army and a Strider with artillery cannons.

Bobby Ving quietly snuck into the Museum.

#3

Part 2: This is why we can’t have nice things…

Godart was putting the finishing touches on the Rocket display, he heard something outside on the city streets. To his bewildered ears it sounded like someone was firing artillery out there. Now he knew that Brezans had strange ways of having a good time but Godart was no fool, and that was the sound of an attack. He pulled out his favorite firearm and prepared to defend his rocket display, and the museum with his life.

Then the wall behind the rocket display was smashed open by explosives. Godart suspected some form of plastique. He peeked up to see the beautiful paint job on his rocket was stripped. Then he peeked over it at the hole, really hoping he wasn’t going to see an artillery cannon peeking back at him.

But there was nothing. Just rubble and a hole in the wall. But then he noticed the shadows around the holes. Every few moments an Olgog would pop his head out, then back in and appear at a closer shadow. They were lanky fellows, girded for combat in the Karovian way. And to Godart’s keen eyes he could make out markings that reminded him vaguely of the GulTor’Uf.
But they ignored him completely, and flowed around him through the shadows and out deeper into the museum.

Godart looked up at his rocket, back at his pistol and then out the door to the hallway where the shadow-walkers were going. He sighed and ran after them, pulling out his radio and alerting the Curator.

In the grand hall, Godart found himself walking through a garden of statues. Each were Karovian in design, making it harder to follow who was real and who was shadow. But there was some sort of pitched battle around him. He would see it as two combatants fell from their shadow only to roll, leap or get thrown into another shadow. Godart spun around trying to target somebody but then he noticed there were Tla’loc’alan assassins fighting with the Karovian thieves. Their shadowy battle raged around him, but Godart simply kept walking. At the end of that section of corridor was a room where it seemed the real battle was happening.

Hands were coming out of the shadows firing guns that spit energy, acid or bursts of fire. In between the converging shots was none other than Rapi’og, formerly of the GulTor’Uf. He dived forward, rolling out of the converging shots. Sliding across the room, he reached the platform holding the crystal mostly encased in stone.

His own hand reached in and fit perfectly in the cavity in the stone. When his hand touched the crystal his other hand reached out in the opposite direction, firing a beam of light down the hall. The first one struck the doors of the room, and at it appeared a group of brutish Karovians armored and armed in the style of the Wintermute Blight Guard and Re-Animators. They parted and protected between them was an Uthvelor female dressed in the style of a Gor’ab. She had a sniper springshot almost as long as she was tall strapped to her back. At her waist were the skulls of three Olgog males, their jaws wired in perpetual screams. She grunted at the Karovians and they threw these doors open, revealing the long corridor that led to one of the many holes smashed in the walls of the Museum.

But not all was good for Rapi’og. In that moment the stone of the flooring turned to mud and flowed up Rapi’og. It began to wrap around him trying to seal him away. His hand fired off another blast of energy that rushed out across the street striking a distant building. And then a third which struck a distant rooftop.

All three beams went terrifyingly close as they went over Godart’s head. He didn’t want to take up position at cover because there were still a battle raging in the shadows. Then again standing out in the open nearly got him struck by some crazy light being fired off by a nearly stone-covered Rapi’og.

Feeling himself being trapped, Rapi’og roared, “Now is the time, my GulTor’Gor join with my Og’GulTor. Witch Gogkiller, you are in charge until I return to you.
Jak’hal I expect more for my payment!!”

There was a flash of blue light and Jak’hal the Pirate K’ias appeared with a small crew at his side. The pirates found themselves outmatched by the Tla’loc’alan Tor’ogs who struck from the shadows, and Mama Rapigog herself who struck four of the pirates down with ease.

Jak’hal ran over to Rapi’og and said, “Don’t worry I got you covered. All you gotta do is not go insane.”

It would be the last thing Rapi’og heard before the stone fully enclosed him.

His hand howered began to glow creating a glowing portal. It shimmered and cut through the air quite visibly.

Jak’hal stumbled back, saying, “Huh didn’t expect a space-time rupture. Hmm I should probably just get out of here.”

But as he turned one of the nearby statues moved, driving a zela blade deep into the space pirate’s chest.

Mawen Mag Daron, now Mawen Rapider of the Yagogi had been waiting for this moment his whole life. To slay a K’ias is one of the things, he had been training for since childhood. And here was the monster, oozing its silvery blood up and down his zela scimitar. The falosini-forged blade would not break under the K’ias weight, and Mawen just held him up staring into the empty holes in Jak’hal’s mask. There seemed to be infinity extending on inside there. He twisted his blade, and from inside Jak’hals body fell a catche of reclamator crystals that fell onto the floor around them, each one now bathed in K’ias blood.

Maverick stepped out behind Jak’hal and grabbed him into a hug, pressing the button on his own Time Shredder. There was a flash of blue light, and suddenly Mawen, Jak’hal and Maverick were gone.

Mama Rapigog stood up shaking her head. She had been moving in to deliver the deathblow to the pirate leader with her trusty club Balbrek, when Gabi had dived in knocking her to the side. She looked around for Gabi and wondered, could Gabi have been pulled in by the blue flash.
Godart approached Mama Rapigog, and they both saw that the battle in the shadows were over.

The tor’ogs and bruskti had won, and the renegade Karovians had been driven back. Out on the streets the Uf Mag’og were equally brutal harrying them every step of the way, so not even a single one of Rapi’og’s spies were left in the city.

#4

Rewards

Godart, Burke, Yagogial, Lalder, gang of Uf Mag’og, Derlur, Kul Gul Rapi Family, Maverick Multimancer each gain a Reclamator Crystal. This item is a single use item. It records the timeline you originally came from, and if shattered it can bring you back to the moment you left that timeline. You retain all the memories of that new timeline trip when you return.

Gabi (KulGulRapi), Lurtor (Lalder), Mawen ( Yagogi’al), Derlur the Nomad, and Maverick Multimancer gain access to Earth 6000 Alternate Earth timeline thread.

Godart, Yagogial, Lalder, gang of Uf Mag’og, Derlur, Kul Gul Rapi Family, Maverick Multimancer all gain In Defense of the Museum you get a year round pass, and can ask Curator Onalna to identify any artifact or relic of Refuge history (specifically Refuge) as an automatic benefit.

#5

New Threads opened from this mission

Earth 6000 XIX