Sonrise/The Story So Far

The Story So Far

Chapter One: N0RM4N

Session One (9/14/2025)

Our little group of convicts found themselves scrapping on a small island that used to house the Pendergras facility and were in the process of tearing apart the six story building. Helena (she/her) was their guard for the day and keeping watch over all of their progress. Fane (he/him) found a half-decent safe of fallen world money and valuables on a top floor and threw it down the various floors to get to the base of the building, Kranik (he/him) was breaking down filing cabinets, Nihlus (she/her) was pulling out wiring the ceilings between the floors and Henrietta (she/her) was attempting to avoid work, as usual.

One of the other prisoners, Berlin (he/him), a slim Drakona, attempted to weasel his way into trouble with Kranik. Then when Sparkbugs began to attack Henrietta, Kranik and Fane assisted her while Nihlus became trapped inside the safe, which Berlin attempted to steal away. He is caught and taught a valuable lesson about gravity.

When they return to the Argent Correctional Facility, they are all immediately taken to the infirmary, where Doctor Pergamon (she/her) is waiting to given them an inoculation. They are given trackers and explained that they've been chosen by the warden to go on an expedition to turn Motherboard off and back on again to reset her from the corruption and damage done by the Sonrise Coalition.

This idea was given to her by one of the now-sentient clanks, N0rm4n (he/him), who in his new sense of self, has decided to go against what the Sonrise has done and restore the Mother who came before. He believes he also knows exactly how to shut her down, repair and restart her, he just needs a proper escort and assistance.

Session Two (10/5/2025)

The ex-cons are given their ikonis, network tethers, and quantum discs and ride along with the Warden on a barge to Caskin. The driver of the barge is Alamo is doesn't seem all that concerned when Nihlus attempts to "fix up" the barge. She accomplishes nothing.

On the north shore of Caskin, they go to a small fenced in community that acts as a work release program and housing for well-behaved prisoners with smaller sentences. Here, the party finds their fifth, Blue (she/her)! The Warden asks Blue if she can still talk directly to Motherboard and how Blue feels about N0rm4n, since his consciousness is a product of the Son and not the Mother. Blue seems confident that they can trust N0rm4n and joins the party. Beleez (she/her), Blue's work supervisor, tells Blue that she was the best worker she's had and she never believed she belonged in the prison system.

The warden leaves our group at this time, putting 500 quantum on Blue's disc and telling her to buy a seaworthy vessel to go to Motherboard to do the work that needs done and then to get whatever supplies they need, wherever they usually acquire them. They head to the local docks where Henrietta knows some Infernis who are pilgrims of the spire and Nihlus knows some Fungril and Faeries who are fishers. The fishers point out three people who are currently selling boats.

• Lexington (she/her) is selling a former Tuna remnant she's made into a submersible.
• Boston (he/him) is selling an old merchants ships
• Augusta (she/her) is selling a travel barge that needs hefty repairs

The tuna remnant turned submersible ship, the Errar

After quite a bit of begging, pouting, reasoning, and bargaining with the rest of the group, Nihlus manages to convince them to get the Tuna submersible, which they call the Errar, after that's all Nihlus can say when she is asked what she will name it.

With a little money left, they head to Resupply, a common bounty hunter and criminal trading island that floats around the crater. Here they are able to trade scrap with Troy, get potions with Ithaca, basic supplies with Avaris, and check the "mailbox" with Babylon (she/they). Babylon tells them she currently has two "deliveries" that need taken care of:

• On north Ossuary, there is a thief who ran off with several quantum discs that pinched from a Chuck's Gambling house.
• Off the coast of West Cof, there is a hammerhead shark remnant with a relic inside that acts as a filtration unit that separates augments from flesh

The group takes the bounty on the thief, but Nihlus takes notes on the relic quest for her own means. Fane takes note of a woman he recognizes, but can't remember what from.

Kranik is waiting outside with N0rm4n at the Errar.

Session Three (10/11/2025)

Still at Resupply, the crew of the Errar heads over to talk to the Avaris (they/them), whose stand is for basic supplies and the occasional high tech device. They notice that Avaris keeps checking the door, but as they observe them more, they realize they have the kohd for ‘Sonrise’ on their neck. This causes Blue to curse Avaris, who immediately signals for security and as they are beginning to get thrown out, they hear the screech of something like an owl outside.

Gotham

Moments before, Kranik and Norman were enjoying a few moments alone. Kranik shared about his life in the the gladiatorial arena on Caskin and Norman encouraged him that once they had completed their mission with Motherboard, he hoped he would see his life's goal fulfilled, though he worries that if he commits murder, he'll wind up back in prison, but Kranik assures Norman that if a death occurs in the arena, it is not a crime. Norman enjoys a moment of peace before they also hear the screech and a woman with owlish augments called Gotham swept down and grabbed him by his shoulders. She attempted to fly away with him but Kranik moved quickly enough to smash the motors thigh panels and wings, making her drop Norman, who cannot swim and begins to sink.

The others emerge from the Resupply just in time to watch Kranik finish off the best of Gotham's augments but Blue, in a moment of blind rage, sent out her chaos and wrath and with that ripped off Gotham's head.

Ready to make their escape, Nihlus suspects a tracker inside Norman and that's how Gotham found them. Nihlus gives him a look through and pulls out the tracker. During some downtime, Fane fishes and they put the tracker inside the fish to throw Sonrise off. Henrietta sunbathes and scars several members of the crew for life.

Each member of the crew of the Errar is given a title by the ship's Internal Virtual Artificial Navigator, or IVAN.

The Crew of the Errar

• Nihlus, Captain
• Blue, First Mate
• Henrietta, Passenger Princess
• Fane, Quartermaster
• Kranik, Security,
• N0rm4n, Assistant Navigator

As they arrive at Motherboard, they carefully traverse her external fixtures until they reach the central spires and then wait as Norman opens a door to go inside. While consulting the console to learn more about how to repair the Mother, he realizes that something is wrong. With Blue and Nihlus' help, they open the relic cases to look into the six relics from the six islands that helped form Motherboard and find that they are all missing.

Henrietta, knowing the calling card of different thieves' guilds, recognizes that the roman numerals on the name plates are the relics are recently carved on. Using the numbers and putting the letters in order of the different islands, they discover that the calling card spells out "LOCUST". Kranik recognizes that with the roman numerals and the name, it's a criminal group he knows from Caskin.

Session Four (10/19/2025)

The crew of the Errar headed to the hammerhead shark remnant for themselves, but quickly find that they are not alone here as a cloaked remnant squid puts itself between them and the hammerhead. It turns out that it is ALSO a submersible and their crew is a group of bounty hunters who DID take the job from Babylon and display that they clearly have a great grasp on their sub and would easily best the Errar's crew in combat. They open Comms and the crew introduces themselves.

Captain Jervis

The Bl00p3r

The Crew of the Bl00p4r

• Captain Jervis, Infernis
• Firstmate Seattle, Elf
• Hokadate, Human Weapons Specialist
• Puget, Simiah Engineer

The crew of the Errar backs down from the fight and decides they will head for the island of Caskin and pursue their lead to discover more about the thieves that had stolen from Motherboard and took the six relics. They dock in North Caskin, the same area where they bought the Errar to start with. As they head from the docks down to Blue's home village, they first realize that they are being followed. Kranik waves over a small Katari child who comes over to the group, offering to sell them fish from her little basket. She introduces herself as Houtz. The crew is endeared to her.

While traveling to where Blue's nomadic tribe's currently location, they notice some trees being felled and at Blue's assistance, head that direction for a diversion.

They arrive at an area that's been clear cut and a short temple has been built over the last few months. The temple's stature apparently stands so short because most of it is underground. They are greeted by the builders, as well as a layperson for the temple, but then are introduced to the real power behind the temple, Priestess Andora. She is a human who has been augmented with large spider remnant parts to look like that of an ancient creature called a drider and she states that she worships the Arach-Empyrean, who the temple has been built for here on Caskin by the Sonrise Coalition.

Frustrated by this priestess who speaks of false gods so close to one of Motherboard's spires, Blue is prepared to fight here and now, but Kranik holds her and Nihlus back and talks them into waiting until they'd rested and have a better sense of things.

They head to Blue's village finally and there they meet many of the fungal people of the Gravekeeper Tribe. Getting a chance to explore and interact, Kranik takes up a challenge to face the tribe's strong warrior, Va'delliea. Kranik very quickly shows everyone exactly what he was bred for and crushes Va'dalliea in hardly any time at all before they can get a single swing in.

After this, the crew heads to rest, provided a guest accommodation by Grandmother Fungus and attended by Solan and Shimla, two other members of the tribe.

They are rudely awaken in the morning by the sound of a massive cable being cut, the primary network wire between Motherboard and Caskin. It has been taken down by the Arach-Empyrean itself.

Session Five (11/2/2025)

Despite their rude awakening, the crew of the Errar quickly rose and were gifted Gecko gloves and a Phoenix feather from the Gravekeeper tribe to aid them in their pursuit of destroying this new threat. They raced for the Arch-Empyrean and met it when it was two-thirds of the way down the spire, around 500 feet off the ground. Henrietta rallied them together, giving them inspiration to work together better as she stayed on the ground with N0rm4n.

The Rebuilt Guardian of Caskin, the Arch-Empyrean

Nihlus flew at a further distance from the others as she reached out with her magic, forcing hexes upon the mechanical spider queen. Blue also remained at a far distance after she got webbed and fell to the ground, using spells and Mother's wrath together to disable the internal mechanics of the Arach-Empyrean from afar. As Kranik and Fane raced to meet the creature face to face, they attacked at it's bladed legs, but found themselves caught in those leg's grip and had to keep from the blades pressing further and further into their skin as they struggled to break free. Their first major fight as a crew and they learned well to balance off of one another, the witch and the warlock causing internal damage with hexes and viruses, while the hefty brawler and warrior beat it externally, freeing themselves from and doing decent damage to it's head before the legs gave out and it fell from the spire. Landing on the ground, it still continued to fight, falling on Kranik fully while the others dodged out of the way. Only one leg left, the crew of the Errar managed to overpower the creature and Fane bashed its head in.

Now with a pile of crumpled metal in front of them, the team scrapped it and inside, found something very odd. It was the relic of Caskin, the one that had been stolen by the Locust Guild from Motherboard. Someone had fashioned it into the webshooter of the Arach-Empyrean and now it was in Blue's possession.

Driven by their anger over how the pieces of Motherboard were being used to destroy her and the network, Blue and Nihlus encouraged the group to head back to the temple of Arach-Empyrean to face the followers and that Priestess head on.

Walking in and declaring that she would destroy the temple and profaning the Empyrean in front of Andora, Andora immediately moved to curse Blue, but Fane jumped in front of her attack. Fane stayed there between Blue and many attacks, starting to feel the pressure of the onslaught of attacks. Nihlus let out an arcing wave of electricity that sent all of the temple attendants to their graves, while the Lieutenant Arvy defended Andora from the crew. Arvy and Andora alone were no match for the full power of the Errar and they dispatch both, Blue reaching out with a whip of electricity to behead the false priestess.

Fane steals the wig that was meant for the incomplete goddess' robotic form.