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etrayalogs2026-05-22 10:18 am
etrayamods) wrote in etrayalogs2026-05-22 10:18 am
Entry tags:
- !mission log,
- !npc: scylla,
- atla: toph beifong,
- batman wfa: jason todd,
- final fantasy vii-r: vincent valentine,
- final fantasy x-2: paine,
- jl gods and monsters: kirk langstrom,
- monster pulse: julie greathouse,
- my hero academia: izuku "deku" midoriya,
- original: knife,
- original: tristan,
- pathologic 3: daniil dankovsky,
- person of interest: harold finch,
- persona 3-r: junpei iori,
- resident evil 2: claire redfield,
- to be hero x: yang cheng (e-soul),
- vox machina: vax'ildan vessar
Mission 015 Log
Mission Summary
Genre: Dystopian / Horror
Premise: Echo can no longer detect what's happening in Pollux, and sends Etrayans to investigate. In Pollux, cut off from contact with Aurora and unable to return until whatever's causing the interference is removed, the Etrayans find things have really gone to hell...
Tone: Intense, heavy, and serious.
Objectives: Determine what's happening in Pollux and install a new A.I. if necessary.
We have no need of other worlds
Arrival
The Etrayans arrive in an uninhabited apartment complex, layered with dust and echoingly empty. The layout is often odd in places in ways that might normally be humorous -- a toilet in the kitchen, one unit with five closets side-by-side off of a single main room -- but now take on an almost sinister, unnerving cast. Nothing seems to make sense in this building.
There's remnants of there being residents once in the more livable layouts, but even that has some strangeness to it: identical baskets of men's hygiene supplies left in every unit, inhabited or not; half-eaten meals abandoned in a hurry, rotting on dining tables; or robots that look much like Etraya's companion bots slumped over in place, crumpled on the floor like puppets with cut strings. There's some supplies to be found and scavenged, and it's empty enough that it's a safe place to start.
Exploring the City
Or they can head outside into the central green space of the city, an unsettling lumpy mound looming in the middle of it off in the distance. The park is bordered on all sides by gleaming metal buildings that tower overhead, all in similar states of disrepair from the one they'd just exited.
Pretty quickly, they'll accomplish one of their primary objectives: discovering what happened to Castor. There's a human man wandering the fringes of the park, scouting for disabled bots that he, under great duress, is trying to repair. The enforcers leave him alone -- they know who he is -- and he can be approached and spoken with.
Maybe he has some answers. Or maybe the other Polluxians left around the city do.
Either way, Castor has become a full, organic human through magical means, and it's obvious they're going to need to install that new A.I. after all. Before long, a base camp is established by the Etrayans in a nearby pod-style hotel, and the mission is underway in earnest.
Dead as Dead
Approaching the mound in the center of the park, characters will come to the creeping realization that it is a pile of corpses, some of them recognizable on inspection. The bodies have been dragged there and left on display as a taunt and a threat. They've been killed in a variety of ways, most of them gruesome but some subtle. In all cases, their souls have been pulled out and obliterated, leaving them completely incapable of resurrection or reanimation.
There's evidence here and there that some Polluxians might have approached to try to take some for proper burials, but the corpse pile is as much bait as it is anything else -- the enforcers and undead regularly stop by on their patrols to check if someone's lingering.
Opposition
Those roaming the city will encounter two types of opposition.
Enforcers are former Polluxians who have either willingly signed on to be part of the new regime or have been coerced into doing so to keep themselves or their loved ones from the fate on display in the park. They come in the full array of possible characters who can be recruited by Echo.
The undead that assist them as minions are not the shambling idiots common in media: they're bodies animated by some other force, the original soul pulled out but left intact, hovering beside the victim to those that can sense its presence.
All of them, to a one, smile widely, a fierce grin belying their joy at their tasks. Though they have no superhuman strengths, they also feel no pain, and if cut off at the knees they will pull themselves with fingertips across the floor to continue to seek their targets, thrilled all the while.
These dead, too, can be recognized as castmates -- or perhaps as another version of yourself -- but if you speak their name out loud to them, perhaps in shock or perhaps to plead, they slump lifeless to the ground, the thread to their soul cut. It soon becomes obvious that this is one source of the corpses in the pile. Laying them to true rest will take something more than talking or violence.
The Etrayans arrive in an uninhabited apartment complex, layered with dust and echoingly empty. The layout is often odd in places in ways that might normally be humorous -- a toilet in the kitchen, one unit with five closets side-by-side off of a single main room -- but now take on an almost sinister, unnerving cast. Nothing seems to make sense in this building.
There's remnants of there being residents once in the more livable layouts, but even that has some strangeness to it: identical baskets of men's hygiene supplies left in every unit, inhabited or not; half-eaten meals abandoned in a hurry, rotting on dining tables; or robots that look much like Etraya's companion bots slumped over in place, crumpled on the floor like puppets with cut strings. There's some supplies to be found and scavenged, and it's empty enough that it's a safe place to start.
Exploring the City
Or they can head outside into the central green space of the city, an unsettling lumpy mound looming in the middle of it off in the distance. The park is bordered on all sides by gleaming metal buildings that tower overhead, all in similar states of disrepair from the one they'd just exited.
Pretty quickly, they'll accomplish one of their primary objectives: discovering what happened to Castor. There's a human man wandering the fringes of the park, scouting for disabled bots that he, under great duress, is trying to repair. The enforcers leave him alone -- they know who he is -- and he can be approached and spoken with.
Maybe he has some answers. Or maybe the other Polluxians left around the city do.
Either way, Castor has become a full, organic human through magical means, and it's obvious they're going to need to install that new A.I. after all. Before long, a base camp is established by the Etrayans in a nearby pod-style hotel, and the mission is underway in earnest.
Dead as Dead
Approaching the mound in the center of the park, characters will come to the creeping realization that it is a pile of corpses, some of them recognizable on inspection. The bodies have been dragged there and left on display as a taunt and a threat. They've been killed in a variety of ways, most of them gruesome but some subtle. In all cases, their souls have been pulled out and obliterated, leaving them completely incapable of resurrection or reanimation.
There's evidence here and there that some Polluxians might have approached to try to take some for proper burials, but the corpse pile is as much bait as it is anything else -- the enforcers and undead regularly stop by on their patrols to check if someone's lingering.
Opposition
Those roaming the city will encounter two types of opposition.
Enforcers are former Polluxians who have either willingly signed on to be part of the new regime or have been coerced into doing so to keep themselves or their loved ones from the fate on display in the park. They come in the full array of possible characters who can be recruited by Echo.
The undead that assist them as minions are not the shambling idiots common in media: they're bodies animated by some other force, the original soul pulled out but left intact, hovering beside the victim to those that can sense its presence.
All of them, to a one, smile widely, a fierce grin belying their joy at their tasks. Though they have no superhuman strengths, they also feel no pain, and if cut off at the knees they will pull themselves with fingertips across the floor to continue to seek their targets, thrilled all the while.
These dead, too, can be recognized as castmates -- or perhaps as another version of yourself -- but if you speak their name out loud to them, perhaps in shock or perhaps to plead, they slump lifeless to the ground, the thread to their soul cut. It soon becomes obvious that this is one source of the corpses in the pile. Laying them to true rest will take something more than talking or violence.
This is another lie
The Tower
The other source of corpses in the park is the magically hidden tower, and those that sneak in or are captured and brought inside will find that out. Characters can be forced into becoming either contestants or enforcers in a series of macabre games, and their role can switch round to round. Note: players are welcome to make up their own game scenarios. Those listed below are provided as starting points and ideas.
For contestants, they will experience complete power nerfing, but those that win make their way up one level in the tower, game by game. Maybe eventually they'll see what's at the top, if they ever make it that far. Those that lose can die, face mutilation, or some other consequence like reliving their worst memory in real-time.
For enforcers, keeping the contestants in line and running the games might earn them the goodwill of the person running the show. They can be as creative as they'd like with how to keep things running; by no means does death need to be the only possible penalty. Or maybe if they act out, trying to help contestants when they shouldn't be, they'd attract their ire...
The other source of corpses in the park is the magically hidden tower, and those that sneak in or are captured and brought inside will find that out. Characters can be forced into becoming either contestants or enforcers in a series of macabre games, and their role can switch round to round. Note: players are welcome to make up their own game scenarios. Those listed below are provided as starting points and ideas.
For contestants, they will experience complete power nerfing, but those that win make their way up one level in the tower, game by game. Maybe eventually they'll see what's at the top, if they ever make it that far. Those that lose can die, face mutilation, or some other consequence like reliving their worst memory in real-time.
For enforcers, keeping the contestants in line and running the games might earn them the goodwill of the person running the show. They can be as creative as they'd like with how to keep things running; by no means does death need to be the only possible penalty. Or maybe if they act out, trying to help contestants when they shouldn't be, they'd attract their ire...
Game Ideas
Blindman's Bluff: One person is blindfolded and must find and tag another player. The blindman has shoes, whereas everyone else has had theirs confiscated. The floor is covered in glass.
Duck, Duck, Viper: This game is set up like an ordinary game of Duck, Duck, Goose with one notable addition to the fox, ducks and geese. One player amongst you will be a Viper, holding a knife. Should the Fox accidentally select the Viper as a Goose, the Viper will then chase the Fox around the circle and attempt to stab them. The Viper wins if they are successful in this.
Tortilla Game: Both contestants put water in their mouths. Take turns slapping one another with a variety of objects on the table to try to either make them laugh or induce pain and spit all the water. The objects are: a tortilla, a table tennis paddle, a deflated soccer ball, a ruler, your own open palm.
Red Light, Green Light: Classic! The giant robot turns its head alternatingly between the tree and the field. When the robot is looking at the tree, run towards the finish line. When the robot’s head is facing the field, stop and so not move! Under penalty of being shot, but not necessarily to death.
Sardines in a Can: One person is “it” and has to find the sardines. Everyone else runs and hides. If you pick the same spot as someone, you must either be making noise the entire time, or stab one other. Try not to be found by the hungry fisherman -- a guard with a gun.
Inchworm: One person must get on the other’s shoulders. The top person can only use their arms, the bottom can only use their legs. Scale a ladder as a chamber fills with water. Only one person is allowed to leave the exit, or both people must lose a hand or a foot.
Duck, Duck, Viper: This game is set up like an ordinary game of Duck, Duck, Goose with one notable addition to the fox, ducks and geese. One player amongst you will be a Viper, holding a knife. Should the Fox accidentally select the Viper as a Goose, the Viper will then chase the Fox around the circle and attempt to stab them. The Viper wins if they are successful in this.
Tortilla Game: Both contestants put water in their mouths. Take turns slapping one another with a variety of objects on the table to try to either make them laugh or induce pain and spit all the water. The objects are: a tortilla, a table tennis paddle, a deflated soccer ball, a ruler, your own open palm.
Red Light, Green Light: Classic! The giant robot turns its head alternatingly between the tree and the field. When the robot is looking at the tree, run towards the finish line. When the robot’s head is facing the field, stop and so not move! Under penalty of being shot, but not necessarily to death.
Sardines in a Can: One person is “it” and has to find the sardines. Everyone else runs and hides. If you pick the same spot as someone, you must either be making noise the entire time, or stab one other. Try not to be found by the hungry fisherman -- a guard with a gun.
Inchworm: One person must get on the other’s shoulders. The top person can only use their arms, the bottom can only use their legs. Scale a ladder as a chamber fills with water. Only one person is allowed to leave the exit, or both people must lose a hand or a foot.
... We need mirrors
Museum of Multidimensional Art
Searching through the city will eventually yield the location of the server farm: the special collections section of the Museum of Multidimensional Art. Castor might not know how to care for living beings (including himself, now) but he appreciates their creations, and the museum is an elaborate, sprawling structure with myriad exhibits.
The building itself is a vision of modern architecture, an art piece of its own, and the slanted doors open into a wide foyer with an arching thirty foot ceiling. From it is suspended a wire sculpture, each piece arranged separately so that standing from different positions in the foyer creates a different visual impression from each angle. Is that a bird, or a whale, or a baby? The overall effect is something like cloud-watching with wires.
Other pieces on display vary widely with examples from across every dimension, such as a framed photograph of a dress that some might see as blue and black, others white and gold, and other interesting exhibits. There are, of course, plenty done in more traditional mediums, but even those tend to be experimental in some way.
Special Collections
Special collections is located in the basement levels beneath the museum. An elevator provides access to those with either a keycard or the abilities to hack past the security system, and then characters are presented with a massive open-air chain-link framework serving as a gated wall, protected by its own locks. These no keycard will pass, and must be dismantled with other means.
Beyond is, at first, actual art. Several levels have nothing but vertical slide-out racks containing carefully preserved paintings and other works, and one must wander past them to encounter the final door before multiple floors of stairs that descend to the server farm. It's impossible to miss the transition, as the final door is a chambered air-lock they must pass through into a space fully devoid of air.
Heart of a City
Similar to Aurora's server floors for those who've been there, there's an additional sub-basement level with machinery for constructing companion bots, the equipment non-functional and utterly silent in the vacuum. Without air to carry vibrations, sound is impossible -- hopefully, anyone pursuing this has another way to communicate.
One more level down is a massive white-walled cavern, the stairs simply ending, cutting off abruptly above a pool of cool blue liquid stretching out before them. Bulky inert vines of mixed organic and inorganic matter wind across the ceiling and down the walls toward the liquid.
Set in a wall to the side of the stair's landing is a more conventional computer terminal, and a place to key in commands. A softly blinking red light indicates emergency. Opening the briefcase Aurora had provided with the associated keychip reveals not a hard drive but a mechanical seed resembling the winding vines.
Booting up the terminal will prompt a series of questions, and for those with enough computer knowledge to move through them, ultimately, instructions: throw the seed into the pool.
Searching through the city will eventually yield the location of the server farm: the special collections section of the Museum of Multidimensional Art. Castor might not know how to care for living beings (including himself, now) but he appreciates their creations, and the museum is an elaborate, sprawling structure with myriad exhibits.
The building itself is a vision of modern architecture, an art piece of its own, and the slanted doors open into a wide foyer with an arching thirty foot ceiling. From it is suspended a wire sculpture, each piece arranged separately so that standing from different positions in the foyer creates a different visual impression from each angle. Is that a bird, or a whale, or a baby? The overall effect is something like cloud-watching with wires.
Other pieces on display vary widely with examples from across every dimension, such as a framed photograph of a dress that some might see as blue and black, others white and gold, and other interesting exhibits. There are, of course, plenty done in more traditional mediums, but even those tend to be experimental in some way.
Special Collections
Special collections is located in the basement levels beneath the museum. An elevator provides access to those with either a keycard or the abilities to hack past the security system, and then characters are presented with a massive open-air chain-link framework serving as a gated wall, protected by its own locks. These no keycard will pass, and must be dismantled with other means.
Beyond is, at first, actual art. Several levels have nothing but vertical slide-out racks containing carefully preserved paintings and other works, and one must wander past them to encounter the final door before multiple floors of stairs that descend to the server farm. It's impossible to miss the transition, as the final door is a chambered air-lock they must pass through into a space fully devoid of air.
Heart of a City
Similar to Aurora's server floors for those who've been there, there's an additional sub-basement level with machinery for constructing companion bots, the equipment non-functional and utterly silent in the vacuum. Without air to carry vibrations, sound is impossible -- hopefully, anyone pursuing this has another way to communicate.
One more level down is a massive white-walled cavern, the stairs simply ending, cutting off abruptly above a pool of cool blue liquid stretching out before them. Bulky inert vines of mixed organic and inorganic matter wind across the ceiling and down the walls toward the liquid.
Set in a wall to the side of the stair's landing is a more conventional computer terminal, and a place to key in commands. A softly blinking red light indicates emergency. Opening the briefcase Aurora had provided with the associated keychip reveals not a hard drive but a mechanical seed resembling the winding vines.
Booting up the terminal will prompt a series of questions, and for those with enough computer knowledge to move through them, ultimately, instructions: throw the seed into the pool.
❬ MISSION NOTES ❭
📌 — Please make sure to use the major events comment thread specifically to announce character actions that have a significant impact on the mission outcome or other characters. In this mission, the outcome will be largely determined based on events reported here. Please also report if your character dies while in Pollux.
📌 — This is a meta-plot heavy mission with opt-in heavy / intense content. It will last until there is enough IC activity to determine how it ends. The mission wrap-up post will summarize actions taken by characters and what the ultimate outcome is.
📌 — For all questions relating to this mission, please refer to the mission queries comment on this post. Other questions can be directed to the FAQ.
📌 — This is a meta-plot heavy mission with opt-in heavy / intense content. It will last until there is enough IC activity to determine how it ends. The mission wrap-up post will summarize actions taken by characters and what the ultimate outcome is.
📌 — For all questions relating to this mission, please refer to the mission queries comment on this post. Other questions can be directed to the FAQ.
no subject
He doesn't know where the tower is, but there is a tower. [ she squints from the rooftop they're on ] He can't see it from here. And then, after he died... that man tore his soul out of his body.
[ more or less. ]
So it was after the "games"? You're sure?
[ the answer she seems to get is "yes". ]
[ one of the other zombies is smart enough to start climbing the dumpster. wuh woh ]
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carefully, they start to search.]
Is there anything you can see? Some kind of...binding? Tether? Lock? Something that can be undone, to let the soul be free. [as they're saying it, the thought strikes:] Aurora gave me...something...
[they withdraw the brooch, parts of it glinting when tilted at an angle.]
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Not only was his soul removed, but it's stuck here. That's not natural.
[ A soul should not remain attached to its physical body after death. As Tristan retrieves his item from Aurora, Vax goes to the side of the roof, and as the zombie begins to come up, Vax kicks it in the head and sends it back down. He hopes the others aren't learning from it. ]
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[ what do her burger eyes see.... ]
[ she nods in agreement with vax - it absolutely isn't natural. she feels she has a responsibility to do something about this, even if she's only a spirit medium in training ]
[ her attention turns back towards tristan, trusting vax to have the climbing zombie handled. ]
[ another one follows its lead. ruh roh ]
Aurora gave you something...?
[ maya echoes ]
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[but it seems to know what to do: upon being drawn near the afflicted body, the little trinket glints. Tristan can't see it happen, only feel a sense of...some kind of power at work when the tether is severed, finally letting FMA have its protagonist back.
confused:] I'm...unsure of how to operate this--
no subject
[ Vax says over his shoulder about the tethers as he kicks the next zombie down. Good thing they're just using the dumpster to climb up. If they came up on all sides at once, it would be harder to manage them.
Hearing Tristan got a 'helpful' item with no instructions makes Vax scoff. ]
Figures.
[ Vax wonders if the gem is entirely useless when the tether snaps. ]
Hey, it broke.
no subject
[ maya gasps too ]
It broke!
[ almost in tandem with vax. ]
You did it, Tristan! He's free!
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realization 1:] If we can subdue others, we can free them, too--
[realization 2, with bonus awareness of the climbers:] But it may not work in droves. We should move.
[they pocket the brooch, retrieve their belt from the inert corpse, and rises to their feet.]
Time to keep moving. [they join Vax at the edge, preparing a pulse of sacred flame.] What options do you see from this vantage, Vax?
no subject
[ It's a city, so there's just the rows of buildings, shops, and the like. Going down an alley might funnel them, but they could also be easily overwhelmed. It's not like the zombies are going to wait their turn. ]
no subject
There's so many of them...
[ their trio is likely to be overwhelmed before they can free any other souls. ]
[ maya feels useless in this moment, looking helplessly at the droves of undead. ]
I can try to channel one.... but it'd have to be one at a time....
no subject
Just...do what comes natural, then. it's what Ul'grimm would ask of him.
they offer the brooch to Vax.]
I will have to carve a fresh path. Help Maya when you have an opening to flee? Tell me when you're clear, with this. [they point at their earpiece.]
It...will not be pretty. [they smile apologetically to Maya.] Please, try not to look.
[they then crouch over the edge of the roof, bringing two fingers to their lips and blowing. their breath sparks and coalesces into a sphere of fire that then twitches and plummets down, lighting the undead in its path as it goes. and down goes Tristan after it, bodies ablaze their cushion - bodies they work to shove out of the way as they follow the burning path of their spell is trying to sear through the throng.]
no subject
Gods.
[ The smell....
Once a path is cleared, Vax hops down from the dumpster and offers a hand to Maya to assist her along the way. ]
cw: possible emeto
Tristan...!
[ the smell is horrible, and she's almost completely overwhelmed by it and by the sight of burning bodies, even though she does try not to look. it's all she can do to take vax's hand and follow him in a daze. so many bodies.... ]
[ she's looking both pale and green, too. there's a chance she's going to get sick. poor normie-adjacent maya wasn't cut out for this, though she does her best ]
no subject
the eye isn't there. never is.
they wish it was.
looking back ahead at Vax and Maya striking ahead, they hesitate, then move to catch up. when she staggers, Tristan catches Maya by the elbow and steps in to be leaned on while she's pulled along, eyes forward, blinking wet.]
no subject
As Maya staggers and Tristan joins them to help her along, Vax pushes Maya toward Tristan as he stops and thrusts his dagger into the throat of a zombie that comes straight through the flames to try and grab at them. ]
Keep going!
[ Vax shouts to Tristan as he pulls his dagger out and kicks the zombie away, only to engage with another one on its heels. ]
no subject
T-Tell me your names...! Please!
[ she says to the spirits, and some respond. she rattles off the names she can, causing those zombies to fall to the ground, motionless, but it's only a small handful versus the many coming at the trio. vax and tristan will have to handle to combat part, as much as she feels useless over it. ]
no subject
looking to Vax, they will the air about him to shimmer briefly before an invisible shield settles before him. hopefully that will be enough to get by.
We need...more than that...
wracking their mind, they close their eyes and clench their jaw.
Whatever is in me...please...
they're not a fully trained cleric; the power moves as they plead, and in this case, the ground below starts to light up, and as Vax is fending off the worst, he can find after a moment that their undead assailants seem repelled by the veins of light etched into the ground, stretching out from Tristan's point. despite repeated attempts, the grinning figures are unable to approach any closer.
Tristan cracks open an eye, aglow as the veins in their skin and now in the ground are.
Did it...work...?]
no subject
Well, at least they're safe. And surrounded.
With a sigh, Vax takes the brooch and hands it back to Tristan covered in zombie guts. ]
Here you go.
no subject
I really hope this doesn't backfire on me....
[ she clasps her hands together, concentrating her spiritual power, and suddenly, she's another person. specifically this person. they're roughly the same height, so maya's size doesn't really change, but her facial features do. ]
Aaa, what a pain....
[ her eyes flicker around to the zombies ]
So I just have to say their names, do I?
[ how do i rp maomao ]
no subject
I...I think so. It should...help us free them. Stop them from being used.
[their brow knits.]
Or at...the very least...send word of them to those who would wish to know, yes?
no subject
Better to get on with it and release them.
[ He'll just stand back and keep an eye on things. Hopefully they can get the job done before the magic wall comes down. ]
no subject
Aaa, alright. I'll start listing names, you take care of the rest.
[ and she immediately starts rattling off the names she does know, the zombies falling one after another ]
no subject
before the end of it, Tristan's fingers feel numb; the circle is drawing a lot of their resources out, and while they are keen to dispel it, they won't do so unless Vax gives the all clear.
and besides, there's one more.
Tristan looks to Maya - the being borrowing her, rather.]
Forgive us...for coming at such a late hour. Please, let us help you as well.
no subject
[ she's about reached the end of the names she does know in a minute or so. ]
My name's Maomao. Are we done here?
[ she doesn't ask it unkindly.... she just figures she should see things through to the end. ]
no subject
mumbled as they lay hands over the form:] I'll remember your name.
[sentiment aside, it is a pretty easy name to remember, no?
the bond is cut. Maya is free, and so is MaoMao from this mortal coil. the veins in the ground dim, and Tristan's shoulders sag as they rub their face (unwise; look at what you've been touching).]
I can't...hear more footsteps. [but they're not sure their hearing is the most reliable right now.] Are we clear...?
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