Fabula Ultima 5 - An Unexpected Finale

Two months late to recapping the final session, baby!  Let's do it.  

The party arrived at the docks of Yuventus after working their way here as members of a shipping crew.  A pirate attack put them on hold for a bit, but otherwise the trip went well.  From Yuventus, they had to make their way through the city to get to a different dock that flew west, towards Thorton, and Rei's adoptive home.  

Upon disembarking from the freighter, they heard a crier, calling for people marked with strange symbols to take part in a study at the magic Institution, and be handsomely compensated for it.  They were offering north of 1,000 zenit per participant.  The party, skeptical of this, and feeling like they were on a time crunch, slipped out without engaging.  

Using his knowledge of the city, Max found a roundabout way for them to avoid the most populated streets, but more importantly, he wanted to check in on the other abandoned children here.  Ostracized himself for not knowing magic, he found family among the other children the city had left to die.  He arrived at one of their normal meeting places, only to find a couple missing, but the excited voices of the remaining children greeted him.  He was told that Silas and Penny got some funny zappy marks and were going to make some money for them all at the Institute.  Max, immediately on alert, shifted his priority to making sure those kids were safe.

They made their way directly towards the Institute, walking through the brightly lit streets, magical signs advertising various stores, as the streets glittered with each footfall.  They arrived at the front of a sprawling campus, high gleaming walls made of magical resistant alloys and fairly mundane looking doors greeted them.  They were accosted upon arrival at the campus until they indicated that they were here for the study, which then the researcher that greeted them helped guide them where they needed to go.

A brief interview process, and the party was assigned to a classroom, along with other Bollared, the term used to denote those marked by the magical Nexus in the world.  In their room, they were met by a few people.  First, was Penny, who greeted Max in a panic, saying that she got separated from Silas.  As Quentus took he seat, he took notice of another man, fairly well dressed with a peculiur belt that he immediately clocked as a mimic... Well, his ring clocked it as it made little movements of recognition. This was Erasmus Sixwillow, a self-important man from Metizzare.  Both he and Penny seemed to bear the mark of the bolt, while the final person in the room was familiar to Rei, if not in name, but in garb.  This was someone from Waystone, particularly the Brightstrider clan, of those who are attuned to the Light element, a step above the Levinstrike in terms of hierarchy but actually has representatives in the government.  She didn't know exactly who Rei was, but identified herself as Frei Brightstrider, who bore a mark of Darkness.  

After the initial discussions, a member of the Institute entered and started calling individuals out for specific testing.  Erasmus was the first called, and he went out to another room across the hall, but never came out.  Next was Frei, and after she didn't return, the party made decision to check that room out.  Rei and Quentus snuck out and peered into the mysterious room.  It had a slightly raised platform of white stone, but not much else was in here.  A quick Ritual led by Quentus to enhance his senses helped him hear voice below this room, giving the party further sense of dread once they relayed this.  
With their goal of getting to the basement set, the party caused a bit of a ruckus to try to draw some staff, so they could try to grab a key to the basement.  What they got was a little more than they bargained for, as two Security mages, as well as two Magic Containment Bots were deployed.  These hovering thick disk-shaped robots had two small arms protruding, and were designed to be resistant to Bolt, as they were designed to deal with the high volume of Bolt Bollared in the area, due to the proximity to the Bolt nexus.  

This fight lasted awhile (Six rounds to be precise), but one major thing that happened was that one of the Battlemages goofed, and got his security key for the building knocked off, which the party was able to recover.  The fight took awhile because of some bad dice luck, only 3 of the 4 party members dealing damage, and Rei shooting Bolt into Bolt resistant enemies, and not even using the spell that bypasses Resistances.  

Upon arrival to the basement, they found several people trapped in holding cells, including Erasmus, Frei, and but no Silas.  The party broke them out of their cells, but in doing so, their eyes were drawn to something very wrong.  On the far end of the room, a holding cell had been blown outwards, sending debris onto the hard stone floor.  Their eyes followed the path of the shrapnel and soon were met with a smear of blood, the lifeless body of a researcher, and a giant hole blasted into a reinforced door that led deeper below ground.  

We cut to a scene where we see what caused this scene... A mess of 3 Bollared had fused together after having adverse reactions to their marks.  This amalgamate was seen lumbering down a dimly lit hallway with sporadic cells filled with people who seemed to be having stronger reactions to their marks.  One of the cells held a small, very scared boy named Silas in it.  

And that's where we left off.

Not great!

So also in the classroom I failed to mention that the different marked people shared a bit about a hazy vision they saw shortly after receiving their marks.  I had written one up for every different mark because I rolled from a list to determine who was in the class with them.  The child and Erasmus with the Bolt mark had a vision of the large central island breaking up, and then the other islands fragmenting more.  Frei saw a vision of magical energy being siphoned out of Yuventus and feeding into something well below the clouds.  The party's vision was about each of the nexus flashing before their eyes, before showing them something being pulled up into the bottom of the islands.

I wish my party used Study more, or thought about other options than their very basic ones.  I try to use the Objective action and Hinder action myself to show how annoying and useful they can be, but the party never took.  I thought bolt resistance bots in an area this close to a nexus of Bolt energy was a smart call, but it ended up shutting Rei down hard, but it didn't have to.  They had the spell that ignores resistances, they have Elemental Weapon, they had a different gun that did Physical damage.  But they shot into resistances with their bolt gun, and their bolt spell, even after the first time. 

I'm bummed that the game is over.  Real life just Real Life'd all over the game.  I was enjoying it a lot, and it's a blast to run.  I want to play Fabula Ultima as well, don't get me wrong.  I have loads of characters I'd be excited to play.