The D20 purrs greedily, sucking down the last of its diesel as you pour into the rundown streets of Phandalin. Holographic billboards compete with the rising sun for who can be the brightest. Thanks to the smog, the billboards win.

The town consists of forty simple rusted stain-less steel buildings (yes, rusted stain-less steel). More old ruins—crumbling cinderblock walls covered in ivy and briars—surround the newer houses and shops, showing how this must have been a much larger town in centuries past. Most of the newer buildings are set on the sides of the broken asphalt main street as it climbs toward a hillside at the east side of town. At the top of this hill, overlooking the town, is a magnificent mansion surrounded by construction equipment.

As you approach, you see children playing on their gameboys on the town green and townsfolk tending to chores or running errands at shops. Many people look up as you approach, but all return to their phones as you go by.

(see town details for notable locations you can visit.)

"Lovely place.  Might consider retiring here one day."  He barely keeps a straight face while saying this, but his expression quickly turns very serious.  "They got a coffee joint, maybe?  Starting to get the jitters."

Staring wild eyed at the ruins of mining machines that could move mountains, Roxy's mouth keeps moving as if she's singing something, but you hear nothing.

Dan's question snaps her out of the daze, "I need a coffee so bad." She agrees, pulling up Acquisitions Inc. Map app in a hologram (minor illusion) for everyone to see. The pin points suggest Stonehill Inn or Shrine of Luck as the highest rated breakfast venues, though some of the gas/tesla stations have good reviews as well.

"fuck me. No Starbucks? This town really ain't civilized."

(That's my town. No starbucks for 30 miles: good riddance)

"Let's get the goods unloaded and then get a move on. This isn't a social visit."

Ember puffed from a thin, violet-colored cigarette that she held in her left hand. She stared at the bleak model of literal urban decay. “Ugh. Yet another city gone to shit in the last hundred years.” With an insouciant sigh, she snuffed out her cigarette and put the leftover back in a glossy pack. “I’m with Bat-Man. I would really rather not spend any longer in this depressing shit-hole than I have to.”

She walked over toward Daniel. Sidling up beside their ersatz combat medic, she said, “Coffee would be lovely, but maybe we could score you some ‘Cleric’s Confession’ instead? That would come in handy right before our inevitable smackdown in yonder castle.” Yes, she said ‘yonder’ ironically.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:08, Mon 16 Aug 2021.

Daniel arched an eyebrow.  "Not my jam, sorry.  Besides, already got my addiction of choice... which actually might be harder to find around here than Confession, judging by the looks of this place.  Seen one too many people tweaking out on that crap to want to join the zombie horde."

He surveyed the streets, keeping an eye out for anything else that might want their cargo.  "Yeah, let's dump this stuff and bail."

Ember shrugged. “Your loss. If it comes down to ‘Life or Death’, Cleric’s Confession will help you more than a cup of coffee.”

You beeline it to Barthen's Provisions, which you soon realize is a not too secret front for the Knights of Dren's campaign to find the Lost Minds of Phandelver.

Bar-4-Dren is a big samoan dude with chrome gold tribal tattoos and an unbuttoned pink hawaiian shirt. He gets you to park the D20 hummer behind the store and his two sons, who are bigger than him, begin unloading the military grade cases. Once everything is inside, Bar4 closes the warehouse door and begins the opening ceremony.

Action Figures.

Gun-5-Dren with an electric guitar.

"Love 'im or hate 'im, you still gotta admit, Gun's got style." Bar4 confesses as he begins scanning the boxed toys with some doppler. "Thas a Bingo!"

He picks up a box and rips it open, taped to the ass of the action figure is a microchip the side of Ember's longest eyelash. "That's how you say it right? Thas a bingo???"

Sildra-unimpressed: "Actually you just say bingo."

Bar: "Bingo."

He moves over to his computer and plugs the chip in. "Fukkin bingo!!!!!" The chip is a map. The map to Wave Echo.

Bar: "You guys remember this stuff or do you need me to do the prologue for you again?"

"Nah, I remember. We still need to go rescue Gun, so unless there are other things going on here that we need to be made aware of before we head back out to find him, we should get loaded back up and on our way."

Hayes whistled appreciatively.  "Man, that would've been a helluva Christmas present if some kid got that one," he said, marveling at the sheer audacity of hiding things on toys.  "Yeah, Jarod's right.  Now that we've Santa'd this Claus, let's go get the big man outta lockdown.  With any luck he'll still have everything attached."

He glanced over to Sildra.  "No offense."

Yvonne had been more or less along for the ride, keeping her eyes open for some other threat, or problem to solve.  When they arrived more or less peacefully she helped move boxes, easily as effective as any of the much larger men at doing so.  Only when the suggestion that they rush back out without addressing the elephant in the room happens does she speak up.  ”We need to get these augment chips fixed before we go.”

Sildra rolls her eyes at Daniel but the hint of a smile is there in the corner of her lips. She’s been screwed royally, but she’s tougher than the 12 steps of grief and has settled on indifference.

“the anteris alliance has no presence in Phandalin, but another agent named Iarno Albrek was supposed to meet me here.”

she is scanning the Acquisitions Inc website for prosthetic legs. “ill be here for two more days it seems they dont have 2 hour delivery here. Bar i expect you can do the honors when these arrive?”

“yes of course milady. in the meantime…”

Bar taps a few buttons and a yellow professor X hoverchair floats into the warehouse.

he slaps his belly and smiles. “i used to be really fat.”

“now lets take a look at these mods shall we???”

you can choose to or not to roll for adding the +1 stat

the arcana dc is now 15 for overriding loyalty to Klarg.

if you fail this check the only downside is role play wise, there is no bad stat effect.

Jarod was happy to hand the mod over to someone more skilled at such things. Though he was not particularly old himself, his choices in technology certainly were, and for good reason. He didn't know how any of that shit worked, and the more he tried, the more he wanted to smash someone's face in for making him feel like he needed to.

I'm rocking a -1 Arcana, I'm not touching that mod myself

Bar4 gets Ember hooked up with the mod, and she feels quite confident that she will be able to bend Klarg's will to her own. For some reason she keeps thinking of Klarg, but they are happy thoughts, so she continues on.

Ember you get the +1. Great roll.

18:31, Today: Jarod Negan rolled 7 using 1d20-1.  Fine, screw it.

"Hail the hobgoblin king, bitches."

“Yeah. Hail the Hobgoblin King. Cheesy Poofs for all. Yay.”

It can't just be the cheese puffs. Daniel begins to think that Klarg might make a good mayor for Phandalin. This town has seen better days. If Klarg can make a sewer cozy, imagine what he could do to this place!!!

Speaking of the mayor...

"Hello???" A voice calls out from the front of Barthen's.

Bar4: "Shit. It's Wester, the mayor...I'll go stall him, you guys hide this stuff."

Roxy begins tossing the action figures back into the boxes.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:01, Mon 26 July 2021.

17:20, Today: Jarod Negan rolled 15 using 1d20-1.  Perception.

Jarod looked for a decent place to hide the figures, and then started moving the ones that were in plain sight to that location. Worst case, traumatic head injuries sometimes resulted in temporary memory loss. So he'd heard.

You get the toys successfully back into their large military grade crates.

"No you idiot. I'm quite sure he was talking about this computer set up. Quick!" She points out the tarps to cover up the matrix servers and what not. "But as an officer of the Anteris Alliance I'm going to go introduce myself to the mayor. Feel free to join me."

She drives her new hover chair into the front office.

“Talk to authority figures who might throw us down a pit. Sounds fun,” Ember said, as she tailed Sildra.