WORK IN PROGRESS

VALUABLE OPPORTUNITY FOR HONOURABLE CITIZENS

Commissioner Dmitri Romov of the Imperial Commission would be grateful for citizens to assist with a matter of great importance to the Commission. As the nature of the matter may honour volunteers with exposure to some of the workings of the Commission, external volunteers will be required to give their word not to disclose anything they discover of these workings before being admitted to the Commission.

Due to the nature of this particular task, applicants who are uncomfortable with tight spaces need not apply.

• Lamentation Stingelhelm - Florence
• Alos Frond - George
• Zosime Dracona - Iain
• Hatevil Stingelhelm - JC
• Jasine - Anna
• Gaenevra - Matilda
• Tenebris - Dan

The party is enlisted under normal conditions to investigate thefts in the Commission and the disappearance of a previously dispatched team. They head down into the depths of the current Expansion efforts and are accosted by mutants. After dealing with an initial attack, mutants resembling melting flowers that try to copy the manners of the party attack, and in the melee Frond is killed. A heated argument starts as to whether it was right to attack the mutants, and how this cost Frond their life, and another follows when Hatevil insists on taking Frond's body with them. In the end, they leave the body behind to be hopefully picked up by other Commissioners.

They head into the dark of a narrower cave system, and find a rudimentary contraption set up by Ichorwerkers to shift a rockslide. Bothered by bothersome mutants who had no intention of being helpful, Gaenevra starts working out the mathematics of the situation but Frond “solves” the problem in a rather Gordian fashion by guiding themselves a mutation of strength and just shifting the rocks.

Further into the caves, they find themselves in Connection and greeted by a powerful Denizen called Fascination. Fascination and their court explain that they're fascinated by the mutants copying people down here and propose a test: they have found a mutant copying the forms of the original expedition and want to see if the party can tell them apart. Gaenevra divines their essential nature and determines which is which, so they save the real one. The Ichor-Mutant copy is killed by Fascination who moves on.

A short fight with some Curious Critters, and some emergency surgery on Zosime later, they find themselves given another challenge by Fascination - a similar puzzle but with preventative measures to prevent them divining the essential nature. Also a DOOM CLOCK to encourage them. They fight through Fascination's encouragement and Lamentation mutates the clock into water to gain more time, and Gaenevra uses a Moment's Clarity to allow them to think. They decide, since the subject this time is a Conflict Weaver, that the more passive Conflict Weaver must be the double, and pick the more aggressive one. The one they didn't pick is killed, and they realise they chose incorrectly. While the party come to terms with what acting on their stereotypes of Conflict Weavers meant, Tenebris, Lamentation and Jasine contemplate the water clock which is still ticking. Tenebris takes a sample of ticking clock.

More melted flowers are found growing in the caves, and eventually they come across a number of large melted flower mutants having lunch around a large pile of supplies. Over lunch, the mutants take on more and more of the party's forms, until when all 14 of them get up to leave, nobody is sure which is real and which is not. A confused battle occurs with some moles, and in the end only 3 mutant clones survive: Tenebris's and Frond's (which run off to meet up later), and Gaenevra's, with which she performs a ritual to commit it to Perfection, where it becomes a minor Denizen called e^(πi) + 1 = 0…

With still two more members of the original expedition to find, they plough on and find Fascination with another puzzle, except they seem to have mucked this one up and found 9 clones of the same person. Fascination just lets them have at each other, and the party wake up after being bested surrounded by more Mutant Flowers that are impersonating Fascination. The flowers tell them that the source of their problem is ahead, and that after they deal with what they've come down here for (the thefts), that they want one more chance to find out what they want.

The party are confronted by an Ichor mutant claiming to be the Mystikos of the Imperial Commission. They fight it and its minions, but in the fight, a curious Tenebris is pulled into a large puddle of Black Ichor that the “Mystikos” has been celebrating and is submerged. Gaenevra tries to pull him out, but the Ichor pulls with a lot of force. The “Mystikos” itself is kited into the Black Ichor pool, and pushes Tenebris down further and out of the sight of the party. With the being dead, the Commissioners note that this all seems to be caused by a leaky pipe a long way up…

Fascination shows up one more time with their hardest puzzle - two people who are indistinguishable to their eyes, and it transpires to the party's. Instead of picking one, Lamentation turns the glass to water and the pair make their escape. Frond cuts a deal with Fascination to let them go, and reluctantly the court of Fascination departs, leaving them to head back home.