Into the Undersea (Adventurers)
Into the Undersea is an Adventurers supergroup storyline commencing July 5, 2020. This page will carry useful information for the team as a reference.
Contents
Objectives
Primary
- Locate a way to reach the Nereids (fish people) who live in the Undersea below Cretoa
- Prevent a war with the surface
Secondary
- Ascertain the fate of Princess Taina
- Use non-lethal force against the Nereids as necessary
- Find someone who can interpret Ancient Greek (of which the Nereids speak a slight dialectic variant)
Discoveries
Cave Art
Exploring the caverns below Cretoa has allowed Adventurers to discover ancient wall art.
Events of this RP
Daily Logs
Day 0
The team arrives off Cretoa's western coast, and park the yacht within the Epena Bay.
Hasizet, Night Star, and Red Spider take a boat to land. Red Spider immediately departs and heads toward Epa, on the east coast, to search for Fantasma. Hasizet and Night Star enter the city; Star has to subdue a civilian who spots Hasizet. They make their way to the legislature, which is closed at that late hour. They check out the palace, a locality seeming to be on high alert. Following that, Night Star and Hasizet make their way back to the boat. Red Spider has not returned yet, so they head to the yacht. Night Star successfully contacts Red Spider using the yacht's comm array; though broken by static, Red Spider reports she's on mission and doing fine.
Day 1
Early Hours
After midnight Red Spider arrives at the home of Alethea Eliopoulou, AKA, Fantasma. It takes some doing, but Red Spider earns Alethea's trust and makes the offer: help save Cretoa, and have a chance at restoring her reputation. Alethea decides to sleep on it, and Red Spider takes some rest.
Morning
Fantasma takes Red Spider's offer, and in disguise, they start driving west.
The yacht is rocked by a mild earthquake affecting the region near Zappatos. Night Star and Catfight rouse the team from sleep, and once in contact with Red Spider, gets them all into action.
Doormaker, Fox, and Catfight go to redezvous with Red Spider and Fantasma at a cavern mouth.
Afternoon
Red Spider, Doormaker, Fox, Catfight, and Fantasma spend the afternoon spelunking, and manage to ambush a drone - one of Twilight's! A successful ray gun burst from Doormaker renders the thing inoperative. Doormaker uses a 'door' to haul the drone back to the yacht for analysis - is the drone a leftover from last year, or is Twilight's original (non-Nadia, non-Cass) pilot back in action?
Hasizet and Stinger go searching for underwater cavern accesses! What they find instead is the dead body of a fish person, who has apparently been killed by some kind of bladed weapon and left amongst the kelp. They haul the body back to the yacht to examine, and find it has a respirator device around its neck - a fancy piece of technology, not at all like their otherwise naturally-fashioned attire.
Blue Fox, Rubber Bullette, and Sombra head into Zappatos in costume, carefully moving from cover to cover in broad daylight until they have a safe spot in sight of the palace. Sombra uses her power to get them inside, while Blue Fox uses his detection powers to help them avoid danger. She brings them to Pieter Manellas. Manellas freely answers their questions about the state of Princess Taina, his knowledge of the fish people (which is limited) his views on Cretoa's new ally Lord Aurum, and how to get into the caverns. They depart via the broken vitanium extractor under the palace, entering the caverns.
Evening
Fox is separated from Red Spider and Catfight by a cave-in. Though he wasn't harmed, he has difficulty finding a way back to them. He will wander alone for a while.
Day 2
Morning
Blue Fox and Night Star examine the Nereid corpse brought aboard by Stinger and Hasizet the previous evening. Blue Fox speculates that maybe it was killed by another fish person, but the wounds don't seem consistent with a fish person spear Sombra brought back from the caverns. The wounds were caused by some kind of hooked or curved implement. Blue Fox also hacks the Twilight drone, and learns:
- It has killed 7 Nereids
- It has a device specifically meant to lure Nereids with pheromones
- Data on Twilight's last known position
- An access point to the Undersea within the cavern system
- An access point to the cavern system from the surface
Red Spider, Catfight, and Fantasma wake up after camping, and head on their way. They find a vitanium pool, and Red and Catfight take samples. Carrying on, they later find an injured Nereid, and followed it back to an Undersea access pool, where it thanked them in its language, and then dove in.
Afternoon
Red Spider, Catfight, and Fantasma decide to try to find a way back to the surface.
Sarah Ellison visits the Minister of Trade for Cretoa to talk about a hotel proposal, and try to get any info about the Cretoan government's response to the emergency that she can. The Minister prefers to pretend that all is well in hand.
Evening
Red Spider and Catfight part ways with Fantasma, who will return to her own home to rest in preparation for further adventures. The two heroes return to the yacht to share intel with the rest of the team.
Night Star, Rubber Bullette, Sombra, and Blue Fox head into the caverns to explore. They come upon a duel between Arakhne, a vaguely spider-themed hero with a sword, and Princess Grissh, a Nereid who wields a spear. Arakhne is defeated, but Sombra intercedes and eventually uses her favor as the 'kind one' to cause the Princess to relent and release Arakhne to Sombra - with a warning that next time, Araknhe will not be spared. Princess Grissh and her entourage depart that cavern.
After, Arakhne is able to elucidate much of the conflict in the caverns, and the key players. She says Lord Aurum is missing and presumed dead; the Nereids are committed to a demolition that will sink parts of Cretoa in the name of freeing the Kraken; and a mysterious other faction known as the Brotherhood of the Taur is skulking about, trying to eliminate the Nereids and anything else of the "old pantheon." Of course, there is also Twilight and her drones to contend with, though Twilight's goals are unknown.
Day 3
Morning
The team discusses yesterday's events over breakfast.
Rubber Bullette and Sombra depart the yacht to set up a hideout in the Cretoan capital city, Zappatos. Night Star decides to move the yacht to keep suspicion off of them.
Catfight departs to meet with Arakhne. They meet in a cave, and Catfight gets answers she sorely needs. Arakhne is convinced to travel to Zappatos and join the Adventurers' hideout there.
Red Spider leaves the yacht to find Fantasma and bring her to the Zappatos hideout.
Afternoon
The team discusses into the afternoon and evening its current standing. Arakhne reveals herself to be Princess Taina, and explains how she obtained super-powers from vitanium cast-offs, with Lord Aurum's expertise. She wanted to entered caverns with super-powers so that she could be of more help. She and Lord Aurum battled a large group of Nereids, but only she escaped. She fears Lord Aurum has died. She spent weeks trying to engage Princess Grissh, being aware through Lord Aurum's surveillance that the princess was essential to the Nereid demolition method, somehow.
The team resolves to go after Twilight. Stinger builds makeshift drones to scout the caverns.
Evening
Sombra and Rubber Bullette go diving around Cretoa's coast. Most notably, they locate an old statue of Isis and spend time cleaning off the sea flora growing on it. They then deploy a drone to start looking for underwater cavern accesses.
Day 4
Early Morning
In the wee hours in Cretoa - and mid-afternoon in Millennium City - an attempt is made on Prince Alex's life, but it is thwarted by Silver Hare, with help from Wizard and Sparrow Hawk. The prince decides to return home to Millennium City on his private jet immediately -- taking Silver Hare with him as a guard.
Morning
The team reviews early data from Stinger's drones. The early picture gives the team two major pieces of information: Twilight's likely position, and at a separate location, a large gathering of Nereids in a dry cavern.
Red Spider, Stinger, Rubber Bullette, Blue Fox, and Hasizet begin an expedition with the goal of confronting Twilight.
Afternoon
Twilight is found by the team where they expected to see her. They first have to defeat a large battle exosuit of hers. Once Twilight is forced to abandon the battle suit, a tense standoff ends with her being persuaded to surrender. On the way back to the surface, she answers many questions, informing the team that:
- Her real name is Orina Igorievna Ilyushkina.
- She was hired anonymously and paid a significant advance.
- Her contract was due to end in four days, at which time she could withdraw.
- Her targets to hunt and kill were Princess Taina (Arakhne), Lord Aurum, and any Nereids.
Elsewhere in the caverns, Fantasma, Sombra, and Catfight examine the site of a battle where there is blood, scorches, signs of slicing, and mysterious gold glitter around. Further on, Fantasma and Sombra try to treat with Princess Grissh at a demolition site, while Catfight looks on from above. Grissh reveals that:
- Lord Aurum is to die, if the Nereids can find him; he used to be a friend, but she euphemtistically suggests he may have killed Nereids - her exact meaning us unclear
- She regards the demolition is a 'holy monument' to 'peace'
- The Nereids are untroubled by the kraken being free once again
- The breathing apparatuses were given to the Nereids by the 'Golden Man'
- Sombra has used up her favors with the Nereids
Someone sneaks up on Catfight and tries to attack her with golden dust; it fails, but her coughing fit gives up her position. The Nereids suspect a ruse, and immediately apprehend Fantasma and Sombra. The Nereids try to use their naturally-produced resin to bind the two to the demolition wall. Fantasma's tear gas bombs gives the two a fighting chance to break free. Meanwhile, Catfight is surrounded by Nereids and manages to hold a number of their warriors at bay, but then she is challenged to single combat by Princess Grissh. Catfight eventually gets the upper hand and deals a mortal slashing wound to the Princess; Sombra and Fantasma break free of the resin and intervene before Catfight can deliver a death blow. Sombra stuns Catfight with some pepperspray, while Fantasma deals a heavy blow to Catfight's head. The Nereids do not intervene when Catfight wins, nor when Fantasma walks Catfight out intending to have her answer for what she had done. Sombra teleports with the princess hastily through the tunnels with a mind to getting her to the surface; she comes upon a vitanium pool, and sets the princess in it.
Upon returning to the Zappatos hideout, Red Spider meets Silver Hare and offers her to join the team.
Evening
Catfight returns to the hideout and has to explain her actions to the others. Fantasma returns to the palace to report on developments. Stinger tries to console Catfight. Blue Fox takes Silver Hare and Rubber Bullette to find Sombra.
Sombra and crew observe Princess Grissh awakening in the vitanium pool. Sombra gives her baton to the princess for her defense, and then heads back to the surface with the Adventurers who were looking for her.
Blue Fox and Stinger come up with a theory that Twilight could be responsible for causing Catfight's rage state, as well as the aggression that led to the Nereid masscre a year before.
Day 5
Early Morning
Catfight, Red Spider, and Night Star argue about the prvious day's developments. Catfight notes that she has some rage-state from her divine blessing that she can't stop.
Morning
Red Spider goes to the palace to discuss Catfight and other matters with Princess Taina and Fantasma. Red Spider returns and tells Catfight that she's restricted from heading into the caverns or being anywhere near peace envoys, for now.
Catfight visits Princess Taina and requests to be treated with vitanium, in hopes it will eradicate her problematic powers. This request is granted.
Afternoon
The team tries to bring Hasizet, Joule, and Silver Hare up to date on happenings on Cretoa. Hasizet is assigned to lead a peace envoy to the Nereids because she has no language barrier; but she also hopes to try to communicate with the kraken at some point.
Catfight begins working on gear to protect her now that she has no innate super powers.
Hasizet visits the kraken pit in the lower palace dungeon with Rubber Bullette and Sombra; though it is bestial, she is able to get an impression of its attitudes. It desires to return to the deep oceans and hunt for food rather than be fed. It is wary of surface-dwellers and would stay away from ships, nullifying the concerns the Adventurers have about it being free. Hasizet is certain that the creature should be released.
Blue Fox, Stinger, Sombra, Joule, and Azure Hawk's armor visit the caverns in search of Princess Grissh. They come upon her last known location, and find details of a battle - including a mysterious, perfectly-cut cylindrical shape in a rockface right where her scent trailer ends. Further on, they find a device that becomes dislodged from a cavern ceiling when a major earthquake happens! The Nereids have apparently continued demolition. Forward toward the demolition site from the previous day where Catfight had fought Grissh, they find a lot of dead Nereids... and Lord Aurum. Lord Aurum makes no attempt to deceive the team about killing Nereids, but more, demonstrates that he has remote control of Nereid demolitions elsewhere in the caverns by setting one off. He also shows that he has digitized Princess Grissh and others, and can delete their patterns at will. His aim: he wants the secrets of Cretoa. Using his digitized hostages as leverage, he simply walks off, promising to eliminate the Nereids.
Evening
Blue Fox and Red Spider visit the island of Lord Aurum. Inside of a dusty, disused manor on top of a tiny island, they are met by a golden android who tries to serve them tea, and gives them a tour of the house. They find Aurum's laboratory, a mix of technology and arcana experiments. There, Blue Fox locates a prototype digitizer and manages to steal its operating software. But this causes their golden host to try to attack. Some quick thinking by Blue Fox allows him to power up the digitizer and capture the golden android with it. He and Red Spider escape in a hurry when dozens of golden androids are activated, and pursue them from the island.
Stinger and Joule do a patrol of the caverns. They narrowly escape being buried when a quake splits the cavern ceiling above them. They encounter a Taur ambush, but through strained computer-aided translations, they manage to start a dialogue and forge a pact with the Brotherhood of the Taur. The Taurs know of Lord Aurum's treachery, and while they are no friends to the Nereids or the Cretoan royalty, they recognize the need for an alliance to defeat Aurum.
Day 6
Morning
Red Spider and Rubber Bullette begin a cavern patrol, entering from below the palace along the sabotaged vitanium extractor. After a time, they, like Stinger and Joule the night before, encounter a Taur ambush -- but unfortunately, these Taurs seem unaware of the pact forged hours earlier, and go on the offensive. Adequately defending themselves against the warriors, the two heroes sustain injuries and decide to flee back to the Zappatos hideout for first aid.
Blue Fox shares his plan to be deliberately digitized by Lord Aurum, which meets with a mixed-to-unenthusiastic response by team members like Sombra and Night Star. Yet if it can work, it's a way to save Aurum's hostages held digitally in his armor.
Afternoon
A team of Sombra, Rubber Bullette, Meltdowner, and Stinger try to enter the Nereid realm. Though initially rejected, the guards at an entry pool see Sombra's Nereid Medallion, and when she explains a slight fabrication of how she got it, they say it is a symbol that will grant them safe conduct through the Undersea - so long as the team doesn't get out of line. After a long journey following guide lights in the deep, dark ocean, they arrive at Phraesa, city of the Nereids.
The King receives the heroes at court, but a golden man is there as an advisor from Lord Aurum, who claims to be a Nereid ally against the machinations of the surface. The Adventurers share much of the evidence they have gathered about Twilight, about the mysterious gas diffusers, and the kidnapping of Princess Grissh. When the King's opinion turns against Aurum, the golden man activates the collars of all Nereids in range, locking them on and harming them with some kind of gas output. The golden man declares that the plans for Nereid war will continue, holding the King and all of his subjects captive with the collars. The Adventurers are bidden to leave, and told to warn the surface to begin evacuating the island.
Evening
Later in the dry caverns, Red Spider, Night Star, and Catfight sneak up on a demolition site. They see a lone golden man who stands as taskmaster over a group of around one-hundred Nereids, who are forced into continuing to lay layers of the explosive seaweed onto a wall and column. The trio of heroes try to ambush the golden man, but the plan goes slightly awry. Still, they manage to cooperate to destroy the golden man, then convince the laborers to remove the demolitions. Red Spider tries to free one from the collar, but a failsafe on the locking mechanism starts to harm the wearer. Finishing the disarmament, the Nereids flee before another golden man arrives. The heroes head back to the surface.
Day 6
Morning
Blue Fox, Rubber Bullette, and Joule set off on a mission to engage Lord Aurum and be defeated convincingly in hopes that he digitizes them. After a brutal fight, Aurum does just that. They arrive in the digital realm and take time to acclimatize to the very different workings of a simulated reality. They are hindered by anthropomorphized programs, but RB in particular learns that she can control the world at will. Joule finds that her electrical powers can cause lasting harm to the world. And Blue Fox finds that he can interface with the mainframe directly and navigate it with his mind.
Elsewhere, the Adventurers gird themselves for battle as the Cretoans move their forces into Lord Aurum's large, mile-long cavern to wage war on him. Hasizet is given a mission: find King Zotholky, and tell him about the plan to free his people.
Mid-day
Red Spider tells the team that they must protect the lives of their allies as best they can, but the team cannot bear the weight of fighting a war for them. The allied army has to keep its numbers up, or there can be no victory.
Some notable acts by the Adventurers:
- Stinger helps defeat a Golden Man who is about to attack a group of combat medics and the wounded guardsmen
- Fox, missing for days but drawn to the battle, doesn't realize that the Nereids are potential allies -- he kills several on the battlefield in helping Cretoans lock down an access pool
- Night Star helps Cretoan rocketeers down a Golden Man by leading it into their firing range
- Sombra dissuades some Taurs from dealing death blows to defeated Nereids
- Catfight intercedes when she sees King Zotholky of the Undersea engaged in single-combat with a Taur Captain -- she knows we can't afford the King's death
- Stinger helps inspire a group of shaky Cretoan reservists and accompanies them into battle
- Hasizet helps set up a field trauma ward near the Cretoan forward command base
- Fox manages to take out a Golden Man on a hover chariot and commandeer the vehicle, which was being used as a bomber
- Sombra manages to hastily inform Fox not to kill Nereids, as the team hopes to turn them
- Red Spider heads to the front line and defeats several Nereid warriors hand-to-hand as Cretoans try to push forward into Lord Aurum's zone.
- Catfight helps a Taur Ranger remove some Nereid traps.
- The "Hawk-bot" helps secure the Cretoan flank against an attack by Twilight drones, but is destroyed in the process.
Twilight and Kyros Kallikrates are both spotted on the battlefield, but the Adventurers pass on attempts to engage them because they see other, more strategically important matters to attend.
As losses mount and the Cretoan allies are spread thin, Red Spider starts to doubt that victory is possible. Everything hinges on the success of the digital team, and there has been no sign of them.
RB and Joule defeat an anti-virus program, and then have to rescue Blue Fox who nearly loses his mind to the interface. Blue Fox manages to send commands to release the Nereid collars, and also manages to have all digitized prisoners - including the team members - to be immediately released.
Afternoon
The tide turns... (more to come...)
Cretoan Facts
Geography
- Cretoa is situated in the Aegean Sea.
- At its longest, from about the southwest tip to the northeast, Cretoa measures 61 Km (37 Miles).
- The capital city is Zappatos, which is home to the Royal Palace and the Cretoan Legislature.
Demographics
Note: the following were supplied in Cretoa's first-ever UNSD filing in 2018.
- The population of Cretoa is about 120,000 people.
- The language breakdown on Cretoa is as follows:
- 99.9% speak Greek
- 24.3% speak Russian
- 15.1% speak Arabic
- 4.4% speak English
Government
Cretoa is a constitutional monarchy. Since about 990 CE, it has been ruled as a principality. Throughout its history, Cretoa survived through paying tribute to larger, more powerful empires - the most recent of which was the Soviet Union. Prince Iason, whose rule began in 1983, closed Cretoa's borders in 1990 as an emergency when the Soviet Union broke up. The state of emergency was never ended, however, and Iason ruled the island as a rigid police state. Once Russia stabilized, it continued to help guarantee Cretoan sovereignty. However, a breakdown in Russian relations in the 2010s has left the island largely closed off to the world.
Following Iason's death in 2017, a brief revolution was tempered by Princess Taina reaching an accord with revolutionary leadership to establish a new constitution and a democratic legislature. This relegated the royalty to ceremonial figurehead status. A general amnesty was declared as a goodwill gesture by the new government toward agents of previous regimes, balanced with police and military reforms to prevent further abuse. The nation has held legislative elections, but with neither revenue nor formal alliances, Cretoa is in turmoil.
Princess Taina is the current head of state. Prime Minister Zedrick is the current government leader.
Trade
Cretoa trades on a miniscule scale. The island has a valuable, apparently unique medicinal substance called vitanium, touted for its incredible regenerative capability. Cretoa has permitted sharing of minimal amounts of the substance to a small number of academic institutions for scientific study. Economists estimate that Cretoa could generate billions of dollars in medical tourism alone if it relaxes restrictions on foreigners, yet to date, has seemingly refused to do so.
Cretoa has one airport outside of the capital city Zappatos, which was built by Soviet engineers in 1965. There are numerous small fishing ports on the coastline. Even with the government reform in 2018, all entry points are still carefully watched. There is thought to be a thriving black market run by Cretoan fishers who acquire goods in nearby Greece or Turkey, and sell them on the island.
Most roads on the island are dirt roads, but there are some paved roads in and around Zappatos.
Education
The reformed government in 2018 had pledged to increase education on the island. There is no available data on Cretoan schools. The Royal Cretoan Military Academy, and the Royal Cretoan Center for Healing, are the only known higher learning institutions. Less than 0.001% of Cretoans - generally the noble class - have studied abroad.
During the previous monarchy, internet was strictly controlled and limited to the royal family and their inner circle. Presently it is believed that Cretoa is trying to build public internet infrastructure, yet fewer than 5% of Cretoans are believed to have access.
