Octavia's Notebook

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2 - Day 1-2 - First signs of my gang

Day 1 - Night

During Rianna's watch she hears some unfamiliar sounds a few floors down. As she moves to the stairs to investigate, this wakes Flux. He in turns tries to wake both Finn and me. I quickly follow Rianna down the stairs to see what's going on as I want to make sure we can remain safe here for the night. I notice that Finn together with Flux follow in our footsteps. As we reach the second floor, looking down the hallway we see a humanoid shadow. Flux is sent in to investigate, but as he passes a door opening a bunch more humanoid jump out, attacking him. Finn orders him to quickly come back, and I yell up the stairs to the rest of the team to come and assist us.

Luckily they join as as the humanoids figures start to engage us, starting with Flux. Then it's our turn to retaliate. Rianna with the help of Bolt take down the first creature. The second one is mine, being very inspired by Octavia. A few more hits back and forth and all our adversaries are vanquished. They did manage to rip of the barbed wire from my beloved "Sarah's Embrace" and I did receive some additional scars.

To recover I indulge myself in the corpses of these so-called zone-ghouls and I ask Rianna if she can take over my watch-shift tonight. I also share some of my grub with Flux as it also got badly bruised in this encounter.

Day 2 - Morning

This morning we spend some more time recovering from our encounter and I ask Bolt to have a look at my bat. I'm glad we've got a gearhead along for the ride who is able to fully repair her.

Following Tesla we make our way through the next few zones, finding some occasional contaminated grub and some water. There are fewer and fewer buildings and the ground is get more marshy as we go. But under Tesla's guidance we speedily progress until we see a huge beast in the distance. Some of the team recall this beast is a devourer; a fitting name as it looks it's able to devour anyone of us in a single serving. We'd rather stay far away from it, so we take some extra time to plan our route around it.

Halfway through the afternoon of that second day we reach the river again. It widens here with a big island in the middle. There's a lot of constructions present. Huge round metal containers, but the most obvious is a very tall concrete tower. Finn notices that the rot level here appears to be rather low, which is of course a good sign. Hopefully we're close to finding my crew here. We start searching for track along the riverbank, but in her enthusiasm Octavia messes up the ground covering up any possible tracks we could find.

As the distance to the island isn't too far I decide to try and wade there. I'm glad the water only gets to abut waist height. As we reach the island we manage to do find tracks here, including those of a dog. Looking at the number of tracks, this could well be my team. I ask Finn if Flux could follow these tracks and we walk along the containers towards the inlet of the island. Then all of a sudden all tracks head of in a different direction, one of them even vanishing into nothingness. Finn then hears a dog barking. Hopefully that's Tank, Felix's dog.

3 - Day 2-3 - First gang member found †

We continue following the dog tracks in the direction where we hear the dog barking. We walk along a round basin filled with filthy green, brown liquid. There's a small sign next to it with a skull and crossed bones. This look like a warning sign, so better avoid the liquid inside the basin.

Then I see a shadow in the mist which is about dog sized, so I yell "Tank, get over here!". The shadow emerges from the mist and indeed turns out to be Felix' trusty canine.

He jumps up at me and than runs of again barking at us, as if we should follow him. We do, and find him barking up the giant concrete tower. A rusty metal goes up along the side of the tower. Rianna and Tesla take out a rope and start climbing up the tower. halfway through, there's a big hole in the tower, where they use Riana's lamp to check the the inside of the tower. They notice that there are no floors and the tower continues deep into the ground.

They continue towards the top where there's a platform all around the tower. On top of the top they now can reach a huge nest. As I feared when we saw the track disappearing, there might be some huge bird around here. Better be careful! AS they search the nest, they find the fresh corpse of Felix along another corpse which is just a bundle of bones in a blue coverall. Tesla find a small notebook in one coverall pockets.

I ask them to drag Felix' corpse out of the nest to get him down. As they drop him, they hear screeching in the distance. I quickly drag the corpse inside the building where Bolt is playing around with all kinds of meters, buttons and trinkets which can be found here. The screech resembles the sound a huge bird would make. So they both quickly make way down again. Out of the mist indeed a huge bird appears sheering past them attempting to grab them with its huge talons. This urges them to go even faster and they use the rope to abseil the remaining bit.

Luckily they both manage to get down alive. As Rianna doesn;t want to leave without her rope I try to defend her against any other incoming swoop. Unfortunately I fail to hit the bird and it connects with Rianna, hurting her quite a bit. Then we hear a breaking, crashing sound and we quickly dodge out of the way of the top of the tower which comes crashing down. Rianna quickly grabs her rope and we storm inside to avoid any other attack by the bird.

We're glad to hear the bird flying off into the distance so we can recover. We search Felix' corpse and take his resources and weapon. Tesla and Octavia have a look at the notebook, which contains a lot of pages which are no longer readable. One page however is and Octavia dives in immediately. Bolt meanwhile is still fiddling around with all the stuff in the building, turning a huge wheel. This appears to cause a continuous sound we hear to speed up "Clunk Clunk". The needle of one of the meters, which appears to still be working moves somewhat and eventually when the sound is at its loudest is in the red. This this bode well? Bolt turns the wheel again to its original position, which slows down the "Clunk" again.

We prepare for the night and set up our schedule again. I switch with Octavia, so I get the last shift. I take Felix' corpse outside, and fall asleep beside it together with his dog. During Bolt's round, he hears some noise outside, beside me snoring. There's a small humanoid standing near our building saying: "Is anyone there?" in a childish voice. It's dressed like a zone ghoul which scares the crap out of Bolt, and he runs back inside the building, yelling: "Zone Ghoul!!". We all awaken just in time to see the humanoid vanishing into the mist in the direction of the biggest building on the island. Tesla considers it kinda weird that a zone ghoul would be able to communicate the way it did. But we'll see tomorrow what to do about it. Octavia during her shift makes a round outside to check for more zone ghouls. She doesn't encounter any, but what she does notice is some light behind one of the windows of the large building.

During my shift, Tank and me have breakfast from the corpse of Felix to get closure with the fact that he's really dead. I build a funeral pyre from the remains of the nest which came crashing down and put the corpse on top. We'll have a small service when everybody's awake.

After everybody's awake, ready and we had the service we continue on towards the big building. Bolt wants us to open a grate here first. But we have more pressing matters and get back to this later on. Looking at the building I see a shadow moving behind the window. It looks close to the window where Octavia saw the light. I'm curious if it's the remainder of my gang or if we will find something else. I'm glad to learn that zone ghouls don't use lights at least.

We reach the building and there's a big metal locked door blocking our way inside. I start to make way around the building, but Bolt calls me back as he's got a trick up his sleeves. He spits acid on the lock which quickly makes it melt away.

4 - Day 3 - The rest of my gang

We enter the building and we see shadows fleeing up the stairs in the back of a huge hall which takes up almost the entirety of the ground floor. Bolt is immediately attracted to large steel cabinets with numerous buttons and gauges. Finn and Flux investigate the corner to the right, where we can distinguish a winding stairs going up.

Meanwhile the rest of us run towards the stairs at the back. I call for Ava, Ruby and Finley, yelling that Lincoln of the Ark is here. We run up and end up on a floor with a long halfway spanning the building, with rooms on either side. We keep running, quickly scanning each room for my gangmembers.

I spent some more time investigating the room where we suspect that the light came from this night. It's cleaned up better than the other rooms. With a large desk and chair in the middle. Bookcases line the wall and a big notebook and small box can be seen on the desk. No-one to be found though.

Meanwhile Rianna has reached the end of the hallway where she hears rhythmic chanting and other noises. She turns right looking inside the room. About five creatures can be seen in a circle. She enters the room.

The rest of us join her inside. Tesla calls out to them, asking them who Lutrell is. I grab one of them by the scruffs and pin it against the wall. "Where are my friends?!". Octavia tries to calm me down, but even though she was really helpful this morning regaining my focus on the gang, she has to back down now. One of the smaller creatures grabs my leg, but I kick it aside.

After asking again and again, louder and louder, the creature finally seems to grasp my question and with a trembling voice answers it doesn't know, but Lutrell might. My obvious next question where we can find this Lutrell creature. It points up. If I recall correctly it's pointing in the direction of the tower we saw on top of this building. I immediately storm out of the room again almost running into Finn who follows me back down the hallway. He explains he saw some small encampment near the winding stairway. Exactly the direction we should go, to go upwards.

When we reach the ground floor, we see an older looking creature coming down the winding stairs with a group of about ten armed creatures following in its footsteps. When we get close I ask it if it is Lutrell. The creature answers way more clear than the others did that he is and asks what we're doing here. I explain I'm looking for my friends, my gang. Lutrell offers to help if we promise to leave his 'Shrine'. I ask it what it means with shrine and it explains this is their shrine, their home, the entire island. Given that my gang has sworn loyalty to me and I to them, I'll promise anything. We'll see how this turns out later on when we've found them.

Lutrell calls out to some of the other creatures to set up search parties. Teams of two are formed to check out the entire island. Finn, Flux and me join one party, while Octavia and Tesla join another. Bolt, who has emerged from one of the cabinets all of a sudden halfway the discussion, tells me he'll keep himself busy looking around on his own. Lutrell asks him what he was doing in the cabinet somewhat angrily. Bolt tells him everything is set back to its original setting. One of the creatures is ordered to check the gauges and the buttons. Another one takes some white crystalline stuff from one of the blue barrels and is sent outside to look at the water. Bolt goes out to investigate and is shadowed by one of the creatures who anxiously keeping him away from any control mechanism he might want to manipulate. Rianna remains here to talk to Lutrell.

We wander the entire island, looking through all the buildings, near the large basins (with various degrees of clarity of the liquid) and we notice some kind of animal pen with weird dog-sized creatures, playing in the mud. A big labyrinth can be found beneath the island, with all kinds of pipes and machinery everywhere.

Tesla, Octavia and the team they joined, are searching near the big concrete silo's where we went ashore. Looking inside one of them, some shades can be distinguished. Octavia calls out for Ruby. Eventually they hear a careful "Octavia is that you? Is it safe?".

Apparently they had fled here, running from the huge bird. Ava went out for a bit at night, searching the island, but she never wandered of too far.

6 Day 4-7 - Work at the Ark

We reach the Ark near nightfall. Finding my gang members again strengthens my resolve to find out what happened to Wyatt and free him from the grasp Harper has on him.

That night, me and the gang to pay a visit to Malf, Harper's fixer. He's easily subdued but as I pin him against the wall of his sleeping cabin he strongly refuses to tell us what he knows about the whereabouts of Wyatt. Either Harper has an extremely loyal following, or the consequences of revealing stuff to me would be even more severe. We rummage through his stuff and take the grub and water we can find.

The next morning there's a big ruckus in the Ark. We're getting kinda used to losing people overnight to the rot. But this time it's a grunt named Kincade who has been found with an axe lodged into his skull. It seems to be his own axe, but suicide can definitely be ruled out. I'm curious as to why he has been killed. He was quite an abled body who really helped out with the projects to stabilize the situation in the Ark.

After all that, it's time to continue our work on the croplands. I'm looking forward to the day when we become independent of the last few remaining cans of grub. Although we should also look into the way that the pure ones sustain a living on their small island. I wonder how the pigs play into that.

Bolt meanwhile is busy preparing a transportation device which can be used on the water to hopefully transport barrels of water down from the Pure Plant. People initially keep pestering him, asking what he is up too. I keep sending them of, explaining Bolt is working on a solution for our water problem. I urge them to gather barrels for the water and beads and mirrors to trade with. I really hope we can set up a sustainable source of fresh water, even if rationed.

The following day Bolt has finished his contraption and let's it slide into the river. It seems to remain afloat even with six people aboard. Octavia is a bit hesitant to board so she remains on the riverbank along with me. I thought it would be best to take a long rope and drag the vehicle up the stream. Bolt is struggling a bit to keep the raft in the middle of the river due to me pulling it. But his brain is churning over ideas how to resolve this. We maneuver through the remains of what seems to have been a bridge across the river and end up in an area where there's a lot of smaller buildings. Unfortunately not much to be found here and we want to make good time towards the Pure Plant so we continue. We cross an area with puddles of water and a lot of mist. The weird thing over here, it's a lot warmer than the surrounding environment...

That night we decide to set up camp in the middle of the river as the banks are all covered in dead and rotting vegetation. During the night in the misty dark, someone hears: "Hello, Helloo, Hellooo......!"

7 Day 7-8 - Munchtree

It was during Tesla's watch that she heard some woman saying "Hello" a couple of times. She decided to wake up Rianna and follow the voice through the rotten vegetation. Rianna creates a makeshift torch and together they head of following the humanoid shadow into the mist. They call out to her "We're here!". It appears to be a woman and when she notices that she's being followed she continues onward, only slightly startled. She wades through the river. To avoid losing track of her, Tesla shoots a burning arrow to the other shore and they continue following her wading through the water.

Meanwhile in our camp, Octavia has also woken up to the sounds and wakes up the rest of us. We go after the sound as well.

Rianna and Tesla discover two other humanoid figures on the other shore. One who resembles a bearded man. The third is some green faceless creature. All three of them walk of into more vegetation. Looking more closely, the man seems to beckon them.

They reach a clearing with a huge weird tree in the middle. Tesla has an overwhelming urge to continue towards the tree, even against her own will. The faceless one is hugging the tree. By now the rest of us are reaching the clearing as well and Octavia tries to persuade Tesla to get away from the tree, as this isn't looking too favorable. It is swinging it's branches and some of its roots trying to grab on to Rianna and Tesla. All the bones and skulls littering the ground around the tree don't bode well either.

This is a sign for us all that this situation isn't working in our favor and should be dealt with. Finn sends Flux to attack the bearded man. I go for the same target, going for his throat. AS I bite into him, he collapses. But it leaves a very weird plantlike taste. I also feel as if my mutation went awry somewhat. For now unclear to me as to why.

Meanwhile Bolt is attacking the woman. Quickly followed by Finn, his dog and me. She stands no chance and shortly after she's also lying on the ground, dead. Rianna sets the tree on fire to escape the branches who have by now caught her. Luckily Tesla managed to get away already. The branches our now starting to move Rianna to a big gaping muzzle in the trunk of the tree. Due to the fire, along with slashes by both Bolt and Tesla the tree withers and dies and drops Rianna on the ground, but not before her foot is almost bitten of.

While Octavia is tending Rianna's wounds, Tesla and Bolt investigate the area. They find some trinkets, which might be worth something. Perhaps we can add them to the trade pile to get more water from Lutrell. Before we head back to our camp to recover and rest I decide to use Rianna's axe to sever the "heads" of the three humanoids which now have all turned into similar green faceless ones.

The next day, as I wake up, I think I know what happened yesterday when I set my teeth into the plant people. My beard has turned all viney and mossy, with very tiny red and blue flowers springing up here and there. I use my knife to trim my "beard" to manageable proportions. One I'm done, I see Ocatvia reading some thin book with a lot of pictures about a mutant who's able to regrow its body even when its head's been severed. I retrace our steps back to the clearing to verify this hasn't occurred to the three. I'm glad to see they're still their dead selves. A bit more searching reveals some bullets which I keep for now.

When everybody's ready to continue again, the rest of the group enter the floating vehicle and I continue dragging it along the river up the stream again. Halfway through the day we have a discussion about rations and such which we should bring for expeditions like this. It becomes pretty apparent we still got quite a bit to learn. I hope Tesla and her fellow stalkers can teach us a bit about prepping for trips like this.

Our last stop for now is a big concrete tower. This seems to be an excellent lookout point so we go ashore. But as we approach the building it collapses. A lot of squeaking can be heard from the rubble. Tesla tells us that this most likely is a big nest of rats. Not something to mess with.

8 Day 8-10 - The bus is coming

We continue up the river to get away from the rat swarm and set up camp alongside the riverbank in a half collapsed building.

The next day Octavia prepares breakfast for us all by preparing the rotted grub, making it edible. Another day to continue north with our water vehicle. We enter an area with a lot of big broken down vehicles. Of course people are eager to search through these wreckages. Bolt is rolling two wheels towards our boat and Tesla finds a container containing some kind of liquid that smells somewhat like booze, but clearly isn't meant to be drunk.

Onwards again, now through a swampy area, dragging my feet through the mud as I'm still pulling along the boar across the river. I see a woman walking somewhat more inland. She's stumbling and mumbling in a language I can't understand. I call at her, asking who she is, but no response. The rest of the team has now reached the shore and Tesla, Octavia and Finn assess what's wrong with her. By their combined efforts they somewhat calm her down. But I wonder what the use is. Will it be worthwhile to spend our valuable resources on somehow who's is so messed up mentally?

That night we reach the edge of the Pure Plant area and decide to set up camp again before we'll visit Lutrell tomorrow.

During Finn's watch, a few pure ones approach us and we all wake up. "Who are you"'s are exchanged. Their next question is if we're here alone. We learn that they've very recently been attacked by a group who arrived by bus. As they notice we're no immediate threat they retreat back to their island, leaving one behind to keep watch. During Octavia's final watch of the night she sees this last pure one swimming back to the island as well.

We have breakfast again, and the rest even spends more resources on the woman we too along yesterday. I really hope she's worth it. Tesla tries a mental check on her. She notices that her mind has definitely cleared up. But this time all Tesla can make out is a very brightly lit rectangular environment with shades and very little detail. Not really helpful yet...

We float our boat to the jetty at the island and tie it up. It's negotiations time. As Octavia and Tesla really eagerly run of I let them, curious about what they'll come up with. Finn convinces me to join as well. No idea why I agreed to be honest as they still do all the talking. We'll see what I have to put right in the end, but perhaps they should experience this as well.

We encounter Lutrell in the main building, where cabinets have been pushed over and we see some bloodstains on the floor. The entrance has been broken down entirely and has been temporarily braced. Lutrell explains that a group of woman came by bus and attacked them, taking a group of able men and boys. Eventually they fought them off, but it cost them dearly. We ask what they've already done to retrieve their people. But as they got this factory to keep running to can't spare the manpower.

This gives me an idea that we can perhaps trade our effort to retrieve their people in exchange for water for our Ark. Octavia has the same idea. Now we just need to convince Lutrell about it.

9 Day 10-12 - Trade route and Croplands

We negotiated with Lutrell. In exchange for our metal club and some additional weapons which Bolt would fabricate, we would get one shipment of water. If we'd manage to free his people we would set up a more permanent water trade route. A first important step to survive the ever worsening situation we're living in.

So Bolt started making weapons with the help of some of the Pure-Ones, while I spend the rest of the day together with Lutrell learning about water purification and about the creatures they grew for food, called pigs. Once our croplands are done, that might be a worthwhile next project to spend out time on. But we'll see once we get back to the Ark. That night we join the Pure-Ones at some ritual involving sacrificing a pig to the deep one which seems to reside in one of the basins.

The next day we leave with our raft filled with barrels of water, as much water as we could carry ourselves and finally a big piece of pig meat. The journey home is luckily quite uneventful. By the end of the day we reach the Ark. There's quite a bit of rejoicing when we present the fresh water. However the positive vibe is overshadowed by the news that there has been another unusual death; Latifa jumped to her death. Jo-Ann and Max saw it happening, but they can't explain why she would've jumped. I ask Max about any relationship between the death of Latifa and Kincaid, but she has no idea.

As the croplands are finally finished, Bolt and Max start work on designing an area where the raft could dock. This will be really helpful once our trade really takes of. I think a sundial would also be a good addition to the Ark. And of course the defenses are also still work in progress.

I interrogate Silas about what he seems to have seen to the southeast, the four wheeled vehicles. He paints a picture which closely resembles the vehicle which Lutrell told us about, so I tend to believe him. My line of questioning is unfortunately rudely interrupted when Harper enters the scene, but for now I know enough.

AS we spent less and less time in the Ark these days, I want too spend some time on investigating the whereabouts of Wyatt. I decide to pay Gerald a visit together with a few from my gang. When het starts threatening to hurt Wyatt he crosses a line he shouldn't have. My eyes turn red with rage and I go for his throat, biting him to death. With his dying breath he manages to claw at me with his vicious spikes puncturing my lung. Finley and Garrett drag me back to my cabin and call for Octavia. She's a bit frightened when she enters my cabin but reluctantly stitches me back up. Even though I might not always show it that much, I'm really glad we got her around! I eat a big meal to heal as fast as possible and try to get some sleep before we take of to rescue the kidnapped Pure-Ones.

10 Day 12-13 - Freeing Pure-ones - Part I

The next morning I wake up barely able to breath. Octavia has done a wonderful job stitching me up, but still it will take a few days before I'm really myself again. The news that Gerald has been slaughtered quickly spreads through the Ark but no signs pointing at me. Rianna checks out the situation, wondering about a third unusual death in a short timespan.

We prepare the raft to depart in search of the kidnapped Pure-Ones. This time I board the vehicle and have Finley and Garrett pulling it along from the shore. Jack and Ava join us on the raft. A few zones to the east we go ashore and pull the raft onto the riverbank and secure it so it will still be here when we get back.

We continue going east through burned forest until we encounter very sweet smelling flowery vines blocking our path. Not trusting anything unusual anymore in this world outside of our Ark I throw a stone at the flowers. Nothing happens so perhaps I am getting a little too paranoid... At least I thought that for a few seconds. But as Finn walks up to it, a cloud of dust is ejected by the flowers. Finn falls unconscious it seems, so I quickly run to him, covering my mouth and nose with a rag against the dust. Boney remains scatter the ground here. I try to drag Finn away from the flowers. But spikey vines entangling his legs prevent this from succeeding. I call out to the others to assist. So we starts hacking, slashing, fire breathing and acid spitting on the vines. With some encouraging words from Octavia we finally manage to break him free and drag him away.

Ok, my paranoia was clearly warranted.

We take a path around the flowery vines to the north, hoping to encounter tracks from the large vehicle which supposedly drove around here. I'm glad to hear that Tesla finds some trails in the following zone we enter. As it is nearing nightfall we decide to set up camp just a tad away from the tracks so we can keep an eye on them but won't immediately be noticed if something or someone passes by along them.

That night we see a big structure on the horizon with lights going on and off irregularly behind what seem to be windows. Octavia thinks this might be the Singing Monolith which is mentioned on our map. The next morning we continue towards that big building, making really sure to not get too close and be seen from it. I'm glad we're really careful approaching it, as it is very well protected with guards walking along ramparts, and a big searchlight scanning the entrance area. The actual entrance is blocked by one of those big vehicles.

While Ava and Tesla stealthed around the building, they counted about ten guards, all armed with guns. In the meantime Finn and me searched the surrounding buildings and area for tunnels or basements we could use to enter the compound unseen, but unfortunately to no avail.

Plans how to continue from this:

• Basecamp prep:
  • Find the highest building outside of the women compound with windows on their side, within 20 meters of the wall
  • Set up basecamp there on the top-floor
  • No campfire, lights, ...!!
  • Arrange continuous watch over the compound and entrance of our building
  • Set up small hunting party to gather food
• Plan A - Figure out if they have the Pure-Ones working on something somewhere:
  • Have individuals from our team stationed a few miles from the compound alongside the various tracks leading away from it
  • Wait for a bus to appear. If possible, carefully check occupants of the bus
  • Follow it to its destination staying out of sight
  • Determine what the goal of the bus is
  • Report back to base before nightfall
• Plan B - Investigating the compound:
  • provide jack with a paper and pencil
  • Have Jack fly in at night from a building nearby our location; If there are no other buildings available, from the ground floor, making sure to avoid the searchlights (entrance and big one pointing at the sky)
  • Map compound on paper
    • Determine prison location of the Pure-Ones
    • Determine boss and ?her? location
    • Scout compound from within and find a weak spot in their defenses
  • Determine number of inhabitants and level of armaments

    12 day 13-14 - Freeing Pure-ones - Part III

    We meet up in our hide-out where Jo-Ann tells about the situation with The Elder. We decide to quickly deal with the situation here and camp inside the women's Ark and then head back home early tomorrow.

The gateway vehicle rumbles, billowing black smoke as it opens up the gate to let us in. We're amazed by the amount of little people playing and running around here. We're brought to a decontamination area where we unceremoniously scrubbed down. Then we're brought inside the tower where we're fed. Octavia warns that this might be Zone Ghoul flesh, but I don't mind too much (obviously) and it tastes quite good. They did a good job preparing this.

We'll get to meet the Chairman, but we'll have to wait a while for Carla to introduce us. We're allowed to walk around this Ark in the meantime, as long as we don't go to the penthouse or the basement. I wander the grounds investigating how they are so self sufficient. I check out the water hose and their kitchen garden. Finn meanwhile is looking for an alternative way out, unfortunately to no avail, the walls are really thick with a constant group of gun wielding women patrolling along the top. The small humans are a bit scared of Flux, so they keep their distance.

We notice that the man in this society aren't treated like normal human beings. This already starts with the small humans, where the girls are playing mock combat with sticks and the small men have to do the small women's biddings. Overall though there's a great deal of respect for the Chairman also called "He who provides life".

Bolt is doing his gearhead thing and tries to get close to all the nifty stuff they got around here, trying to look under the hood of the gateway vehicle and attempting to go do into the basement. But again patrolling women block his path. Octavia is looking for another chronicler and is learning quite a lot, especially that we've got a bad negotiation position here as they are indeed pretty self sufficient.

As Bolt is standing close to the ramp leading down to the basement, all of a sudden a bloodied man comes running up, sprinting towards the gateway vehicle, attempting to climb on top, yelling "Freedom!!". One of the patrolling women warns him not to continue, but he ignores her. She pulls her gun and shoots him... Wow... A few men are ordered to get rid of the corpse. When we asks some of the bystanders what just happened, they explain he was a giver, which is a holy task. Some weird shit going on here.

Finally Carla has returned telling us that the Chairman is ready to receive us. We stand on a small platform which has ropes attached to it going up in the middle of the tower. We here gears grinding and the platform starts moving. They could've warned us beforehand! Don't they have stairs or something? I really dislike this contraption. Rianna also doesn't seem to feel too comfortable here as she tries to get of the moving platform at every floor. We finally reach the top and we get of the platform.

Carla opens the door and introduces us as the newcomers and then leaves the room. We enter a very boog room with a huge wooden desk with a cloaked man sitting behind it. A long strong looking woman is standing behind him holding a three-barreled shotgun. Cool trinkets are lining the walls immediately distracting Bolt. He welcomes us, both men and women and introduces himself as the fabled Chairman.

Tesla starts to explain whey we're here, that they accidentally mistook Pure-Ones for Zone Ghouls. And that we'd like to bring them back home as we would get a water supply trade route in return. The Chairman completely ignores that they might have made a mistake and offers his own water. He goes on to explain that he would like to cooperate with us. Tesla start spilling the beans about our own Ark, that we're in short supply of water, etcetera, so I quickly shut her up. I don't trust the Chairman at all and it seems the only thing he's after is more power, and explaining where our Ark is exactly located will surely lead to an invasion by this tribe.

I explain that cooperation is possible, but only based on equality and mutual trust, two things which are very far from being achieved here. he even go on explaining how he's the children maker and how we could benefit from that. Friggin braggart being so full of himself. We tell him we'll sleep on it and Carla is called out to direct us to our place to sleep.

There we discuss the situation, I explain why I was so rude on stopping the conversation, being really worried that we'd have an invasion on our hand very soon that way. Our discussion is all of a sudden interrupted by some growls from Flux. A woman appears from the shadows and asks to joins us.

She introduces herself as Krin and goes on to explain she's growing really tired of the Chairman who's just after more power and influence. Just as I thought! He wants more and more offspring and she doesn't want to be involved with this anymore. She suspects there are more woman like her, and definitely the men are done with the situation. perhaps enticing a riot amongst this group of people would benefit both them and us?!

13 Day 13-14 - Pure ones are we there yet?!

We consider that enticing a riot within a night might be a little far-fetched, so we decide to lay the groundworks to destabilize this community, so they form less of a threat to us and the Pure-Ones.

Finn together with Flux, Ava and Tesla go down to the ground floor to try and investigate the basement. There's a guard next to the stairs leading down who somehow hears them approaching. Ava makes herself known to the guard to distract her and asks where she should go. This allows for the others to go down the stairs.

There they find a number of cages with prisoners and a single woman guarding this place. A number of men are pushing a large wheel round and round. It seems related to the lights as when they slow down, the light dims, to a point that the light goes black when they stop pushing altogether. When that happens the woman replaces the tired men by fresh ones from the cages. One of the cages seem to contain about eight Pure-Ones. And about a total of forty to fifty prisoners can be seen.

As Finn and Tesla have assessed the situation for now they stealthily head back up the stairs, where they sent Flux ahead as a distraction. We hear gunfire as the guard shoots at Flux, unfortunately hitting him! I sprint down the stairs to the ground floor to see if they need help and catch Flux as he's trying to get away. I yell at the woman why she shot him and apologize for the dog running around loose. During this ruckus, Finn and Tesla quickly sneak up the stairs and manage to join us again at our assigned sleeping quarters. Here Octavia is tending Flux' wounds.

After some further planning we decide we'll try to stage a murder suicide by Rebeth on the Chairman. I take my gang members together with Rianna and we take the numerous stairs to the top floor. As Rebeth hears us approaching she calls out "Who goes there?!". Of course we don't answer but instead overpower her. We gag her and Garrett and Finley hold her tight. We enter the Chairman's room and there he is behind his desk. In shock he's looking at us as we quickly drag him to his bedroom. We put him in the bed and smother him with his pillow. Then I grab Rebeths gun and shoot him through the pillow.

Now we hang the gun back around her shoulders and push her through the window, she falls down and with a loud thud crash-lands just beside the tower. Even though all went as planned I still feel unsettled, but we needed to do this to keep our promise to free the Pure-Ones and to avoid possible future conflict with this enclave. Rianna offers a sip from her hipflask to calm me down a bit. As we leave again to join the others downstairs I quickly grab the dual tube device Bolt was oogling. We start running down the stars again.

Meanwhile the others gather up to go back to the basement again to free the men and the Pure-Ones and to arrange for transportation out of this Ark. Flux again serves as a distraction, frustrating the guard who get's shot as she runs after Flux. Finn quickly grabs her gun and they continue into the basement. They take the corpse of the guard with them and throw her down the stairs. The guard there calls out "Who goes there". Tesla now shoots her, quickly disarming her and Finn finishes her off.

Tesla orders the men at the wheel to keep pushing so they can see what's going on here, to avoid total darkness. Bolt spits on the locks of the cages t open them up, freeing all people there. Octavia meanwhile investigates the room behind the first door. It's a lot colder there and meat hooks are attached to the ceiling with humanoid cut up corpses hanging from them. Octavia returns pale as a corpse.

Bolt head for the other door. Behind they find a big room with the ramp leading up. And two big vehicles parked here. One of the vehicles has big guns attached to it and armor attached to the sides. Along the wall of this room we see a lot of shelves with all kinds of supplies.

14 - Day 14 - We escaped with the Pure-Ones

We hurry down the stairs, hoping that the rest of our crew downstairs have made good progress setting up an escape plan. As we're nearing ground level, two women come rushing up the stairs. One continues up, while the second remains with us. Rianna tackles here and I hit her over the head with my bat. Now that she's unconscious, Garrett picks her up, while Ava grabs her gun.

Meanwhile Bolt is loading everything he can get his hands on in the armored vehicle. Tesla brings some of the men they helped escape, and Octavia is leading the Pure-Ones towards our ride. Finn also gets onto the vehicle and mounts the scrap cannon.

Garrett drops the woman in one of the cages and we lead the men towards the vehicle. Meanwhile I slash the tires of the second vehicle to avoid them pursuing us with it.

Tesla also climb on top of the ride and is shooting fire with the frontal weapon. A guardswoman who appears on the ramp is burned to a crisp. Ava quickly shoots her to put her out of her misery.

Bolt meanwhile has figured out the basics how to drive this thing and rides up the ramp. He explains to Rianna how it is operated, as we also need someone who can take care of the other vehicle which is used as the gat door. While Rianna Is driving in circles in front of the building. Tesla is shooting everywhere with her flame cannon. Bolt guarded by a few of us runs towards the gate vehicle and manages to open the gate.

We all quickly get into our ride again, where Octavia has now taken the wheel, while Rianna is still handling the pedals. AS soon as we're in the clear, Bolt take the wheel again and drives us to safety, quickly heading home to the west. Rianna checks on the former prisoners.

At first light in the morning, we have breakfast close to the river. Some people consider it a good idea to waste a bunch of grub on all the people we've taken from the compound. It's not like they're starving, so what's the use?! We follow the river downstream in our vehicle trying to find our floating device again to get across to the Ark.

When we reach the spot where we expect to find it, it's no longer there. I try to wade through the river but somehow I fail. frustrated about how this journey back has been going a stomp along the riverbank, until all of a sudden I see something lodged behind a tree trunk in the river. As I get closed it turns out to be our raft!

15 - Day 14 - Smoke and mirrors

Luckily we find the raft fully intact lodged behind a tree trunk. Rianna and Tesla take it upon themselves to take the raft downstream towards the Ark while scouting all the new areas we're about to enter. Bolt follows them along the riverbank in the bus, sometimes steering away a bit, following the path which used to be a road once upon a time.

Occasionally we get stuck in mud puddles, but with the help of the escapees we continue.

We reach an area with all kinds of parallel irons tracks leading towards a big building. Vehicles are standing on the tracks and some of them are lying beside them. Bolt of course can't let a moment with vehicles like this pass, so he runs of to investigate.

Finally as Tesla returns from scouting the area we enter the bus again and call for Bolt to join us to continue home. As we're getting close and already see our Ark across the river we use our raft in several groups to get across. I'm glad to see they've made good progress with setting up defenses. There's even a lookout at the highest point of our Ark who, upon seeing us approach, immediately runs down. Probably to inform everybody of our return.

Bolt 'sabotages' our vehicle, so someone else can't just ride of with it. We instruct all the freed men to join us across the river on the raft. As we arrive in the Ark, I guide the men to 'my' area in the Ark to avoid them getting into conflicts with Harpers men. We join Ruby up to Elonas level to inquire about the Elder. As we pass through Harpers floors we notice "H"'s being painted on various doors. It seems he's trying to claim more square footage.

Miri, Elonas chronicler is looking after the Elder who has been in this catatonic state for already a day now. Octavia lends a hand to assess the health situation, but for now to no avail.

Due to the eagerness of Harper to extend his influence I have my gang on a watch schedule. But I'm glad to learn the next morning nothing weird occurred. That next day some of the trinkets we took from the tower are assessed for their value. The black device turns out to be a device to watch stuff in the distance. This might be a worthwhile tool for the lookout. Another very weird contraption, after a lot of tinkering and fiddling by both Bolt and Max, produces a message:

As per order of Doctor Retzius, all Mimir personnell of security clearance five or above should report to the nearest command center as soon as possible. For reference, command center Alpha is located at 38.80 -76.86, command center Bravo is located at 38.93, -77.22, command center Charlie is located at 38.71, -77.18, command center Delta is located at 38.99 -76.85, command center Echo is located at 38.70, -77.08. All other civilians should remain in their homes. There is nothing to worry about. Have a nice day.

Could those numbers be some kind of coordinates. I wonder if the map in the Chairmans office could help out?

17 - Day 15-16 - Stabilizing the Ark

== the Ark ==

Before the others head out to the Pure Plant to return the Pure-Ones, I ask Octavia to try and get some pigs from Lutrell to get our own pigsty going.

I make sure the former tower inhabitants are fed well. I instruct them to keep a low profile and not start wondering of to the other levels of the Ark to avoid any run-ins with Harpers crew. I Task Garrett to keep an eye on them. I make some inquiries about the deaths of Kincade, Latifa and Gerald but no new news on them. There's just some gossip that the Latifas suicide is quite unexpected. There's some talk about a failed romance, but nothing concrete.

The next day I pay a visit to Elona. There's a bunch of people in the room running around like headless chickens, not adding any positive to the Elders situation so I order them to get out. Elona thanks me for this, she really seems to be burned out by the situation, which got even worse with her main chronicler Miri being found dead this night. Guards tell us she was screaming and as they ran inside. They saw Miri acting in a psychotic way. Her limbs all twisted, her face distorted with a death scare in her eyes, looking at the Elder as if was attempting to strangle her for her incompetent healing work. The guards tried to wake her up, but as they tried that, she dropped dead. Another unexpected death, but this time Elona mentions some weird pattern about three of the four recently deceased. They all got a dark skin. Could there be a common cause to this. And how to explain the death of Gerald than....? Another chronicler has now taken over the care for the Elder and I promise to send Octavia up as soon as she has returned.

As the death of the Elder is now eminent I discuss with Elona how we should continue in that event. But as she's so shook up by the whole situation she diverts that question to her confidant Nyra. I discuss possible ways we could rearrange the leadership structure and what projects would benefit the Ark moving forward. Nyra explains the main focus of Elona is to keep the ways of the Elder alive.

The rest of the day I spent with the former tower men to check up on them how they are doing. For the ones who are ready and willing I get them to work our croplands. They can definately be more free with us than they were, but still there's food and lodging to earned like all inhabitants of the Ark do.

Pure Plant

Bolt continues along the river driving the bus up north towards the Pure Plant. As they get near, Octavia, the Pure-Ones and Tesla get out and will walk the last bit to avoid spooking the Pure-Ones. Bolt and Rianna will bring the bus around to the west side of the plant so once the handover has been concluded the bus can continue south again on our side of the river.

Lutrell opens them with open arms and is really glad to see most of the Pure-Ones returned unharmed. Our people ask about the swimming pool and with the help of the Pure-One, who assessed the situation with our water source, we explain what we need to get it cleaned up. Lutrell agrees to give us a bucket of white powder to get our water cleaned up. We will have to drain it almost completely, but that'll be for a good cause.

He does voice his concerns about the impact of us freeing the Pure-Ones from the tower, upsetting quite a few women in the process. We offer to help him out with some more weapons and we'll be on the lookout for a counterattack.

To conclude the meeting Octavia remembers to ask Lutrell for a few pigs to get us started with our own pigsty. Given how much we've done for them, he quickly agrees. He has his people quickly gather everything we need and asked for so they can all get on their way again, back to the Ark.

Something a bit of today is Bolts behavior. When Lutrell mentioned the possible attack from the tower women, he adds some fuel to the fire. But I'm glad the others manage to diffuse the situation.

20 - Day 24-27 - One to guide them, one to feed them, one to protect them - one to bind them all together?

We're called to the top of the Ark where we learn the Elder has died. I think it would be a good idea to notify the inhabitants of the Ark and I think in a situation like this all three bosses need to form a unified front to guard the continuity of our Ark. Elona sighs somewhat but agrees to this, so she sends out Longshot to go and get him.

While waiting for him to arrive, Elona and Octavia already prepare a bit of the ceremony to cremate the Elder.

As harper arrives, we discuss our options. I propose that Elona focusses on keeping the Elders culture alive. I've been working on food and water already so that will be my focus, while Harper remains busy with our defenses. I keep steering the discussion away from Harper bashing Elona and I'm glad he seems to 'fall' for it. We conclude with our input for the ceremony after we all go our way, as there's enough to take care of. Harper is expecting the same as the Pure-Ones did, that the women from the tower will try to attack us a retribution for freeing part of their workforce.

The next day we have the ceremony for the Elder. A large pyre has been build. All inhabitants have gathered around it. Octavia has a very nice speech prepared about the lessons she has learned from him and what we should take away from that. I conclude the speech with a word about the continuity of the Ark and how Elona, Harper and me will all play a role in this. This seems to convince some of the doubters who were really worried about the future of our Ark.

During my part of the speech, Harper all of a sudden is gazing of in a random direction. I notice Bolt is having some giggles at the side. What's going on there?

Now it is time for Octavia to light the pyre. As she does it's ablaze instantly. Something or someone must have added some fuel to the wood as dark clouds emit from the fire, creating a huge column of smoke which can probably be seen miles and miles away. Whoever did this put a big bullseye on our Ark for the tower women to find.

As I'm kinda worried about our smoke pillar I check up with the watchtower guard. He's startled by my question and quickly returns to his lookout task. I'm glad there's nothing to be seen for now. Rianna also worries somewhat and toegther with a scout, she heads of the the building with the high spire to see if someone is approaching us in attack. When se see two busses appear on the horizon, she quickly gets down and runs back to the Ark calling out we're under attack!

Harper really shows his skills in setting up the defenses. After a quick situation report with Rianna he starts arming all abled bodies, sending the weak and defenseless into our housing to seek cover. Inside i direct them to safe locations. Octavia meanwhile is setting up an infirmary in case many injured need to be treated.

From the watchtower we now see both busses approaching us. It must be the two vehicles from the tower. One of them now has a gun mounted and as they are within firing range, they open fire. I use the gun we disassembled from our buss to return fire. I aim for their gun and the driver, quickly stopping the bus in its tracks. The other bus speeds up and is on a ramming course with our makeshift gate barricade. As I look down I see Bolt running for his vehicle and setting up a ramming course with the incoming bus. He successfully stop it before it completely tears down our wall.

Meanwhile there's a lot of fighting going on, gunfire being exchanged, fugitives being pursued and killed by Harpers men. resulting in a big massacre. I bring out our tower hostage and threaten to kill her of the attackers don't stop, but apart from being spat in the face by the hostage, they completely ignore my threat. Ok, than she'll die... Too bad, I was hoping we could be more civil about this.

In the end we've got quite a few wounded on our side, but it seems Harper indeed did an awesome job preparing for this attack as we haven't lost anybody but Krin who came to my rescue as I was jumped by quite a few attackers when I got rid of our hostage.

21 - Day 27-28 - Did I just recover Wyatt and have Harper move away?

That afternoon, Octavia and some others tend to all the wounded. All dead are gathered outside our walls and a huge pyre is setup to burn all the corpses.

I guess we were really lucky, but it shows the world out there is a treacherous place and we really need to be prepared for another such event in the possible future. Weary but glad we came out alive, we all go to bed that night.

The next morning we're having a discussion what to do with the threat the remainder of the tower inhabitants pose. I propose to sent Harper there to take over leadership there and to restore it to its former glory apart from the enslaved men situation. This would provide us with a strong and technically well developed ally nearby and we'd be released of his presence in our own Ark. The others eventually reluctantly agree, explaining this could present a major threat in the future as he develops a complete army over there. I'm hoping we can build on a relationship which is mutually beneficial.

As I present this idea to Harper, he's immediately onboard, looking forward to leading his own Ark. He also proposes to celebrate this along with a celebration for our victory over the tower women. An awesome idea, the people need some positivity! This would also be a nice opportunity to inaugurate the new wrestling arena.

"Panem et Circenses"

The rest of the morning and early afternoon are spend on decorating the Ark for the festivities. Meanwhile all kinds of bets are organized by the fixers. This new concept means we can pay money to predict the outcome of the wrestling match. If you predict correctly, you get your money back with some extra. This gives me an idea. I take Harper to a secluded corner where I propose a wager; I'll bet fifteen bullets in exchange for him releasing Wyatt from captivity and he agrees. Let's make sure to keep this out of the books, as people have been killed for less. We decide to bet on the outcome of the first match which is between Rianna and Voron, who is part of Harpers gang.

"Welcome to the Thunderdome"

That night when everybody is fed and has some booze the wrestling matches start. First up are Rianna and Voron. I start rallying the crowd to cheer Rianna on! As Voron takes of his jacket, it becomes clear he comes "prepared". As it runs out he has an additional pair of arms which come in really handy... in a fight. He manages to defend against Riannas attacks. But then all of a sudden he looks somewhat confused, trips trying to avoid an attack and ends up on the floor. Rianna jumps on top of him and grapples him, immobilizing his lower set of arms with her knees and controlling the upper arms with her hands. Voron taps out; Rianna wins!! Does this actually mean that I'll be seeing Wyatt again?! Harper takes me aside and him being a man of his word, tells me he'll release him as agreed. We shake hands and in doing so I secretly pass him five bullets to show him my gratitude and prepare for a solid alliance with him, once he's set up as the ruler of the tower.

The festivities continue and the evening is concluded with the poster-fight between Garrett and his best friend and recent addition to my gang: Tyrell. They make a big show out of, exchanging blows. But in the end it is Garrett who manages to bring Tyrell to the ground. The crowd goes wild for his victory but somehow he doesn't seem to notice. He continues to chokehold Tyrell until unexpectedly he grabs his head turns it breaking his neck in a snap. Everybody around the wrestling arena has heard the bone breaking sound and looks in shock at what just happened. Even Garrett is now looking down in shock.

I think some weird powers are at play here, so before anyone has a chance to do something against Garrett I get him up, twist his arm behind his back and drag him towards our quarters. Under my breath I command him to cooperate before any more harm is done. As I pass Jack, I order him to follow me. Once in my quarters I tie up Garrett and tell him I'll get to the bottom of this. He's still in shock over what just happened so he's as gentle as a lamb, so I think he'll remain docile. I tell Jack to guard the door, not just to avoid Garrett escaping, but more to avoid anyone wanting to go in to hurt him.

Meanwhile outside Tesla has a very good look at the crowd who were closest to where this all took place. He notices one person who's looking rather smug as compared to everyone looking around in shock. Conner is standing there, looking quite content with what just happened. As Tesla approaches him, he tells her "One less colored to worry about". Tesla calls out to Rianna that Conner somehow is responsible for all this. Together they try to catch him, but he manages to flee into the crowd. Rianna chases after him and finds him hiding in a corner. Meanwhile Tesla calls out for help to protect Rianna who's also of color and might turn into the next victim!

Rianna grabs Conner and drags him back to the courtyard. While the walk there, she all of a sudden lets go of him and Conner dashes of again, leaving behind a confused Rianna. I catch up with the others and learn about what has happened. Rianna and Bolt run for the watchtower to see if they can spot him from up there. I command everybody to search for Conner as well. Tesla goes to his quarters to see if she can find any hints on his whereabouts. There she finds a book with burning crosses and men dressed in white pointy hat outfits.

We hear a yell from the watchtower where Rianna is pointing to the bow of the Ark. There we now notice Conner waving around a gun, threatening to shoot anyone who tries to get close. Tesla orders him to drop the gun but he responds he'll never do that. She, together with Bolt and Rianna slowly approach him. And all of a sudden he catches fire, turning into a human torch. Before we can do anything about this he plunges overboard to his death, landing on the road beside the Ark in the form of a burning cross, how fitting...

22 - Day 28-30 - We've got a lot of tech catch up to do

Together with Tesla I go to Garrett to explain what has just happened tonight. This doesn't relieve the hurt of losing his best friend, but at least he knows he's not to blame. Afterwards I take Octavia along to Elona. She brings along the book to explain why Conner acted the way he did. Elona agrees this explains the strange deaths lately. And she also agrees we need to spread this news to avoid people attempting to lynch Garrett.

When I get back to my room, there are a few of Harpers men who are here to deliver Wyatt. I'm so incredibly glad to see him again, all in one piece. He explains he's been treated alright, apart from the fact that he was locked up.

The next morning we all prepare to bring Harper to the tower to get him instated as the new ruler there. I ask Garrett to take charge of guarding our Ark, to keep his mind occupied. He's glad this will give him something to do. I really want a gearhead along to figure out all the tech stuff in the tower and how we could benefit from that. So I ask Max along, as Bolt wants to remain at home to work on his projects. Max consults him about how to drive the cabrius (cabrio bus) and we get on our way, together with Harper and his entire gang, who will join him in the tower.

We make a quick stop at Lutrell to inform him about the upcoming change of power in the tower, and to thank him for the pigs.

When we reach the tower, we show Harper around. The women who had stayed behind are small in number and limited in power so they quickly subdue to him as if they accept him as the new Chairman. In the chairmans office we quickly grab the map which, according to Octavia does include some of the coordinates mentioned by the sound device.

Once Harper's settled in, Max and me do some research on all the tech in the tower. We discuss the power generating wheel and ponder how this could be turned without the use of men. Perhaps a wheel in the river, or putting part of a vehicle on its side to drive the wheel, could work. I'll leave it up to Max to ponder up and design options and discuss them with Bolt. We also find some tech trinkets which we take along. Meanwhile Octavia is researching the zone ghouls in the food storage room. She learns that they are really, really similar to humans and especially Pure-Ones.

The next day we head back home where we arrive just after lunchtime. And shortly after our arrival there's a yell from the watchtower. Something's rapidly approaching over the water. Tesla uses the telescopic brass tubes to check out what's approaching us. It appears to be a water vehicle just a bit larger than ours, but going at way greater speed than we can achieve. There are five people on board. There's a logo on the side with some text beneath it. Octavia cane make out it states "Noatun".

As they approach they slow down and land on our beach. What we now notice is that all five people look identical, not just their uniforms but also their faces. Just the hairdo is different for one of them. Finn and Tesla greet them, waving at them. They approach us with their hands held high and ask us who our leader is. I step forward and identify as such. One of them introduces himself as Farzad 17 and then introduces the rest of them as Farzad 9, 23, 25 and 29.

Then he goes on to explain that they're in dire need of help. They barely escaped from the clutches of Xerxes. To continue the discussion I invite them to go inside, but request that they leave their weapons with us. They'd rather store the guns in the boat though, but that's ok as well for me. These aren't the scrap guns we're used to! Bolt also remains at their boat together with Farzad 9 who'll "guard" it, mostly disallowing Bolt to open any hatches or dismantle the boat in another way.

Once inside, they explain they come from a group or corporation called Noatun. They were all born in the past two to three years in underwater cities where all Farzad come from. From these cities they're are transported to the surface where they have to work on oil rigs in service of Xerxes. It is a battery-powered droid in charge of the oil rigs. He recently started acting out of control as his supply of new Farzad seem to have dried up. Usually a vessel carrying new ones came along a few times per year, but it has gone silent for a long time now. Beside Farzad working on the rigs, also scientists and doctors live there.

The Farzad are now looking for help from us defeating Xerxes. In exchange they offer a fuel trade, as fuel is the stuff the produce on the rigs. They also offer to help us build a water vehicle which is way faster than ours to go to the rigs.

24 - Day 31 - Noatun has three problems and Xerxes isn't one of them

After the two water vessels take of to the $direction platform, together with the Farzad we decide to go to $otherdirection platform. We enter via the scaffolding and climb up to a bigger platform via some iron rungs.

As we enter that platform we hear a strange noise from the sky and notice four creatures flying by in the far distance. Remembering Felix' situation with the big bird I quickly scramble for an indoor location. Tesla and Bolt use the tubular far-seeing device to check out what these creatures are. Bolt was bouncing around in excitement as he considers them to be of mechanical nature. I'm not convinced though that they pose no threat. Bolt even manages to see some kind of text on the sides of the creatures, spelling out 'Elysium'. This triggers a big response from the Farzad and also Octavia recalls something about that name. We learn that the Noatun are at war with Elysium, so they are really glad the four creatures fly of again past the horizon. And me as well for that matter.

Than someone wearing a black skinsuit calls out to us, wondering who we are and what we're doing here. After we have talked for a moment he invites us higher up into the platform so we can talk face to face. We follow him passing various gang- and hallway's into a somewhat bigger room with crates on the side and tables and benches allowing for a more comfortable discussion.

Somehow along the way we seem to have lost Bolt but knowing him, he most likely is checking out all the technical stuff which we see in abundance here. Sometime into the discussion a woman wearing a white coat also joins in the conversation. They have introduced themselves as Ronald and Jona. He turns out to be a 'diver', someone who can swim and breathe under water. And she is a doctor, which immediately sparks Octavia's interest.

Jona is also interested in us, examining the mutation induced visual appearances. She'd really like to know where and how these occur. This escalates into a medical discussion between Octavia and her, talking about books and tools to perform their job. It's clear Octavia has a shitload still to learn. The conversation also turns to our mutations, where Bolt and Finn provide a brief demonstration making Jona dance involuntarily and afterwards feeling really happy about this...

Ronald and Jona seem to be more knowledgeable than the Farzad who are also still lacking a plan to take down Xerxes so I ask them what they think of the situation. It seems the reason for these few Farzad are setting up this riot is due to the ship that has been delayed for a few months now. They consider themselves less expandable than in the past. Then when a Farzad wasn't able to perform his job anymore he was sent to Xerxes' platform never to be seen again, but soon to be replaced by a new one.

Judging from our conversation the Farzaddon't have it so bad here, being treated pretty well, way better than the men in the tower. And we also learn that in the past these kind of thought and worries weren't present, so I'm starting to wonder if the problem isn't the big Noatun ship not returning, instead of Xerxes. He seems a capable leader, albeit a mechanical one, who manages to keep the fuel flow going on these oilrigs. I really start to worry fi we help get rid of him if this flow won't dry up, which was the entire bargaining point of the Farzad along with providing us with a capable water vessel.

As Ronald and Jona got their job to do, they leave us at it. Pointing to the crates for food and drinks. Now that we're left with just the Farzad we discuss out thoughts about this situation.