June 20, 2026

Sameplace in Time 7

ORUS Mission Log: Scene 3

Mission Log: Rats of the Black Death

Timeline: Venice, 15 March 1348 | Anomalous Target: Rth-thya-lyi (The Deep One)

🎭 Drop Zone: Piazza San Marco

The flashing neon skyline of New Angeles dissolves into a swirling grey mist. A moment later, your knees buckle slightly as a damp, chilly evening breeze catches you by surprise. The stale smell of smog is replaced by the brackish, salty tang of tidal waters mixed with the faint scent of wood smoke and roasting chestnuts.

“You arrive in Venice to find yourselves in a very large and paved public square, lined with grand palaces and buildings, and with many narrow streets leading away to the northwest, north, and northeast. It is early evening, and you are at the foot of a tall clock tower. Nearby and to the northwest are several very grand buildings, one of which appears to be a large church.

There are flashily-dressed guards who seem to be stopping crowds of ragged people who are trying to approach the church. There are two tall pillars to the south and slightly to the east, one of which is topped with a winged lion, and the other with an armored figure with a large halo, and a shield and spear. Through the pillars you can see water.”

Thanks to the ORUS-provided obfuscator chips hum-pulsing on your gear, the passing locals pay no attention to your strange apparel. Your wristbands hum into life: ‘Venice, 1348, Deep One, jewelry’ accompanied by a steady red 'Stop' icon. The spatiotemporal extrapolator locks onto the signature, pointing its glowing crimson arrow southwest, deeper into the maritime heart of the Serenissima.

[Temporal Intelligence Note]: The agents have dropped into the Piazza San Marco. The massive church nearby is the Basilica di San Marco, and the tower they stand beneath is the Campanile. The city is currently overflowing with desperate refugees who fled from the mainland following massive crop failures last year and a devastating earthquake in January. Furthermore, unbeknownst to the populace, a Genoese fleet arriving from the Crimea has just brought a silent killer to port: the Bubonic Plague.

🛶 Navigating the Serene Republic

The team checks their resources. While physical injuries have fully mended and consumable gear has been automatically replenished during the time-leap, the temporal jump has left them with just enough local Venetian coinage for a single transaction each. They must act quickly to reach the target location before the asymptomatic Deep One spreads the plague across Europe, triggering a secondary Dark Age that would stall the Renaissance for centuries.

The tracking arrow points directly toward the mouth of the Grand Canal, leaving the agents with two distinct pathways to intercept Maestro Rithialli:

📋 Tactical Approaches to Finding the Anomaly:

From the foot of the Campanile, how will the party navigate the labyrinth of Venice to locate the tavern where the Deep One is partying?

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June 19, 2026

Someplace in Time 6

ORUS Mission Log: Scene 2 - Grand Finale

Mission Log: The Seventh Sun

Timeline: New Angeles, 2050 | Current Objective: Neutralize Swizzilizzti

🎸 A Symphony of Science and Shotguns

The cosmic ritual reaches its fever pitch, but our agents launch a masterfully synchronized multi-phase counter-offensive. Moving with theatrical precision, Lucy sprints toward the soundboard scaffolding. With a brilliant smirk, she uses her knowledge of cult electronics to override the audio matrix, instantly jamming the stadium's volume-11 amplifiers. A staggering, high-frequency sonic feedback screech tears through the loudspeakers, shattering the Mi-Go's hypnotic chant and causing the alien lobster to clutch its carapace in agony.

With the creature's telepathic frequency broken and its minions dazed, Dr. Stella Pfennig executes the ultimate scientific intervention. Sneaking directly up to the stage's heavy industrial fog machines, she empties her pocket chemistry kit into the liquid reservoirs. Within seconds, a massive, luminescent neuro-chemical vapor floods the stage. The localized gas neutralizes the lingering cosmic radiation, lifting the trance from the dancers and severely slowing the metabolic reflexes of both the Mi-Go and the rampaging dire bear.

Now that the stage is set and the enemy thoroughly weakened, Corporal Morgan Osprey delivers the grand finale. Igniting his modified retro jet pack, he blasts high into the stadium air, tracing a spectacular arc of white fire against the darkening sky. He crashes down onto the stage center-stage like a meteor, the physical shockwave scattering the chrome dancers. Dropping to one knee, Osprey instantly fires a heavy, concussive blast from his 12-gauge shotgun, blowing the wireless microphone clean off the fungus creature's body and pinning the disoriented disco-wigged bear to the floorboards.

🎲 SYSTEM MECHANICS: MUTED MESSENGER

The party combines a high-volume sonic disruption, an engineered neuro-chemical fog, and a spectacular airborne heavy combat entry to completely overwhelm the Mi-Go ritual.

Challenge Difficulty: CR 40 (Very Hard)

Lead Character: Dr. Pfennig

Calculation: Mental (2) + Scientist (1) + Chemistry Kit (2) = +5 Bonus

Assisted By: Lucy (Audio Jam: +1), Cpl. Osprey (Jetpack Entry: +1), Dr. Stevens (+1)

Total Party Bonus: +8

GM Secret Target: 31

Success Span: 23 to 39

Player's Estimate: 32 (Critical Success!!!)

Result: Critical Success! By guessing exactly one away from the secret number, the party achieves absolute triumph. The hypnotic broadcast is permanently severed, the cosmic portal collapses harmlessly back into the upper atmosphere, and the entire stadium erupts into thunderous cheers, completely convinced this spectacular display was part of the opening ceremony's special effects.

🏺 Future Contained

As the stunned pink-and-blue creature slumps over the sound equipment, Lucy wastes no time. She aims the orange molecular compressor pistol and squeezes the trigger, instantly shrinking the five-foot fungoid lobster down into a harmless, pocket-sized specimen. Corporal Osprey snaps the lid of our second stasis jar shut, sealing Swizzilizzti away next to Maynard Rollins.

The hypnotized musicians collapse in sheer exhaustion, while the massive prehistoric bear, completely cured of its alien influence, simply lumbers over to the side of the stage to feast on the abandoned catering tables. The ceasefire holds, and the catastrophic, immediate destruction of the world has been successfully averted.

Dr. Stevens raises the silver cavalry sword high into the air. Instantly, all of our spatiotemporal extrapolator wristbands flash with a blinding green text matrix, reading out our next temporal destination.

"The wristbands read: 'Venice, 1348, Deep One, jewelry.' We tap the green 'GO' icon... our knees turn to water, the neon skyline of New Angeles dissolves into a swirling grey void, and the irresistible pull of the space-time continuum sweeps us backward into the distant past..."

Scene 2 Completed! The future has been preserved. Next stop: the canals of plague-ridden Venice!

COORDINATES LOCKED: VENICE, 1348

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June 18, 2026

Someplace in Time 5

ORUS Mission Log: Scene 2 - Subterranean Flight

Mission Log: Beneath the Concrete Sky

Timeline: New Angeles, 2050 | Current Objective: Navigate the Maintenance Tunnels

tunneling through the dark

With helidrone missiles raining down on the stadium field and the Mi-Go's hypnotic chant echoing from the main stage, the open ground is a death trap. Thinking ahead, Corporal Morgan Osprey makes a bold executive decision. Before the team dives into the maintenance stairs near the food court, he grabs a pair of experimental rocket boots and a twin set of 1984 jet packs from the upper pavilion's flying display. "We aren't just walking through these tunnels," Osprey grins, strapping the heavy fuel tanks over his security gear. "We're bypassing the maze entirely."

The team plunges down the broad flight of concrete stairs, escaping the flashing strobe lights into the vast, dark concrete underbelly of the stadium. Ahead of them lies a complex network of maintenance tunnels and high-clearance sewage mains that crisscross the stadium infrastructure. The air down here is heavy, thick with the smell of old rust and subterranean dampness.

Dr. Stella Pfennig steps up as the vanguard. Utilizing her keen scientific mind, she quickly examines the high-tech mechanisms of the salvaged jet packs and rocket boots. Using a few tools from her medical kit, she recalibrates the fuel-to-air ratio of the 1984 thrusters, transforming them from unpredictable retro displays into highly stable, high-velocity propulsion units. "Keep your heads low," she warns, clicking her own rocket boots into place. "The ceiling clearance in these drainage corridors is incredibly narrow."

With Osprey coordinating the flight formation and Dr. Pfennig perfectly stabilizing the thrusters, the team ignites the flying apparatus. Brilliant plumes of blue and white fire light up the dark concrete walls as the agents launch horizontally down the tunnel system, flying at breakneck speeds directly beneath the feet of eighty thousand oblivious spectators above.

🎲 SYSTEM MECHANICS: SUBTERRANEAN JETPACK NAVIGATION

The party navigates the underground tunnels, and incorporates the flying apparatus to turn the grueling trek into a spectacular high-speed flight challenge.

Challenge Difficulty: CR 30 (Moderate Avoidance)

Lead Character: Cpl. Osprey

Calculation: Physical (3) + Security Officer (1) + Flying Apparatus Boon (+1) = +5 Bonus

Assisted By: Dr. Pfennig (Scientist/Calibration: +2), Lucy (+1), Dr. Stevens (+1)

Total Party Bonus: +10

GM Secret Target: 17

Success Span: 7 to 27

Player's Estimate: 18 (Near Critical Success!!!)

Result: Near Critical Success! Thanks to Dr. Pfennig's impeccable engine tuning and Corporal Osprey's expert flight leadership, the team expertly weaves through the low-hanging pipes and tight turns of the concrete maze. They navigate the entire distance in record time without hitting a single obstacle or falling into the foul sewage lines below. They cross the stadium underbelly completely unscathed!

🎤 Breaking the Frequency

The thrusters cut out with a synchronized hiss as the agents touch down flawlessly at the far end of the northern utility corridor. Just ahead, a flight of steel service stairs leads directly upward. Pushing the heavy access door open, the team emerges onto the rear scaffolding of the massive central stage. The deafening, bass-heavy vibrations of the "Untamed Stallions" thump through the floorboards beneath our boots.

Stepping out from behind the curtain, the scene is terrifyingly surreal. Above us, the violet-streaked cosmic vortex is spinning violently in the sky, caught in a tug-of-war with the high-powered neon blimp. On stage, the hypnotized dancers in chrome bodystockings execute sharp, robotic kicks while the two lead guitarists continue their monotonous, trance-like chant.

Right in the center stands the Mi-Go, Swizzilizzti. Its glistening, pink-and-blue lobster claws clack in rhythm with the music, and the wireless microphone taped to its outer carapace amplifies its maddening, extraterrestrial buzzing directly into the ears of eighty thousand mesmerized fans. Beside it, the massive, twelve-foot cloned short-nosed dire bear—sporting a wild, multi-colored disco wig—rears up on its hind legs, ready to crush any threat to its alien master. The time to strike is now.