PALISADE 07: The Canvas of Dreams Pt. 2

The Canvas of Dreams Pt. 2
Episode information
Episode	07
Release Date	April 20, 2023
Length	01:44:40
Meta
Cast	Austin Walker Ali Acampora Andrew Lee Swan Janine Hawkins Sylvia Bullet Keith J. Carberry
Game	Armour Astir
Score	Nothing is Stationary
Episode guide
Previous	The Canvas of Dreams Pt. 1
Previous	The Canvas of Dreams Pt. 1
Next	The Canvas of Dreams Pt. 3
Next	The Canvas of Dreams Pt. 3
Previous Arc	I Would Like to Help You
Previous Arc	I Would Like to Help You
Next Arc	The Wheels Turning
Next Arc	The Wheels Turning
Links
Episode Page	friendsatthetable.net
Transcript	Google Docs

Episode description

The Isle of the Broken Key sits in the northern Whisk Sea, shrouded in mist and mystery both. Tonight, one of its oldest structures, a stately seaside fortress, plays home to a revolutionary masquerade party. Its hosts, informed by both RSVPs and the glass-etched predictions of a broken oracle engine, anticipated many visitors, including some from beyond Palisade itself. But there is, nevertheless, an unannounced visitor tonight. And it has an invitation of its own.

This week on PALISADE: The Canvas of Dreams Pt. 2

Regardless, my pictures / well they don’t line your mirror

Regardless, you know that / I'll still wait for your call

Dossier

Organizations

Violet Cove: The Dim Liturgy claim to have seen the Divine Devotion's arrival coming in their sacred text: A battered and corrupted backup of Crystal Palace's final predictions for the future. Now the two cults work together to oust the Bilats... and perhaps to do more intriguing things, as well.

People

“Gem” (she/her): Codename given to the target of Operation Midnight Lapidary. Reported to be a major dealer in precious metals and stones from Stel Orion, here to attend the coronation of the returned Duchess Constantina Malady.
Griesel Sunset (he/him): Coriolos' father, a zealous Devotee. Currently lives on the Isle of the Broken Key.
Saint Decario Dicario (he/him): Devoted Devotee warmonger and one-time lover of the Twilight Mirage rockstar Teleos Triton Tanager.
General Tomorrow Mourning (she/her): Leader of the Qui'Err Coalition's forces en route to the Twilight Mirage.
Marlon Styx a.k.a. “Em” (he/him): Undercover BIS agent assigned to infiltrate Violet Cove. Has become enamored with the Dim Liturgy’s holy text.

Places

Bontive Valley: Blessed by the departed divine Bounty, the Valley provides the Bilats with fruit that never rots and hyper-nutritional grain.
Isle of the Broken Key: Home of the Dim Liturgy since its obscure creation thousands of years ago. Now serves as base for the entire Violet Cove unit of the Cause, including the Devotees and (most recently) additional support teams from the Twilight Mirage.

Mysteries

Refrain a.k.a. Yesterday’s Reprise a.k.a. The Ghastly Chorus:  An abandoned theater attended to by a spectral audience, which appears as if from nowhere, appended to the edge of a community. Upon the stage, a flickering projection of a person no one knows. Today, that person is the traveler named Lattice (they/them).

Things

EF Vambrace: Created by House Evenfall Altarworks, the Vambrace is the unlikely workhorse of the Kesh Altar fleet. With four arms worth of melee weapons and a mounted missile launcher, the Vambrace is able to reach the enemy under self-provided cover fire, defend themselves in melee until an opportunity presents itself, and then deliver the final blow.
AdArm Bouquet: Designed by Stel Orion’s Adamant Arms and Artifice as an Altar-era update to the classic Troop design. It’s still boxy (if a little trimmer) and it retains it’s wide, rectangular “eye” on its head. Gone are the heavy grip claws, replaced with traditional, five-fingered hands, allowing it more complex manipulations, including the operations of its distinctive Roundless Rifle, which seems convert raw Perennial Wave into ammunition. Additionally, the shoulder mount has ditched the heavy cannon in exchange for a close range, pneumatic lance that can devastate even the strongest armor. Roundless rifle looks like an H&K G11, and fires condensed Perennial Wave gathered from the atmosphere itself.
AdArm Motion Engine: Core to all of Adamant Arms and Artifice’s new designs, the Motion Engine was derived from salvaged parts of the lost Divine of the same name, offering a reliable, long lasting, and flexible source of power.

Contents

Plot

Masquerade Party

Em continues to stick to Phrygian's side, showing Phrygian around the castle while Phrygian becomes more and more frustrated. They come across an entire theatre on the castle grounds that Em doesn't recognize.

Meanwhile, Brnine mingles among the partygoers and overhears Griesel Sunset and Saint Decario Dicario discussing a plan to dilute some negative effect of working with Devotion by recruiting more Devotees.

Brnine goes looking for a drink, but they end up outside on a strange walkway. Some kind of force seems to draw them toward a theatre, outside of which is a crowd dressed like people from another era. As Brnine approaches they realize that something inside the theatre smells like Valence and that there is a figure standing on the stage. They text Jesset a photo of the walkway and tell him to come find them, but he does not arrive before the crowd begins to enter the theatre. Brnine follows them.

The person on the stage is Nobel; they introduce themself as Lattice. Lattice and Brnine converse, and when Brnine mentions the Cause, Lattice appears to become frustrated or sad: "Will more die in a futile fight?" Lattice tells Brnine that they fled the Nobel and joined the Divine Fleet. When it became clear that the Fleet would be destroyed, they and numerous others donated themselves to create a living archive of the Fleet's most utopian era. They came to this region of space with "Palisade and Antiquity, and the others" but in time they were all defeated.

Lattice is intrigued by Brnine, but Brnine is unsuccessful in an attempt to convince Lattice to side with Millennium Break. Lattice and the crowd disappear, leaving Brnine in an empty theatre. Jesset, Phrygian and Em all enter as soon as the ghosts have vanished.

Operation Midnight Lapidary

Figure chases down the train carrying Gem. Coriolis arrives on scene in her Chariot Mk. 2 just as a Vambrace emerges from the rear train car. Cori deploys her mech's ruin blade and attacks the Vambrace head-on. Her attempt to remove the Vambrace's arm does not succeed, and both she and the Vambrace are left off-balance.

Figure catches up to the train to find that Thisbe is not present: she has left Mow and entered the train, finding and cornering Gem. Figure also realizes that one of the detached train cars is full of resources that can be used to help Grey Pond. He attacks with his mech's explosive chains and, together with Cori, neutralizes not only the Vambrace but also two enemy Bouquet units that were about to stage an ambush. The fight leaves the train defenseless, Cori's ruin blade broken, and Figure's mech melting from the raw energy of his attack.

Cast

• Austin Walker (GM)
• Ali Acampora (Kalvin Brnine)
• Andrew Lee Swan (The Figure in Bismuth)
• Janine Hawkins (Thisbe)
• Sylvia Clare (Coriolis Sunset)
• Keith J. Carberry (Phrygian)

Other Characters

• Griesel Sunset
• Saint Decario Dicario
• Marlon Styx
• Jesset City
• Refrain and Lattice
• Tenn Alpenglow (unnamed)
• 

  This section contains spoilers for PALISADE 09: The Canvas of Dreams Pt. 4.
  Click here to reveal.

  The Usher of Truth