PALISADE 34: Seize the Chance Pt. 5

Seize the Chance Pt. 5
Episode information
Episode	34
Release Date	Dec 1, 2023
Length	1 hour 37 minutes
Content Warnings	Death, the description of corpses, false memories, illusions, vomiting, medical experimentation
Meta
Cast	Austin Walker Ali Acampora Andrew Lee Swan Janine Hawkins Keith J. Carberry Sylvi Bullet
Game	Armour Astir
Score	Nothing is Stationary
Episode guide
Previous	Seize the Chance Pt. 4
Previous	Seize the Chance Pt. 4
Next	Weapons Ready Pt. 1
Next	Weapons Ready Pt. 1
Previous Arc	Honesty and Integrity
Previous Arc	Honesty and Integrity
Next Arc	Weapons Ready
Next Arc	Weapons Ready
Links
Episode Page	friendsatthetable.net
Transcript	Google Docs

Episode description

Where has the crew of the Blue Channel gone? For Eclectic Opposition, the answer is easy, if dire: In the passenger seat of a Baseline-C security vehicle, under the watchful eyes of the Divine Resonance, scrambling for a way out. For the support staff, like Hunting Tomorrow and Partial Palisade, the answer is scanning for the others. And those others? They are so close—under five miles away from the ship’s landing zone—yet so, so far. Deep in the Catacombs of Dust. Deeper, still, living new lives, considering what might be, what might have been, and what yet might still come.

This week on PALISADE: Seize the Chance Pt. 5

Let loose the wide world that holds you / Scratch through / Your waves linger

Dossier

People

Partial Palisade (he/him): A man who was once a Divine, now living in the shell of a being quite unlike what he once was.
Midnite Matinee (she/her): Leporine scout and member of the Blue Channel. She and her trusty Pack-model light AutoHollow Popcorn used to run a repo company, but now are tentatively committed to the Cause and Millennium Break.
Elle Evensong (she/they): Elle arrived to Palisade along with the first wave of Devotees, making a name for herself as a cunning combatant and clever commander. She became a poster child for Twilight Mirage's support of Palisade (and, for members of the Dim Liturgy, a prophesied bridge between the past and the future). But as the war began to heat up, she seemed to vanish into the background. In fact, they were working for the Divine, Arbitrage as a double agent. Cori blames them for the death of her father. Pilot of the Cataphract.
Murchy “Murch” Saltburn (she/her): A gig-cop working for Lock & Cross Security Services in Baseline-C.
Alise Breka (she/her): Once, Alise was most popular for her Renegade Hearts books of daring pulp adventure. Now she is one of the chief propagandists of Millennium Break, turning their struggles (and victories) into novels, screenplays, and other media.

Factions

Bilateral Intercession: One of two factions vying for leadership of the Principality, comprised by Stels Kesh and Nideo, and lead by the so-called Peaceful Princept, Cynosure Whitestar-Kesh (he/him), who took control of the faction from the Curtain, a secretive intelligence organization with roots in Kesh’s ancient spy operations. The “Bilats” are a conservative and reactionary force, aiming to return the Principality to its roots both literally and figuratively. After a long campaign against the Pact of Free States, they managed to take control of Palisade.
The Bilateral Intelligence Service: Formerly called the Curtain, the BIS is a Kesh-operated organization which specializes in espionage, subterfuge, and surveillance. Recently removed from power on Palisade
Stel Kesh: The oldest established power in the galaxy, built around a stuffy (and secretive) aristocracy. They are tied to the Past. History, knowledge, stubbornness.
Stel Nideo: Created the largest faith in the empire, and used that influence to shape (and surveil) mass culture. They are tied to the Present. Faith, coercion, stability.
The Frontier Syndicate: A powerful conglomerate with a broad purview, including technology, heavy industry, entertainment, telecommunications, and transportation. Led by Exenceaster March (he/him), the Syndicate betrayed the Pact of Free States and joined the Bilats in order to be part of their colonization efforts on Palisade.
The Pact of Free States: One of the two factions vying for leadership of the Principality, a joint operation by Stels Columnar and Apostolos. Led in name by the Glorious Princept, Dahlia (they/them), but operated in day-to-day matters by members of the original Pact of Necessary Venture, including Rye (he/him) and Gallica (she/her). Though they are reformist in some ways, their primary goal is greater autonomy for each Stel, freedom from the legal restraints, taxes, and oversights demanded by the Principality, with additional deregulation to follow downstream.
Fabreal Duchy: When the Divine Principality left Palisade nearly 5,000 years ago, they left behind a Duke and his barons as caretakers. In the generations that followed, they ruled as petty tyrants, creating Delegates as their slaves, remaking their bodies into glass and oil, and extending their reach across Palisade’s continents. Though they officially report to their handlers in Stel Kesh, recently they have begun to wonder if things were better before the Principality's return to Palisade.

Places

Diadem Gravtrain: While the vast trench-city on Palisade's equator lays abandoned, Kesh has reactivated its railway via an operations center in the city of Carmathen.
Collier: The agricultural world where Thisbe was dug up and eventually sold to mercenaries. A planet that, due to the Farmer's Rebellion, was removed from all Principality maps and effectively abandoned. Became the "breadbasket" of Millennium Break, a farming world to support the revolutionary movement.

Divines

The Divine Filigree: The instrumentalized operating core of Palisade's extensive GravTrain system. Currently being taken into Dust's catacombs by the affliction's minions.
The Divine Motion (she/her): One of the founding members of the Pact, the necromantic Apostolosian divine once led its infamous retinue, the Black Century, on Partizan. They were defeated and dispersed, turned into part of Kalmeria, during Operation Shackled Sun.
The Divine, Arbitrage (it/its): The amoral machine turned de facto treasurer keeps the Frontier Syndicate a step ahead in all matters of commerce. Sole minter of “glint,” a newly popular currency on Palisade.
The Divine Integrity (it/its): Sometimes appearing as an articulated staff or a metallic spine, Integrity integrates itself into its chosen user. Once the two are connected, Integrity becomes a powerful exoskeleton, and supports its user in matters of military and morale. Until being assassinated by Brnine, Dahlia, the Glorious Princept, was the elect of Integrity.
The Divine Resonance (it/its): The watchful guardian, doting caregiver, and ardent supporter of Nideo's colonial efforts on Palisade.
Asepsis (it/its): The final living remnants of a Divine who pursues its particular vision of purity at the cost of everything else. Kept, studied, and utilized by Captain Kalvin Brnine.

Objects

The Broken Spoke: The Figure’s bipedal and asymmetrical mech, The Broken Spoke is made of a matte crystaline material that has Russian Sage seemingly sprouting out between its joints. It has stout legs. Its right arm carries a glaive; its left "arm", or what would pass as such, is an oversized cannon with an attached shield. This oversized half of the mech is covered by a flowing cloak.
BAC Hatchets: Appearing like fantastical knights made of tooth enamel, the Divine Consecration's latest machine of war, derived from parts recovered from the Divines Felicity and Souciance, buried inside of Chimera's Lantern. The Hatchets wield axes that sport long, weaponized chains running from the bottom of their hafts, and the materials used in their construciton make them sturdier than most front line units. The trio of Hatchets deployed by Stel Nideo to capture the "train brain" are piloted by three brothers: Calamedes, Caspin, and Caydor.
Saint: A series of mechs piloted by knights that served the original Crown of Glass, a major power on the pre-Divine Principality-era Twilight Mirage world of Quire.

Mysteries

Perennial (she/her):  The Principality's so-called 'adversary,' who lives at the center of the galaxy and whose chaotic whims spread through her "Perennial Wave," an ever-present nanoparticle that has recently bonded with Kalmeria.
The Five Afflictions: A group of “monstrous” beings that haunt the dark corners of Palisade. They have been named as follows: Dust a.k.a Pride’s Mirror a.k.a. The Looking Glass Refrain a.k.a. Yesterday’s Reprise  a.k.a. The Ghastly Chorus Ravel a.k.a. Labyrinth’s Thread a.k.a. The Hedge Maze Cleave a.k.a. Whetstone’s Opposite a.k.a. The Sanguine Hatchet Oversight a.k.a. Hell’s Facade a.k.a. The Empty Garden
Flash Nautilus: An alien creature who uses plasma-energy for propulsion. Compelled into service by Stel Nideo.

Contents

Plot

A-Plot: Dust's Catacombs

Brnine helps out with farmwork in Thisbe's dreamworld, and the two of them agree to meet up at a bar called The Turnip at the end of the day. They do so and have an awkward conversation.

In his own dream, Figure convinces Cori that the world they're in is not real. Cori casts Consecrate Ground and makes it so that no one within her consecrated area can take violent action against one another or knowingly lie to her. This instantly ends all active Dust dreams in the procession. Cori feels Devotion's anger at her using its magic to prevent violence. Embittered, Cori breaks her Sword tenet.

When they wake in the catacombs, everyone finds a Dust doppelganger of themselves next to them, and they still can't hear. From the front of the procession, Dust advances on them, angry about being constricted by Cori's magic. Brnine stands in front of Dust and tries to communicate with it, and Dust sends Brnine a flood of images, which Thisbe helps them parse.

Dust shows Brnine and Thisbe that back when it was still Reflection, there was a Divine on Palisade called Filigree. Filigree spread across the planet, connecting everyone and creating a beautiful pattern on the world that showed how everyone was connected. When the nascent Divine Principality arrived, it and the Fabreal Duchy leashed and experimented on Filigree by trapping it, taking away all means of self-expression, and using it as a tool to manage the Gravtrain and the entire Diadem system. The "train brain" is, in fact, the Divine Filigree.

Brnine can tell that Dust wants Filigree, but they don't know what Dust wants it for. They reach a degree of understanding with Dust, which agrees to let them take Filigree and gives everyone their hearing back. Dust asks to hear about the world outside the Diadem before Brnine leaves, because it hasn't been able to leave the Diadem in 5,000 years. Brnine plays footage for Dust from the Blue Channel's cameras, showing it the outside world.

For the next week, Figure dreams about the world from their Dust vision. It feels even more real in their dreams. Then they begin to dream about other timelines, too. They remember Gur telling them that Perennial had seen their dream before, and that it was real.

B-Plot: Baseline-C

Eclectic's new cop friend, Murch Saltburn, makes conversation about Alise Breka's oeuvre as she drives Eclectic out of the city. She tells Eclectic that he needs an ID for the checkpoint out of the city, and he convinces her to ignore the checkpoint and "floor it" on the basis that by doing so, she might make it into one of Breka's future novels. Murch radios in that she's in hot pursuit of a suspect and floors it. They get out of Baseline-C.

Cast

• Austin Walker (GM)
• Ali Acampora (Kalvin Brnine)
• Andrew Lee Swan (The Figure)
• Janine Hawkins (Thisbe)
• Sylvi Bullet (Coriolis Sunset)
• Keith J. Carberry (Eclectic Opposition)

Other Characters

• Devotion
• Murch Saltburn
• Dust
• Elle Evensong
• Filigree