Chapter 7: PROMOTION

Special Note: The MCs have time between Chapters 6 through 10 to tackle as many sidequests as they want. The plot pauses for them after each chapter, until they decide to move it along by going to the next one. There will be mentions during those sidequests that the Arba treatment of the Nikan has gotten worse: that they've stepped up their policing and tried to root out the Resistance. Some people even say they've heard of Divu throwing people off rooftops himself.

In Brief: Seeking a rematch with Sken, the MCs scale Aleph Tower to the Aerie. They battle Sken and rescue Siva, but not before hearing Sken complaining to her valkyries that Divu's gone insane with his latest orders. After the fight Siva tells them they must go to the Archive and try to understand what it was that has driven Divu over the edge.

Scenes

  1. Entering Aleph Tower (minigame:sneak or combat)
  2. Scale the Tower (cutscene)
  3. Discovered! (minigame:chase or combat)
  4. Rematch with Sken. (boss fight)
  5. Bring Siva back to the Code Shrine. (cutscene and conversation)

Locations

Aleph Entrance
(Loot this area to find Black Ring, which cuts Lightning damage against the Sorcerer twice.)
7 Sken Breakers, 3 Sken Scouts

Aleph Tower
(Loot this area to find Fine Kimono, which raises the Ronin's Connect and Resist scores once each. This is an armor item.)
6 Arba Security Drones Mk. 5, 3 Sken Breakers, 2 Sken Scouts

The Aerie
(Loot this area to find the Scout Jacket, which gives the Gunslinger immunity to the Sticky and Unstable area statuses.)
Sken, encountered with 5 Sken Scouts and 5 Sken Breakers

Minigames

Entering Aleph Tower: Sneak
The MCs don't need to fight their way into Aleph; they could sneak in through the basement tunnels instead.

Success: The MCs successfully sneak into the tower. They may each stash one card.
Three of a kind: The MCs sneak into the tower but end up paranoid. They discard their best card after reloading at the start of the next fight.
Two pair: The MCs sneak into the tower by causing a distraction, but this alerts people to their presence. They must face the Aleph Tower fight in addition to running into that again later (when they can choose to fight or run).
One pair: The MCs are caught and all of their good gear is taken away. They still have the opportunity to fight Sken, but they will need to use the scavenged gear they found in the Pits. The players might want to reload.
Ace/Joker: The MCs are caught while exposed on the tower's grounds. Sken kills them all with a continuous rain of knives from above. Spend Patience to reload.

Discovered! Chase
While going up the tower, the MCs are discovered by the mobs listed for the Aleph Tower battlefield. They'll need to fight or run.

Blowout victory: The MCs outdistance their foes and lock the door on them.
Close victory: The MCs escape, but can't get the door locked. Each round of the Aerie fight, add one Sken Breaker to the battlefield until Sken is downed.
Close loss: The MCs can't evade the mobs and must fight.
Blowout loss: The MCs are caught and must fight. In addition, they are so tired from trying to outrun the mobs that they lose their best two cards after reloading at the start of the fight.

Mobs

Sken Breaker: 300 HP, Dmg 70, Range 0, Acc 6+, Move Auto/1, Evade 10+, Resist J+
Special attack: Lights Out. Sken breakers, when in Aleph, can make an area Dark instead of attacking.
Special attack: Disarm. If this attack hits, it deals no damage but disarms an MC instead. They recover their weapon at the end of the battle.
Special ability: Knockback. Sken breakers knock those they hit back one area.
Special ability: Night Vision Goggles. Sken breakers are immune to the Dark area status.
AI: Stay between Sken scouts and the MCs. Turn the lights out in your area and knock the MCs back out of it.

Sken Scout: 200 HP, Dmg 50, Range 0, Acc 5+, Move Auto/2, Evade J+, Resist Q+
Special attack: Caltrops. Sken scouts can make an area Hazardous instead of attacking.
Special ability: Flight. Sken scouts are immune to the effects of Hazardous, Unstable, Sticky, and Vulnerable areas.
Special ability: Defender. Sken scouts can Cover for each other and for Sken without needing to play a card.
AI: Move toward the individual with the highest damage rating and attack them.

Arba Security Drones Mk. 5: 200 HP, Dmg 30, Range 2, Acc 4+, Move Auto/1, Evade J+, Resist J+
Special ability: Phased Out. Areas containing the drone have the Mirrored area status. The drone is in location 1 when it arrives. If others are in the area when it moves, they are placed in location 0. Those who move in later can pick their destination.
Status: Noclip. If this status is removed, the drone is immediately downed and the Mirrored area status is removed without harm.
AI: Move on top of the largest group of MCs and attack those who leave that group.

Bosses: Sken

Sken
6,000 HP
Move 5/10, Evade 10+, Resist 10+
Attack: Sword. Dmg 50, Range 0, Acc 4+
Alternate attack: Throwing Knives. Dmg 30, Range 2, Acc 5+
Special attack: Rain of Daggers. Pay 2 Move Points to use Throwing Knives as an area attack that hits enemies only.
Special attack: Throw Off. Attack all of Sken's enemies in her area with her sword, and then move them out of the area in her choice of direction. Play two cards for this and use the better one.

Status: Armored. Sken's status byte starts off locked.
No special hackable values.

Special ability: Flying. Sken is immune to the effects of Hazardous, Unstable, Sticky, and Vulnerable areas.
Special ability: Status Reset Subroutine. At the beginning of each round, the CPU draws a card. If it's a face card, Sken's status byte is reset to her default settings.

Reward

After winning this fight, all characters receive the next Exploit on their class list. This should be:

  • Ronin - Measure the Moment
  • Gunslinger - Suppressive Fire
  • Gambler - Under the Table
  • Sorcerer - Wave Blast
  • Hacker - Wifi Antenna

Miniature: If the players have 1 Patience left at The Aerie, they can spend it to find the item "1/30 Scale Ga'ashekelah"

Numeral: 4
CHESED

Disk One Chapters

  1. Keycard Access
  2. Canonical Method
  3. Power Supply
  4. Raid
  5. Shadow Root
  6. Bit Rot
  7. Promotion
  8. Archived Data
  9. Superhighway
  10. PvP
  11. (End of Disk One)
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