Text;

[undyingcrow]

In light of recent events, I believe we're past due for more information gathering.

First, I'd like to discuss the tower we encountered last month. There were... interesting messages scrawled across its surface, which I thankfully wrote down before its destruction.

They read:

"This remnant-

Carved from [...] First Impact Remains [...]

Meant to be left alone. The Tears used it in their ritual-

Now it's out of control, changing everything it can"

The Convoy Database regards the Silver Tears as effectively the antithesis of the Steel Wardens. Reverent to the moon and its "blessings" (the transformations). I've no doubt they're the ones behind the scattered shrines we encountered some months prior...

And, obviously, we're well acquainted with those wretched Wardens, with their hypocritical obsession with "purging" this world of monsters.

The words "First Impact" stick out to me as significant. I actually spoke with Blake-san about it as well, and she encountered similar mentions of an impact in scavenged books that had a great deal of information scrubbed clean.

There is clearly something that one of the factions does not want us to discover. Given my previous findings, we know that something of significance was broken in two, that the moon goddess suffers in anguish, and a ritual failed, with us as replacement participants to "share her pain" and "put the ritual right."

But now, thanks to that sagebrush, some of us have been gifted with visions, and I believe that if we share our findings, we can come closer to the truth.

In my case, I witnessed a woman dispatching a monster before turning to panicked civilians and murdering one of them in cold blood. Presumably, she went on to kill the rest of them, but the vision ended there.

For the sake of this post, I believe the most pertinent information is:

• Where you had the vision.
• The description of the vision...

An optional detail:

• The object that sparked the vision.

Mine was in the battleground, and the vision came as I tried ripping the sword from a fallen cyborg's hand.

Comments

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[hexrot]

In the Hospital:

• Partially transformed patient on an operating table. Doctors were tattooing sigils on them.
• The door to the room is blasted off its hinges, with armed figures on the other side. They open fire.

[undyingcrow]

Thank you, Jayce-san.

[That has... implications. Rather unpleasant ones, at that.]

I imagine the armed figures were either the Wardens or the beginnings of a faction that would one day become the Wardens.

But I have to wonder if the doctors were their own group outside the Tears and the Wardens. The sigils are... concerning. Perhaps precursors to our own sigils?

[hexrot]

They were incredibly similar to ours, I'll give you that.

We'll need more evidence to support it. It could be possible the groups formed afterwards. Might just be my hunch, but it feels more likely for commonfolk to see the work of medical science as a miracle than doctors themselves.

[undyingcrow]

To those without an understanding of science, there's little separating it from magic. There comes a time where one's left to question what truly distinguishes the two.

What strikes me is the writing on the tower. If it was formed from "First Impact remains," then that begs the question of when this "First Impact" transpired.

If I had to wager a guess, it may have been the inciting incident. The very first Moon Warp.

[hexrot]

[..... huh. ]

When I was experimenting with the runes, I had a reoccuring dream of a Moon Warp, right over an active population. A city.

It didn't look like it'd happen before.

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[solitarysoul]

we are the last defense against the moon mad and the warped. We protect the few humans left, where our science failed. we purge sickness to protect those who remain

[It took him awhile to figure out how to format text, but he managed it. He's proud of himself for doing do.]

where the remains of the metal men and the unknown monster were. i don't remember what i touched.

[undyingcrow]

Repulsive ideology.

They think they're so righteous, so "pure" in their intentions, yet they cull the masses indiscriminately.

Still, "those who remain" implies unchanged humans could exist... assuming they didn't force assimilation upon them.

[solitarysoul]

i don't get whats the big deal about remaining pure. nobody's really pure anything.

it sounds like a cult.

[undyingcrow]

Ironic. They oppose the Silver Tears, yet they themselves are just as cultish.

Their hypocrisy truly should be studied.

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[firstsoldier]

Searching in the hospital for useful items led to a similar "vision". I do not know which of the objects I had at the time may have led to it, as it had been a first-aid kit.

There was a monitor; old-style, the black screen-green text kind, flickering. Its text read "Experiment Moon Sigils has proven a partial success. Patients marked with tattoos show signs of stability and clarity. Further research required."

I experienced no other "visions" in my time in the building.

[undyingcrow]

Hmm... So the sigils were their way of trying to give the changed more control over their faculties, perhaps.

That may in turn be what distinguishes us from the Husk monsters. Our sigils grant us great power and knowledge...

So perhaps the ones who summoned us share an allegiance with the long dead scientists.

[firstsoldier]

I'm not ready to assume we're dealing with others who shared an allegiance with anyone yet, given the amount of intensely sophisticated automation in the convoy. We may be dealing with an AI, magical or technological, running its program to the best of its ability with its creators long gone.

An alternate concern to keep in mind, such a being may require different methods of interaction.

[undyingcrow]

Artificial intelligence isn't out of the question, given the technological level of the Convoy and the Wardens themselves.

The messages we receive seem prerecorded. What I still can't quite figure out is the timing of our arrivals.

Are we being actively summoned, or were the means to summon is devised long ago and are only just now taking effect?

Why is it that new Drifters arrive every two months?

[Text]

[purplexing]

I told you previously, but this is for archival purposes:

Location: Monster/Cyborg graveyard battlesite

Vision Details: People marching down a road lined with weapons, swords and guns all thrust into the ground, point or barrel-first. As they marched, some of the people would fall, and somehow become impaled upon the weapons there. Their bodies would change instantly into monsters.

Trigger: A sword carried by one of the dead cyborgs.

I also have some additional information. I managed to pull some content from one of the cyborg brains/memory banks that were stuck to that monster.

[Text]

[undyingcrow]

That could be vital information.

What exactly did you find?

[Text]

[purplexing]

It's interesting. I'm wondering if one of the fragmented clips might actually be a glimpse of Nirvana. I'll send it to your phone.

[He takes only a moment to do so. It's not a whole lot, several pieces of video and broken up audio, difficult to ascertain the timeframe between everything.]

[undyingcrow]

[That's... incredibly striking, and it takes a few moments for Akechi to formulate his response.]

So, by the sound of it, their "Nirvana" was claimed by an opposing power or faction. Another group, presumably the Tears, drew glphys and runes, and someone "broke" the world...

I almost wonder if that monster was their punishment.

Text

[mytearsaremine]

I was in the hospital and I saw a man in a lab coat reading notes. There's surgical tools all around. Everything starts turning red, but the man doesn't see it, or maybe it doesn't matter to him because he doesn't react at all.

It was pretty creepy.

I don't remember what I was touching. Maybe it was a door.

[undyingcrow]

Perhaps an experiment gone wrong.

It's hard to place it in a linear timeline, but there seem to have been experiments involving grafting sigils onto monsters. This may have related to those same experiments.

[mytearsaremine]

Do you think it was literal then? The red actually spreading everywhere and not some kind of visual metaphor for something else spreading?

[Look she's read a lot of books. She knows what metaphors are about. And she doesn't know anything about these visions.]

[undyingcrow]

Without seeing the vision, it's difficult to say. Red could signify blood, but I suppose we can't rule out some form of red-tinted magic...

[Would metaphors influence memories? Hmm... That's difficult to say.]

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[bufudine]

Location: The hospital
Object of interaction: A broken screen that had fallen in a hallway
Details: A person (male) dressed in a laboratory coat (possibly a doctor or researcher) overseeing a body that is being encased in metal. His hands are clawed to the point of being unable to hold his instruments.

The body is still as if dead or otherwise immobilised.

Location: The Convoy
Object of interaction: The Convoy's database
Details: A message appeared in my mind. "You carry the last prayer for Nirvana." The words were not spoken, so there are no identifying traits to the message's source.

[undyingcrow]

[Two memories... Well, isn't that interesting? And so enlightening, too.]

So the scientist had already transformed. Presumably, the other was in the process of transforming into a Husk... Curious.

I have to wonder if that second message was directed at us or the Convoy itself. Either way, that's rather ominous.

[bufudine]

Did you spend any time in the hospital? Some of the scanners were still active. The reading when I passed through one was "Infected."

[undyingcrow]

Oh, I'm aware.

I nearly got ensnared by the machinery that sought to sedate and capture me. It was a rather frustrating experience.