Shortly after Arcturius-9 left the dissolved NightCityBeggars criminal organization and found Lanternwurm, he still had unanswered questions about the group’s downfall.
Hearing rumors from his criminal contacts that there were still some vestiges of the association, the cyborg fighter disembarked while Lanternwurm was stopped near a large city called Nyx looking for planar energy crystals in the surrounding heaps.
Nyx had embraced the alien energy and artifacts the catastrophe cast upon them, even as parts of it disintegrated into contaminated slums, a few colossal towers with floating turret and penthouse structures emerged, lit by magic neon glows and run by the powerful and unscrupulous companies. They did business with the sanctuary engines, but the whole place seemed unstable and teetering on the brink of collapse.
In a smaller compound at the base of one of these towers, Arcturius-9, Charity, and Immeral forced their way through the reception area. The front employees abandoned their posts and the trio made their way up several flights of back stairs. The two other Lanternwurm members followed Arcturius-9 based on their own leads. Immeral saw the damage the planar waste was causing to the surround forests and heard dark experiments were being carried out here. Charity saw how these corporations were impacting the impoverished youth in the city. All three of them agreed it would do some good to stir up a little reminder for the corporation that there were people able to stand up to them.
Rushing through to disrupt this compound, the party found a series of rooms full of foot soldiers in dark garb and tactical headgear. Room after room, the soldiers' batons, blades, and firearms slowed down their attackers, but they were outmatched and were subdued one by one. Strangely, Arcturius-9 felt a blip in his mind as if a stray bit of programming gave him a directive that prevented him from killing the men in uniform.
One corner revealed an experimental lab room. The walls lined with shelves of alchemical materials and mechanical control panels. Several circular platforms were on the floor throughout the room, one holding a captured humanoid fire newt in bands of energy. In the far corner, a larger force field dome swirled with concealing mist. Releasing the fire newt named Rez, the party gained an ally.
The group’s investigation also caused the misted force field to dissipate to reveal a huge gelatinous umbral ooze. Immeral’s nature lore told him that the creature had been corrupted into something unnatural. The monstrosity chased the party and their newt friend out into the corridors. Charity ran back towards the stairs, not wanting to risk the confrontation. The others had trouble escaping the ooze’s grasp.
Finding other doors led to more foot soldiers, Arcturius-9 called out that the cube had escaped. The guards ran in as the party was placed for questioning in an office down a winding hall while the ooze was contained and the injured guards assessed.
The office was empty of anything valuable but graffiti on the wall in glowing pigments displayed “Fate Does Not Beg, Death Does Not Bargain” (a motto used by the NightCityBeggars), leaving more questions than answers for Arcturius-9. Seeing that no one was watching them in the chaos, the three plus the fire newt made a hasty retreat back into the streets before drawing more attention.