ISR - AoD: War
Saturday Session 10.2022-03.2023
Written by Courtney Lambert
Gwenyth's Identity Now:
Gwenyth is a daughter of Kairon, a chosen warrior who has been in service to the Forgeborn ever since she can remember. She is involved in various tasks among the Forgeborn , particularly in the search for the Swift who has disappeared. Whenever she is in a moment of quiet relief, there is a nagging thought that something is missing in a deep corner of her mind, as if there is a piece of her life that she could uncover. However, her Forgeborn influence tends to quell any questions or doubts that she has.
Her Background (Atlas Sessions):
Before she joined the Forgeborn , Gwenyth was a data broker and black market shipper who dealt shipping illicit or valuable cargoes. Layla was one of her major clients whose trading with the Swift and in liquid singularity cores was under the scrutiny of Kairon and the Forgeborn . Because of her work with Layla and delivery of cargo to Taven, an old Unity station that the Forgeborn were watching, she and her crew were captured by the Forgeborn and given a choice to either have Gwenyth join the Forgeborn and allow the rest of her crew to go freely or have the entire crew and herself forced into the service of the Forgeborn .
Gwenyth's knowledge of Lela's work, her transportation of liquid singularity cores, and the black market information that she had gathered were too valuable to the Forgeborn. Faced with two undesirable alternatives, Gwenyth struggled to decide. After questioning Kairon about how her crew would be treated in either scenario, she eventually acquiesced to his demands and agreed to join willingly on condition that her crew went freely. Ahzen offered to whisk her away from her doom; however, Kairon who sensed Ahzen's meddling, reminded her that he would kill her crew and hunt her down until she was found and killed.
Gwenyth, for the sake of her crew, rejected Ahzen's tempting offer, implanted her memories up until then into a device that she hid, and walked through the Deventhar (or Crucible/Great Forge as the Forgeborn refer to it). Her old life before she walked through the Deventhar, her crew, and her past – these all faded away and were replaced with a dignity, pride, and purpose that she had been born and raised a warrior woman among the Forgeborn, a daughter of Kairon, a seeker of knowledge, and a protector.
The Mission (AoD: War Sessions):
Gwenyth was allowed to choose a task that she could do to benefit the Forgeborn . Since the Swift has disappeared and all traces of his doings were erased after the Collapse, she decided to try to pick up any remnants of his trail that could tell them if he were still alive, where he was, and – perhaps – who he might be.
Layla, a government official in the Trade Federation, was known to have close ties with the Swift, having worked together with him in the past. (Some of this knowledge was gleaned from Gwenyth prior to her initiation into the Forgeborn , but she does not know of this.) Judging her to be the best way to figure out if the Swift were still alive, Gwenyth descends to the capital of the Trade Federation in order to start her search.
Tall and bearing an immense presence, Gwenyth finds that she stands out among the crowd because of her aura and obvious Forgeborn -like appearance. She asks around about Layla and finds no news except that Cutter, a military figure who is often seen in close contact with Layla, is being promoted in a couple days. A grand ceremony is being held for it. Gwenyth sees this an opportunity to infiltrate the ceremony.
Gwenyth contacts the Forgeborn and reports her findings. She requests for several Forgeborn agents to assist her in acquiring someone to impersonate. They quickly provide her with someone who is suitable. They bring the person into the hotel room that Gwenyth is staying in, strip the person from their armor, and put them into a deep sleep. Gwenyth puts on the armor and attends the ceremony.
She watches Cutter being promoted and exchanges small talk with the soldiers around her. One of her friends commented on how big she had gotten and asked how she had done it. Gwenyth just raised her finger to her lips and hushed him, as if to imply that it was a secret.
During the party that followed, Gwenyth was able to interact with Cutter and congratulate her on the promotion that she received. She then attempts several times to surveil Layla, keeping her ears alert for anything hinting to the Swift. Unable to do much because of the public place and the security on the devices, Gwenyth is unable to decipher much through hacking. She infers that Layla has not been in contact with the Swift because of some conversations that she overhears.
Layla is contacted with a call that seems to surprise her. Gwenyth catches that it might have to do with the Swift and carefully follows her out of the room and into one of the hallways. Gwenyth lounges on a bench withing earshot of Layla, but far enough that she is not conspicuous. She confirms that she heard the Swift's name and interprets the conversation that follows to be his invitation to meet with her in-person very soon. The sound of it seemed to be urgent. Layla seems to be very surprised by the call and does not seem to notice Gwenyth relaxing on the bench, escaping the heat and crowd in the same hallway as her.
When Layla departs, Gwenyth attempts to hack into Layla's comm device and discovers a black box that she cannot break into or connect to directly. Cutting the connection, she decides that she has risked enough to gain this information and departs after enjoying a few more refreshments.
She returns to her hotel room and, with the aid of her Forgeborn associates, implants the key memories of the ceremony and party, minus anything referring to the Swift, Layla, and her mission, back into the person she was impersonating. She also goes so far as to plant a microphone into the woman's helmet to capture anything that might be useful. To explain why the person was in the room, another Magrunn Forgeborn implants a memory of a one-night stand after the party and overlays it with Gwenyth's. A cursory psionic prodding would not show the memory as false; however, a deep scan and interrogation by a psionic being would probably discover that the memories had been implanted. The likelihood of that was low.
As she leaves the hotel, a coin falls on the ground at her feet. Gwenyth picks it up and pockets it. She buys some shawarma from a three foot tall synth, a lizard creature with three jaws. The Synth treats her like an ordinary person, quite unlike most people with whom she has interacted. Because of this she leaves him a 100,000 gu tip that shocks the Nepatekat cook who has been making the shawarma by hand.
Written by Courtney Lambert
To see more of her work, check out her other blog posts and her own website!
Opinions on the Forgeborn :
I like them!
I dislike them!
I am on the fence about them.
Forgeborn ? Who's dat?
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