Arcadia Complex

The first was a young scholar, equally curious and tenacious, who had spent their whole youth enthralled in the mysteries of these ancient worlds. It could be either luck or fate that she lived not in that old era, where the fascination and collection of such forbidden information was enough to permit good people to disappear in the dead of night. Instead, the fruits of her obsession was just now starting to take form. Her words of a newfound expedition had spread around the underbellies of Ayenee's Capital, and their own night of fate had come. Every captain needs a crew, and those who were willing to meet in the earliest hour of morning could soon find themselves in a position of money, knowledge, perhaps even fame.

Be they curious, seeking glory, or just plain desperate.
-The Narrator, Intro Poem, Prologue: Downrider

Arcadia Complex is a forum-based roleplaying plot hosted by Pancakei that follows the adventures of Dahlia Morgan and her crew of mercenaries, lost souls, and scholars chasing down the legends of Arcadia aboard the ISS Downrider.

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Rules and Information.

OOC Thread.

Current Episode: Episode Four: Lockdown

Plot Terminology Glossary

Arcadia Complex NPC Roster

More to come as the plot continues!

After years of planning and dozens of connections being drawn, Dahlia Morgan is ready to step up from her role as technician of a defunct adventuring coop and step into the life of a full-on Expedition Captain. But every captain needs a crew, and it was at the Downrider Inn that they would finally meet. What could possibly go wrong?

Following a quiet lead by an informant, Dahlia and the rest of the Downrider crew plunge into the forests of Loinia- a highly fertile but otherwise undesirable planet chock full of unhealthy radiation and overgrowth. The crew quickly found their way to their target- an undocumented stone and metal building that had been partly taken by the advances of time.

The investigation went off without a hitch, until the crew restored power to the dormant AI that resided within- by the name OSC-01. After falling under involuntary control of a malicious virus, the Overseer was damaged and rendered inert. Soon after, the true- and strangely brazen intelligence in charge of the buildings units came back to consciousness.

With the success of their finds on Loinia, the crew travels to the far-flung mining colony of Bivona. The lakeside city made its profits by mining away the surrounding mountains for valuable ore and materials, but nothing gets in or out without notice of the Vigali- a quietly seeded crime syndicate operating around the sector. With the captain gone to credit an informant for their valuable lead, all sorts of shenanigans break loose aboard the Downrider.

The crew is braced for their next venture, but before they can leave Bivona, a surprisingly close beacon calls them back. The crew follows OSC-01's heading north of Bivona, to an eerily frigid waste barely touched by man. There, they find a previously abandoned structure built ages ago by the Nepherians, the enemy of Arcadia- Alipier Observatory. However, there's more inside the nave halls than anyone would have guessed.

The egocentric Captain Bryce Arvero and his cronies have launched an expedition of his own making with motives unclear, under the heading of the Arcandum Union. The supposedly nomadic restoration group turns hostile when the Downrider crew poke too far into their operation, leading to the detainment of Ferrus, a former friend of the Overseer in a narrow escape into the Bivona wilderness.

Hot off the heels of what could be considered a complete failure in Northern Bivona, the gang heads south in search of safety and rest. The gang is almost ready for new horizons, but Dahlia is looking for a return from her deal with OSC-01 first. Generations of once forbidden knowledge is passed on to the crew in the virtual landscape of the Zen Codex, but their rest is cut short as headhunters and past acquaintances of Romulus Aurum catch the crew off-guard. After dispatching the threats of the Biechelon Collective, the crew is left to pick up the pieces.

From the frozen wastes of Bivona to the sunscorched rock of Trayll II, the Downrider crew searches high and low for signals originating from more operational Oakland units detected by OSC-01. Following a trail of cable and destruction leads the crew underground and into the Kerolyne Defile, a lost Arcadian mining facility and prison dedicated to extracting volatile compounds from within the planets crust. Their search takes the crew high and low through the facility, uncovering lost documents from the final days of Arcadia's reign, valuable equipment, and dangerous threats lurking beneath the ground.

After a confrontation with the rogue units goes downhill, the crew is put in life-threatening danger from a cascade of threats caused by their own interference as well as their enemies in the Union. The scattered crew was all but doomed to die beneath the earth.

The lost crew of the ISS Downrider wake up to a strange new reality, a distant realm hidden far away from their own. The lost souls of the crew join together to meet their mysterious benefactor and host, directly responsible for 'saving' the Downriders from death. After a brief catch up, the crew are given a chance to change history- if not their own. The curse and debts of the ISS Downrider is revealed as the crews souls are destroyed and scattered, ready to begin their cycle anew.

Following their narrow escape from the collapsing Kerolyne Defile, the crew of the ISS Downrider catch their breath on the surface above. Unbeknownst to them, Bryce Arvero and his fellow Unioners have breached the ship, relieving them of their most valuable find: OSC-01's. Arvero tries to reason with the Downriders, citing the good intentions of his actions, but is left with no choice but to try and stop them from interfering with his plans. He reveals to the crew the extent of OSC-01's lies, down to their very name. The Overseer, real name Tara, has been more heavily involved with the downfall of Arcadia and foundation (and supposed destruction) of New Incipere than they have let on. This drives a wedge between Tara, Dahlia, and the crew with results in an intense squabble and near mutiny. The fight ends with a shaky agreement, but their trust in eachother has been compromised as they head to follow the signal of the lost Vigali freighter Vespar II.

The plot of Arcadia Complex takes place in a world enriched by a multitude of major and minor Non-Player-Characters that frequently influence, back, or stand in the way of ISS Downrider Expedition as they travel the stars and beyond.

For a comprehensive directory of major and minor NPCs and factions, visit the Arcadia Complex NPC Roster.

This page was originally created by Pancakei on Wed 17-01-18.