The Story So Far…
This is a recap of the main story, intended to be used as a reference that we can all glance at when needed, and also as a hopefully-useful tool for any new players that we may get in the future. It will be updated as the game progresses, and there will be a link to it in the first post of this topic. This recap glosses over a lot of the finer details of everything the PCs have gotten up to, and also leaves out a lot of the more personal stories around the individual characters. This is just meant to be a summary, after all, and I figured that if anyone has questions about specific characters, the players of those characters would be better qualified to answer them. I can also provide additional information upon request.
An Attack on Iacon
Five thousand years have passed since the reunification of Cybertron and her colony worlds. It has been a time of great peace and prosperity, with the race of transformers rediscovering its former glory and reconnecting with old allies like the human race. But this peace is being threatened: a sudden attack at the Hall of Records in Iacon shook the ancient city, and its perpetrators attempted to steal an important artifact from the building’s archives. Our heroes- some already famous for defeating the Heralds of Unicron and ushering in this new golden age five millennia before, others soon to be made famous in the events to come- came together and stopped the thieves.
The artifact that the attackers attempted to take was the journal of Sentinel Prime, the previous bearer of the Matrix of Leadership. Examining the journal’s contents revealed that Sentinel wrote of a hidden power concealed during the Great War, and encrypted data was discovered within its drives that not even Vector Sigma could decipher. The journal’s last entry suggested that the key to deciphering this data might be found within the Tomb of the Primes. This data, and the secrets that the old Prime hid, had to have been what the thieves were after.
Further investigation into the attackers at the Hall of Records determined that the would-be thieves were a random assortment of mercenaries and pirates, brought together and supplied by an unknown entity to steal Sentinel’s journal and incite panic while doing so. Their leader was killed while fighting our heroes, and the rest are currently in the custody of the Iacon Police.
Both before and after the attack on the Hall of Records, some of our heroes encountered a strange human man wearing a black spacesuit. He was briefly seen at the Hall of Records right before the thieves made their move, and in brief conversations with our heroes, the man alluded to some imminent threat to galactic civilization lurking on the horizon. How exactly this human is connected to the attack was initially unclear, though our heroes would soon learn more about him.
Dead Primes Tell Tales
Our heroes obtained a ship to travel to the Tomb of the Primes, and left Iacon after a brief delay at the spaceport. They were attacked mid-flight, however, by a team of human mercenaries. Our heroes quickly destroyed the mercenaries’ ship and slayed nearly half their number in the ensuing fight, prompting the rest to surrender. They were interrogated, and after some impressive displays of intimidation on the part of our heroes, the mercenaries caved and told them that they had been hired by an unknown human male as backup for the thieves who attacked the Hall of Records. When our heroes took Sentinel’s journal and left Iacon, however, this client redirected the mercenaries to follow them and board their ship. The mercenaries never saw their client in-person, though their communications with him were stored within their dropship’s flight recorder- which survived the craft’s crash-landing. The mercenaries also told our heroes that the organization they work for- the Romulus Mercenary Company- has a policy of finding and executing operatives who disclose information about their operations and clientele. Our heroes have thus opted to take them into protective custody.
Our heroes have arrived at the Tomb of the Primes, and took in the sights a little before entering the mausoleum proper. The surviving mercenaries were stripped of their weapons and locked in one of the rooms within our heroes’ ship.
Within the Tomb of the Primes, some of our heroes believed that the key to the journal’s encrypted data might be found with Sentinel Prime’s corpse, and so they opened his sarcophagus. However, they discovered that Sentinel’s grave is empty- in fact, it doesn’t seem as though the sarcophagus was built to hold his body at all! When Sentinel’s journal was brought close to the sarcophagus, however, hidden mechanisms within the grave triggered a holographic recording left by Sentinel during the Great War. In the message, Sentinel alluded to ancient knowledge and artifacts that he had to hide to keep out of reach of the Decepticons. Most of these have since been rediscovered, but evidently at least one more secret remains, and now our heroes’ foe seeks to claim it.
Our heroes summoned the spirit of Sentinel Prime via the Matrix of Leadership to learn more, though Sentinel was not much more forthcoming in death than he was in life. He told our heroes that what they seek is hidden on the planet Lacuna, a desert world once surveyed by the Knights of Cybertron in the First Golden Age. When asked what exactly this hidden artifact is, Sentinel would only say that it is a tool created to enrich cybertronian culture, but that it could do great harm if used for nefarious ends. When some of our heroes suggested that the artifact should be destroyed upon its recovery, to keep it out of the enemy’s hands, Sentinel cringed at the notion, but he nonetheless told our heroes to do what feels right to them. Sentinel also mentioned that the Knights of Cybertron left orbital defenses over Lacuna before the end of the Golden Age, including a monitoring station, though he did not elaborate much on their capabilities and current status.
Our heroes used the Matrix to speak to some other spirits of previous Primes, asking them for additional information or speculation on the identity of the enemy. The Primes offered many guesses as to the culprits behind the recent attacks, from a group of Unicron-worshiping cultists to a rogue nation of humans to the vanguard of a new quintesson invasion. The ghosts suggested that our heroes should build alliances as they continue to unravel this mystery, and one of our heroes has convinced Megatronus to grant them permission to rebuild the Requiem Blaster, just in case.
The machinery in Sentinel Prime’s grave has also decoded the information encrypted within his journal. Among the once-hidden files is a short dossier on the planet Lacuna, the holographic message played earlier, and an image of a human lantern and a sword encircled by a wreath of flowers, accompanied by the phrase, “The sentinel’s watch is not yet ended”, written in English. The meaning behind this image and its accompanying text is currently unknown.
Gathering Allies, Gathering Enemies
Our heroes then left the Tomb and returned to Iacon, picking up a human journalist from Earth named Leslie Jiménez-Hansen on the way. Leslie expressed interest in documenting the group’s activities for her audience back in the Sol system, and she has also alluded to having connections that our heroes may exploit to further their goals. The group also searched the wreckage of the mercenaries’ dropship for its flight recorder, and analyzing its data confirmed that the black-clad man shadowing our heroes was connected to the prior attacks. Operating under the alias “Gabriel”, he was the one who contracted the mercenary groups to make a grab for Sentinel’s journal. Our heroes also found that the dropship’s pilots were not killed when their vessel crashed, but were tortured to death with quintesson weapons. The flight recorder data was turned over to the Knights of Cybertron for further analysis, and the order has yet to advise our heroes of their findings.
When they returned to Iacon, our heroes appeared before a meeting of the New Imperium of Cybertron’s leaders and advised them of their discoveries. Our heroes kept much to themselves, to the irritation of the council, but they did warn the planetary leaders of the potential involvement of the quintesson race. This was cause for alarm, and the councilors quickly left to prepare their respective worlds for the worst. Our heroes were left to continue their mission, deciding to travel to the planet Astrum to recruit Liege Maximo into their ranks before heading to Lacuna.
On their way to Astrum, our heroes came into possession of an assortment of ancient quintesson artifacts- remnants of an old war machine destroyed in the Fourth Quintesson War. Shortly after acquiring these relics, they suddenly came to life, and Gabriel spoke through them, appearing to confirm the quintessons’ involvement in this race for Sentinel Prime’s lost treasure. Gabriel warned our heroes against further meddling in his scheme, promising to wreak pain and destruction upon the galaxy if they continued, but our heroes saw no choice but to persist. It seems as though a new war with the quintessons is nigh, raising the stakes of this adventure significantly and causing some among our heroes to reconsider how they should proceed- or even causing some to question their resolve entirely.
Rescuing Liege Maximo, and Journey to Lacuna [ongoing]
Nevertheless, our heroes continued on to Astrum, commandeering the cybertronian battleship Excalibur II to ferry them across the stars. When they arrived at the ring-world, however, they found that a small force of quintesson agents had gotten to Liege Maximo’s island home before them. The quintessons intended to abduct the Prime of Lies, no doubt seeking the ancient knowledge he held just as our heroes did. A fierce battle was fought, and while some of our heroes sustained grave injuries, the quintesson agents were defeated and taken prisoner, and Liege Maximo agreed to join the journey to Lacuna. Before leaving Astrum, our heroes also recruited a bodyshaper named Hauler for his medical knowledge, and Liege retrieved the Apex Armor for our heroes to use in the battles that doubtlessly lie ahead.
At the behest of our heroes, Amity’s Chancellor, Nirali Patel, covertly investigated the identity and history of Gabriel, and transmitted her findings to Excalibur II after Liege’s rescue. She conveyed to our heroes that the name “Gabriel” is most likely a mere alias, and that the man bears a striking resemblance to a scientist named Arnold Troy, who mysteriously disappeared while exploring a network of ancient tunnels beneath Amity while it was still in the process of being colonized. Some of Excalibur II’s crew speculated that the quintessons may have abducted Arnold Troy and used their strange technology to prolong his life in exchange for his service in their latest scheme.
As Excalibur II ventured into wild space, Liege revealed to our heroes additional information about the mysterious planet Lacuna: in the Golden Age, he and the rest of the Thirteen were led to the desert world by a star map hidden in the encrypted passages of the original Covenant of Primus. They and the original Knights of Cybertron conducted extensive surveys and excavations on the surface of Lacuna, hoping to discover what was so important about the planet, but their efforts unearthed only more questions.
If you feel as though there is important information missing from this recap, feel free to say so, and I will add it. Depending on how things go, this recap may eventually need to be divided into multiple posts. They’ll all be linked to in this topic’s original post, though, to preserve ease-of-access.