Session 03 — Data Cube, Vilify, Moonlit Conspiracy

Summary

In-game date: May 27 → June 1, 2045. Picking up from the CB escort at the end of Session 02, the crew meets Mr. Continental at Continental Brands’ South Town headquarters — a run-down building behind chain link fencing, clearly temporary. He lays out the situation plainly: Dr. Willie’s production is cut off, but the company wants the supply chain’s origin found, the leak identified, and the Vilify crisis contained before it makes the news. In exchange: 3,000 EB retainer on completion, with more work possible after that. The crew agrees. Kenny is delighted to receive a 50%-off Choco Kibble coupon.

After a week of downtime, the crew regrouped on Sunday June 1. Broker had delivered the data cube to Alvin Partridge (who endorsed the CB arrangement) and received payment — though expenses ate into it. Kenny Log-ins spent the week building a projector from theater scraps, hosting Good Movie Night at Goose Salvage for Don Swayze and Eric Roberts, cracking a local copy of the data cube’s encrypted contents, and adopting a cyber dog from a missing person’s apartment.

The meat of the session was investigation. Dr. Willie, now in CB custody, confirmed that a Continental Brands shipping dock employee named Martin Gorsky had approached him weeks ago with a mysterious chemical compound, taken it himself enthusiastically, and then gone silent. The crew tracked Martin’s address to Brzezinski Arms, found his apartment ransacked and abandoned — empty Vilify vials, a desperate notebook, and one cryptic post-it note. The dog (Max) was rescued. Martin’s trail pointed underground.

A stop at Enderman’s confirmed Vilify had dried up there too. Golden Girl brought the crew to Professor Jackson at Knight City University — who identified the partial chemical diagram found in Martin’s notebook as a protein designed for nanomachine delivery, requiring low-gravity conditions to synthesize. Back at Nexus Mods, Golden Girl confirmed nanomachines under the microscope. The crew ended the session at Kowalski Clinic, handing a sample to Dr. Brightowski to analyze further.

Key Events

Continental Brands Meeting

• Crew escorted to CB’s South Town HQ (a fenced-off, run-down building at the South Bay docks — “clearly temporary”)
• Mr. Continental sits in shadow, flanked by armed guards; professional and blunt
• CB wants: (1) the identity of their internal leak, (2) how much Vilify remains on the street, (3) a way to treat or contain affected users
• CB’s assessment: Dr. Willie had access to the Nonh before the container was robbed — someone tipped him off; they suspect a leak in their own shipping operation
• Crew agrees to take a Continental Brands retainer: 3,000 EB on completion, with more work possible after
• Mr. Continental gives each crew member a 50%-off Choco Kibble coupon
• Fix-it-Felix is absent (shot in the voice box, according to the crew); DM voice acts him briefly
• The cleaning lady from the Zip Mobile trunk is freed and runs

Downtime — Week of May 28–June 1

Broker:

• Returns data cube to Alvin Partridge; Partridge is pleased and endorses the CB retainer (“I fully endorse that and we’ll keep your salary up”)
• Payment from Alvin: 1,500 EB total minus expenses (500 EB for Vilify purchase + Uber rides) = ~300 EB per crew member
• Earns 200 EB from his regular week at work

Kenny:

• Had been quietly stealing parts from Schroeder’s Theater’s old projectors for years
• Builds the “Kenny Loggins 9000 Projectifier” from salvaged theater parts (fabrication roll: 20)
• Brings it to Goose Salvage; screens Death Ring, Red Line, and a talking cat movie (specifically for Eric Roberts)
• Eric Roberts emerges: “I brain-danced this film. I tell you what.” — genuinely delighted
• Don Swayze declares: “those Piranhas wouldn’t dare come whoop whooping during a proper good movie night”
• Good Movie Night deal fulfilled — protection fee drops to zero
• Later: opens a local copy of the data cube’s encrypted data (second roll after a fumble; spent 3 luck for a 27) — can see directory structure but not file contents: Continental Brands directories, lunar-this, lunar-that, a “home project” subdirectory, moon mining nested beneath that
• Buys 1 level of Netrunner during downtime; interface roll (10 — succeeded) to export the encrypted data dump for decryption over time
• Repairs Mr. Zip’s armor with a personal touch: custom underlighting and a Mr. Zip spray stencil on the back

Golden Girl:

• Normal school week; makes 100 EB doing trauma team backup work
• Manufactures 4 doses of Speedheal (crit roll after an initial failure); Kenny chips in 50 EB toward materials
• Now has 7 Speedheal total

Mr. Zip:

• Healing most of the week (5 days)
• Kenny crafts: 1 armor piercing grenade, 1 smoke grenade, 1 tear gas grenade (100 EB materials, Kenny’s labor free)

Dr. Willie Interrogation (CB South Town HQ)

• Dr. Willie in a makeshift cell, bitter and uncooperative until pressed
• Admits: sold Vilify to the Piranhas wholesale; Sloan Enderman was the street distributor — not Dr. Willie’s operation
• His supplier / original contact: Martin Gorsky, a Continental Brands shipping dock worker who found the chemical coming through in high volumes and brought it to Dr. Willie to identify
• Martin took the drug himself (“quite a bit”), then went silent weeks ago
• Dr. Willie has no idea how to treat Vilify addiction (“I didn’t care about ever treating these people”)
• Vilify composition as described: CB’s Nonh base chemical + black lace + “a little punch” to get the feel-good effect; Dr. Willie did not know about any nanomachines

Martin Gorsky’s Apartment — Brzezinski Arms

• CB confirms Martin is missing from work; address provided: Apartment 3C, Brzezinski Arms
• Apartment is locked; Kenny picks both the building front gate and the unit door
• Inside: empty Vilify vials scattered; dog’s bed and toys destroyed; computer unlocked
• A cyber dog (later named Max) — malnourished, partly cybernetic, Biotechnica model — is on the bed and immediately aggressive
• Kenny stuns him, then net-hacks him (rolls 9 + remaining luck): reduces aggression subroutines, uploads himself as “best buddy,” deletes traumatic memories (primary memory: being left alone and starving)
• Kenny wraps Max in a blanket, ties him to his skateboard, and adopts him
• Computer search (library search, Golden Girl): finds Martin’s… private folder. Not useful.
• Physical search (conceal/reveal, Mr. Zip — rolled 16): notebook in front of the computer full of sketches — Martin tracking the mysterious chemical he noticed in CB shipments; letters to professors who never responded; escalating contact with Dr. Willie; handwriting deteriorating as pages turn
• Hidden under the notebook: a post-it note in deep red ink — “Need to find my way down. Need to find my way home. I’m sorry, Max.”
• Chemical diagram in the notebook; references to serotonin
• Kenny sets up a dog-bark audio automation on Martin’s computer to deter the landlord

Enderman’s Bar

• The Vilify $15 sign is down; no glowing-eyed customers sitting zonked
• Much rowdier atmosphere than before — people are not sedated
• No one in the bar recognizes the name “Martin Gorsky”
• Conclusion: supply dried up before Martin disappeared

Knight City University — Professor Jackson

• Golden Girl takes the crew to meet her professor at the KCU MedTech building
• Professor Jackson: color-changing hair running on loop, chrome lab coat, “spiffy” — recognizes Golden Girl warmly (“Ah Goldie, what can I do for you?“)
• She shows him Martin’s chemical diagram (framed as found under a missing “convenience store worker’s” desk)
• Jackson’s analysis: protein open-ends suggest nanomachine delivery mechanism; compound is experimental, above any student-level work; would require low-gravity conditions to synthesize; none of the local corps would have this capability at commercial scale — experimental lab only
• Treatment: “you’d probably need some other kind of nanomachine-based operation to cleanse it from a user’s body — that’s a bit beyond my reckoning”
• Kenny and Broker exchange a look about the data cube’s lunar directories
• Jackson: “I don’t know what business you got yourself into, Goldie, but you be careful out there. You’re one of my best students.”
• Kenny plays hacky sack in the quad while he waits

Nexus Mods — Nanomachine Confirmation

• CB perimeter guards recognize the crew and wave them through
• Several glowing-eyed addicts outside begging for more Vilify; not deterred by guns in their faces
• Broker opens his coat briefly to show Vilify vials; addicts go after the source, then wander off
• Golden Girl uses clinic equipment to examine a Vilify sample under a basic microscope (med tech roll — short)
• Confirms: nanomachines present in the mixture, currently inert
• Kenny adds blood to the slide — still no reaction
• Dr. Willie’s computer records show he sourced his cutting agents (black lace, synthcoke, Smash) from local fixers; no mention of nanomachines — he didn’t know they were there
• Supplies found in the clinic’s storage room: 3 doses black lace, 2 doses synthcoke, 12-pack Smash, ~2,000 EB worth of raw med tech materials — Kenny takes the drugs (for Felix), Golden Girl takes the med tech materials

Kowalski Clinic — Dr. Brightowski

• Dr. Brightowski is dealing with a stuck toilet when they arrive
• Kenny fake-works on it while the others talk
• Broker shows Brightowski a Vilify sample and mentions the nanomachine finding
• Brightowski is fascinated; says he’ll look into it, but it’ll take time
• Session ends here — DM wants Felix present before advancing the nanomachine plot

Standout Quotes

“Continental, I just gotta say I love your choco kibble. It’s such a treat to eat.” — Kenny Log-ins (to Mr. Continental, mid-negotiation)

“I like money.” — Mr. Zip (agreeing to the CB retainer)

“The broker’s all about that nine to five crime.” — Broker

“Gotta pay that tuition somehow.” — Golden Girl (on why she took the CB job)

“Hey doctor, remember that one time you could have just given us the cube and we would have left and you would not have gotten your place blown up? But then you didn’t give it to us so your place got blown up. What a funny time.” — Kenny Log-ins (greeting Dr. Willie in his cell)

“I brain-danced this film. I tell you what.” — Eric Roberts (seeing the Good Movie Night projection)

“I haven’t done anything worse than any other mad scientist in Night City.” — Dr. Willie

“Need to find my way down. Need to find my way home. I’m sorry, Max.” — Martin Gorsky (post-it note left in his apartment)

Open Threads

• Martin Gorsky: His note says “down” — possibly underground. Don Swayze warned about increased activity under the streets back in Session 02.
• The lunar data cube: Kenny has an encrypted local copy decrypting over time. Continental Brands directories + moon mining + home project. Vilify’s nanomachines require low gravity to synthesize — is it being made off-planet?
• CB retainer (3,000 EB): Outstanding tasks — identify the internal leak (likely Martin Gorsky himself), estimate remaining Vilify supply, find treatment
• Dr. Brightowski on the nanomachines: Will have findings next session
• Nanomachine cure: Professor Jackson says it would require another nanomachine-based treatment. Where do they get one?
• The fake data cube: Felix’s call — still tabled while he recovers
• Zach the Hot Dog Maniac’s offer: Tabled since Session 02; still outstanding

Meta / Errata

• Fix-it-Felix absent this session (robotpoop); DM voice-acted him briefly as comic relief
• IP: 100 per character
• Kenny buys Netrunner rank 1 during downtime; used immediately to net-hack the dog
• In-game date: Advanced to June 1, 2045 after the one-week downtime
• Payment from Alvin: 1,500 EB total for the data cube job; after expenses (500 EB Vilify + Uber rides), 300 EB per crew member
• Luck: Kenny spent all remaining session luck (3 points) on the data cube crack roll
• Speedheal: Golden Girl now has 7 doses; she had been undercounted (should have had 4 from crafting last session)

Player Notes

• Max (the cyber dog) is now Kenny’s; aggression reprogrammed, memories edited
• Martin’s apartment at Brzezinski Arms is claimed by Mr. Zip (informally) — audio dogbark trap rigged to keep landlord away
• Martin’s computer is unlocked and still has his full communications — potential evidence trail if the crew goes back
• Dr. Brightowski will report on the Vilify nanomachine analysis next session
• Kenny’s custom ammo project (alternate rounds for air pistol) needs a DV and cost established — to roll at start of next session