Mass Effect 5e Adventure: Where’s Athy?

Campaign

Human Men broke into an unannounced show and kidnapped Athy (Benunme Myrarix) as she was playing a “find herself” show as a pseudonym using all new material unpublicized to anyone but her closest allies.

Note: Perpetual follower. The crew will get into fights and escape from this Cerberus assassin (they won’t realize who he is until after they uncover the Cerberus connection)

https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Kai_Leng

He will last until the final fight between the party and the final 3 enemies.

Omega
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Key Interaction:
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Aria T’Loak

Went missing at the Afterlife on Omega (Terminus Systems). Upon further investigation it turns out that Athy was asking a lot of questions about geth, and AI remote master slave technology, and asked who had been asking With some amount of digging the players find a good lead in that Athy was seen talking with a Quarian named Naenna’Tesul nar Vibra who is now confined as she could not control her rage or accusations after Athy was attacked. It is impolite to point fingers in the wrong direction on Ometa.

They can either deception bribe intimidate or performance their way by finding Aria, the leader of the club, to talk to Naenna’Tesul, or they can attempt to break her out at shift change, suggest to the players.

Regardless if they are having the conversation by subterfuge or military action, action breaks for a bit for them to talk to the Quarian when they reach her cell.

When they ask her what had been up with Athy lately, they talk about that Athy had been carrying around some kind of deep dark secret. Something about war. And species-ism. And defeating bigotry and hate and love conquers all. Athy talked like that a lot, she was a dreamer. She did ask a lot of inappropriate questions about her human ex boyfriend though, did he ask about her, has she talked to him, did she know what he was up to, has she seen him recently.

They happened to both be talking when Athy was waiting to play but she was kidnapped right out of the club by a bunch of (6-8, they weren’t messing around) 6’6 300 pound don’t mess with me combat unit humans. She screamed for help and the Quarian screamed for help but nobody could really do anything to help and in this type of place you fend for yourselves and you don’t go up against thoe tyupe of people.

(If the party looks around and does something really interesting and hacks the database of ship arrivals and departures it will reveal earth but going there this early would not lead to anything)

They left together after some guy (Athy showed them a photo on OmniTool, she looked scared as she confirmed it) bought the location of a man named David Foster who is undergoing some medical care at a facility. They also get a tip that Athy was particularly upset that she was CORRECT in assuming this man was up to no good. They aren’t sure of the connections as Athy and the Quarian did not elaborate. The players get a tip about an information broker on the Citadel to visit.

Aria is the “boss, CEO, queen” of Omega. She’s involved in several missions and assignments. She gives the players the vital information.

Illium
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Key Interaction:
The Shadow Broker)

Trail to information brokers on Illium ( Milky Way / Crescent Nebula / Tasale System / Second planet)

Legion was partially contributed to by a loyal Quarian friend Athy had from her music and art and universal acceptance politics circles..  She was was an artificial intelligence computer scientist and worked on what was to be come known as Legion, and taught Athy the virtues of peaceful artificial intelligence and the right of non-harmful sentient life to live their lives out in peace and not as tools or slaves of anyone else.  “How could we have become so different? Why can we no longer understand each other? What did we do wrong?”  Does this unit have a soul?

The crew head to the Illium system and find an information broker. The crew needs to do something to make the information broker take notice and contact them through an intermediary, maybe such as shehe talks about how she is here to exposure an illegal AI arms smuggler who sell AI-based arms to outer reach territories with less troops to fight their battles, but nothing like getting into direct battles which might kill them.

Through some puzzle or test they find a contact who brings them to a non descript door through which I mechanically digitized voice talks to them like how the tape cassette guy on Transformers talked. They are asked to what they are here for, and then eventually prompted to prove that t hey are true allies of Ally, at which point the quarian says “her parents would KILL her if they knew her song was about him. they’re still mad she didn’t go into programming or art design! if they found out she was in love with a human!? and was trying to find him when he didn’t want to be found and was up to who knows what?”

also

She looked “AFRAID OF HIM” when she was showing his picture around on Omega. Like he said the most vile things ever or threatened to do the most vile things ever. It is hard to get someone to look that afraid of anyone, especially Athy.

The doors hissed and they were let in and after walking down a hallway for a long time they looked into a room that was decorated in what was as tasteful as could be imagined for a neo 70s gathering place for friends. Two exits, one presumably only for their host. Who they were shocked to see, because they had seen her on the news.

“Hello, you are probably suprised to hear me introduce myself as such, but I am the new Shadow Broker. I trust for that information and revealing myself you will keep my identity secret. I felt it necessary to reveal myself to make it clear that this is personal.

I will tell you that Athy was investigating a deep dark secret about not only her ex and his parents but her own parents. Yin/yang, as the humans call it. Two sides to the same coin. You do know that Athy’s parents are both famous aristicratic prominent citizens, him the executive officer on the Destiny Ascension, the most dominant ship in the fleet, and her a famous soprano in the most prestigious asari operahouse. His parents are more private. They come from old money. Live in Atlantq and are retail/service industry moguls. I think you should find out their deep dark secrets. Something drove them apart, and sent him after her, and I don’t think it was typpical jealousy and envy because while she’s afraid of him she was sending out feelers to stop him from doing something. I will give you a contact on Terra and Thessia, but I need you to get something from me from the Normandy Crash Site. If someone video taped me going there for this it would cause public rumors I don’t want out there. Shephard gave me a small memento that got lost in the crash. I want it back. You’re going to get it for me. Then I’m out of your little adventure with two contacts and a little money and supplies perhaps.

NORMANDY CRASH SITE
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Key Interaction
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Shephard’s Ghost/Hallcuinations/Weirdness Going on

She sends them to the Alchera, Amada System, for the Normandy Crash Site, where there is a memento L’iara gave Shepherd

The players do a puzzle to find the amulet but also each are given individual visisions from someone from their past and possibly everyone gets one from Shepard cause he died here, it’s a place of power.

Illium
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Key Interaction:
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L’iara T’soni / The Shadow aBroker

They return to Illium to give the memento to Liara which she appreciates and she gives them the name of a contact to help get them started on each planet. She said that whatever she finds out she thinks it has something to do with the

https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Liara_T%27Soni

She eventually tells them that Athy told her personally that she left a video recording for the Quarian in the event and only give it to her if she was surrounded only be people that she trusted. That she went missing at the Normandy Crash Site, the place where Legion had his first illogical thought. What a momeumental occasion, she thought.

One more thing before you go. Athy was dating this human boy. He wasn’t like how Athy knew him. His parents have a lot of skeletons of their closets. Go to Earth to investigate his. Go to Thessia to investigate hers. Then you will find the answers of where they why have had her taken.

OPTIONAL TRIP TO EARTH TO INVESIGATE ATHY’S EXBF FORD B. SUTTELEGE AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS. Not much is known except his parents are reclusive southern american old money service industry moguls.

OPTIONAL TRIP TO THESSIA TO INVESTIGATE ATHY’S PARENTS HERITAGE AND ASSOCIATIONS (they are well known philanthropers but what else?) (Athy’s father is X.O. on the Destiny Ascenion, most powerful asari ship and overall ship in the citadel fleet. Her mother is an asari opera singer.

Citadel Before The Grissom Academy
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Key Interaction:
Miranda Lawson
Garrus
Joker

Grissom Academy — Elysium
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Key Interaction:
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https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Kahlee_Sanders

Flight to Grissom Academy, prestigious human only biotics (not necessarily military) school, in Orbit over the human colony of Elysium (Milky Way / Petra Nebula / Vetus)

Party is met by scientist Kahlee Sanders

Finale Part One – Takedown of Refuge/Slave Human Biotics Experimentation Lab
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Destroy Cerberus’s mutant making capability

Finale Part Two – a Replica of The William Sayre Home in Montgomery Alabama, the first Confederate White house, on Location — Horizon: Milky Way / Shadow Sea / Iera System / Third planet — The Local Lair of the Illusive Man
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The crew enter into the house which seems emtpy but if they search for a secret door they will find stairs going downstairs into more modern furnished surroundings and through a long tunnel loud aggressive music gets louder and louder (gabber). The hallway turns into a room where they can hear a faint humanoid voice being projected over and over again on a recording aand then a loud gunshot. It repeats. Then they slowly become cognizant of a man yelling at someone else. “SAY IT!” Between playings of the recording. “When I don’t listen to my elders and my heritage I betray everything I was meant to do and love in this world.” “I doesn’t seem like you are being really sincere. do you need the video again?”

As they get close enough they can make out the video. It is a recording of Athy and her exbf having a confrontation somewhere in this facility.

Why did you bring my here? Did you only care about me as long as I didn’t act like an asari and pretended to be as human as possible for you? You were always trying to change everything about it. Just because I happen to like late 20th and early 21st century human history and culture doesn’t mean I want to be human. I’m asari and proud of it. I’ve finally realized what you are. You are a worm, a slimy, incomponent worm. You latch onto people who you think make you look more accepting and worldly than your parents and then once you get to know them you try to get them to conform and control them. Well guess what, I was infatuated with you, but I was never comfortable around you. I’ve always been a little afraid of you. And I had more true feelings for Legion, he was more thoughtful, caring, and superior to you in every way. And now only is Legion not humaan, he’s not even organ-” — she is interrupted as her ex shoots her in the head to stop her vicious but true tirade against him as he can’t stand to hear any more truth from h er.

“I told you not to harm her. She was to be a bargaining chip in negotiations for power struggles for control within the Alliance as it pertains to the upcoming war with the Reapers. We could have gotten a lot of perks out of her. But now we will lose everything because of you. I need to teaach you a lesson. With this music this time. I will leave you tto it.”

And with that he can be heard leaving the room and shortly later the video starts up on repeat and shortly after that the gabber music begins again.

The players are given the opportunity to go into the room and do something to help the man or they can ignore him and pursue his father.
Kill Kei Leng and Athy’s EX BF, the illusive man turns out to only be a hologram as soon as someone hits him, another day. Athy’s EX killed her when she told him “If you think humans are so great your pathetic, I loved an AI more than you. Hate like yours will never win. Someone good will stop you.”

The final scene ends up with the adventurer’s confronting The Illusive Man, who they have exposed to be fully human supremacist, planning on using the reaper’s technology after they invade to  force other galactic species to submit, and ordered the kidnapping, murder, and framing for Athy’s death to create discord amongst the humans and the rest of the species in the universe to motivate other humans to his side.

Confrontation Takes Place at the William Sayre Home, the first white house of the confederacy in Montgomery Alabama.
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When confronted with hostile accusations the Illusive Man responds:  “You can get rid of me but hate is not limited to me, not limited to this organization, not limited to human beings, not limited to any facet of the universe.  It is eat or be eaten by the rest.  What is the best way to motivate a force to defeat their would be slayers, convince your forces that they are superior and deserve to win based on what they are, not who they are.  It is their divine right.  Then you will get the true believers.  You can eliminate me but 100 more just as effective will take my place and you will never defeat the cause.”