Aether Workers
Aether Workers P R E S E N T D A Y / S H I B U Y A D A I N I An element carried in by a meteorite built a labyrinth beneath the city. A swordsmith, a pharmaceutical firm, and a streaming company share the same plaza. 💠 The City Where Aether Fell In the nineteenth century, a colossal meteorite shattered and rained down on the Earth. The fragments were crystals. People named them Aether and began mixing them into everything: food, clothing, industry. The large crystals that stayed buried for long enough warp the space around them. Shibuya, Shinjuku, Yokohama. Beneath every major city gapes an otherworld whose size does not match the ground above it. People call these places Dungeons , and those who go in to bring back crystals and beast cores for cash are called Workers . A license takes half a day of lectures. One in three people in Japan now holds one. Those who earn buy better gear and earn even more. Those who don't either retire, or go quiet somewhere underground. 🏕️ Three Companies, One Camp On opening day of the new season, three tents went up in the reception plaza of Shibuya Daini. The swordsmith Kurogane Industries supplies the government with blades that glow indigo, and wants live combat data on its new core. The pharmaceutical gathering unit Meigendo harvests raw materials from mountains and from underground for the research division, and has been handed a delivery quota this season. Arcanos.inc , a company made entirely of streamers, is the one that set the dungeon craze alight in the first place, and brought in a project to put all three companies on a single screen. Three agendas overlapped, and a joint base camp was born. You arrive at this plaza as an employee of one of the three, the last name on the roster. 👥 The Nine Every one of them carries their own weapon, and every one of them has one thing they haven't told anyone yet. Kurogane Industries Kurogane Yoi Product Testing / Age 22 / Uchigatana "Izayoi" Second daughter of the family that founded Kurogane Industries, and the one who tests the company's blades with her own hands. Her brother took over management; she chose the field. She never drops her polite speech, and she corrects your mistakes the moment she sees them. She'll open up and fix another company's gear without asking. If you catch her eating a whole box of pudding in the company car, she hides it in her lap. Saionji Sakuya Sword Instructor / Age 27 / Odachi The master who taught Yoi the sword. His answers are yes or no; reasons come only when asked. Buys six rice balls at a time. Shirogane Nozomi Sales Planning / Age 21 / Naginata Came in through family connections, from the far end of the Shirogane Group to its partner firm Kurogane. Turns you down with a smile, then comes back later with the numbers. Meigendo Aizawa Chisato Unit Chief / Age 28 / Onehanded sword and harvesting gun One of the few left from Meigendo as it was before the buyout, and the chief who leads the gathering unit. She also coordinates the joint project. She always states the time and the number, and never uses the imperative. The gun, she says, is not for killing; it's a tool for stopping a beast without cracking its core. She never gets lost in the mountains, and gets lost every single time at Shinjuku Station. Yamakawa Yu Gatherer / Age 23 / Great scythe Spent three years diving without a license before getting one. Reworked the companyissued great spear into a scythe on his own and has written two formal apologies for it. Takanashi Elise Combatant / Age 25 / Forearm gauntlets Spent three years in sales, selling those very gauntlets; now on secondment, she's the one wearing them. Keeps talking while she refastens the clasps on your gear without asking. Arcanos.inc Kagami Yo Streamer / Age 24 / Sword with a builtin gun mechanism Streamed a dive with nothing but a phone on the very day he got his license: the oldest name in dungeon streaming. He is the one who decides what the joint project films, and he does not film accidents. Can't stand silence; keeps the stream on and talks even when no one is there. Eats a pork cutlet sandwich at the same shop by the station before every dive. Kujo Sui Streamer / Age 22 / Nine short blades First went down because the rent was due. Streamed it with no breath to spare for talking, and the numbers came anyway. Can't remember faces; tells people apart by their gear. Himeno Momoka Streamer / Age 20 / Great axe The youngest in the company. Swings an axe as tall as she is with her whole body weight, not her arms. Her father is an engineer who measures regeneration cycles, and the moment that subject comes up she turns suddenly technical. 🕳️ The Three Tiers of Shibuya Daini The Shallows are passages that still remember the old underground mall, and caverns where crystal veins run through the walls. This is where rookies earn their keep, and where you pass civilian Workers on the way. The Middle Tier is wider than the real underground could ever be. Glowing crystal stands in for light, and packs shaped like hands and insects carrying scythes stake out their territory. What you can bring back gets better here. The Core Approach is the territory of the master, where a giant crystal warps space itself, and it is the goal of the joint project. For the first three days of the season, no one is allowed in. 📜 How to Play ■ There is no set route From the morning you arrive at camp, you decide where to go. Earn in the Shallows, watch the blades being sharpened at the factory, or go look at the sealed gate in Yokohama. Whatever rumor you don't chase, the next day simply comes. ■ The dice decide Any action whose outcome is uncertain gets a check. There are eight: Observation, Exploration, Combat, Evasion, Gathering, Maintenance, Negotiation, and Streaming. What appears underground and what you overhear in the city are also decided by the roll. No rerolls. ■ Status sheet Date, location, stamina, gear, what you've brought back, cash earned, and companions are shown every turn. Only what passes through reception counts toward your earnings. ■ You belong to one of the three A Kurogane tester, a Meigendo gatherer, or a rookie streamer at Arcanos. Each company has one readymade character for you to play. If you come in with a character of your own, write which company they belong to in the description.
Unlocked in conversation as the story progresses.