A Pound of Flesh: Fatal Processing Error¶

The crew explore Prospero's Dream during some much needed R&R. Ink and Murderbot accept a mission to find Imogene Kane in DOPTown. Zeke promises to save the people in DOPTown, who are barely surviving on minimal O₂. They take us directly to Imogene, who gives us directions to the air processing plant. On their way, the crew is ambushed by a group of spearmen, another group of children, and a mysterious creature. Zeke and Murderbot repair the air processing plant, earning Imogene's trust.

Episodes in module: A Pound of Flesh

Episode 1 - 2025-08-18 - Prospero's Nightmare?
Episode 2 - 2025-09-10 - Fatal Processing Error
Episode 3 - 2025-09-22 - Company Property
Episode 4 - 2025-10-01 - Two Truths and a Lie

Exploring the Station¶

we notice many augmented people on the station

People on Prospero's Dream have extensive mods

smells a bit like sweat mixed with alcohol
- feels like there is a party going on nearby
Phoenix thanks us and starts walking away
Ink tails Phoenix for about 3 hours
- passes by (4) Icebox
  - "Need a new body? Get re-sleeved or enjoy our slickware."

Ice Box has new bodies for sale — Icebox has new bodies for sale

(2) bunch of bars
- most popular place is Stellar Burn
- as Phoenix walks by, the lights go out
- hear the sound of a heartbeat and labored breathing
at (5) Phoenix approaches a residential doorway
- door opens and he visibly sighs
Prospero's Dream is an X class station
we take shore leave for 48 days
- costs 4800 credits +480 for the air 5280
bartender's name is Jury Semenov, who goes by Sem
- upper level is quiet, for private conversations
- lover level is The Ecstasy, run by Indayl
  - has an eye mod and an impossibly long tongue

Zeke tries to get some Sycorax
- it's the good stuff, so it costs 1K
the Farm is kind of a holy site
- Solarian church
- leader is Ukko-Ukka
- worships a sun deity

Ukko-Ukka, leader of the Solarian Church

the Chop Shop is the best place to go for cyberware mods
- ask for Babushka
we ask Sem about some places to look for work
Tempest company - mercenary work
- doesn't pay well, 10% kickback required
Canyon Heavy.Market
- zero-g LAN party
- computers floating in space with people hacking away
- owner is Ingus
- customers are called Council Cowboys

Canyon Heavy.Market looks like a zero-g LAN party

court
- head justice is Brunhilda

Golyanovo Il Bratva
- intelligence arm of station leaders
- run by Yandy
- tempest is often hired by Bratva
Dex works at a bar
- tries to overhear some rumors
  - crackdown from the company has strained relationship between Teamster's union and Bratva
- local union is 32819L
- Ingus pays really well but you need to gain his trust
Ink and Murderbot try to win some games at Canyon Heavy.Market
- other players seem like they're speaking another language
- seems like the games are about stealing others' information
areas (9) and (10) are DopTown
- entrance to the choke
- resistance has been brewing
  - leader's name is Imogene Kane

DOPTown¶

Traveling to DOPTown¶

Ink and Murderbot are offered a mission to contact Imogene Kane
Ink is able to get an empty cred stick for 100
- Murderbot gets one for 200
we see a guy with 6 tempest company guards around him
- hired from the Tempest Company for 1K/guard/day
we gear up in hazard suits and get O₂ tanks
- go down the turbolift to DopTown

DopTown is big, could fit a ship
- when doors open, there is a rush of air
- some heavily armored guards pointed away from the gate into DopTown
- some people try to breathe in the rush of air
Zeke starts talking to people about how he could bring oxygen into DopTown
- if only Zeke had the funding for his machine
- rumors spread like wildfire
- guard thinks Zeke's going to get torn apart when he can't make the oxygen
people seem really desperate down here
- there are dead bodies around
- but not decomposing due to lack of oxygen
guard hands us passes to get out of DopTown
- warns us not to lose them
guy with the 6 guards is in a market area
- people are bidding on services
- pays people to cut off their own fingers
- gives them O₂ tanks
Zeke: "It's a great place down here guys"
we visit the slums of DopTown
people have moving flesh on their necks that looks like fish gills
- "Wait, are you that scientist?"
- seems like streets have cleared out

Meeting Imogene Kane¶

5 heavily armed guards approach us
- "Heard you wanted to speak with Imogene Kane"
- "We're here to take you to her. Follow us"

Imogene: "So you're the scientist that can fix the air"
- Zeke: "If only I had my equipment, the theory is sound"
- Imogene: "I have equipment. There's a broken life support tower not far from here."
- Imogene pulls out a map.
- Imogene: "It's a 4 hour walk from here"
- Zeke: "What equipment is there?"
- Imogene: "I have repair team that recently left..."
- Imogene: "They had all the tools that were necessary to fix it."
- Imogene: "They say there's a monster in the life support system."
- add more from transcript
Murderbot places a tracker in Imogene's pocket
Imogene doesn't seem to struggle to breathe like the others
- Imogene pulls down her scarf and has gills
- Ink: "How did you get those?"
- Imogene: "There's a doctor down here, he's a geneticist named Dr. Benkali"
- Imogene: "It doesn't work for everybody, that's why we still need to fix the air."
Imogene: "I don't believe in monsters, so hopefully there's nothing to be afraid of."
- "Hopefully those guys were just assholes and they're taking their time or something."
we head towards the life support system
- an hour out of DopTown
- slums have mostly disappeared
- some bodies, but hardly any living people

Ambushed by Spears¶

around a corner, we see a group of 3 wielding spears
- 2 more behind us
- spear wielder: "You got oxygen?"
- Murderbot: "Leave us alone, we're trying to get you all the oxygen you can breathe!"
- spear: "How are you gonna do that?"
- Murderbot: "We're trying to fix the regulator!"
- spear: "Yeah, we just ran into some guys. Two, that said they were doing that."
- Murderbot: "And what'd you do to them?"
- spear: "Well, that's one of them over there"
- you see a guy who clearly has been pierced by spears.
- Murderbot: "What'd you do that for?"
- spear: "Because they didn't want to give us their O2 tanks."
- Murderbot: "But he was trying to save your lives!"
- Murderbot: "You are either gonna be riddled with bullet holes, or you let us through and help you."
- we intimidate them with our pulse rifles
- as soon as one of them breaks, uh, the rest easily fold and run off
another hour passes

Ambushed by Children¶

see a child laying face down on the ground
- hear crying but child isn't moving
- hear scuffling off to the side
- child on the ground: "Kill me"
- gets up and runs at us
- Murderbot tries to hit it with the butt of the rifle
  - caves in its forehead
- another leaps down on him
8 more children come out of the darkness
- Ink fires a clip and takes out 4 of them
Dex tries to pry the one off Murderbot
- gets the child free but the arms are still wrapped around Murderbot's neck
- child screams "Kill Me!"
- Dex snaps its neck, but is haunted by the experience
- the arms fall to the ground
Carnoc shoots at the other 4
- killed them but emptied the magazine
- Murderbot and Carnoc swap magazines

The Processing Plant¶

Approaching the Plant¶

we approach a building aglow with light
- in front is a massive cracked door
- many wires cross the door like veins
- building is 2-3 stories tall
- walking around it would take 5-10 minutes

walk around and look for another way in
- find a small entrance marked EST-03
- Environmental Scrubbing Tower
- hole gouged in the side of the building
- big enough for a person to squeeze through
Ink volunteers Murderbot to go through first
- have to take off hazard suits to squeeze through
  - put them back on afterwards
  - while changing, our lungs strain to get any air at all
  - lungs are burning, feel like we're drowning
no light inside the building
- we turn on flashlights
- machinery is running, but barely
arrive at control rooms
- terminal banks are powered down
- rusty, crumbling staircase up nearby
- we go one at a time and it groans under our weight
find a door labeled Processing Plant
- pry it open
enter neighboring room
- find 3 bloodless corpses
- stash of pulse rifle ammo
- 3 tanks with a total of 19 hours of O₂

Ambushed by a Creature¶

Ink takes a look at the corpses
- 4 puncture wounds on their necks
- Murderbot scans the room

something comes down from the ceiling at Ink
- it has 6 arms
- it grabs Ink and tries to drag him up the wall
Murderbot grabs onto the thing and yanks it down off the wall
- Carnoc shoots it
- it screams in an oddly human way
- starts bleeding profusely from its chest
Ink pulls out his SMG and shoots it
- shoots another hole in its chest
Zeke fires at it, more holes in its chest
Dex attacks it with his spanner
- sickening crunch as the spanner lodges in its head

Dead creature on the floor of the processing plant

Dex and Zeke take a closer look at the thing
- looks like it was once human
- topmost arms seem most normal but are higher than usual
- extra arms below have both wires and tendons
- another set of arms near hips
- jaw disjointed so that it's much larger
  - has 4 long fangs
- Dex uses a med scanner
  - most of the DNA is human
  - some kind of cancer has altered the creature
  - has redundant organs, lungs, heart, etc.

Repairing the Plant¶

in the next room we find the processing plant
- Zeke and Murderbot work on it

Zeke and Murderbot fix the processing plant

we can feel the air flowing
- Zeke takes his helmet off and takes a deep breath
- there's plenty of oxygen but it starts to smell a bit off

Debrief with Imogene¶

at the edge of the slums, the 5 guards approach us
- they take us to a safe house
Imogene shows up a few hours later
- Imogene: "Goddammit, you did it!"
- "I could see the children. They can breathe again"
"Was there a monster?"
- Ink shows the head
- Imogene: "Holy shit, what the fuck is that?"
- Murderbot: "We don't know. We thought you might know."
- Carnoc: "We're new here."
- Imogene: "I don't know what the hell that thing is. Uh, I've never seen anything like that."
- "That's what destroyed the air filters? The Life Support Tower?"
- Ink: "Not sure about that, but it might have kept it from getting fixed."
- Ink: "We're worried there's more foul play going on here, and we think you should protect it."
Ink: "What do you know about the people running this base?"
- Imogene: "Oh, the Bratva? They're not terrible. They're just mostly greedy"
- "The people sent down here into Dop Town... It's really just a matter of money. It's not malicious."
- "There are a few in Tempest Company that take joy in harming people, and seeing our suffering, but for the most part, it's just a matter of financial distribution. You know, they want to be rich."
- "We can't pay, they put us down here. If we've got O₂ for free, they don't have anything on us anymore."
we ask about the hacker bounty
- Imogene's forces have carried out some attacks
Ink asks if she knows anything about the Sycorax trade?
- Imogene: "I'll tell you everything I know..."