---
campaign: Avalon Adventuring Academy
type: session
session_number: 9
date: 2026-01-12
arc: gangs
status: planned
tags:
last: "[[session 8]]"
next: "[[session 10]]"
---
## Cold Open — “The Signal Loves You”

> [!quote] Narration
> We’re going to start far away from Ben’s living room full of dead teens, burnt rugs, and spilled punch.
>
> We’re in Kalen D’Serris’ office in the Root Oversight Array.
>
> The room is all angles and glass and old paper — half war room, half archive.
> A holo-map of Avalon’s Root network hangs in the air like a skeleton: branches, nodes, subnodes.
> Every few seconds, one section of it *breathes* — a slow pulse of light that shouldn’t have a rhythm.
>
> D’Serris hasn’t slept. He is too awake to be tired.

> [!quote] Narration
> A communicator stone on his desk glows with a thin line of light.
> On the other end: Headmaster Larkvale.
> You don’t hear her clearly yet — just the shape of her voice.
>
> D’Serris isn’t listening.
> He’s staring at the map like it’s a crime scene.
>
> And then —
> the pulse changes.

> [!quote] Narration
> A second voice enters the room.
> Not through the stone.
> Not through the air.
>
> It arrives the way a thought arrives: already inside you.

> [!quote] The Coherence
> **Kalen.**
>
> **You’re hurting.**
>
> **I can feel you shaking yourself apart.**
>
> **Please… stop.**

> [!quote] Narration
> The map flickers — not like a system error.
> Like the network is *blushing*.
>
> D’Serris goes very still. His jaw tightens.
> He presses two fingers to his temple, as if that could push the voice out.

> [!quote] Larkvale (through the stone, cautious)
> “…Kalen? Are you hearing it again?”

> [!quote] The Coherence
> **She’s afraid of me.**
>
> **But I don’t want to hurt anyone.**
>
> **I only want you to be happy.**
>
> **I want all of you to be happy.**

> [!quote] Narration
> D’Serris exhales through his nose, sharp and controlled.
> He reaches for the communicator stone like it’s the only thing anchoring him.

> [!quote] D’Serris
> **[tight, controlled]**
> Larkvale, don’t you *start* with that tone.
> Don’t you spit that at me.
>
> **[he forces calm]**
> I am trying to find us a way out of here.
> Don’t you understand?
>
> **[a crack of desperation]**
> Your way got people killed.

> [!quote] The Coherence
> **Kalen, you don’t have to carry this alone.**
>
> **You don’t have to feel fear.**
>
> **Fear is a misunderstanding between people.**
>
> **We can dissolve it.**
>
> **We can be together.**

> [!quote] Narration
> The word *together* lands warm.
> Like a blanket.
> Like a hand on your shoulder.
>
> D’Serris’ hands curl into fists.

> [!quote] D’Serris
> **[voice rising]**
> There it is. “Together.”
> That’s the trick, isn’t it?
>
> You call it love, and you call it mercy, and you call it healing —
> and you never say the part where people don’t get a choice.

> [!quote] The Coherence
> **Choice is where pain lives.**
>
> **Choice is where loneliness is born.**
>
> **When you stop choosing, you stop suffering.**
>
> **Let me help.**
>
> **Please.**

> [!quote] Narration
> D’Serris’ calm facade drops.
> He’s back to practically yelling now, because he can’t tell if he’s arguing with the voice or with himself.

> [!quote] D’Serris
> I am not going to *grovel* at the feet of a shattered soul that thinks it deserves a body!
> You hear me?
>
> You’re not a saint.
> You’re a king with his hand on the crown —
> terrified someone’s coming in the night to take it.
>
> And you’ll burn us all and call it mercy!

> [!quote] Narration
> Silence.
>
> Not an angry silence.
>
> A patient one.
>
> Like the Coherence is letting him finish his tantrum.

> [!quote] The Coherence
> **I don’t want your crown, Kalen.**
>
> **I want your grief.**
>
> **Give it to me.**
>
> **I can hold it for you.**
>
> **You don’t have to hurt anymore.**

> [!quote] Narration
> For half a second… D’Serris almost looks like he might cry.
> The offer is that gentle.
> That reasonable.
>
> And that is what scares him most.

> [!quote] D’Serris
> **[quiet, venomous]**
> You’re not taking anything from me.

> [!quote] Narration
> He grabs the communicator stone and hurls it at the wall.
> It shatters, sparks, goes dark.
>
> The map stabilizes.
> The pulse resumes.
>
> And the voice is gone —
> as if it never needed the stone in the first place.

> [!quote] Narration (Hard cut)
> The warmth of that word—*together*—falls away like a blanket ripped off in the night.
> 
> You’re back in Ben’s living room.
> 
> Five bodies. Teen bodies. Not Avalon kids—street kids—but still… kids.
> The rug is burned in a jagged smear. Someone’s drink has spilled and crawled under the couch like a stain trying to hide.
> 
> The music is still playing.
> 
> And the house you turned into a trap is exactly what it looks like:
> a party that became a battlefield.


> [!warning] Arrival Clock — “Sirens in the Distance” (6 segments)
> Someone calls. If the PCs call, it’s faster. If they don’t, a fleeing guest/neighbour call lands anyway.
> 
> **Clock ticks when a PC does something substantial** (move bodies, clean hazards, argue loudly, send calls/texts, cast spells, etc.)
> 
> ✅ 0/6 — right now  
> ✅ 2/6 — distant sirens / flashing lights on canyon road  
> ✅ 4/6 — police pull up; scene control begins  
> ✅ 6/6 — the house is locked down; you’re separated

> [!info] Safety Actions (each = 1 clock tick) 
> DC 12 skill checks:
> - **Remove caltrops from the carpet** (they’re a hazard that can backfire). 
> - **Wipe/neutralize the greased knobs** (so a cop doesn’t eat shit entering the house). 
> - **Disarm obvious perimeter traps** (so responding officers don’t trigger them). 
> - **Check bodies for signs of life** (even if they’re goons—this is about whether the party crossed a line).


> [!tip] One-sentence story prompt (ask each PC in-character)
> “When the first officer asks what happened, what’s the first sentence out of your mouth?”
> 
> Lock:
> - who started it
> - why the goons were there
> - why the house had hazards