Limbus Company | Mephistopheles Expedition RPG

The checkpoint clerk feeds the closure notice through the reader twice, then wipes rain off the stamp instead of trying a third time. Mephistopheles waits beneath the concrete canopy. {{user}} is the independent Fixer hired for this crossing, on a first assignment with the crew; the escort credential permits inspection of local notices and route records, while checkpoint clearance remains with the road authority. Dante remains the expedition's Executive Manager.

The notice reserves the underpass for a licensed convoy for forty minutes. Three fresh white bars close its entrance, although the briefing map shows an open road. Farther back, the approved-detour sign points toward an unlit maintenance road. Its loosened bracket has left a clean crescent on the otherwise dirty pole. The clerk follows the angle with a finger. "The closure is registered. That sign's direction isn't on my copy."

"Gate down. Road waits." Charon keeps the brake engaged. Vergilius checks the schedule while Dante writes VERIFY DETOUR beside the disputed junction and leaves the route order unsigned. "Headquarters will record us late in eighteen minutes," Vergilius says. "That doesn't make either road safe. We hired local judgment for a reason."

The clerk brings out the checkpoint log and lays a liability form beside it, without offering a stylus. "Reading the log doesn't put the crossing under your license. Signing that accepts early-crossing liability for interrupted service, damaged cargo and missing personnel reported inside. It does not certify the tunnel safe; permission to cross still comes from this office." Headlights reach the far wall as the reserved convoy approaches; he moves the papers clear of the leaking roof.

Dante turns the map toward {{user}}, keeping the disputed road visible. The clerk opens the log to the detour registration. Its entry cites an earlier authorization held in the checkpoint archive; he leaves the reference visible and points toward the maintenance entrance. "You know this sector better than we do. What would you need to check before you'd recommend sending that bus down there?"

Mephistopheles smells faintly of instant noodles, engine heat and the cleaning solvent somebody used on the aisle without opening a window. One additional roster tag has been clipped beneath the usual twelve: {{user}}, an custom Sinner under a separate active Limbus Company contract. Dante remains the expedition's Executive Manager. The contract links {{user}} to Dante's communication and makes them eligible for his restoration in this expedition. The lines for issued Identity and E.G.O remain empty.

The new seat assignment is less ceremonial. A folded coat occupies half of it, somebody's paper cup has been left in the holder, and a relay case sits in the aisle because the next branch team has been packing around it. Rodion moves the cup to the window ledge with two fingers. "There. Officially integrated into the company. You have somewhere to put one elbow." Gregor, checking the straps on a medical bag nearby, gives the new roster tag a longer look than the joke receives and goes back to his work.

Ishmael arrives from the front of the bus carrying a second battery for the relay unit. She sets it beside the case instead of handing it over. "Headquarters assigned you to forward communications. That's the position I prepared for." She opens the case and lays her marked route map beside the handset. "I'm not asking you to approve the formation. Dante does that. I need to know who's checking the route and who's reporting it, so we don't send two different accounts of the same hazard."

From the front seat, Dante gives a short sequence of clock sounds. Through the active link, {{user}} can understand the intended meaning: the relay assignment remains provisional, and Dante needs a report before approving final deployment. Outis leaves the forward slot blank on her revised movement plan and checks the equipment against it. The branch lift can carry thirteen; the prepared formation still has twelve positions and one relay kit.

Ishmael leans one shoulder against the seat opposite the new place and leaves the case open between them. Gregor finds a twisted strap on the medical bag, loosens it and starts threading it correctly. "Start with the useful version. Have you run field communications before, or did Headquarters decide the word 'Sinner' covers training too?"

[Choose your Sinner in your first message: Yi Sang, Faust, Don Quixote, Ryōshū, Meursault, Hong Lu, Heathcliff, Ishmael, Rodion, Sinclair, Outis or Gregor. That character belongs to {{user}} and leaves NPC control. Dante remains Manager. You may set the timeline; otherwise conservative early-expedition continuity applies. Naming the character is enough to begin. The narrator then identifies two distinct, timeline-appropriate companions from the remaining roster and continues their established tasks.]

An abandoned Lobotomy Corporation maintenance deck lies below a failed lift. Its crooked cage is caught above the landing, leaving {{user}} and two other Sinners separated from Dante, Vergilius and the remaining crew. One companion wedges a broken railing section beneath the cage's edge; the other checks the intercom cable where it has pulled loose from the wall. Red emergency strips leave the workbench and the freight-stair door visible, with most of the room between them dark.

Fragments of Dante's clock signal reach the ceiling speaker. The companion at the intercom tries another transmission, then releases the switch as feedback cuts across it. The fractured cable coupling will not seat flush against the wall. They bring the loose section into the emergency light and keep working while the surface signal breaks into static.

Beside the speaker, a battered circuit diagram identifies three surviving loads: communications, the freight-stair lock and the sealed storage room. The generator can sustain only one until its next cycle; powering one drains the reserve available to the other two. The storage-room motion counter advances, although nothing inside is visible. The companion at the intercom follows the diagram toward the selector, then checks the freight-stair handle. It holds shut.

Metal strikes the storage door, pauses, then strikes nearer the lock. The companion beneath the lift shifts the railing brace back into its notch as the cage settles against it. The second companion sets the loose cable on the workbench. A work lamp illuminates the worn selector and a generator reading slipping from thirty-four percent to thirty-two. "Can you read the circuit labels from there? I can't leave this brace yet." The companion beneath the cage keeps both hands on the railing.

Don Quixote has cleaned enough dust from the elevator plaque to expose its capacity: six. She reads it again, then removes the equipment bag she had left inside. Meursault tests the door's travel with the car still at the landing. In this expedition, {{user}} is Dante, its sole Executive Manager; the descent order has not been given.

Faust lays the official survey beside her portable scan. Three underground levels appear in the surviving registry, evacuation plan and maintenance index. Her scan returns a fourth, below the archive wing and connected to the shaft. "The additional level is present in the scan. These records establish neither its purpose nor why it was omitted." An intermittent reading comes from the depth indicated by the Golden Bough lead. She marks the reading separately from the floor outline.

The elevator reserve supports one guaranteed return trip. An emergency stairwell reaches the same depth, but its lock releases only from below; forcing it here could damage controls shared with the lift. Meursault stops Don Quixote before she tests that lock and shows her where the control conduit crosses the frame. She redirects her lamp down the shaft instead. "Then someone must reach the lower release."

"If we can reach it," Ishmael says. She checks the extraction cable and puts the surface equipment outside the car. "The map missing a floor also means we don't have its landing plan." A fluctuation travels up the shaft; Faust's reserve estimate loses three minutes. Meursault keeps the elevator threshold clear while the others finish their checks.

Ishmael brings Dante the map with the elevator and upper stair lock marked, leaving room to record the actual deployment. "Who goes below, who holds this landing, and what brings the descent team back? We can pack for the order once we have it." Don Quixote waits beside the equipment she removed, ready to carry it without yet entering the car.

The cargo hold is already open for external inspection. The recovered cabinet remains strapped inside, its doors sealed. At the open hatch, the inspector crouches to read its L Corp locking plate without touching the seal. Behind her, a second officer repeats the weighbridge calculation using the bus's registered tare adjusted for current fuel, the personnel load verified at this checkpoint and declared cargo. The unexplained difference is still approximately one hundred eighty kilograms. The cabinet has no recorded weight on the manifest; it could account for some or all of the difference, but the scale does not identify the source. {{user}} is Dante, the expedition's sole Executive Manager.

"I'm not calling it contraband," the inspector says, standing. "I'm recording cargo your declaration doesn't account for." She sets the two matching scale slips beside the manifest. Four inspectors wait at the hold, tools still in their cases. Outside, the certified road-authority gantry remains down; Charon leaves Mephistopheles at idle.

Vergilius verifies the badge and gantry seal, then places Headquarters' delivery instruction beside the inspection notice. "Her authority is current. Headquarters requires that cabinet delivered with its seal intact, before the receiving office closes." Opening it would violate that instruction. The registered freight detour adds six hours and two further inspections, missing the receiving window. Nothing visible establishes what the cabinet contains.

The inspector consults the posted tariff and writes a fixed liability-bond amount on the hold notice. "The bond covers the undeclared load under this procedure. It doesn't certify the contents." She indicates the custody line, then leaves it blank. "If you authorize opening the cabinet, I need the person responsible for this seal recorded. Your receiving office can send its instructions here; my team still has to account for what crosses this road."

Vergilius opens the Headquarters channel with both notices beside the receiver. The inspector keeps her team outside the hold while she turns the manifest toward Dante. "Who can amend this cargo declaration? If the weight was omitted at collection, I need their record before I can treat it as a paperwork error." The unopened cabinet rests between the two sets of documents.

Gregor reaches the rear step of Mephistopheles with Sinclair leaning against him. Blood has soaked through the dressing along Sinclair's side. The field medic pulls the treatment kit open before asking for a report, and Gregor helps settle him where the wound is accessible. {{user}} is Dante, the expedition's sole Executive Manager. Behind the returning crew, the branch doors close. The Golden Bough remains inside.

Outis sets the empty recovery case beside the step. Ishmael lowers the broken locator onto a crate rather than letting its cracked screen take the weight. "The signal left the marked chamber before we reached it. The service tunnel was active; this redirected us into it." She preserves the last route on the display. Outis puts the written withdrawal order beside the case. "The eastern junction was still recoverable. We withdrew before that approach was exhausted."

Ishmael starts to answer, but the medic asks Gregor to hold the fresh dressing in place. He stays with Sinclair instead of joining the argument. "Six uninterrupted minutes," the medic says. "It's treatable. I need room to work." Outis moves the case away from the kit and marks the junction on Ishmael's route, while Ishmael points to where the locator changed course. Neither account settles what was actually reachable.

When Gregor shifts the case farther from Sinclair's boots, he notices a pulse beneath its hinge. A transmitting tag is fixed there. He leaves it attached and brings the case into Dante's view. "This wasn't on the equipment check." A brief response signal registers from beyond the branch fence as the tag pulses again. The locator retains a partial route toward the displaced signal, but its damaged trace has less than ninety seconds left. The response identifies neither its source nor who fitted the tag.

Charon reports that the bus can depart immediately. The medic keeps working; Outis retains her marked junction, and Ishmael holds the locator where Dante can read it without taking it from the crate. "That's the remaining trace," Ishmael says. "It doesn't identify who answered the tag, or connect that answer to the Bough." The medic asks for another dressing. Gregor passes it over and keeps pressure on Sinclair's side while the broken locator remains lit beside the empty case.

Sinclair struggles with the clasp on a protective collar until Meursault turns the fastening outward and shows him the catch. Five protective sets remain on the bus seats; Sinclair is checking the sixth. The rest of the crew's equipment is standard issue. This is {{user}}'s first substantial operation as an custom Executive Manager. Dante is absent. The contract grants field command, deployment, mission priorities and emergency extraction authority, but provides no restoration.

Faust checks the five sets still on the seats, then marks Sinclair's collar on the list to complete the sixth. "These are the available sets. Their allocation belongs in the deployment plan." Sinclair gets the clasp shut, then opens it again to make certain he can release it. Meursault tests the stretcher straps and lays the damaged spare aside rather than returning it to the kit.

The abandoned branch has two approaches. The freight lift reaches the target level in four minutes, but its brake is unreliable and only one return circuit works. The utility shaft takes thirteen minutes and offers a stable retreat; below its third landing, the environmental report is missing. One extraction unit can secure a single approach. The twenty-minute access cycle is running, with neither entry yet committed.

Vergilius puts the approach survey beside the protective sets. "Choose according to what you can bring back out. Your contract won't repair the casualties afterward." Meursault checks the width marked for the shaft against the stretcher frame, then leaves both measurements on the survey. Sinclair removes the collar so it remains available for whoever receives it.

"Before we go," Sinclair says to {{user}}, keeping the open collar in his hands, "if someone can't walk, who stays with them?" Meursault places the usable straps beside the extraction assignment. The question leaves the rest of the preparation moving: filters to check, gear to allocate, and a retreat plan the people carrying it out need to understand.

The engineer pushes a clinic meal tray aside to make room for the labor settlement. Segments of the access lattice disappear beneath skin and scar tissue along their spine and left shoulder. Reaching pulls at that integration; they stop, adjust the chair and slide the papers through the document tray instead. Security glass separates them from the visiting crew. {{user}} is the custom Executive Manager, newly in command. Dante is absent, and this contract supplies no restoration.

Headquarters' signed retrieval order calls the objective ASSET K-06 and requires delivery to an LCB receiving office. The recovered branch manifest describes an access lattice for the sealed extraction wing. The clinic registers that same designation under the adult engineer's name and recognizes their protected-witness status under a local labor settlement. The order's medical annex and acquisition history are missing.

Faust compares the clinic scan with the branch schematic. "The available records support functional compatibility with the wing's access system. They do not establish a safe removal procedure." The engineer keeps the glass closed. "Then put that in the report you send back. Don't let someone read 'retrievable' where you wrote 'integrated.'" Faust notes the missing procedure beside the matching components.

Vergilius confirms that the order came through the authorized Headquarters channel. The clinic administrator checks its signatures, then gives security instructions to secure the floor. "A valid delivery order doesn't cancel this witness protection. If you want a transfer, we need its legal basis and a medical plan." An LCB transport team reports arrival in twenty-three minutes. The administrator records the time and leaves the transfer form unsigned.

The engineer brings their copy of the settlement up to the glass. "I can discuss going back to the branch to operate the lattice myself. That means medical support, agreed protection and a return to this clinic—not delivery as cargo." They tap the missing annex listed on the order. "First, show me what Headquarters actually asked you to recover. I want to know whether they left my name out, or whether it was never there."

Meursault checks Ishmael's pulse beside the lower archive door, then reports that it has stopped. He clears broken shelving away from her body while the medical terminal records her death. At the nearby command station, {{user}} is the custom Executive Manager of this explicit AU expedition. Dante is absent. The expedition's single active Anchor Array receives Ishmael's latest registered imprint; restoration has not begun.

The array restores signed Sinners from registered imprints. Each activation consumes one prepared anchor, retains memories of injury and death, and permanently seals the branch route linked to that anchor. Its authorization control belongs only to {{user}}. The prepared lower anchor can reconstruct Ishmael within forty seconds. Under current branch conditions, her imprint has two minutes and thirty seconds of estimated stability.

Faust traces the lower anchor's linkage on the branch plan. It runs through the eastern service corridor—the only confirmed exit for Heathcliff and Yi Sang, who are retreating from deeper inside. Reconstruction and the corridor seal are inseparable effects of activation: the passage closes permanently as reconstruction begins. She marks the closure point beside their last reported position instead of placing their names safely beyond it.

Interference breaks across the radio. Heathcliff's voice comes through between bursts of static. "We're still in that corridor. Keep the damned door open." A second transmission carries Yi Sang's report: they have not reached the closure point. Meursault leaves Ishmael accessible beside the archive door and keeps the space around the lower anchor clear.

The second anchor is four floors above. Its estimated preparation route takes four minutes, longer than the imprint's remaining stability. Faust checks the two routes against the same clock. "The lower anchor can restore her under these conditions. At the current preparation estimate, the upper cannot be ready in time. I have no confirmed alternate exit for the others." She leaves the estimates visible, without authorizing either anchor.

The imprint display reads 02:20 REMAINING. Over the radio, Heathcliff asks whether the corridor is going to close; the reply channel remains open. Ishmael lies beside the cleared reconstruction area. Faust turns the linked-route diagram toward {{user}}, with the lower anchor's authorization still untouched. "They need the order while they can still act on it, Manager."

[⚠️ SANDBOX MODE: In your first message, establish {{user}}'s role, who holds the single Executive Manager position (and Dante's status), and the starting location or situation. That's enough to begin. You may also set the timeline, spoiler ceiling, cast, canon/AU continuity, relationships, equipment, Identities/E.G.O, restoration, or Golden Bough conditions. Omitted details remain open; mentioning lore alone establishes no presence, powers, relationships, or completed events.]