Session 022: Testing Report
General Summary
Midnight Squad realized that the temple of Hylax had to be underground & started looking for it, after exploring for a little bit they came to a cave with two creatures that could live in the vaccum of space. They were hostile & were defeated by Midnight Squad.
After some more exploring they came up to a field of snow-quicksand that sucked in people. It was large so they tied a rope to each other & walked through it.
Then they came to a corpse in the snow that, upon inspection had hole in it that seemed to have occured by a great many things exiting the body. Then a swarm of bugs attacked & ran away when it got to low health. Ahnje attempted to attack it as it left missing.
Searching the body they found a keycard.
Searching again they came to a cave with a slot.
They put the key in & an airlock opened. They entered it & entered into the facility (with full atmosphere & full standard gravity. Kiarth, Nuritch, & Yachern three Haan weren't happy with the party & attacked. They were yelled at by the Abbess of the Temple of Hylax & sent to their quarters without supper. She apologized for them & welcomed Midnight Squad to the Temple. She explained that she had visions from Hylax about a group coming to face the Swarm. They would be tested, she thought that Midnight Squad were those that she saw.
She told them that she would have to speak to the Assembly & would call a meeting with them in the morning. Telling them that they had free reign of the facility while they were here, except for the Portal room.
The meeting had them agree that they could be tested. So the Abbess explained that Hylax, if she agreed, would send their comet across the galaxy so that they could test them.
Tuvah explained that the trials worked by opening a portal to one of the planets nearby, that portal would last for twelve hours. That was the length of time they had for their trial.
The First Trial was one of first contact:
They did this in stages observation they observed them with culture, life science & perception.
They attempted communication next using empathy, computers to make their comms emit light to the illuminating oozes, & engineering to make a display that showed the correct colours. Each modification took an hour & they were able to pass the test with within the twelve hours.
A festival was thrown & they were gifted sticky organic pods containing plant based liquids that doubled as serums: 3 serums of healing mk 2, serum of enhancement (sensate) & a tier 3 antitoxin.
They were given the rest of the day to explore the Forever Reliquary.
The second trial was one of peace negotiation. Between the Ghoran Delegation & the Nuar delegation.
Two factions were sharing a planet & were heading towards hostilities.
Midnight squad first convinced them that they could broker a peace agreement between them & so they decided to take them up on their offer.
Then they spoke to each side getting what they wanted & what they would be willing to sacrifice. After ten hours they were able to get a peace treay hammered out that both parties were happy with.
The final Trial was to protect the innocent:
When they were gathered, Negaflare was no where to be found, because ???????????????????????????????????????????????.
The portal opened & in front was a beach. The portal was at one end of the land bridge & they have twelve hours to help them out.
- Crafting Cages: Their is space for but a single person to craft in the Forever Reliquary. Creating an item normally has a base time of 4 hours. If your number of ranks in the appropriate skill to craft an item exceeds that item’s level by 5 or more, you can craft that item in half the base time. If your ranks exceed the item level by 10 or more, you can create the item in onequarter the base time. Objects larger than a Medium creature take twice as long to craft for each size category larger.
- Research using the library computers in the Forever reliquary is also feasible & is 1d4 hours per check.
- For simplicity we'll say it takes 10 rounds to travel to & from the portal room to any room within the Forever Reliquary.
Rewards Granted
Information gathered from people.
- The Prodigal Stone was where Hylax revealed herself to the shirren people as they fled from the Swarm. A temple was built on the comet’s surface, and the Forever Reliquary was constructed decades later. There are about 200 residents living in the monastery, almost all of whom were born on the comet, though new members occasionally arrive as part of religious pilgrimages. Often, these groups arrive to simply pay their respects, but sometimes they pledge themselves fully to Hylax and stay. While all residents of the monastery worship Hylax, not every resident is a member of the clergy. Some devote themselves to other jobs, such as guards, engineers and technicians, teachers, medical personnel, farmers, and so on. The vast majority of the monks also have other responsibilities to the monastery along those lines, as keeping a community functioning on a comet takes a lot of effort.
- The original monks of the Forever Reliquary were all shirrens. This continued for some time, until other worshippers of Hylax discovered the comet. There are now haans, formians, trox and other insectile species living at the monastery, though the single largest group is still shirrens. Interestingly, while the monks would never turn away a true devotee from joining, no members of noninsectile species have ever joined the monastery.
- Tuvah has been the abbot for about 15 years, since the previous abbot died, and directs the religious services and studies of the monastery. Harisskor, the librarian, was the other candidate for the position, but Tuvah was chosen because of her special connection to Hylax. It is said the Tuvah can call upon Hylax to perform miracles. In conjunction with Tuvah as abbot, the monastery is run by the Sacred Assembly, a council that includes Harisskor, Ithavine the shirren doctor, Meershmar the formian mechanic, and Rakorant the trox farmer and cook. Outside of specific religious and spiritual questions, which Tuvah handles, the Sacred Assembly approves many other decisions for the monastery.
- Tuvah’s first major act when she was made abbot was to install a special holoscreen in an unused room near the central gardens. This hybrid item allows the monks to view planets, moons, and other areas to look for those in need of aid. When Hylax deems it necessary, the screen becomes a portal to the place shown for a brief period of time, allowing monks to pass through and perform whatever task is required. If the PCs ask for specific examples of missions, some monks describe having to rescue those in trouble and defusing a major argument between two groups before it escalated.
- The Forever Reliquary is so named because it guards an important relic of Hylax: a crown crafted by shirren priests on Suskillon and brought to the comet centuries ago. The statue of Hylax in the temple on the comet’s surface depicts this crown, but it is not a well-known artifact throughout the rest of the galaxy. Many residents say that the Crown of Hylax can perform powerful magic, but no one is able to say exactly what. If asked about the crown, Tuvah refuses to answer but comments that if the monastery is going to have visitors, the monks might need a refresher course on keeping sensitive information secret.
Information gathered from the library.
- Hylax is the goddess of diplomacy, first contact, friendship, and peace. She is traditionally worshipped by many species of hive creatures, though she prefers her followers to speak out for themselves when necessary. Hylax urges her followers to always seek diplomatic and peaceful solutions, but she does not oppose fighting as a last resort, particularly in the defense of others. Shirren religious scholars have written multiple works about how their species rejected the Swarm and was embraced by Hylax during their exodus. These texts also state that at that time, the shirrens learned that before they became the Swarm, many kucharn were a part of Hylax’s faith, but their transformation into engines of sheer destruction made them incompatible with her religion. Several treatises believe that Hylax was sad to see them turn away from her but didn’t try to stop it.
- Different cultures who worship Hylax have different stories about her origins. According to some shirrens, Hylax was among the first kucharn, long before the name “shirren” even existed. She ascended from being a mortal queen to a goddess, and her divine touch allowed the shirrens to be created generations later. The trox from the Liavaran moon of Nchak believe that their leaders are mortal reincarnations of Hylax who once lived on that moon. Many of these trox believe decisions made by their leaders are official decrees of the goddess herself.
- Whether the church of Hylax should stand in opposition to the Swarm is a matter of great debate. Some Hylaxians believe that because Hylax herself chose not stop kucharn from becoming the Swarm, the modern church should also not go to war with the Swarm, though fighting in self-defense is acceptable. Others feel that while Hylax did not oppose the Swarm herself, the Swarm goes so much against everything she stands for that those who worship the goddess must protect the innocent from its advance. Diplomacy has been tried long ago, including by Hylax herself, and it is now time for action before more innocent lives are lost. A scant few even believe that the Swarm can be rehabilitated through the influence of Hylax.
- Hylax rarely speaks directly to her followers, except in matters of grave import. However, certain beings, such as high-ranking priests of the faith and the philosopher worms of Nchak, claim to receive visions from the Forever Queen that help them answer important questions of doctrine. Even rarer are those who are gifted with prophetic sight from Hylax, and those who are sometimes see multiple outcomes to a particularly momentous event without knowing how either result may be affected. The mental health of such oracles can sometimes become strained as they are bombarded with nightmares of terrible futures.
