WttSS session 34: 'Conversation by Finger Painting'

General Summary

  As Kerman holds back the rock monster, he is unaware of the negotiations between Murad and the Crossroads' AI and unaware that his fellows in the shuttle are now safe; and he won't let it go to the shuttle to attack his friends without a fight. Wrestling a creature made entirely of rock wouldn't necessarily be a good idea at any time, but needs must...   JUMP TO CONTENTS  

The challenge

  Interpreting the AI's challenge, Murad recognises that the Crossroads AI demands that the party mystics face its champion, proving their worth by defeating it. However, the manner of their battle will be the most important thing. If they can do it without resorting to anything the AI thinks of as a Dark art of the Void then it will acknowledge Murad's claim they are his friends and mean him no harm. In this case the AI will cease its attacks. But if the party mystics cross that line, then the AI means to destroy them, for Murad's sake as much its own.   An agreement set, the AI releases the shuttle from its energy beam. Power returns to all the ship's systems and the attack on the mystics' spirits immediately stops. At ten minutes' walk, perhaps half that running, from the Crossroads the mystics have some time to prepare; but Kerman doesn't yet know there's a challenge in place.   The slow rock creature tries to disable Kerman, maybe dissuade him from attacking. It has no qualms with him and has only been ordered to assault the mystics. Summoning its energies, it causes the ground to shake but Kerman doesn't fall. It tries to knock him aside but he easily dodges. Needing to follow its orders, it realises it needs to use stronger means.   Kerman sees the pink seams across the rock of the creature's body liquify and bubble, travelling like a lava across its surface. As some of the pink lava flows onto the creature's claws it strikes at Kerman, piercing his thermostatic suit with sharp claws, pushing the toxic liquid into the wound. Kerman feels the heat of the poison enter and move through his system but manages to resist even this.
...GM note: 4 successes, so maybe Kerman has some resistance to this as a Xinghur that carries into future sessions, or that could be bought as a talent even?   JUMP TO CONTENTS  

New plan

  Until this point, Kerman has been happy just to keep the creature busy. Fearing that attacking it outright might make the situation worse, he has kept only a defensive stance; but now there's poison on the field. Any decision he might make though, is challenged by the creature's desire to push passed him and it falls forward, threatening to crush him beneath its weight. Deciding that, though he might be able to hold the creature, doing so would increase his contact with the poison and he lets it fall, dodging aside.   The party, however, now has a plan, and as the beast merges once more with the sand and rock Kerman turns and runs to the shuttle, trying to keep ahead of it, the party mystics coming out to meet their challenger on the field of sand between them.   As the match assembles, Murad continues his discussion with the AI, pondering whether the form of the contest might be influenced. The party has to defeat the rock creature but perhaps this might be done over tea in debate, or perhaps through a game of chess? The AI indicates that to all suggested ventures its challenger would most likely respond with "Rock Monster Smash!", thus quickly returning any civilised occasion back to the current state of affairs.   Masruq runs out into the desert, drawing his Al Sharaf blade, getting ahead of Khalil and Zarzur who look around the shuttle for anti-rock-monster weaponry. The Yazdan household however, maintains their transport shuttle only for overnight stays, rather than military incursions, and the two mystics are forced to improvise. Outside the shuttle they manage to open a compartment to the ship's coolant system. The damage to the shuttle from its landing though, has caused a free field of discharging electricity to block their access. They manage to ground it but lose precious time that puts the others back into combat.   JUMP TO CONTENTS  

Battle

  Kerman and Masruq meet the rock monster in open sand. Again it tries to shake the humans off their feet and drive them down with fists of stone. Kerman dances away easily enough. Masruq even manages to pierce the monster's rock hide with his blade, driving it deep. The Al Sharaf blade's metal seems perfect for the encounter, as not only does it penetrate rock as no normal metal should it also seems to resist any corrosion that would destroy a lesser material.   Such an attack is punished however, by the creature's riposte, as the captain is an easier target than the crew's pilot. With a single blow, a heavy fist lands square in Masruq's chest and should have downed him; but the Lady stands at Masruq's shoulder and his opponent is shocked to see him impossibly regain his feet.   And by now, Khalil and Zarzur have reached the fray, wielding an impromptu device that shoots coolant through a tube from a backpack that they have cobbled together. Khalil unleashes the coolant across the bottom of the creature, whose body freezes and begins to fracture. Knowing that the beast must fall to the hands of the mystics to meet the challenge, Kerman provides his knowledge of weapons and foes to guide a final strike by Masruq, under which the rock monster shatters.   JUMP TO CONTENTS  

Conversations by finger painting

  Their challenge overcome, the party gathers at the obelisk within the Crossroads, the AI accepting Murad's judgement that the party mystics can be trusted. The party then questions the AI, limited only by the need to communicate in Murad's drawings and shared emotions. ...See the next section on questions answered in downtime.   During the questioning the AI reveals that the obelisk is more than just an access terminal: it also has a store of a further-advanced mercurium that it can use to build one item. This particular obelisk can make either a kharatuk blade or a seeming 'magic carpet'.   The blade is a halberd, often used by the kharatuk. Its mercurium allows it to be split, mid-fight into two swords, four daggers and combinations thereof. The blade is also imbued with the aspects of three Icons - the Dancer and two others - that grant it extra abilities.   The 'magic carpet' would be a square or rectangle of the metal whose purpose has it lying flat to bear the weight of between one and twenty people - its size being changeable. The shape then carries the people, its sides sparking with tassels of red and orange flame as it hovers and moves.   During the conversations, the AI also pings Zarzur's headset - nothing dangerous, just two strangers saying "good morning" as they pass. Should Zarzur wish though, she could in theory hack the Crossroads as she would other computers.   JUMP TO CONTENTS  

Downtime questions for the Crossroads AI

 

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SPOILERS FOR THE MERCY OF THE ICONS CAMPAIGN AHEAD

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Kharatuk blade

  Choice of enhancements
When creating the blade, the Crossroads obelisk can imbue it with 3 aspects: of the Dancer and 2 others. Zarzur might be able to hack the AI and override the need to have the Dancer aspect but this would be somewhat... frowned upon. Images representing aspect effects are:

• Messenger: targets seem afraid of sound of the spinning blade (DP, dp)
• Dancer: spinning blades provide armour as part of attacks
• Gambler: wielder strikes before opponents (DP)
• Deckhand: weapon disarms and grapples
• Merchant: the dropped blade, left behind, reappears in front of the bearer
• Judge: weapon pierces targets like Masruq's blade
• Traveller: in combat the wielder seems to have a choice of futures - imagery used is like that in the challenge of the mystics (DP)
• Lady: wielder combats spirits with some resistance to spirit void powers
• Faceless One: blades attack with spiritual flames (DP)

...Aspects marked with (DP) have the same void problem the Orb has - i.e. gives the GM Darkness Points - and the Crossroads would prefer not to imbue these aspects, though it will obey if ordered. Aspects marked (dp) have a lower power level as well that does not cause Darkness Points, and so the Crossroads assumes Murad will be OK if he just accesses that.   ...Follow up: On the Merchant aspect, does it just show up again or does the user will it/command it to show up?
The Crossroads can communicate that with an emotion response: on reappearance the emotion is one of surprise but not shock - it's not going to reappear in your hands whilst you're in the shower, more like you're lifting the bed covers to put your boots under the bed and oh, there it is.   JUMP TO CONTENTS  

Kharatuk themselves

  Are the kharatuk humanite or did they evolve as a species as humans did?
Asked by showing a procession of images of precursor species leading up to humans. Answered with indication that the kharatuk had no precursor species.   Where are the kharatuk?
They fled the Crossroads, heading into the Deep Desert, when the void creature and the Flower People attacked.   What / who are the void creature and the Flower People?
The void creature was shown to come from a star map that no PC recognised and the Flower People from a different star map, that the PCs also couldn't recognise. (The PCs, quite reasonably, deduce that these are the First and Second Horizons, though don't know which power comes from which map.) The void creature uses the power of the void by becoming it. The Flower People use the power of the void by completely dominating and controlling. The AI hates, and fears, them both and is determined to protect kharatuk from the void in any form. It also reveals that one of the 'Flowers' went on to become 'Circles'. (The PCs, quite reasonably, deduce that the 'Circles' represent the Circle of Seekers.)   When did the kharatuk arrive and when did they flee the Crossroads?
Answer given in context of the planet history the PCs can already put together. All of this assumes Khalil does the maths to translate calendars using stellar movements and Masruq applies some knowledge of the history of building styles.

• CC -403: kharatuk arrive on Ghodar
• CC -298: attacks by the void creature and the Flower People cause the kharatuk to flee the Crossroads
• Approx CC -250 and after: Abouelkassem active on Ghodar
• CC -120: Portal Wars, leading to the long night
• CC 0: Coriolis built by Zenithians
• CC 61: current day

  What other kharatuk sites are there in the system?
Checking in with these would cost energy, so Murad will have to give the OK / order to spend this energy before the AI does it. The following is what the AI has on record.

• 1 small station on one of Yesfir's moons
• 1 mobile operation in Yesheriti Diri (asteroid belt)
• 1 mobile operation near the unstable portal to Dziban
• 2 Ghodar locations like that centred here by/within the Nekatra Mountains, a few settlement locations centred around a point of interest:
• First is within an area of the planet's atmosphere that has a permanent lightning storm that the locals just avoid like the plague
• The second is near the Legion base and has something to do with access to the planet's significant tectonic activity

  JUMP TO CONTENTS  

Horizon

  Tell us about Portals
The AI does have a greater understanding of Portals than humans but communicating as they are it would take all the party's spare time before joining the Xinghur to even allow Khalil reward enough to get a +1 to portal jumps. They don't have that kind of time at the moment but Khalil might return at a later date...   Scan the demon ship
Scanning at this distance drains the Crossroads of some energy.
Ship is void through and through. Two 'life forms' detected, one very dominant; feelings of anger and vengeance detected in the dominant one. Numerous void forms also detected and ship is now a void form itself. Ship's heading to the last location of the destroyed asteroid-field facility.   What are the Foundation looking at in Yesfir?
Something that belongs to the Flower people. It's the same sort of thing that's inside Xene in Kua.   Xene and emissaries
The Crossroads cannot recall any links between the Judge Icon and Xene. It will indicate its knowledge is some 3-4 centuries old however.   Does the AI have a map of the Third Horizon and how does it compare to ours - planets- and portals- wise?
OOC: Tricky one this, given the source material. I've been filling in gaps myself, as the books encourage GMs to do, but I've tried to stay clear of anything the campaign impacts upon, as if I go off piste there I'll be chasing my tail every time a new source book comes out. I'll go with what I know and if anything else appears I'll just have to say you would also have known this.
...Planets: it shows fewer planets in fact. The kharatuk explored but were focused on the Sadaal Route, which contains Ghodar, and they stopped in Ghodar when they found it.
...Portals: no new portals located exactly but Menkar is confirmed as not being a dead end; portal links to the space of the Void creature/thing shown as one for definite in the Odacon system and a second suspected somewhere within the Dabaran circle.   JUMP TO CONTENTS