WttSS session 49: 'At the Door to Knowledge'

General Summary

GM's notes to self:
Without these reports being properly read, they're being used more as a reference to keep future plot consistent than as a story, so:

• Challenge 1: 1000 words max
• Challenge 2: write a report, not a narrative

Things I learned from the last report:

• Liking the style
• Just need to be more concise still

 

Last time

 

• The party woke from stasis to find almost 9 Ghodar days had past
• The Caliban Crow was set down safely on a ledge overlooking an alien valley - the portal remained open behind the ship, with a khartuk outpost on the cliff face beside it
• The ship had been infused by an energy similar to that of the Crossroads but the party managed to purge it with the help of a kharatuk AI
• A further corruption came with the energy but was equally purged
• The party saw off a part-spirit beast that was attacking the outpost and a Portal Builder 'cleaner' robot come to take the party's advanced tech

  Tracking note: 109 words - but are these valuable? If I'm removing the narrative angle to all this then presumably this section can be cut, as you'd just look at the previous report...  

Small points

  Valley features

• Dimensions: 10s of km long and 20km wide
• A curtain wall preserves an atmospheric bowl within the valley
• A giant silver sphere hangs in the sky some 40 km into the valley, at its centre
• A palace of silver lies beneath the sphere, seeming providing it energy freely through the air in a way reminiscent of the hexagonal chamber the other side of the portal
• A small monolith lies on the far side of the valley, some 60 km away
• The righthand wall of the mountain curtain sports a 2km-wide waterfall running almost its entire height, lying some 30 km along the wall
• The flora and fauna of the valley benefit of a high-energy environment that provided easy access to life's necessities and removed a need for great speciality and urgency in survival

  Great Caravan
The party re-established contact with the Great Caravan, though they had to decode the signal, as was severely distorted by some effect.

• The war leader Ta-Nehisi reported that both the Xinghur and the Legion 6th had been forced way back from the portal by a rearrangement of the mountain range
• The Xinghur were making their way back to the portal but it was tough going

  Kharatuk AI
As Murad was exploring the kharatuk outpost he triggered a second kharatuk AI, this one of a woman.

• Her message was:
• "Brother, please forgive the scans of your ship and person, we assure you it is only in the combined best interests of you and we, your people
• "Long have we feared that the emperor would seek to rebuild his lost toys - we had hoped to vanish as his childlike attention moved on to other things but it seems his obsession has won out
• "Nonetheless, you will find us welcoming: equip yourself from our homes in this valley and come find us - do not fear this valley: it's experiments are safely on hold and do little more now than provide energy and materials for the planet"
• Murad asked her a couple of questions that gave the following information:
• "The emperor walks the way of the Beast - an entirely physical devotion - which makes him almost the opposite of the sorcerer spirits you describe"

  Tracking: 373 words (not counting 'last time')  

Weapon shenanigans

  The party performed an experiment with weapons: They fixed Kerman's accelerator rifle and sent him out to fire it into the sky.

• Kerman was hit with a spiritual attack from no clear source - 9d12, 5 successes, against his current mind points, 1 success
• His past violence flashed before his eyes before vanishing from his mind - it was mostly his Ghodar adventure, as Kerman resolved most trouble in his life through intimidation
• Good thoughts then flooded to replace it - he thought of his children and grandchildren
• He can still get angry but not violent, which will last until a little while after he catches up with the 'lost boys' (see below)
• His accelerator rifle was once again disconnected inside, becoming a rifle full of parts
• The bullet made it 20m (short range) before vanishing

  Tracking: 510 words  

Spirit beast

  Murad, Kerman and Zarzur explored the kharatuk outpost looking for further kharatuk systems and information. On reaching the first tower he also found the reason the 'spirit beast' was attacking the first tower: a small 'spirit entity' was trapped in rubble on one of its levels, thrashing frantically to free itself. Using some repair, sealant foam they secured the floor of the chamber and released the creature from the rubble.

• The first tower was found to be the source of the corruption affecting the facility, as all damage seemed to spread out from here
• More and more items throughout the rooms were turned to ash the closer to the first tower
• More and more cracks in the walls, floor and ceilings existing closer to the first tower and seemed to radiate out from there
• The lower third of the first tower is on the edge of collapse
• A room two-thirds of the way up the first tower contains the actual source (located but not investigated)

  Tracking: 677 words  

Lost in the forest

  Khalil and Masruq ventured out into the forest to examine some points of interest identified by Caliban's scans. They took a single grav-bike and travelled within the forest canopy to prevent anyone seeing them. Without a point in Survival between them they got into more trouble than good in the time but did manage to reach a Portal Builder mercurium source for a quick examination before getting lost in the trees.

• Caliban's scans
• No-one from the Horizon seems to be present or to have ever been present
• Two further kharatuk locations nearby: a housing area on one of the rivers that extend from the valley's waterfall; a standalone tower in the forest, some 5 km away
• Mercurium formations are dotted at random throughout the forest - the nearest one that is on the way to a kharatuk location is 2.5 km away, in the direction of the kharatuk tower
• Mercurium source
• In shape it looks like a thin spout of frozen water pushed at high pressure from a hole in a pipe
• Khalil took scans of it so they might see in the future if the mercurium were still moving or changing shape
• Trouble
• The GM called for Survival rolls to move in the forest and so neither character felt comfortable lingering or moving further into the forest - they tried to turn back
• When flying the grav-bike above the canopy they attracted another Portal Builder sphere, which the kharatuk AI reported had appeared as the bike now represented a threat to the valley's experiment
• Murad asked the AI for details on the experiment and if it could hack the experiment protocols for him but the AI reported the kharatuk feared to hack the experiment controls at the valley waterfall - the party would have to go there to do that
• Kerman and Zarzur tried to fly the Caliban Crow out to collect the lost boys but this summoned 3 more cleaners as the ship left the safety of the ledge, so they retreated in a hurry
• In a hurry Khalil dropped Masruq and the grav-bike back into the safety of the canopy but fell off the bike in doing so
• Fortunately he caught a high branch
• Unfortunately he landed amidst a troop of 6-limbed apes
• However, by mimicking the sounds of the troop's fleeing children he managed to drop from the branches whilst confusing the apes by replaying the sound
• Lost
• Khalil and Masruq fled the scene but got completely lost in the forest whilst avoiding the dangers of both predators and 'spirit' plants
• Kerman climbed the kharatuk tower and prepared to glide out to rescue them

  Tracking: 1131 words, so ditch the unneeded 'last time' section and keep trying for efficiency, as you're getting there