WttSS session 36: 'Which Way to Turn?'
General Summary
The 13th day of the Deckhand could be a big day. Masruq has been schmoozing around the local court and secured a meeting with Khamzi then. Also, the Caliban Crow is due to finish repairs on the 13th. When the party gets their ship back, they will also get Dana's compass, which she left aboard for Murad. Finally, the Legion destroyer Harir is due to arrive at Ghodar. When the Harir arrives, Ghodar Station's comms and scanners will be completely blocked by whatever energy the destroyer is emitting, supposedly not EMF counter-measures but rather the after effects of the damage it sustained in Yesheriti Diri.
But that's tomorrow. Today, the Black Sparrow, a suspected trained Ahlam's Temple agent, has just eluded the party's discovery. Today, the party remains rested in the Yazdan household, on the side of the mountains, looking down over a peaceful city going about its business far below.
GM note: the party does buy a combat shield
...but leaves it with the servants to put aboard the Caliban Crow when it arrives.
GM note: We also decided that Khalil would have spent some of the last couple of days investigating the Orb of Ghodar
He investigated level 5, which creates 1km radius blast of a similar energy disruption that the Crossroads used on the party mystics, similar but one that affects all people and spirits. The blast would be stronger than the Crossroads attack and would generate many more Darkness Points than option 2 that the party already knows. Also, though the detonation can be targeted in location and time, there seems to be some suggestion that the 'average usual wielder' of the device is assumed to be immune to the energy released, expecting normal operation to be centring the blast on itself. Other points of note:
Many discussions
The party discusses the upcoming events, trying to prioritise. Before committing to any action against the Legion they decide they should speak to Khamzi and get as much information on what's going on as possible. Jihan offers to solve the problem of the Harir for the party but they decide against it. Khalil even speaks of the dangers of Jihan butchering the Legionaries. Kerman and Masruq are aware that the djinn would not like being spoken of in such a way, as if they were such uncivilised killers. Jihan is silent from this point. Masruq contacts the palace and manages to get their meeting with Khamzi moved up to today. The administrator decides to bump a meeting about repairing the temple to the Star Singer, as Khamzi is favouring creating a chapel to all the Icons lower down the mountain instead, one that would more accessible to all the city's residents.At the palace gates
Dressed in their festival best clothes - for some those provided by Bakhtiyar's household - the party heads up the mountain to the palace. They decide to take their valuable artifacts with them, not daring to leave anything behind where the Black Sparrow might be able to take it. Gathering these artifacts, they notice that Jihan's crystal no longer contains a flame... Outside the palace walls the party sees a large crowd gathered, waiting for an audience with Khamzi and the council. Petitioners from all levels of society await a chance to speak to the new Khamzi, as she is now healed, again the capable and sharp-witted leader that brought the colony here some forty years before. The Solar Wind still provide security and are only letting people in for their appointment times. Resources being short, they still wear their sunburst uniforms for now, but they carry themselves now more functionally, with less of an air of superiority about them. Nonetheless, no-one gets passed until they are due, and all who have come early or without an appointment must wait in the growing heat of the day. The fortunate privileged are prepared, sitting in carpeted, small travel tents, receiving drinks and food from servants. These idly people-watch as they wait. The less-fortunate stationary folk try to move a single curtain on a pole to keep themselves shaded, growing more irritable and impatient as the heat rises. As the party moves confidently forward, many members of the crowd witness them not having to wait. Worse, though two of the party are of a social level to match the crowd, three are plebeian. Though they are dressed in good clothes, some members of the crowd cannot believe that plebeians would get an audience with Khamzi before them. Words murmur through the less-civilised parts of the crowd, most polite enough not to be raised to audible levels but one merchant speaks loud enough to be heard. He stands before a sample of his wares, laid out on a carpet for all around to see. It is a collection of artifacts pulled from the sands, marking him as at least a capable purveyor. But he is not a civilised man; he remarks his surprise that filth would make it this far up the mountain. Kerman hears him. Striding over, Kerman asks if the merchant is really wanting to accuse Masruq of consorting with filth. Though a few people step back at the sheer size and volume of Kerman the merchant retains some confidence and, though more quietly, manages to get out that even a capable master might still bring dogs to do his dirty work. Kerman decides the merchant must be admitting to being dirty work that needs dealing with and sweeps up the gathered artifacts in the carpet they rest upon and marches away. In the crowd the rest of the party notice the Bulletin reporter Samala Hafi-Joahn appear and activate his recorder-drones, beginning a story with a comment that perhaps Kerman Strong Shoulder has turned to thievery in desperate times. Indeed, the merchant runs after Kerman and jumps on his back declaring such. Kerman's size and strength however, allow him to walk on, ignoring the extra weight and he approaches a palace servant. Dropping the merchant's wares at the servant's feet, and the merchant with them, Kerman politely asks the servant to dispose of all this waste. As he walks away the merchant grabs at his artifacts, and failing dignity, but the crowd is laughing at him and retreat will be his only option. As the party makes its way through a laughing and cheering crowd, members shout out for requests for a story or song about the party's ongoing adventures. Masruq promises that the crowd will get one when he and his friends come back out of the palace after meeting Khamzi. Both Ghodar Station and this crowd are now holding on to this promise...Khamzi
Khamzi now meets petitioners in the palace gardens, shunning the overly-ostentatious buildings that were constructed in her honour as a 'child of the Star Singer'. Such needless grandeur - if not outright heresy - is something she finds abhorrent and very representative of what the colonists originally wanted to leave behind. An administrator leading the party up also tells the party that Khamzi doesn't like to be referred to as 'her eminence', preferring instead simply the familiar 'grandmother'. On meeting the party, Khamzi greets them as 'brother' and 'sister', even with two cheek kisses, not differentiating between any of them. The treatment leaves Zarzur embarassed, even if a little pleasantly so. She enquires politely of everyone in turn but keeps the pleasantries shorter that would be normal for a visit with a state dignitary. The party responds in kind for most part. Murad covers his situation well, catching the implied social signals, even used to dealing with shorter people - everyone is after all - and bends down to the cheek kissing. Khalil is more... into the polite questions though, and fully answers Khamzi's questions in great detail. She recovers however, using Khalil's answer as a spring board to what part of their adventures has brought them here today. Khamzi and the party then exchanged the following information. Political developments- The Old Horizon has taken hold in the city - she plans to exorcise it but must be done slowly
- Her colony has lost forty years of development now, time that should have been spend gaining money, artifacts and influence could be used to resist the Factions - she plans to proceed with the original plans but it will be harder now
- There are divisions in the council still, as some of the pro-Horizon members still favour throwing in with the Factions, thinking it's too late to turn back now - Khamzi knows she doesn't have the power to resist the Legion or even the Colonial Rangers if they want to make a move on the city but she doesn't think it's come to that yet
- She wants to establish a greater council again, in the vein of the original idea of the colonists, something much more representative of the people
- She's not going to reconstruct the temple to the Star Singer but rather build around the Icon Walls lower down the mountain to create chapels to all the Icons for the city as a whole to use
- ...In fact she plans to use some of the palace materials for plebeian building projects in the city too
- Jibek Abdulin has resigned from the council, leading 3 other council members have declared that the Star Singer has left Khamzi and will begin the search for his new anointed one - they are clinging to the lost temple for now, the devastation thought to be his anger and the party to be five faces of the Faceless One
- Most people are turning away from the sun worship, as for many people joining it was only ever about economic benefit through influence with the council
- Councillor Nuha Mifsud has received a goodbye from the desert tribes - this is a shame as they could have been an ally against Factions - the city's people have taken some benefit from it though, as explorers are now free to excavate the locations the tribes previously defended
- Avhiu and 2 'cousins' went into the unstable portal - Avihu escaped first but sensed both the others (Yochanan and Tovia) also escaped later and arrived on Ghodar
- Avihu was trapped in the remains of the Independence - the other two seemed somehow likewise trapped in some ship
- Yochanan managed to move on though, even making it to a location in the deep desert that can only be the City of Brass - he has been damaging the city ever since he got there
- Yaffe has been invited to return (Khamzi doesn't know it was the PCs that sent the invite)
- Ofira was never captured and left the system
- Her fearful dreams of strings within a purple haze now feel to her like they were part of a machine somewhere, the void blade part of it somehow measuring or counting something down
- Khamzi is somewhat ashamed of knowing the Abouelkassem science and doesn't want to talk about the details of getting it but she agrees to exchange a database with Khalil such that both now has each other's information
- After a little study, Khalil and Khamzi will have the knowledge to create the Abouelkassem and Juldizin Demalisi fields, allowing Khalil to create the scanner blockers and Khamzi to protect her city from Abouelkassem sorcerers
