Session 9

General Summary

Nine: The Rakatan Ruins
The group leaves Urpa Tinn’s palace and returns to Dr. Caliss’s dig site to find that the excavation has managed to remove one of the large capstones at the top of the antechamber and began to fashion a lift to descend into the ruins. They are winding down operations for the day before the heat begins to bear down on the planet.
The group finds Dr. Caliss and informs him of Urpa Tinn’s negotiation. He will allow the doctor to continue his work as long as Caliss provides Urpa Tinn with any of the red power crystals found throughout the ruins. Dr. Caliss then reveals that the antechamber of the ruins he has been excavating is full of the red crystals, beyond a scale he could have imagined up to this point. He still suspects that the ruins are Rakatan in nature.
Upon inspecting the lift the workers are crafting, the group notices the quality is insufficient for its purpose. Jolder joins the work to attempt to improve its design.
The group decides to explore the ruins, Mez volunteering to go first. He plummets into the antechamber, swinging from the rope and slamming into the massive red crystal in the center of the room. The crystal towers 30 feet tall and 25 feet wide within a floor of black stone, veins of red crystal sprawling outward from it. The largest vein leads toward a door.
Dr. Caliss proceeds down to the chamber next, awestruck and prattling on about the size of the crystal as the rest of the group descends. Mez attempts to reach out with the force and is overwhelmed by the amount of force energy in the room.
Inspecting the crystal reveals that it appears to be naturally grown, but also has 8 faces aligned with each cardinal direction. Further investigation of the chamber reveals some kind of energy pathway in the walls pointing at the crystal to either receive or send energy. The group once again notes the largest tendril leading from the crystal to a door. They convince Dr. Caliss that it is too dangerous for him to accompany them, and he proceeds back up to the surface, leaving his droid to follow and record their encounters.
Maeve manages to reveal a lightsaber shaped keyhole that unlocks the door, leading the group further into the ruins. The next area is shockingly foggy and humid, and the group can hear the faint dripping of water. They proceed down the hallway, squeezing through a partially broken door into another room of gray stone carpeted in moss further in. The room contains a channel of water that runs around the center of the room and a series of metal pipes and a large mechanical structure. The opposite side of the room has another wide tendril of red crystal that leads beneath the metal structure. Unlike the red crystal in the entry chamber of the ruins, this crystal does not seem to reflect the light in the room. The room also contains two consoles. The TARA droid is able to translate the Rakata on the consoles and pipes.
Mir and Cale proceed to an upper level, discovering what seems to be a power generating area. After managing to power up the consoles, they display an image of a planet with oceans and continents, called Malid Carraba, seemingly similar to Matau. The screen also indicates a meter of some sort is below a determined threshold and flashing red - warning that cooling is below minimum recommendations. A single button indicates an override function. Misunderstanding the mechanisms they’ve investigated so far, Maeve encourages Mez to press it - believing it to be a cooling system for the planet. Instead, the facility begins to fill with sand and the group flees the room. They arrive in another room that reveals a map of the galaxy with a line dividing the known areas and the unknown regions, depicting Matau and 5 other planets that form a barrier along the line.
Continuing through the facility for an exit, they arrive into an area of conduits with lightning arcing through the room. After some investigation, the group deduces that there are various domes the lightning is meant to strike in order to provide power for something. They arrange the domes to power the central conduit, releasing a hatch in the chamber they can escape through.
They arrive back to the entry chamber of the ruins to find that the massive red crystal now seems to be fully powered, revealing a control hub. The hub provides a set of coordinates along with a degree alignment warning and countdown of some kind, decreasing steadily. The coordinates correspond with the intersection of Matau with the barrier previously noted on the galaxy map they found. The group deduces that the degrees listed on the console indicate Matau rotating into position to where the machine will align with the line dividing the galaxy. It is currently set to align in approximately 61 hours.
While they consider what they have unleashed, the group notices sand trickling into the chamber from above. Upon closer look, it becomes clear that a sandstorm now assaults Dr. Caliss’s excavation.
The group exits the ruins and learns that the sandstorm formed quickly and unexpectedly. Mez, Cale, and Jolder decide to attempt to undo the activation of whatever device lies in the ruins. They misalign the transmitters in an attempt to deactivate it, but it is seemingly ineffective. They are able to deduce that whatever device this is may either establish or destroy the barrier that divides the galaxy and the water that remains in the coolant system will be expended upon activation of this device.
Dr. Caliss has called upon an Imperial shuttle for help evacuating his site and it will arrive in several hours. The group rests while they consider their next steps. The shuttle arrives and picks up the first group of site workers. It returns after a time and the group boards without incident. As the shuttle takes off, a deep mechanical hum sounds in the distance. Then a burst of energy clips the wings of the transport shuttle - knocking the group unconscious as the transport plummets into the center of the storm.

Report Date

18 Mar 2023