Session 14: Finding a New Path Report
General Summary
Session Introduction
Play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gosjiD288Jk We find ourselves in the inky blackness of space around the fiery glow of a bright, red star hovering in the all-encompassing darkness around it. We see the star rotate, but whether it turns or we turn around it no one could be sure. Just there, hovering over the inferno of gas and energy, a spec on the surface grows in size to reveal a floating station, hovering in opposition to all natural forces against the fatal heat of the red dwarf. —Voices: English High, English Low, Gravely ‘Wafflehouse waitress’— A faint voice, closer to a single whisper of wind than the audible vibrations of air, drifts up from it. "It seeks a purpose{a boon?}[a destiny, perhaps]. Is it a hand?{it could be more}[Has it earned more?]" We see ourselves pulled into the gravity of the burning, red sun as the voices echo in the distance. In a flash, we are through it, flying through the depths of space with stars twirling and dancing by us like mere specks and streaks of light. A faint voice caresses our ears as the inky, streaked darkness of space around us fills, single streaks of light growing and expanding until only light surrounds us. "A chance then.{Redemption}[A Boon. A test]." The light fades to darkness and back to light again as your eyes blink the sight of the distant horizon and the slowly setting white sun away. The smell of acrid smoke, blood, and sting of gunpower fills your noses as you make your way into the cavernous entrance somewhere 4 days atop a Longstrider out of the Last Chance Docks far off in the frozen wastelands of the Slush. Most, if not all, of you hold various bleeding wounds, nurse blazing migraines, freezing & wet bodies, and slide in far the worst for wear into the protective cave of the man you came, or were brought along unknowingly, to kill. The frantic, terrified chittering of your 6 surviving LongStriders, 2 of which seem to literally be on their last legs while Anna's lies skewered with a javelin-like arrow nearby, echoes from outside as the incredibly massive beast identified as a 'Render' slowly drags its massive 20ft tall body rippling with odd muscles buried beneath a thick leathery hide through the icy waters in your direction, only 10-15 minutes away. A single surviving turret, planted next to its smoldering twin, spins and rotates its barrel as a tiny, palm-sized, white robot holds a connection point in it and its internal targeting system flashes across Anna's screen. Mark, the treacherous robotic archer, remains on top of the ice covered rocky cave, shrouded in his growing cloud of smoke with only the occasional whirring and hiss of his massive javelin-thrower giving clues to his exact position. Finally, you see the bearded, bundled form of a man nursing a still-bleeding shoulder holstering his huge hand-cannon while indicating an area deeper into the dark, rocky cave to talk. A hissing device on his belt spews out the occasional spark and steam, and the final droning notes of the hidden hunting lure bellow out over the wastes. A hard-won battle, and one that may not be over, but these minutes of respite do give each of you pause enough to center yourself and shake the fog from your mind as you step inside the cave that thus far isn't much warmer than the outside air." "As the conflict is not necessarily over, but has transitioned from an active combat scene to an RP scene (possibly just for now), no Stress or Consequences are recoverable at the moment. You do find that surge of Fate in yourselves, but you realize that you are still very much in the midst of danger and feel the pressure remaining on you. Whether that danger comes from the armed man in a cave already seeming laden with traps, a murderous robot, the frozen & hazardous wastes of the Slush, or a huge, terrifying monster lumbering your direction remains to be seen and, you imagine, entirely depends on your next move." Switch Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEQThgfXT30Session Summary
The Crew moved inside the cave as Fatalist: William Blake and Dash Reynard moved into the interior of the cave where William’s supplies, blankets, etc all remained. Anna Cross remained outside guarding the area BHG: Mark 37-091 was last seen on top of the cave with her hacked turret. Dash and William sat down, William on the cold stone and Dash on the offered pillow. William relayed his story to Dash and everyone listening inside.The Tale of William Blake
“I’ve been a deliverer going on...25 years now, I think. We don’t have a long life usually, I may be one of the oldest. I’ve been a true believer all my life, never questioned more than once or twice. Send them to their Fate and let them work it out. But fuck, man, a couple years back I made the mistake of starting to look into the people I was hunting. What they were doing. Who they were helping. While plenty of scum met it at the end of mine, plenty of righteous seemed to as well.” “That last one...they had a house in Stronghold. Xanti, a bounty hunter’s hovel, gotta be a scumbag, right? And the guy who opened the door looked it. His wife, pretty thing, still looked like she’d seen a few fights. Except the name in my handle weren’t neither of theirs. Their 6 year old son, Matthias Brown, was. Weren’t even a Jr situation. So I’m there...gun drawn, name fresh forced out of the paw’s lips. And that done it for me. Last several jobs were sketchy on if they deserved it, but a 6 year old kid? He don’t deserve it. Not yet, at least.” “So I turn round and go to leave. Job failed, duty incomplete. Ain't the first time it’s happened, but first time I meant it to. And there comes walking down the frozen street some priest type. Long, black cloth robes that hit to his ankle, looking like a priest from one of them old-timey religious. I didn’t pay him no mind.” Man mutters under his breath as he walks by “From the light spreadth the darkness. And thus came the Origin of all.” I turned to look him in the eyes, plannin on telling him to fuck off with his religious nutter shit, and two pure black eyes stare back at me. I ain’t ever seen nothing quite like this before. I blink and don’t even see his hands comin out of his robes. I turn my hand of fate towards him, ‘cept his other hand jabbed me in the neck. Next I know he’s holding my gunhand in his, spinning and shooting three shots through the doorway. He lets go and I go down limp. I hear his robes rustlin by my head as I lay there unable to move. Didn’t see the shots but I heard ‘em. Exactly 3. Not one out of place, my wrist aching from him back and forth.” “The deed done, I feel his knee on my back pressing me into that icy stone. He holds a long, rifle-like bullet to my eye and asks - “Do I find meaning in this name”. Dash R something is carved into it. I says no, he looked at me with a colder look than the floor I lay on and smiled...but ain’t a smile of a sane man. It were the smile of a tiger lookin at a strung up, bleeding goat. Next thing I feel is a pain in my neck. I wake up later, all my parts where I left em, outside that door, gun still in my hand 3 bullets light. I hear footsteps coming at me so couldn’t have been out long. I look in, see the deed that devil of a Priest or Prophet did, and realize he’s done it for me. I know you know that timing, just as much as precision and perception, matters in Deliverin. I take off and break out this way. It’s been survival ever since and no way off this damn planet. Everything I’ve got has went into keeping Mark friendly, my gear topped up, and staying upright until I can figure a way out of this and off this planet.”Amicable Discussions
Still nursing various wounds, the Crew questioned William further. They discovered that he and Mark have been working together to survive until they could escape the planet together. Mark would lead prospective crews into the Xanti: The Slush, sabotage them, and they would work together to take them out. Blake would help upgrade Mark with the gear gathered that he could, Mark would take to trade & sell what he could, and William would use the tools, weapons, and supplies to survive. Dash gave him the written records of his experiences in the visions and tried to get him into a meditated vision as well, which seemed to shake William to his core. He had already indicated he wanted out of his long life in the Deliverers and seemed to harden his resolve to this end. He briefly mentioned his mistakes, past crew, hunting a Syndicate thug before this, and hoping to see his crew again to make amends. They learned that they had met when the Cerise team had lost a member to a Trophy-jumper before encountering William standing over the bodies of the previous team during that initial hunt. He traded them his currency and the gear of the dead for their supply Strider, with supplies, and Mark’s aid to get to the cave he survived in. They struck up their friendship and mutual arrangement along the way, Mark seeming eager to do anything to break his 40 year programmed protection over the Slush & Last Chance Docks. The Crew agreed to ally and get them off the planet in exchange for their help in combat as part of the Intrepid Explorer. Anna stood strong in refusing to let Mark join, demanding him initially left, deactivated, or at least shut down. She seemed to either insult or scare her tiny companion Robot: Botley Botterson the 17th in her tirade, frightening him with talk of destroying him if he attacked them like Mark had but barely salvaging the situation. In the end, it was agreed that Mark and William would be rescued from the planet, Mark would willingly give up his Bow and Quiver while on the ship, and they would both wear something letting the rest know their locations while aboard.Sacrificing the Striders
The intense discussions came to a close just in the nick of time. With the sun only an hour or two from fully setting, they exited the cave to see the temporarily forgotten Render approaching them not 5 minutes away. In a mad scramble, it was immediately decided that the wounded Striders would be sacrificed to lure the beast away. Anna ripped the horn out of the wall and worked on repairing it to remotely blow and attract the great beast.The horn was attached to one of the two wounded striders. One of them ran with a swift kick from Dash, Kyra’s attempt to sweetly startle the second failed, and a blast near its tail from Li sent it off behind it.Their gear was gathered and they mounted the remaining 4 Striders, Jason riding alone, Li leading the Strider with Anna clinging on for dear life, Mark and William riding together, and Dash leading his with Kyra. Anna remembered Botley at the last moment and Dash thought to grab her blanket from her murdered Strider as they left.
The Final Hours
As they tore off in a dead sprint to the south, they watched the lumbering Render turn towards the doomed, wounded Striders fleeing to the north with the blaring lure horn sounding like the beast’s mate. As they ran their striders at full speed for half an hour, racing the sun back towards the IceHopper wreck 2 1/2 hours away, they failed to notice when the horn died out. Whether it was lost due to distance or due to a sudden silencing, the crew found themselves distracted. Jason’s Strider seemed immediately winded and Anna+Li’s strider seemed nearly ready to collapse from the exhausting run. While fleeing, Dash succumbed to the visions and voices plaguing him during the desperate escape. Kyra barely grabbed the reins and kept him abreast the beast as he collapsed and his eyes rolled back into his head. Moments passed with her steering for him before he grabbed his gun, turned it towards his chest, threw it violently into the water, and woke up as the gun disappeared into the frozen slush. They soon called a stop and he indicated his choice to William who tried to do the same but failed to finish the action, reholstering it “for now”. Li and Anna called out to Guru Kevin. They managed to boost the signal and send the code Li had on him to Kevin to input and “unlock” Alexa. They debated over the options and while she was supposedly being unlocked and flying towards them, they headed towards the IceHopper. They arrived back there as the sun finally set over the horizon. They began checking the half-submerged airboat to see if it was repairable and determined that while it would be, doing so at night would be too difficult. Through a stroke of luck, Kyra found a solid, rocky overhand 10 minutes away just before night fell. They made their way there, Li seeing something lurking in the ice around them, but remained clustered together and arrived unmolested. They set up the tent under the overhang and set up watches to try and sleep off the stress of the day.A Long, Dark Night
Li began the night and found no solace, but also no explicit danger, in the first watch.Mark and Kyra took second watch and broke the silence towards the end with a long, surprisingly heartfelt discussion. Mark taught Kyra to listen to the Striders to spot incoming danger over her own senses at night on Xanti. Kyra pried into Mark’s history, past, hopes, and goals while Mark learned about her, earth, and the striking similarities of Striders to “giraffes”. The conversation ended with Kyra offering him somewhere to stay if he ever made his way to Earth and Mark realizing the connection that Kyra might not have verbalized yet regarding her new family, the Crew.
Dash and William remained silent for most of the night, but broke halfway through their shift with a random flash in the sky far off in the distance and the distant rumble seconds later. They confirmed with Alexa and Chiara that someone fired at them after they risked a spotlight, thinking they spotted the Crew below, but narrowly avoided it. Dash talked them through breaking for upper atmosphere and lost connection with them yet again. Dash and William spent the rest of their shift talking about their decision to reject fate and find a new way forward. With Dash’s prompting and support, William threw his Hand of Fate into the slush to join Dash in finding a new way forward. As they said to each other, “No more ‘fate be with you’, rather ‘fuck fate and find your own way’.”
After the eventful shift before, Anna’s shift passed relatively easily. Besides the rising skittishness and chittering of their LongStriders, she and Jason concluded their shifts without complications and met the sun.
New Days Bring Old Problems
The crew rose and gathered their gear. Anna, at Dash’s prompting, created a signal booster to connect and boost everyone’s signals to talk to the Intrepid Explorer hovering in the upper Atmosphere. Li and Anna worked on getting the ship locked onto their coordinates, moving directly above them, and slowly descending. Li requested Chiara take point in the turret and talked Alexa through flying upside down towards the planet. Dash and Mark posted up top to provide covering fire if needed and immediately saw the distant, but closing, Render barreling directly towards their location. With sight of the new, old threat looming from the direction of the explosion the night before, Li talked Alexa through freefalling at her maximum speed to try and reach them before the Render did. Anna ran for cover in the overhang but found none. Dash gave William Blake his spare assault rifle to assist if needed. Kyra gathered gear and prepared herself alongside Jason. Li barked orders and piloting corrections over the Coms to direct Alexa through the dangerous, possibly fatal, maneuver. The ship, plummeted upside down directly over them as the Render bellowed and closed in. The ship made a perfect maneuver, spinning to a halt alongside them, before Alexa discovered that she couldn’t open the Docking Ramp to let them in. They talked Guru Kevin through moseying at a Guru Kevin pace to come open the docking ramp to allow them to enter as the great beast grew closer. Chiara unleashed the turret as suppressing fire to try and ward off the beast, though unsuccessfully. At long last, the docking ramp cracked and began to open as the chittering of the Striders grew louder and more desperate with them pulling at their staked reins. Dash called out for Jason to help him, leading Jason to propel Dash up and over the still opening ramp to grab the top of it to help others in. Li ran up, kicked off one side then the other, and slid down the ramp at a dead sprint to the cockpit. Kyra managed to jump and scramble over the opening ramp with Dash’s outstretched hand. William Blake scaled the opening ramp easily as well. Anna, running from her failed attempt at hiding in the caves, tripped and slid on the icy ground towards the ramp. As she did so, Mark’s bow twanged and he ran two steps beside her while launching himself after his grappling arrow, hooked into the ceiling of the cargo bay. Anna threw her hastily constructed grappling hook used to help save Li from the Deep Drifter around Mark’s leg and allowed herself to be pulled to safety after him. The render, moments from closing with the ship, gave a bellowing roar that almost shook Anna and Kyra to their very core. Their already frozen, shivering bodies violently reacted with fright until Kyra found the strength to reach out, connect with Anna in a show of support, and together shake off the terrifying, trembling sound. Jason wasted no more time and catapulted himself into the air, shattering the ice beneath him, and grabbed onto the ramp so tightly it left permanent finger marks in the metal. He pulled himself inside as Li reached the Cockpit. Alexa began launching them into the air as Anna threw a smoke bomb out of the closing ramp, Dash smashing the close button violently. The rattle of Chiara firing the turret echoed through the ship as it lurched into the atmosphere, but not quickly enough. Li jumped forward, grabbed the control, and pulled them up just in time as the Render pounced into the air, barely missed the ship, and only caught the very bottom of the ship with its three long, sharp claws as it vanished into the upper atmosphere above. Having survived Xanti, brought two more people aboard (including the target they had arrived to kill), they sailed up and broke atmosphere at last in the warmth and comfort of their home. As they sailed away from the White Sun and treacherous ice world behind them, Alexa’s voice chimed in cheerily once again with a simple “That was exciting. Where to next?”Rewards Granted
Significant Milestone
Missions/Quests Completed
Scenario: Hunting William Blake
Character(s) interacted with
Guru Kevin
Tumerian Li Shen
Kyralin Straussedorph
Savannah Cruise
Jason
Dash Reynard
Report Date
26 May 2021
Primary Location
Secondary Location
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments