WttSS session 22: 'In the Language of Flowers'

Session report

Written by Doctor Weather

General Summary

In the Seeker's language of flowers, the message left in the Seeker Sanctuary reads:

• Blackwood creeper upon an ancient word for form or shape: the shape of the Abouelkassem facilities on Ghodar are unique in their faithfulness by having a circle of nine separate buildings set in specific positions around a central point, each building dedicated to a particular Icon
• Saifon plant, representing the Judge: the building for each Icon of an Abouelkassem facility always lies in the same place relative to the Messenger at north, and so the Judge now gives you a compass direction to head in

Looking out from the Seeker Sanctuary towers, the party sees that there are ways to cross the ravine to the west, where several waterfalls occur just before the westward ravine turns south: some stone bridges, some rope. If a Seeker did manage to escape the Legion assault and wanted to indicate which way they had headed, they could have gone south-southwest by crossing one of those bridges, escaping the Legionaries that were gathered around the Sanctuary that lines the ravine's northern wall.

Following the Judge

A gust of wind disturbs a flock of birds, sleeping at this point of high sun. As they come round they see the party's shuttle hovering disturbingly close and fly up and away in panic. Recognising this as unusual for this time of day, the Legionaries decide to investigate. Murad jumps back onto the shuttle and Kerman powers it westward down the ravine, just hiding the craft from Legionary detection using rock outcroppings to disguise a high-speed turn round the bend in the ravine. The Legionaries chalk the birds' flight up to a predator and go back to their patrols.
After swinging around a mountain peak to get out of the Legionaries' line of sight, Kerman takes the shuttle in the direction of the Judge. Triangulating the direction with known sources of water from Masruq's archaeological database, the party quickly searches likely places Seekers might have walked through the jungle. Having enough time to walk quite far, there are no Seekers present at the first two water sources but one is found at the third - a sole escapee.

Nekatra

There are nekatra in this jungle and the party sees a pack heading towards the Seeker's location. Camera zoom allows them a cursory look through the treeline to see blood on the Seeker's robes, the Seeker lying slumped with her back against a tree and not moving. They will have to go down there to see if she is still alive but the nekatra will be here too within minutes.
Using a tried and tested method of invading nekatra jungles, the party lowers Kerman's 50m hyper-rope down through the trees. Kerman heads down first, suited and armoured, Zarzur and Murad then following. Progress goes well, perhaps because of the practice the party gained that time before when similarly descending into the Watcher village, but is interrupted not by failed climbing but by Zarzur noticing a nekatra hiding below Kerman, waiting to pounce when he comes near enough.
Pursuing a technique thereafter named the 'Kerman manoeuvre', Kerman drops from the rope to land on and pin the nekatra. As it is watching him fall, and through its sheer strength, it is not killed by Kerman but a wrestling match ensues; and good as Kerman is he doesn't finish the nekatra before it makes a choice. Seeing Zarzur descend and head to the Seeker, the nekatra decides its only choice is blood rage.
But Kerman sees the decision flash through the nekatra's eyes and correctly deduces that the beast is only trying to protect the Seeker. When it forces him off, he moves to stand his ground without wanting to hurt it further but cannot signal this before the nekatra tears a large gash in his environment suit, thinking that this will cause the human to die in Ghodar's poisonous atmosphere; but it does not known Kerman is Xinghur and he simply steps back and relates his theory to the party.
Assuming Kerman is as good as dead, the nekatra turns its attentions to Zarzur, who is currently bent over the Seeker, but before it can make another move Murad opens up a Scorpion pistol on full autofire all around the beast. With enough firepower in the air and ground to strip all plant life away, the nekatra is forced out of blood rage, left uncertain in how to proceed. Taking full advantage, Kerman shows deference to 'pack alpha' Zarzur, demanding the same of the nekatra, which does respond, allowing Zarzur to heal the Seeker.
When the rest of the nekatra pack arrives on the scene they find the Seeker they have sworn to protect to have been healed by the sorcerer Zarzur, whose human pack seems to be able to breathe the planet's air unaided, despite being clearly off-worlders. Zarzur and her consorts begin to take on legendary status in the local nekatras' eyes, who see no other way than to join her pack.

A Seeker's knowledge

As the nekatra head out to fetch the humans meat and fruit to eat, Kerman fixes his suit whilst Zarzur tends the Seeker until she stabilises and regains good consciousness. The nekatra didn't like the idea of the party trying to take their charge away to the shuttle above but now they are friendly and the Legion aren't nearby, the party happily stays.
The Seeker gives her name - Souhaila - and is thankful that someone friendly found her message. She recounts the sad tale of the monastery, that Legionaries captured most of the Seekers present and killed most of their nekatra friends. The nekatra were quick to attack the Legionaries, and would have made short work of a Company, but heavily armed Fleet Legionaries are another matter. Souhaila describes how she Heard a Whisper - the Messenger telling her what to do - and she saw a chance to save some of the nekatra from needless death. Unable to save her fellows, she at least led the remaining nekatra to safety into the jungle without being seen.
As she left, she heard the Legionaries gloating that the other Seekers were to see 'The Rais' - another veiled reference to the man from Zarzur's past who seems to be involved behind the scenes across Ghodar.
In the makeshift camp, the party then discusses matters of importance with the Seeker, with Khalil and Masruq joining in through comms link from the shuttle above. Souhaila is interested in who her saviours are and the party reveals their interest in trying to solve some of the troubles on the planet, without going into too great a detail. Smart enough to recognise patterns, Souhaila asks, based on what they do reveal, if they have a connection to the events surrounding the Abouelkassem facilities on the planet and those in the colony below the mountains; and the party admits they have.
The Seeker then, under prompting from the party, speaks of what she knows of the planet and system's history, and also of mysticism - perhaps the least she can do for her saviours:

• The Abouelkassem approached the Seeker Circle those centuries passed and asked them for help with their investigations but the Seekers were horrified to find their experiments were attempting to use equipment to read the nature of a creature's spirit and even detatch part of its life energy - that the Abouelkassem were searching for 'base spirit particles' was something the Seekers could only see as Darkest heresy
• The Seeker Cirlce did once have a connection to the planet Yesfir, but the knowledge has been lost to time - Souhaila knows the Foundation is currently investigating Yesfir and can only assume that 'The Rais' is somehow connected to them and that he beleives the Seekers know more than they now do
• Though she isn't the Seeker who administers to the spiritual needs of the desert folk, she does offer a desert location in which they can often be found
• She explains that the desert folk fear off-world scientists plundering the planet's lost science and causing trouble with knowledge they cannot properly understand - over the years the Xinghur have tried to persuade off-worlders to leave the ancient sites alone but to no avail and things inevitably turned to violence and long-standing discord
• The desert folk are currently obsessed with finding and entering a 'City of Brass' supposedly to be found within the southern desert
• If the party's mystics would like, she will happily speak with them of their powers and advise on how to properly control them
• When asked about the so-called mystics' disease spreading through the Horizon she only speaks of the trouble that will be caused by people not being properly instructed in the control of the power, not in any way referring to it as an inherently bad thing
• The party is welcome to the collection of artefacts that the desert folk brought to the Seekers long ago for safekeeping - better the party have them than the Legion find them, and the party might find good use for them in their future battles against the Dark

GM aside: Anything that would logically also have been asked to the Seeker can be retrospectively given next session, as needed.
During the discussion the party also asks Souhaila where they might take her. She says that if they can take her there without the Legion knowing, she would choose to go to one of the villages of the mountain peoples whilst she works out how best to contact any of her Circle that might also have been missed by the Legion.
As a pacficist she has no intention of trying to free her fellows from the Legion; if this is where the Icons want them, then that is where they need to be. A disgusted Kerman, believing people should do more to protect their own and family, gladly heads off with Murad to collect the offered artefacts from the sanctuary, whilst the remaining party members consider studying with the Seeker for a day to learn more of their powers - something Kerman is also uncertain about...

Information added to Discord after the game

Mystic powers

• The Seekers believe that there are 9 paths to enlightenment and that mystic powers are the manifestation of the Icon's invitation to walk one of the paths
• GM note: someone's path not matching their birth Icon is not a problem - it may be bonus but I'm still looking into this, so for now we're just saying it's OK either way
• If the party is prepared to spend a Ghodar day with Souhaila they can spend their next XP on talents or the mystic power skill whilst also learning a bit more about their current power

Khalil
Souhaila believes Khalil is on the Path of the Faceless One. Talents like his normally manifest on the paths of the Messenger, Gambler or Traveller but his variation is... different. There are few who walk the Path of the Faceless One but it is still a valid Path, if a dangerous one...
Masruq
Masruq is on either the Path of the Judge or the Path of The Lady of Tears, and this will be revealed to him the further he walks. On exorcism: it is possible to bind demons via non-mystic exorcisms, which Masruq can learn in-game; it is also possible to get another Talent to bind (Judge) or move on (Lady of Tears) a spirit - destroy is more Faceless One, which Souhaila hopes isn't your path - no offence meant to Khalil, it's just that two in one group...
Zarzur
Zarzur is on the Path of the Messenger (expected perhaps). However, someone has pushed her onto the path and altered the course for her, which Souhaila of course finds disturbing. Zarzur can take full control back and her future is her own but she's an important decision to be make on whether she wants to turn her course or keep to the one that was chosen for her.

Artefacts from the Sanctuary

3 'spirit rays': a weapon against creatures of the Dark
These are rough, black objects with an oblong shape. One end is fitted with a grip, the other is sharp and glows on use. Robust items, they can also be used either as a sharp or a blunt weapon.
2 pairs of 'spirit glasses': devices that reveal spirits
The glasses are old-fashioned spectacles covered in strange, interlocking glyphs and patterns. Tiny hooks with a series of separate lenses can be folded down before the face of the wearer.
1 spiritual lodestone: a full crystal of the type Khalil found in pieces that one time and that the Watcher-village wise-woman used to 'detect demons'.

On what was done to the sorcerers

A related aside, not brought up with the Seeker: Khalil would like the information from Masruq's head that remains from Tzipora's possession concerning how the Abouelkassem volunteers altered the spirits of their fallen brethren
I've not enough with extended rolls, which both the Reddit and this group have spoken of, and I think it might be a good way to handle this. So I'm thinking: Masruq needs to get 10 Science successes, assisted by Khalil and with other bonuses, as relevant - I'm thinking +1 for existing knowledge gained and +1 for the kit Khalil stole from the asteroid; 1 roll per serious quantity of time spent, actual time units to be determined in game, as seems reasonable.

Campaign

Whispers to the Star Singer (concluded)

Protagonists

Report Date

24 Feb 2021