WttSS session 37: 'Looking Out on the Deep Desert'

Session report - Whispers to the Star Singer campaign

Written by Doctor Weather

General Summary

When the Caliban Crow flew out of Ghodar Station it was completely ignored by the Legion destroyer Harir. Rather than blocking the party's movement the Legion seems to instead want to block the colonist's long range eyes and ears, and now Ghodar Station and Juldizin Demalisi are completely out of contact. Whatever plan the Legion and Colonial Agency have out there in the deserts, no-one can now see. Well, unless you happen to be a certain data djinn and have a hack into the Legion mainframe...
The Caliban Crow returns to the Oasis starport, on the edge of a Julidizin Demalisi that is still settling after its political upheaval. A competent Khamzi has taken hold of her city, revealing her plans for a larger, more-representative council. Though she fears the lost 40 years mean the Factions have too much control on Ghodar already, she is determined to try for an independent colony.
She was also able to reveal a little more to the party about her shared dreams with the sorcerer spirit Avihu. The sorcerer's brother in arms, Yochanan, also escaped the unstable portal to Dziban on a ship a few years ago, probably not one of the Legion's but maybe one of Professor Nasralleh's...? Either way, he is now thought to be in the City of Brass, only doing it harm.

Story at the palace

Leaving the palace, the party decides not to disappoint their fans. Masruq takes position to narrate a story from a rock ledge, whilst Kerman and Khalil enact a mummers play below. There is some debate as to which story can be told without revealing dangerous secrets, so the players settle on their defeat of the Dance of the Red Veils's crew at The Cantina. Some of the current audience may have been present at the event but none have heard a proper retelling of it with it's true majesty and purpose revealed.
At this point, the reader should know that the events depicted herein are not exactly how it really happened, but maybe it would've been better this way...?
The Beginning
Masruq begins a tale in the modest way, humbly never referring directly to the party as the protagonists, but the audience knows. They settle in comfortably. The privileged amongst them are annoyed to have their entrance to the palace postponed but all know that once a story is started, nothing else can be done until it is finished - in this case perhaps only because even the Solar Wind palace guards have stopped to listen as well.
The tale told is one to match the 'ancient stories' of heroism but begins humbly in the city's own Cantina, wherein the heroes encounter a group of deadly pirates who hold the stolen heart of a princess. However, deadly though the dastardly villains may be, our heroes swiftly see off half their number, using only sand and plates of food as weapons.
In this scene Khalil plays the party, whilst Kerman plays the Dance of the Red Veils's crew. Zarzur and Murad meanwhile, are less keen on the limelight and hang back at the edge of the audience. From this vantage though, they can easily make out the place in the crowd from which there comes a cry of "I heard that the heart was an item of great power that you still intend to use out in the desert!"
But Zarzur and Murad only see confused audience members when they look, no-one able to identify the source of the deep, man's voice. They keep a watchful eye but the visible crowd itself is only annoyed at the interruption, all eager to hear what happens next.
The Middle
The remaining pirates escape on their grav-bikes, taking the heart of the princess with them, and our heroes give chase to the construction sites on the edge of the city. Khalil improvises some grav-bike props with materials sourced from the crowd, keen to add their piece to the story. Ever the crowd pleaser, Kerman relishes the role of the villain on his 'bike', first dodging the party through the building scaffolds, then 'landing' for a final battle.
Once again however, there is a voice from the crowd. This time female, it still pursues the reality behind the heart of the princess: "is it true the item will lead the way to great power?" But the audience in the area from where the voice came is still only annoyed at the interruption, people calling on the voice to shut up.
Zarzur moves into the crowd and begins to search. The audience believes she has come for more props and offers their belongings. Politely she pretends to search through the offerings whilst looking for trouble, but no-one seems out of place and neither are there any speakers hidden in the crowd that could project a voice.
Accepting a random object for the performance, Zarzur uses her headpiece to search for the Black Sparrow, thinking all this must be more of her work. And the Black Sparrow is indeed present, though up on the palace walls.
Zarzur shares this information with Murad, who sneaks off to investigate, slipping through the open palace gates whilst the Solar Wind is engaged with the show. So good is his infiltration that he manages to get all the way onto the palace walls and close enough to the Black Sparrow to quietly sit down a few metres from her and calmly clear his throat. She turns quickly, hand fan spinning ready, out from her wrist. But, in no apparent danger, she relaxes a little, enough for Murad to enquire as to her business here with the party. She claims not to know what he is speaking about however.
The End
Masruq brings the tale to a close, with Kerman now as the princess, rescued, her heart returned and freed from ensorcellment. The party is victorious and the crowd delighted.
During this finale, a third and final voice interrupts once, in the form of a teenage boy. This voice asks "isn't the heart of the princess really something that lets you seek out the power of the Portal Builders?"
Close to the voice now, Zarzur looks around to see no-one in the place it came from, only a small dust devil spinning on its way, flapping the odd curtain as it moves off across the mountainside. Without Masruq or Kerman's knowledge it means little to her and she returns to the front of the audience. Though she hasn't found the culprit, she can say it can't have been the Black Sparrow, who was engaged with Murad at the time.
The Black Sparrow for her part, offers Murad an arm and suggests a turn around the palace gardens, which Murad accepts. They discuss in polite abstract reference their businesses here at the palace, after which she lets on that her contract will end as soon as the party enters the Deep Desert.
She also reveals that her employer hasn't written her contract well enough to prevent her from revealing her investigations to the party, if they're interested... She would only require in return for Zarzur to relinquish her presence in the Black Sparrow's systems, a somewhat professional embarrassment she would like rid of. Murad promises to put the offer to the party and the Black Sparrow bows and takes her leave, vanishing into the gardens.
Epilogue..?
As the audience disbands, discussing the show, the party regathers and decides to accept the Black Sparrow's offer, sending her an invite to one of the garden meeting-spaces at The Oasis, adjacent to the Caliban Crow's landing area.
They also discuss the dust devil and deduce that the djinn Jihan, who still owes them some favours, may well be upset with them, as lately they have been ignoring her and indeed referring to her in some less than flattering tones. Masruq is left to ponder what conversations he will have to have with her that might settle an ego the size of Ghodar itself.

The Black Sparrow

The Black Sparrow arrives at the agreed rendezvous, sneaking into the lemon-grove meeting area of The Oasis in which the players await her. They know she is coming and her appearance from between the trees is perhaps unnecessary but form must sometimes be obeyed.
After a customary conversational politeness, the bargain is officially agreed and the Black Sparrow reports what she has learned from spying on the Legion, Colonial Agency and Foundation on Ghodar.

• Professor Nasralleh works for ARRCA, which Khalil may have heard of: technically a Foundation daughter company but one that works exclusively for the Legion, finding them lost technology and science to turn into modern weapons
• The professor refers to Zarzur as 'The Key', specifically in relation to her presence here on Ghodar - all those years ago when she thought she'd escaped the Legion weapons programme, Nasralleh claims he in fact let her go and has simply been watching from afar, waiting for a chance to enact a plan
• Murad too, once the creation of another weapons programme - Project Kitara - also thought he'd managed to free himself of his creators but again, Nasralleh's claim is that Murad was let go and watched from afar until Nasralleh had need of him
• Nasralleh first came to Ghodar years ago, and when he did, gained name for being a little eccentric, as he was sometimes found talking to himself and objects seemed to always mysteriously break around him
• This all stopped suddenly however, after a trip into Ghodar's Deep Desert, returning from which the professor seemed to return to normal - everyone knows never to ask him about his odd time now
• She didn't ever hear about what the Foundation is doing at Yesfir, but she'd be prepared to go and look if the party wanted to hire her services...

As agreed, Zarzur releases her hack on the Black Sparrow's mainframe.
Before departing, the party asks their new acquaintance if there is a way they might contact her in the future, just in case. She gives them a tag that they can use to attract her attention and says that she'll be 'holidaying' in Ghodar for a time before her next contract and then vanishes between the lemon trees.

Stowaways

Finally back on the Caliban Crow, the party settles into their various spaces, but in some cases this takes a little more effort. On returning to his quarters, Murad finds one of the Yazdan household marmosets holding Dana's compass. Though it has to look up a considerable way to meet Murad's eyes it moves the compass behind itself and cocks its head, in stance declaring the compass 'mine'. But after a little food and gentle persuasion the marmoset eventually releases its prize.
Caliban calls 'ship commander to the bridge', which summons Masruq. Caliban then recalibrates and remembers the word pilot, summoning the intended Kerman, who finds another marmoset playing with the engine controls. Before the ship is inadvertently sent careening through The Oasis starport, Kerman removes the second stowaway.
A search of the ship reveals no more hidden monkeys and the party asks the Yazdan techs still aboard if they want the marmosets back. The techs declare that these two are a little more difficult to handle than the others, so if the party wants to keep them, that's fine.

12th day of the Deckhand
Campaign: Contract: Whispers to the Star Singer
Characters: PC group: Whispers to the Star Singer
Timeline: Campaign timeline: Whispers to the Star Singer

Campaign

Whispers to the Star Singer (concluded)

Protagonists

Report Date

29 Oct 2021

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Contents

• General Summary
• Story at the palace
• The Black Sparrow
• Stowaways