WttSS session 52: 'Yochanan's Favourite Places'

Session report - Whispers to the Star Singer campaign

General Summary

GM's note: 1162 words - could do better but OK
Also, I chose the session title thinking the party would go to the kharatuk tower but I forgot all the business still to be done on the ship...

Playing with djanna whilst the party regathers

Zarzur investigated the appearance of the djanna and how they interact with humans by making herself feel various emotions in their presence. She also made use of Masruq's cultural knowledge.

The djanna were always attracted to the strongest nearby emotion
Caliban's sensors indicated the djanna had not come to the ship from the valley but rather simply 'blinked' into existence sometime after Jihan left
Story and myth suggest that the djanna wait around near humans for trouble and then magnify it to their advantage, luring people away to die alone in fear, for example:

A party of humans enters a dark forest and are generally afraid of what's hidden there
The djanna are attracted to the heightened anxiety and approach the group
In an opportune moment, they lure the most frightened member of the group away - making them alone and so more afraid - and wait to feed

On hearing some of these reports over the comms, Kerman claimed that he thought this all Jihan's doing, that "she's up to something" and that "they're all wrong"

Whilst Zarzur experimented, Kerman and Murad headed back to the safety of the ship before the mists drew in too heavily. During the ride, they recognised the sounds of the predator they'd heard before as that of nekatra. Kerman listened to the calls but he and Murad didn't approach the packs.

They heard calls from two packs going about normal territorial business
One pack seemed to be heading in the direction of the Caliban Crow's ledge

Playing with cubes found in the Deep Desert

Khalil completed his investigation of the battery cube the party took as an offering from the Deep Desert - 4 successes (all then spent). This enabled him to unlock the cube for usage and apply some control over it. It was already known to be a battery with four mercurium interfaces that should allow it to connect to any device but Khalil wanted to see what it could really do. The kharatuk AI wasn't keen on the towers being part of the experiment, saying that the cube had too much going on inside to just be a battery and feared those other functions, so Khalil tried some items around the ship.

All experiments were conducted off the ship, on the ledge, with:

Murad standing way back, holding the Orb of Ghodar for safety but on hand with guns
Kerman closer by to apply some violence to the cube if it got out of hand
The djanna locked up on the ship

First up was a chest piece and arm from a Legion assault-exo, with its comms and weapons detached

The cube produced mercurium tentacles, much as the Portal Builder spheres do, and used them as sensors, interactive tools and for motion
It sniffed over Khalil like a snake tasting the air before following orders to power the exo - finding nothing more interesting to power closer by
It slithered over to place the cube inside the chest piece and then fixed the chest piece and arm back together
It tried to access the chest piece's missing wings and the arm's missing mounted weapons
Then it scented the air again, finding Kerman in his fully-functioning Legion-exo and tried to slither over towards him but Khalil shut it down first

Secondly, the party took a holo-projector from the ship, wanting to see what the cube would do with a device that didn't need repaired

The cube once again looked for more interesting items (Khalil still held no (A) tech or better on him) but acquiesced to power the projector
It slithered over and connected itself to the projector, as before, then then engaged the projector at full power, pushing the light and sound up to maximum, "this one goes to 11", levels, displaying the latest episode of The Plantation Owner's Daughter high into the air over the valley like a drive-in cinema

Getting people's attention

The attention of the entire valley - and perhaps beyond - was gained with the light and sound display.

The nekatra, and other wildlife, reacted to the sight of Auntie Dahlia being displayed as a shouting giant
The kharatuk AI and Caliban's scans determined changes in the valley's corruption levels to suggest Yochanan had seen the display too and may be headed over for a look

Furher, Caliban's sensors detected the portal being used. A drone came through that activated a signal. Though Kerman was prepared enough to ram and obliterate the drone, bad things had already happened to Zarzur by then.

The party prepared for incoming craft, made easier by the operator's transit maths being a 0-success roll

Murad hid outside the ship
Kerman and Khalil went back on board, Kerman to take the Caliban Crow into the air
On entry, Kerman still held the Traveller's calm and 20 djanna had gathered at the airlock in his way, really trying to get outside to Khalil, whom I'd ruled was the most emotional through excitement at the experiment
Moving through them in a hurry to protect the ship, Kerman's Traveller's-calm burned up all the djanna in a holy fire - he didn't intend that to happen but wasn't going to take care to avoid them in the circumstances and kept the calm despite its consequence afterwards

Murad observed the drone and its signalling

The drone was almost a relic of a bygone age, powered by helicopter-blade action rather than anti-grav - Murad correctly observed it seemed the operator knew to what they were coming through
Its signalling was a broadcast pattern on many frequencies, including the visible, showing a repeated series of colours

Zarzur managed to get off a hack on the drone before anything happened

Not an easy hack through the old-fashioned technology, she still managed to scramble any sensor data going back through the portal

Kerman then managed to ram the drone with the Caliban Crow - 3 successes on pilot

He smashed the drone against the ship's hull and snookered its remains back through the portal

Zarzur's state after the encounter was hard to determine...

She slumped in her chair after the signal reached her, in reaction to which, Kerman finally lost the Traveller's calm
Though unconscious, her headpiece tried to access Masruq's long-range comms unit but the party quickly disabled this and the ship's comms to be safe
Medical reports showed she remained in a coma, though this took a strange turn when her eyes opened nonetheless
From Zarzur's perspective, her consciousness entered another mindscape but where the previous one she had been in was that of the broken Portal Builder AI, this one was her own
In the distance, in different directions, she heard first her own voice coming from a prison and second the voice of Nasralleh from her childhood, ordering around his scientists

Questions for the AI (downtime)

Downtime questions asked of the kharatuk AI What can you tell me about the Second Horizon?
&
Are / were the First and Second Horizon enemies to each other?
At last reckoning its people were still at war with the Emperor (First Horizon). They have extremely powerful mystics at the head of their offensive operations. Both older Horizons had agents here in the Third when the kharatuk came, though after all this time it's unknown if those agents could possibly still be present in any real form. Do they really live in gas giants?
That is highly unlikely, as they are humans and the resource cost of constructing habitation in a gas giant would seem to be too high, even considering the gains from any 'gas mining'. Any connection to gas giants would more likely be through some strategic benefit. I have heard that they “use the dark as a weapon” what does that mean? Is this related to mystic powers?
The Second Horizon seems to have dedicated a large part of its ideology or growth to mystic powers. Theirs are far more powerful and in control than any seen elsewhere. Both the First and Second Horizons have embraced the Dark Between the Stars to some degree, as a holy force or vassal depending on their ideology. What records of Portal Builder constructs do you have?
Two other locations exist in Ghodar. The first is within an area of the planet's atmosphere that has a permanent lightning storm. The second is near the current Legion base and has something to do with access to the planet's significant tectonic activity. Why does the sky look different from the ground on Ghodar?
Here in the valley where it looks too blue? That is part of the shifting of the valley towards the world of the djinn. What are the Djinn?
&
Do the Djinn dislike the Icons?
AI has no more information than offered by human data really. Do you know how the Djinn interact with the Portal Builders?
Cursory analysis suggests the Portal Builders can alter the fabric of reality at a level far beyond human understanding, down lower than the building blocks we have observed. Further, their mathematics operates on a completely different paradigm, making understanding of the science and language tremendously difficult. Observations suggest that there are more worlds overlaid and intertwined with our own and the Portal Builders' science was not restricted to just our physical existence, presumably allowing them to 'build' in the lands of the djinn as well, for whatever purpose. Are the Janni [sic] and the Djinn the same in some way?
The djinn and the djanna originate and inhabit the same spiritual otherworld. Their relative status is as yet undetermined. Perhaps the djanna are the equivalent of less-sentient animal species or a different intelligent species. Who were the Third Horizon when the Kharatuk were around in it?
The kharatuk fled the First Horizon in -415CC, following approximately 3-4 generations of settlers who had gone to colonise the Third Horizon (from the First) with the Emperor's blessing. The descendants of these colonists are your 'First-come'. Compared to our ship, how good was First and Second Horizon technology according to your records?
Answering out of character: before the Long Night, all three Horizons had everyday access to d10 technology. Unless the First and Second suffered a similar setback, they likely still have this. To risk lifting the veil slightly, I've no intention of giving them d12 tech, as this would undermine the Portal Builders too much, but Khalil would appreciate the d10 level in-game, however that would be best expressed in-character.