WttSS session 56: 'Science of the Portal Builders'

Session report - Whispers to the Star Singer campaign

Written by Doctor Weather

General Summary

During this session, with the religious references, it came up that someone thought Khalil looked like the traditional image of Satan. I don't believe this will ever have any impact on the game but I thought it should be remembered.

Arrival at the waterfall

The party arrived at the waterfall and used a combination of the kharatuk's previous ventures here and Khalil's senses to deduce an entrance point. They used their grav-bikes to get themselves up to the top of the canopy and then climbed their way up the valley wall and then behind the waterfall to reach the entrance.

• They retained their breathing apparatus despite the breathable atmosphere, just to be safe
• Khalil now wears the Legion exo-suit that had all the weapons taken out for the cube experiment
• Identifying two entrances, one 10m up and another 200m up, they trusted that Khalil's personal problem to be attracted to strange places when it pulled him to the latter - GM note: I forgot to use the 'turn away' protection, matching the earlier mountain labyrinth but there it is
• With 2 successes on Survival from Kerman using his hyper-rope, he guided the party in a climb up the rockface, spending the second such that the party could always get back down without Kerman's help

JUMP TO CONTENTS

Doorway

Standing on a ledge behind the falling water, the party observed a sheer rock face where the entrance should be. Examining the wall, they triggered a Portal Builder system that needed them to translate some of the predecessor's language to gain access.

• Someone needed to hold the Orb of Ghodar to trigger the system - lights projected into space showing an overlapping mixture of the swirls of language, each 'paragraph' rotating in place and obscuring its fellows
• Computer mapping of the swirls showed different patterns but Murad was able to make them out with his normal vision
• On the ledge, specifically in the face of the lights, the party's mystics suffered a further -1 total MP penalty on top of the valley atmosphere affect
• The party here then combined pieces of knowledge learned previously to deduce that 3 Icons needed prayed to open a way forward:
• 3 'paragraphs' of text overlapped in the lights
• Each paragraph corresponded to a part of the text seen on a tablet at the doorway to the City - each text on a separate tablet
• 9 tablets indicated the possibility of each tablet corresponding to an Icon
• The party had already discovered that the Messenger and the Traveller were closer to - present in? - the valley and tried other Icons to identify the third: The Lady
• With 3 prayers complete, each 'paragraph' of light moved to the rock wall, with the Traveller and Lady's text taking place next to each other, whilst the Messenger came last to overlay both
• The prayers all created the Icon's calm effect, which dispelled the -1 MP penalty

At this time the kharatuk AI from the monitoring station reported in:

• The Legion had brought through some "children of the flowers" - Seekers and were arranging them for a seeming ritual
• The Legionaries occupied themselves with two tasks:
1. Supporting scientists moving cutting tools towards the kharatuk towers that indicated they might be trying to remove the computer systems therein, perhaps to take away for study
2. Preparing to make a move out to another location in the valley
• Murad ordered the AI to hold for now, wanting more information before making a call

JUMP TO CONTENTS

Caves beyond the falls

The entrance revealed a blue-silver crystalline cave tunnel extending hundreds of metres into the mountainside. Beyond this the party found a cave system in habited by spheres and rock monsters. The system was built around a central column chamber that connected a multitude of subordinate cave areas, three large and numerous small. The various exits from the column chamber were connected by walkways across the chamber. Kerman lit up the chamber with a headlight and caught the attention of a rock monster that made its way to the party. They left before the monster could reach them and it was happy to stand at the doorway and watch them leave.

• The spheres floating about their business ignored the party but the rock monsters were active guards
• Spirit glasses showed lenses 6, 7 and 8
• The caves were made up of hexagonal-prism columns of rock, rising vertically and bending or cutting off to create the open spaces - such structures match the construction material of a monolith, though of a different colour to the stark monolith black

Before leaving, Zarzur used her talent to interact with the Portal Builder AI in the rock.

• With a 3 success roll she gained answers to 3 questions
• With one she determined the nature of the system and once again the many presences of herself - the AI who represented themselves as Zarzur to interact with her - there were hundreds here behind the waterfall
• This success was what gave her the map of the cave system
• With another success she gained information on Yochanan's interference with the system: he had been to many places, leaving a trail of his corruption behind, but his focus was on one of the bigger, higher chambers, one proximate to the damage to the very falls the party witnessed on arrival to the valley
• She used the final success to ask about the purpose of the valley's experiments and she was shown a vision:
• She saw the Traveller walking Coriolis's Promenade, looking to the distance beyond the crowds of people
• The Lady tried to accompany him to that distance but he walked out ahead of her, leaving her behind
• Before Zarzur could follow either, the Messenger distracted her, allowing the others to disappear

JUMP TO CONTENTS

35th 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

28 Sep 2022

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Contents

• General Summary
• Arrival at the waterfall
• Doorway
• Caves beyond the falls