The Portal

Present:

• Anastasia "Stasi" Tepes. Zhodani Soldier from Querion – Shane
• MARMALADING Emerse Gee. Daryen Scientist from Torment – Darryl
• "Riley" Patrick O'Reilly. Sword-Worlder Pilot from Winston - Richard
• Anton Tositova. Solomani Gunner from Entrope - Ian
• Sang "Spanner" Hoang. Sword-Worlder Mechanic from Winston – Jeff
• MARMALADING Hoff Ende. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Winston - Kevin
• Belle Ende. Sword-Worlder Medic from Winston - Steven
• Itzy Ende. Sword-Worlder Soldier from Winston - Chris
• Gnostic Hands. Solomani Scientist from Entrope – Jamie
• NPC: Scurry. Drone Gunner from Winston

by Ian

 

[ Note that there is no day and night. It is light all the time. References to 'morning', 'day, 'night' or 'evening' are purely based on party resting and active periods. Saves me putting quotes around every mention!  ]

Recap

Party starts in the tunnels of the Servitor of the Ancients. 

We decide reluctantly to head to Spire City. It’s a four-day trip and two of those can be in the hills before we need to cross the plains and risk being spotted. But before that, Ben in insistent he collects his six "whores" and Fido so that they can go back too...

Back to Ben's Cave

It has been a long day so far and the party decide to rest up. They move to within 50 meters of the tunnel entrance and Anton sneaks forward and looks outside. He looks all around and while there is no sign of the enormous snake in the valley, he looks up and sure enough - there is a giant snake sitting on the valley wall above the cave entrance.

The monster seems to be alert with its forked tongue licking the air. Anton notices that the skin of the snake is different, in that it seems to be partially 'fungus like' and rough.

"Darn, we will have to wait a bit." The party have 2.5 days worth of food and this can be thinned via rationing. Anton suggests we could go out, guns blazing, and get rid of the snake. Seems no one else was interested in this plan. Anton returns to the tunnel entrance and observes.

[Food and drink acclimatization. Stasi, Itsy and Riley 20 (done). Gnostic 17, Belle 14, Riley 20, Anton 17, Spanner 10 ]

Spanner ends up violently ill and can't eat for the rest of the day.

Luckily, roughly 6 hours later, the snake heads off around the valley. It ends up resting about 400 meters away and its time for the party to head out.

With Anton trying to coach the party (Ben and Fido seem fine), and a successful party luck roll, the party cross the valley floor and exit across the far ridge.

As the party are meandering back to Ben's cave, Ben freezes and hisses for EVERYONE to stop, lay on the ground and be silent: "There are whumpers coming". 

"What the hell is a 'whumper?'," someone asks.

"I'll tell you later," he snaps. "Lie down, shut up and don't move or make a sound for now".

Whumpers

A small pack of creatures navigated the rocky and fungus layered ground. They were creatures the size of Labradors. They didn't have wings, but they moved on the ground half crawling, half dragging.

As they neared, you could see that they had no eyes. Their skin covered 'wings' thumped on the ground, creating a 'whump' sound.

The pack of whumpers crawl over the prone party. Everyone tries to stay quiet, but Spanner lets out a light whimper as one of the creatures climbs over her. The creature stops instantly. Spanner gets a sharp pain in her left side as something pierces her torso. 

She desperately stays still and quiet, and the creature seems to give up and move on. She takes 1 HP damage from the spike.

After the monsters are far enough away, Ben fills in the party and says that the whumpers insert a spike on either side of you and then zap a 50KV shock through you which can kill. 

After travelling safely for the rest of the day, the party find a decent enough camp. They set watches and rest as best they can.

At some point in the night, Belle wakes with a start and screams out. A small creature with sharp teeth was biting in. Gnostic wakes with something squirming in his PJs. He rips the hideous creature out and throws to one side. He rips out his gun and fires a round at the small snake thing and it gets blown apart.

Meanwhile Riley, who was on watch, rushes to Belle and wrenches the snake thing off her. He holds each end of the snake in his hands and pulls the creature apart.

Ben rouses "Oh, those a good eating. You don't want to get bitten because they are poisonous. Get rid of the head and the rest is delicious.".

Belle checks and while there is a bite, she does not seem to be poisoned.

There were a couple of lightning storms through the night and this disturbed the party.

For breakfast the party cook the snakes on the fire and have a bite to eat.

[ Gnostic 20 (done), Belle 15, Anton 18, Spanner 10 (failed)]

They head off to Ben's cave and arrive around lunchtime. The party decide to rest up properly and perform a round of Psycho-Analysis.

Gnostic has an average ability, but Belle is highly skilled. Various psych points are increased, however poor Belle at the hands of Gnostic lost a point [Fumble]. Darn.

After a decent amount of resting and gathering supplies the party decide to cross the plains directly to Spire City and not follow the surrounding hills to save time. Ben assures all that there will be decent enough rocky spots to camp. 

While the party gather their gear, someone notices that Emerse had a strange bulge in his groin area. Stranger than normal anyway. Belle bravely volunteered to examine him and discovered that his appendage had mutated into some kind of mushroom. This mushroom was oozing a strong smelling liquid that was strangely familiar to some. The smell was petrochemical in nature and seemed to be very similar to Jet A1 (basically kerosene). They gather this liquid as it could be handy!

On seeing the revolting change to his doodle, the party had to suppress their revulsion [make a (penalty) Psych roll. Everyone makes the roll with much luck consumed in the process].

We return the mushroom to the dark of Emerse's trousers.

As before, Emerse's Geiger counter was showing very high levels of radiation outdoors. Something the party need to be wary of while remaining on planet Rose.

After finally arriving at Ben's cave base camp, the entire cave is emptied with the hope of never coming back. Ben, his six Zhodani girls, and Fido (has Vargr friend, now a wolf) along with everything they can carry. The entire party, everyone and everything depart.

The Zhodani girls feed off the party and they in turn, heal via the mattress juice. Ben volunteers that his saliva is curative too. A tonguey kiss can also heal if anyone wants it. Most gag and pass on the offer.

Crossing the Plains

The party with Ben's local knowledge realize they can travel a full day and find a decent camp site. After that, they decide to travel for half the day, then look for a suitable camp. Using this strategy, it should be about 3 days to cross. 

[Belle 8 (20 rolled and reset count),  Anton 20 (done), Spanner 13]

The evening was uneventful and only the electrical storms disturbed the group.

The next day travel was straight forward. At lunchtime, the party start looking for a campsite but no suitable site appears. They keep going and eventually a rocky spot appears and the party collapse and set up camp.

[ Belle 8 (failed), Spanner 14 ]

Second night same as the first and passes without issue.

The next day the party should reach Spire City. Around half day away from the city, the party find a good campsite and stop there.

[Belle 9, Spanner 16]

The conundrum is not knowing what awaits at the city for a highly obvious party, just walking into town? Should they send a stealth party to check things out?

[The problem with the stealth party was that Anton is the only character present that has any form of stealth ability. Unfortunately he spent a lot of luck saving the loss of psych points (2 luck remaining only). On entering the city, this lack of luck will mean a guaranteed failure at finding a suitable safe haven.]

City Scout

In the end, the party decide and a small, somewhat stealthy, party to check things: Anton, Ben, Fido, Belle (lots of luck)

They carefully enter the outskirts of the city. Hiding as best they can, they locate an empty building. Well, building is a stretch. Spire City is 300,000 years old and was abandoned by its previous builders about that long ago. The buildings are designed as a some kind of metal shell (mu metal, in fact) with internals that were probably wood and fungus based. Over the eons the wood and fungus have totally disappeared, leaving only the strong metal shell. Many of the buildings had flocks of the vulture birds swirling around the tops. They seemed to be feeding off something that is growing on the metal?

In the building was comfortable and safe. No mushrooms. When a storm broke, there was no effect inside the safe metal shield.

Watching the streets, there were many slishers (Illithid type of monster). Some moved quickly and darted in and out, seemingly hiding or avoiding something. Others travelled in packs in organized purpose.

Anton and the party leave town and travel back to the camp. It is decided to split the full party into two different groups and deliver each separately. Without any bother, the entire party eventually get into the safe house and set up their temporary safe home.

At one point, far in the distance, the Slishers all evacuate the streets rapidly. Gone in a panic. One of the revolting gigantic Spiders the party saw on arriving planet Rose, was navigating the streets and buildings near the centre of the city. A hideous, terrifying sight.

[Belle 11, Spanner 18]

Spire City

red stars are the temp safe houses

According to the servitor back in the cave, there should be two portals nearby. The central spire [the one with the black wall] and the 'H' building. Both are about 1km away from the party's current safe house.

The next phase consists of Anton using Sneak to explore the central city and see what the party are dealing with.

There are several empty buildings on the outer areas, however as nearing the centre of the city, along with a significant increase in slisher numbers.

Activity, the buildings start housing slisher(?) machinery. The machinery takes all sorts of forms but mostly metal, wood, fungus and bits of living things (like the avian spinosa in the Ancients' tunnels' power supplies on Winston, the moon Formaline and planet Dollar). 

One safe house has a large ball-shaped black object - about the size of an SUV, that has short spikes sticking out. All means nothing to Anton, other than slishers are probably going to turn up at some point soon.

"We need to get closer to the middle", the party decide. While this is true, the size and noisiness of the group make this quite a challenge. They decide that the H building is the first target.

One slisher observation is made that might make something work. While the slishers are always out and about from 400m to the centre of town - there ARE times when 'always' is not correct. For periods of 5 to 20 minutes there can be no slishers on the streets at all.

Anton heads out once again and identifies empty buildings just a block or two up the street. These buildings act as 'stepping stones' to get the entourage nearer to the H building. They sit and wait for the streets to clear, wait for 30 seconds - then GO. This works well and party luck is on their side (thank you, Belle). Everyone eventually ends up only 100m from the H building.

[Belle 13, Spanner 20 (done)]

The H Building

Anton investigates the H building and there is a basic door in the side. Its not trapped or locked and Anton steps in and checks the room. In the centre of the room there is a large vertical metal ring some 20m high.

The disk was connected to various slisher machines and panels. Everything was dark. Anton returns with the good news that the portal seems easy to get to.

The time came for the entire group to move into the H building. Unfortunately this one time a slisher stepped around a corner and spotted the group making their way to the H building. The creature emits a voiceless scream.

The party hurry into the H building and block the door with heavy objects.

While Riley checks the machinery and panels, Spanner climbs the spiral staircase to the upper mezzanine. There is a large red-handled lever up there.

The lever is pulled and everything, including the portal, lights up.

Portal

"Which portal should we open???" screamed Riley.

"Cauthon Institute!!!!" everyone agrees.

Riley finds a panel with 128 switches - which are actually levers made of rigid mushrooms. Riley has eidetic memory, so he quickly deciphers the HEX coordinates provided by the servitor into 128 'bits' (4fc15c18-e814-4bd3-a256-87a1118cbc8e). He toggles the switches and the panel's rings activate and slowly grind and rotate.

A shimmering force-field appears within the portal circumference. Through the field the party could see the front entrance of the Cauthon Institute as they remembered it (in Seven town in the 728-907 system). There are a couple of the Imperium guards standing there on duty - in fact, one was the soldier that mocked Riley when he thought the guy was a robot. The guards look up into the air and seemingly toward the room the party are in. But they look confused and point, as if they cannot quite see what is there. 

The party can see them quite clearly and can hear them murmuring, guns drawn, trying to discuss the

appearance.

"Thank goodness" Gnostic calls out, relieved. 

As the door to the building gets hammered from the slishers on the outside, Gnostic steps into the gate and tries to go through. 

But, like the portal back by the red pond (where the group first arrived), Gnostic feels a push back, like rubber, and can't go through. It resists all attempts to go through.

The party pick up random objects and nothing will pass. Like with the portal by the red pond, most objects sound like they bounce off glass, whereas Gnostic felt a soft push-back, like rubber or sponge. 

They eventually try throwing through some of their cooked meat leftovers. The blob of meat flies straight through the portal and nearly hits the guards on the other side. 

The guards immediately let lose with a hail of bullets at the portal. Everyone ducks, and the bullets fly into the room and bounce around the H building.

A series of tests are applied, including changing the coordinates to other destinations (Winston Ende Estate and Entropy X-boat HQ). The same effect every time.

• Inanimate objects meet solid resistance.
• Living organic matter meets soft resistance, like rubber or sponge.
• Dead organic matter sails through without any issue.

Returning the coordinates to the Cauthon Institute, Riley and the brains trust work out a way to include a crude note within the vulture meat leftovers, letters carved and burned into the meat. The note tells the guards who they are, and that we can hear them, and DON'T come through, and if they could provide more gear? 

The guards scurry off and quickly return with two machine guns, more ammo and 20 grenades. The armaments all come through the portal.

By this time, the outside door bursts inward and the party have to scramble. The portal power is turned off. Luckily there is a door on the far side of the H building that the slishers totally ignore. The group leave via that ignored door as they see a large crowd of slishers entering the door on the other side into the portal room.

The party scramble into their safe house nearby. Deflated. So close but yet so far away....

No Way Out

Present:

• Anastasia "Stasi" Tepes. Zhodani Soldier from Querion – Shane
• Emerse Gee. Daryen Scientist from Torment – Darryl
• "Riley" Patrick O'Reilly. Sword-Worlder Pilot from Winston - Richard
• Anton Tositova. Solomani Gunner from Entrope - Ian
• Sang "Spanner" Hoang. Sword-Worlder Mechanic from Winston – Jeff
• Hoff Ende. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Winston - Kevin
• Belle Ende. Sword-Worlder Medic from Winston - Steven
• Itzy Ende. Sword-Worlder Soldier from Winston - Chris
• Gnostic Hands. Solomani Scientist from Entrope – Jamie
• NPC: Scurry. Drone Gunner from Winston

by Richard/Riley

Recap

It was daylight. The entire party was on a hilly plain under a rose-coloured sky; bright, and from the brightness on the horizon, it looked like the sun had just set.  The air was very dry, and they could smell ozone. Behind them was the portal, a clear hole into the cave - it wasn't a mirror on this side. In front of them was a lake, the size of four soccer fields, of red liquid, like the same stuff in the cave's "tidal" pool, with white lumps floating in it.

In front of them, fifty paces away, standing on the left shore of the lake, was a huge spider, twenty storeys tall, with 12 or 14 legs, with multiple eyes on prehensile stalks. The giant spider's eyes weren't focused on the party, instead they were focused on the thing that it was devouring. This creature was one of the illithid creatures that the party remembered from the derelict freighter Gnost Roma orbiting Formalin (where Liz died). The wretched thing was held by four "mandibles" which looked like human arms with claw-hands, as a porcelain beak mouth nibbled away at it. It thrashed about, half-eaten, but still alive, and it screamed hysterically. It had no voice-box, so they were voiceless rasps and croaks. Pieces of its intestines, cartilage and some bone, with lots of blood, were falling into the red lake.

Off in the distance, several kilometres away, was a nightmarish city, that looked like jagged sections of thick metal welded together, to form spikey structures, buildings and towers. And in the air, around this city, was a thick swarm of what looked like gnats at this distance. Close-up, they'd be the size of vultures or dogs.

Hoff, Belle and Itzy Ende's sister Split (Penny) did not come through the portal for some reason. [Jason shifted away, so's no longer in the group].

The Signal

Having been unable to re-enter the portal we felt a strong urge to move on, out of the sight of the horrid spider. 

"We must get off this god-forsaken planet" we all thought.

Emerse's radiation monitor was going mad and peaking at 40 µSv/hour. And his RF monitor was getting lots of random static on all frequencies, most seemed to be coming from the sky. But there was a strong 500KHz AM signal from nearby. He tuned in on this.

It was old fashioned Imperium morse code. A repeating signal. .... . .-. . .. .- --

No Galactopedia link here. But it was lucky he had a local cached copy.

"Emerse, what's the code?" we asked.

"Arghh, it says Here I am" responded Emerse combing his hair whilst nervously looking at the huge spider.

"Where's it come from" I barked in a deeply unhappy mood. I had limited whisky resources, and my beloved ship was on the other side of this portal near the Cauthon Institute.

We quickly moved behind a rise and now hidden from the spider the nerdy bunch (Emerse, Gnostic, Hoff and Belle) undertook some brief triangulation calculations and determined it was coming about one click (kilometre) to our left.

"Let's go," Anton enthusiastically says and volunteers to lead the party stealthily and out of the sight of the spider. 

"What are you so happy about fat man?" I grumped.

Anton led us successfully for a click in the direction calculated and we come to the edge of a hill with an area dug out in which is a long wire that runs into a small lean-to hut some 10 metres away. 

[note Anton has the best sneak skill with a double roll and can guide the party if successful.] The irony of Anton sneaking whilst being severely overweight and in a bright yellow X-Boat suit is not lost on many of us. 

the hut

Congregating around the taut wire was a swarm of large bees or hornets. 

Hmmm we've seen those before many of us thought and some of us plugged our ears.

Anton headed toward the hut and cautiously looked in. Nothing strange in here he thought until he noticed a stone on the ground with letters on it. 

He headed back to the group.

"Anything interesting?" asked Gnostic

"There was a stone with writing on it"

"Did you bring it back?" asked Stasi

"Nope, easier to take you to it"

With a rolling of eyes, we all make our way to the hut.

IFDE LLTA TOAA EIFV 

IRTD SCOO SMTT TKRI 

TEHO SSTD OTIW PTHA 

OOSA IHIL DHSR RERL 

AAOD ENTS NNUS FHYO 

GGRT OACP EACH RRLH 

RREE TDIO OOST ELCN

UUOA NEKT SNHL CFSS

After much chatter, the nerds decide that it’s a transposition cipher. Emerse uses his computer to run several scenarios, and the nerds intensely work on the code – forgetting for the moment that they are on a god-forsaken planet that appears to be largely made of mushroom.

Interestingly Emerse's use of his computer attracts the hornets. He quickly turns it off but we all note they are drawn to electronics.

"Got it" they collectively chant, rubbing their hands together in glee. "It is too dangerous for me to hang around at this source. So, head toward the tallest spire for 10 clicks and then hard left for 30 clicks. Avoid all sophonts."

On the Move

the tallest spire

Picking out the tallest spire we head off.

The ground is spongy like a thick carpet and there are giant blue tinged leaves here and there on the ground that are even more soft and spongy. What appears to be large mushroom growths can be seen growing at various intervals along the way. We can see flying creatures in the distance, just spots on the horizon.

The air smells clean but with the tinge of fungi. It never gets dark, just this pink glow of dusk.

"What a hole" I muse, steadily becoming more dour and dark.

We make the 10 clicks and then turn hard left. We all realize we cannot do another 30kms without rest. Some of us were struggling even now. Indeed, Anton lay down only to feel the wriggling of some unknown creature on his back making him quickly stand up.

"Have some whisky, it will help."

We walk another 10 clicks and now some of us are really struggling. I have the shivers and sweats; Gnostic was never built for this sort of terrain and even Stasi is tiring.

"I can carry Gnostic" volunteered Itzy.

"And I can get Riley and Stasi going," said Belle as she injected us with what was essentially speed.

Another 10 clicks and Emerse is lagging, exhausted. 

Suddenly, there is a bright flash of lightning covering the whole sky, horizon to horizon, then hissing and ticking, like rain on hot rocks, and which gets louder and louder, followed by intense deafening thunder that rocks the ground and knocks us off our feet. The lightning seems to impact everything, and all metal on us conducts a voltage spike giving us a huge jolt, like an over-powerful electric fence. Everyone carrying anything metal gets damaged. Pistols give a light zap [1hp], but the swords and machine guns give a huge whallop [D6 and D8]. 

Electronic items need a save. My laser carbine fails and is ruined.

Emerse's precious Tamagotchi, his laptop, radiation meter and radio headset all manage to survive [bit of luck spent] but most of the party's headsets were fried.

Scurry survives.

 

Fortunately, Emerse has his birdcage-sized faraday cage, so he stores as many electric things as he can fit within. The cage needs to be grounded to be totally effective, but the main lightning storm discharge seems to be preceded by flash, two seconds earlier. That gives him time to jam an earthing spike into the ground.

Emerse is also given a shot of speed by Belle, and we all trudge on to complete the final 10 clicks. We enter low hills and there is more rock here and we can safely stop. Over the time there have been several thunderstorms and they seem to occur every 6 hours.

As we come around the side of a rise we see what looks like a path which of course we follow. It leads to a large rock with some more carved writing.

Sergeant Gunn

ITOT TUZL FHUH TSSP

YIAY EEES OSRO NONI

UFEF TNDG GAWM IEAN

OROY OMHA TYRA NHEL

Another transposition cipher which this time the nerds quickly solve.

"If you got this far, you are worthy of my attention. Use 1 MHz, send a help signal."

Emerse uses his radio and sends SOS in Imperial Morse. 

"Now let's see what happens," he says. 

Sergeant Gunn

We wait an hour…. Nothing.

He resends the signal. We wait. This time a figure appears around the hill. A tall very-muscled humanoid, with a tentacle arm and a huge eye.

"I come in peace. I am Sergeant Ben Gunn," he says in English with a look of surprise on his face. "Uh... welcome to planet Rose."

[Psyche rolls all round - DM forgot! We will do this next week.]

After recovering, Emerse jumps in and explains our situation and who we are.

"How long have you been here?" 

"About a year"

"Where are you from?"

"The Cauthon Institute. I was on Strike Team One"

"What happened to your eye and arms?"

"I think its the radiation over time. My Vargr friend here, he didn't mutate like me, except he is now a wolf, with not much mind, I call him Fido. And I found six Zhodanis here - they had no mutations, but their minds were gone too. They are now my whores."

"Nothing unusual there," says Itzy quietly. "We have one of those."

"New meat?!" Ben says leering at Zhodani Stasi, whipping out his large appendage - it was mutated too, and was enormous.

"Come this way" and we follow him a few hundred metres to a cave system.

"I'm the last of my squad", he explains. "It is safer to live underground, here, and that protects you from the lightning storms and there is plenty of food and water, although it takes a bit to get used to", pointing at a red pool of gloop. "You can also sleep comfortably on those large blue leaves. And when you are done can extract the food and healing from them. The storms sort of charge them up."

Over the course of the "night" (it is day all the time here) we all try and eat the vultures (bird meat from a flying creature - it tastes like muddy chicken) and purple goop that comes from the blue tinged leaves. The purple goop heals damage too [D4 per dose]. We also all try the red "water". 

[The "acclimatization" mechanic: Each time a person eats or drinks from local sources they make a CON roll. If successful, the food & healing works. And their CON in relation to the food and water improves by 1. Once the effective CON reaches 20 then they become "acclimatized" and no longer need to roll. 

If they fail, they vomit, feel ill and can't eat for D6 hours. 

If a 1 is rolled, CON increases by D6. 

If a 20 is rolled, all additions are lost.

The resulting CON positions at the end of the session were:

• Gnostic +10 (17)
• Belle +5 (13)
• Stasi Reached 20
• Hoff +7 (16)
• Itzy Reached 20
• Emerse +0 (8)
• Riley +10 (18)
• Anton +4 (15)
• Sang +0 (9) ]

the Zhodanis

Over the next 48 hours we rest, come down off speed and have long conversations with Ben about the planet. Anton, Gnostic and Itzy also take advantage of the "Zhodani whores". The vampiric Zhodanis, of course, feed on them in return. (Ben's neck was quite a mess already)

Stasi was eager to try out Gunn's enormous organ, so she spent the "night" with him.

Cauthon Institute's Janet Drive said that a squad of Zhodanis came here at least fifty years ago. We had no idea if these Zhodanis were remnants of them, so it was a mystery.

From our discussions with Ben we glean that:

• There appear to be no spaceships or vehicles on the planet. I am now entering into a depressive state.
• The only way off planet Rose, Ben suspects, is by successfully finding one of several portals and find a way through the portal.
• The "slishers" rule the city. They come in three sizes, and we have encountered the adult form and the "scuttlers" previously on the derelict freighter Gnost Roma orbiting Formalin (where Liz died).
• Ben thinks this was an Ancients' planet and there are several Ancients' sites. Ben knows of one where what he calls "The Oracle" lives. In fact, this is a servitor. 
• It would appear the slishers have taken over from the Ancients.

We discuss going to see the Oracle. 

The Oracle

The next day we head off on a further 2-day journey. We stick to the rock covered hills as much as possible and near the end of day 2 (not that it gets dark) come over the crest of a rise and see a cave mouth.

"We need to be careful of the snake" states Ben.

"Ahhh what snake" Hoff nervously mumbles. 

"The 50 metre long 30 cm diameter one"

"Have you fought it?"

"No, I ran away"

"Oh"

So, keeping a watchful eye out we quickly scramble to the cave opening and see a tunnel descending in front of us. "Déjà vu", many of us think remembering the Ancients' tunnel in Winston.

With that in mind we make formation, Gnostic and me at the front, and move forward carefully watching for signs of glyphs. Anton who is at the back glances out of the cave and sees the large snake come down from the hill. It is grey coloured and would be very hard to spot if still.

After a time Gnostic spots, a 60cm waist high faint light emanating from the wall ahead. Following close inspection, we have no real conclusion but do know that Ben previously walked straight through the faint beam, unharmed.

We decide discretion is the better part of valour and ensure everyone ducks under the beam before continuing.

We enter a room with a "steam" door on the other side with the oh so familiar handprint. 

Gnostic confidently puts his hand on the print, and the steam goes revealing a passage behind. We proceed down into another room with a further handprint and a further exit passage.

"This is where the Oracle is" announces Ben.

"I bet it appears if we put our hand in the print" says Gnostic as he does exactly that.

With a slight whir a man appears – a beautiful specimen – Stasi gasps.

Servitor

The servitor speaks English and so we can all understand him although he is only interested in engaging Gnostic.

The conversation continues for some time 

"What's your purpose?"

"To provide information"

"How do you leave the planet?"

"Via a portal"

"Where is the nearest portal?"

"Spire City."

"Where does the portal lead?"

"They don’t work that way – you enter coordinates"

"Can you draw us a map?"

"I can describe how to get there."

"Yes please" and he does

"What are the coordinates for Winston?" 

"What is Winston?"

The servitor was an Ancients' creation so would be 300,000 years old. It wouldn't know of current system names. But Emerse had an Imperium star chart in his cached Galactipedia. He managed to find a coordinate system and star descriptions that the servitor could recognize.   

The servitor converted this to the Ancients' 128-bit coordinate system and worked out where the Ende estate in Raven's End on Winston would be: 3fb6afe5-ed9b-41d0-916a-18243fdfc083.

Similarly, the coordinates for the Cauthon Institute on Seven in 728-907 is 4fc15c18-e814-4bd3-a256-87a1118cbc8e.

And the coordinates for Entropy, namely Sydney Walsh's X-boat office, is 40c80ad9-caba-4310-a50f-9cebede665dc.

"Can we have the recipe for Mushroom Whisky?" I asked.

"Boil mushroom juice and distill it."

"What do the Ancients look like?" 

"Neptard Lizards on their hind legs"

"Who are the tentacled creatures?" 

It says something unintelligible.

Ben replies "Slishers" 

Fortunately, I have a photographic memory and could remember every detail. Emerse not trusting this also took notes on his computer.

With this information to hand we thank the servitor and decide reluctantly to head to Spire City. It’s a four-day trip and two of those can be in the hills before we need to cross the plains and risk being spotted.

But before that Ben in insistent he collects his six "whores" and Fido so that they can go back too.

"Oh, by the way Ben" asks Emerse. "Why did you use a transposition cipher?"

"Cause the slishers can't understand them and aren’t smart enough to decode them"

And with that "comforting" thought that these creatures are dumb, we head off back towards the tunnel entrance and the snake.

Planet Rose

Rose-coloured sky

• Anastasia "Stasi" Tepes. Zhodani Soldier from Querion – Shane
• Emerse Gee. Daryen Scientist from Torment – Darryl
• "Riley" O'Reilly. Sword-Worlder Pilot from Winston - Richard
• Anton Tositova. Solomani Gunner from Entrope - Ian
• Sang "Spanner" Hoang. Sword-Worlder Mechanic from Winston – Jeff
• Hoff Ende. Sword-Worlder Scientist from Winston - Kevin
• Belle Ende. Sword-Worlder Medic from Winston - Steven
• Itzy Ende. Sword-Worlder Soldier from Winston - Chris
• Gnostic Hands. Solomani Scientist from Entrope – Jamie
• NPC: Scurry. Drone Gunner from Winston
• NPC: Finn Cyborg from Querion

by Andrew.

Recap

The intrepid party, working for the powerful X-Boat Corporation and nominally for Contessa Ende (Hoff, Belle, Penny and Itzy's mum), had been shot many parsecs across Known Space by a misjump, and were hurriedly making their way back home to Winston. 

On the way, they arrived in the recently-settled Imperium system 728-907, and while on the ground had been contracted by the Cauthon Institute to explore some tunnels under the Institute's base (in the town of Seven). The Cauthon Institute had sent men down here a year ago, who never returned. So they wanted some other volunteers to find them.  There were also stories of a Zhodani squad ("platoon" or "company" depending on who you asked) "from the Twelfth Regiment" going missing down here too, many decades pre Cauthon.

In the tunnels, the party encountered an Ancients' portal. Dr Gilbert of the Institute was most insistent that this be explored. So here we are.

The portal was supposedly one-way only, and volunteer Anton had gone through. He did not return in the specified time, so they all decided to join him (as loyal parties are wont to do).

Wilhelm Scream

It was daylight. The entire party was on a hilly plain under a rose-coloured sky; bright, and from the brightness on the horizon, it looked like the sun had just set. The gravity was normal, but the horizon looked closer. The air was very dry and they could smell ozone. Behind them was the portal, a clear hole into the cave - it wasn't a mirror on this side. In front of them was a lake, the size of four soccer fields, of red liquid, like the same stuff in the cave's "tidal" pool, with white lumps floating in it.

But that wasn't what drew their attention, because in front of them, fifty paces away, standing on the left shore of the lake, was a huge spider, twenty storeys tall, with 12 or 14 legs, with multiple eyes on prehensile stalks.

It was a terrifying Cthulhuesque sight. A nightmare. An abomination of nature. Sickening.

The giant spider's eyes weren't focused on the party, instead they were focused on the thing that it was devouring. This creature was one of the illithid creatures that the party remembered from the derelict freighter Gnost Roma orbitting Formalin (where Liz died). The wretched thing was held by four "mandibles" which looked like human arms with claw-hands, as a porcelain beak mouth nibbled away at it. It thrashed about, half-eaten, but still alive, and it screamed hysterically. It had no voice-box, so they were voiceless rasps and croaks. Pieces of its intestines, cartilage and some bone, with lots of blood, were falling into the red lake.

Off in the distance, several kilometres away, was a nightmarish city, that looked like jagged sections of thick metal welded together, to form spikey structures, buildings and towers. And in the air, around this city, was a thick swarm of what looked like gnats at this distance. Close-up, they'd be the size of vultures or dogs.

 

Terrified, the whole group turned around and tried to hurry back through the portal. The level of the red lake was such that it lapped at the bottom of the portal circle, and obviously into the cave. The portal was on a vertical rock face, and it looked like there had been a recent rock-fall which had exposed it. Maybe it was once buried.

Anton was crouched down there gibbering "I couldn't get through. I couldn't get through."

Sure enough, the transparent portal had some kind of a field across it, and felt like rubber to finger-touch - the more you pushed, the more it pushed back. Metallic, wooden and plastic items, when pushed against the field, scraped, like metal on concrete.

Liquid from the red lake obviously dribbled through. And pieces of the cartilage and bone could go through too. The group posited that organic matter will go through - after all, the mercenary's arm managed - but maybe it had to be dead.

Anton now decided to risk dipping his hand in the red liquid. It felt warm and slimy. But even covered in the liquid, the portal field still blocked him.

Emerse's radiation monitor was going mad and peaking at 40 µSv/hour. And his RF monitor was getting lots of random static on all frequencies, most seemed to be coming from the sky. But there was a strong 500KHz AM signal from nearby. He tuned in on this.

It was old fashioned Imperium morse code. A repeating signal. .... . .-. . .. .- --

No Galactopedia link here. But it was lucky he had a local cached copy.

Astrophysics for the dedicated

[Call all this "foreshadowing". The party's characters do not know this ... yet.]

The planet Rose orbits a 12km diameter neutron star (“sun”) on a 81 day circular orbit (72Mkm). (c.f. Mercury 46-70M km & 88 days). The sun's mass is 2.2 Sols, and the surface temperature is at one million degrees K (c.f. Sol 5800K).

15kW xenon arc lamp

On the surface of Rose, the sun appears as a super-bright tiny pin-prick dot (0.03 arc-secs, the cross-section of a human hair at 1km), like a giant arc-welder’s spark or the centre of a xenon arc lamp; shadows are super sharp. Rose's solar energy at surface a bit more than Earth (1500 W/m2 c.f. 1380).

Rose is tidally locked to the sun, so there are no light and dark times; Rose's "day" is the same as the year. Rose is on a 10 deg axial tilt which is maintained by a Cassini state 2 resonance (precession is in the same resonance as orbit time), so the sun does a little analemma dance in the sky from -10 to +10 degrees over the year. There is no concept of seasons.

Rose is half the size of Earth, but has 0.9g gravity at the surface, and has a convenient Nitrogen-Oxygen mix like Earth. 

It's a young planet, so its dynamo core (iron) is very active and incredibly strong. This means the resultant magnetic field protects the atmosphere by diverting the sun's streams of charged particles (c.f. Van Allen belt for Earth). 

Nevertheless, the neutron star still bathes Rose in periodic streams of synchrotron radiation (which are not subject to magnetic fields). This interacts with the ionosphere and produces violent EMP blasts which enwrap the entire planet. They appear visually as super auroras of all colours, and cause a cacophony of sounds in the air.

• Instantaneous Click/Buzz: A sharp, high-pitched sound as the electromagnetic pulse hits.
• Immediate Hiss/Chirp: The eerie, high-frequency VLF chorus begins as the EMP interacts with the magnetic field and ionosphere.
• Delayed Rumble: A few seconds to a minute later, the ground-shaking, continuous roar of planetary thunder arrives and drowns out everything else.
• Reverse: As the EMP fades, the thunder would slowly die down, the high-frequency chirping would fade, and finally, all would fall silent until the next occurrence.

EMP blasts are random - every few hours one strikes (1 on a D6 per hour).

Like the Carrington event on Earth in 1859, any metal at ground-level gets massive voltage spikes from the EMP blasts. Any electronics is fried unless it is well-hardened (good faraday cages) or underwater/ground.

The weather is more driven by the EMP blasts rather than solar radiation.

Life here has evolved from the regular EMP blasts. The flora uses "electrosynthesis" rather than photosynthesis. The electrosynthesis does the same chemistry as photosynthesis (but without light), it turns water into O2 and uses the stripped H+ ions to turn ADP into ATP.  So, after each EMP blast, plants are filled with ATP synthase which then quickly converts atmospheric CO2 into glucose (normal Calvin cycle) and fixes carbon.

This means electrosynthesis works in the dark, and thus life is found on the perpetually dark side of Rose as well.