Session 1
Hypatia
Burnout wasn’t a big fan of Hypatia, sure it was a decent sized settlement, and you could get mostly decent food, but the place was a pit. Just rocks and sand as far as the eye can see. In the case of Al, it was as far as his implanted eye could see.
The view was impressive, Al’s office sat atop one of the only five story buildings in the settlement, with an impressive little pay-by-the-hour hotel and bar below. Large floor to ceiling windows looked out at Hypatia, a scattershot arrangement of buildings, landers-cum-structures, and streets that would give a typical grid-minded settlement designer a heart attack.
Al looked at Burnout and Hex and slid a data slate across his desk, “I won’t linger on the pleasantries, there’s some weird signals coming from all the dig sites on Xiphion II, kicked up a few days ago, and now a dig site a hundred klicks north of here reports an entire shift dead when their relief showed up. You know how we like to keep things...local here, so I’m hoping you two can see what’s going on before a cruiser full of Marines has to land and I gotta deal with some federation puke with a rod up his ass.”
Hex picked up the data slate and looked at it. He frowned.
"What about the signals is strange? Their existence?"
Al nods, "Right. Previously our one big site, 38A, had laid dormant. Nobody could even figure out the purpose of the monolith, but sometimes it glows red in that strange alien text nobody has been able to translate."
Hex inquired, "Alright, so check out the dig site, see what's up with the signals. You want to shut it down? Wouldn't it be good for business?"
Al replied, "Dying tends to not attract the archeology tourist types."
In almost plain sight, Hex inserts a scriptdrive to make copies of the files on Al's slate.
"He's not being honest." he thought to himself.
Move: Aid Your Ally +shadow +scoundrel
Weak Hit, Ally takes +1 momentum
Hex's wrist implant buzzed slightly twice, indicating that the file transfer was successful.
Burnout slides his hands over a small piece of relic iron from the old homeworld, "Al, I swear we'll find out what is happening with these signals."
Move: Swear an Iron Vow, +heart +connection to Al
Weak Hit, +2 momentum
Al looked almost annoyed, "Yeah, yeah hey before you go running off to the site, a few of the relief shift are eh, working out their trauma downstairs, you might want to start there."
As they turn to leave, Burnout asks, "You got a room I can use, private like? for a little bit?" Al cocks an eyebrow, the one above his birth-eye. "Don't be gross, it's not like that." Al nods and slides a temporary access key to Burnout. "Take your pick" he says.
"I'll go check on the relief team."
Burnout slides into a private room, and kneels down, closing his eyes. Slowly the air around him shimmers.
As he focuses on the energy, drawing it into him, he fails to take into account that some of the cleaning products used to...sanitize...the space are often flammable, and a dirty rag catches fire. Cursing, Burnout stands up and stomps out the small fire but not after getting a few hairs burnt off his exposed leg.
Move: Endure harm, +health
Strong Hit, +1 Health
'I really should get some long leather pants.' he thinks to himself.
Several minutes after entering, Burnout leaves the room, keycard in the little recycling basket, and goes looking for Hex.
Hex finds the archeologists downstairs, most of them three drinks in, and with one of them head down on the table apparently passed out.
Hex looks for the most sober one and tries to gently coax whatever details that he can out of them and their comrades.
Move: Gather Information +wits
Miss with a Match. Pay the Price.
It becomes incredibly apparent to Hex that the workers aren't in a talking move. Hex's efforts to lubricate their minds with more depressants backfires, and one of them yells and throws a mug at him, which he narrowly ducks to avoid.
As Burnout descends the stairs, some of them have gotten out of their chairs, fully prepared to fight Hex. One of them yells, "It was the most horrible thing I ever saw, Jetidiah all mangled. We don't want to talk about it, now get out!"
Burnout finds Hex, and after realizing that this line of inquiry is already over, a thought punctuated by the drunken thud of one of the shift members passing out onto a table, says “Well, let’s get out there at least, see what’s up.” They head for their ship the Last In, First Out, or, LIFO for short.
Move: Set a Course, +supply
Weak Hit, -2 integrity
To the Dig Site
It’s only a hundred kilometers or so, no need to go orbital and re-enter for such a short trip. A poor choice, as his piloting leads them directly through a wild sandstorm which kicks up dust and threatens to gum up their engines.
Move: Withstand damage, +integrity
Strong Hit, Ride it out, +1 momentum
PH-1L, the ship's AI screeches in alarm as sand starts to fill the intakes, but Burnout says, “No we’re almost through, I can see the end, just hold together!” through gritted teeth. A few seconds later, they burst into the bright sun, only a little worse for wear. Ahead, the dig site’s landing pad looms, and as Burnout starts to set the LIFO down, he turns to Hex, “You get any good data off the old man's pad?”
Hex released his white knuckle grip on the ship's crash couch armrest. "No, but I would ask that you forgive me for not checking in between eluding the drunken traumatized workers and flying through the middle of a sandstorm. Try and use the ship's sensors and comms to see if you can find anything about the signals while I look through the data."
Hex checked the partition with the stolen data on it and combed through it, hoping to find out what he could from Al's private files on the dig site.
Move: Gather Information +wits
Miss. Pay the Price = 88 "You are stressed."
Move: Endure Stress, Strong Hit. Embrace the Darkness and take +1 momentum
need a hint. Action/Theme oracle = uphold / legacy
Hex pans through the files, looking for anything useful: penetrating satellite data of the dig sites, descriptions of previous incidents involving the relics, anything that would reveal a hidden truth about the site that Al didn't want to disclose.
The lack of any data on the site was troublesome. There was plenty of other personal data in the files, including things that Al would want hidden (including a few secret children and a 'net search history about a few rashes that he thought Al had better go to the doctor about), and so the lack of official data on the archeology projects was troublesome to Hex.
"There's nothing. No LIDAR, RADAR, SONAR, NOTHING!" Hex realized that he was raising his voice in anger and coaxed himself back down.
"It's like they really haven't been trying to study or understand anything. What could it mean?"
“Phil, can you scrub the feed here and try to isolate the signals coming from this site? Call it, say, zero out anything further than 1km out.” Burnout asks the ship’s AI.
Move: Secure an Advantage, +integrity
Weak hit, +1 momentum, +1 to next move
After a few seconds PH-1L says, “Isolated, looks like there’s only one left, check it out.” and pulls the feed up on the screen. Faint audio comes through the speakers, a rhythmic up and down tone with occasional sharp high notes. The main ship’s display shows the waveform of the audio.
Burnout studies the signal, listening intently. “Thanks Phil.” he mutters as he leans in.
Move: Gather information, +wits, +1
Strong Hit: +2 momentum.
“A hah” he says, slewing the ship’s sensors to a point just below the dig site. “Check this out, the signal is coming from only a few meters below the surface, right near the foot of the main stairs. This site has been active for a while right, why haven’t they dug out the obvious parts?” He points to various bits of scaffolding, and half finished holes cut into the rock. “Look at how scattershot these digs feel, I’m not an expert but doesn’t this feel kinda unplanned?”
Move: Reach a Milestone
"There's almost definitely more than meets the eye. Let's see what we can find, boots on the ground. Right through the front door, where they were too afraid to go before."
Hex punched a few commands for Phil to process to take the FILO in to the grated landing pad. As the ship came in for a landing, Hex thought that he could see some large pools of dried blood caking the stone and sand near the main stairs.
"Best take some weapons, just in case." Hex moved to the biometric locker just aft of the ship's cockpit, the sensors detecting his presence and opening at his touch. He selects a las-shot from the rack and suggests that Burnout take something as well.
Burnout pulls an older style cartridge pistol from the rack, "Can't go wrong with the classics...alright, right behind you." he says.
"Wait, ahh hell, I wasn't planning on doing any mining or digging. Let me check the cargo hold for something we can use."
Move: Check Your Gear
Miss with matching 10s
As Hex went below to check for something to work with, he experiences a falling sensation right as he props himself down the handrails, disorienting and confusing him. He realizes that the ship itself is listing sideways.
There's a momentary thrust where the ship attempts to take off. Right about then Phil appears over the nearest viewscreen, "Sir, I'm detecting a very large lifeform under the sand. It's got a hold on the ship's landing gear. How should I proceed?"
Move: Enter the Fray
Hex gets a Strong Hit with a match, +2 momentum and he is in control
Burnout gets a Weak Hit and takes control
Get this thing off the FILO
Objective: Get this thing off the FILO
Rank: Dangerous
"Hold her steady, I'm gonna make this thing let go!"
Hex tapped the command module to open up the starboard cargo access hatch, leaning out the side of the ship and taking a potshot at the nasty tonguelike thing grappling the ship.
Move: Strike
Weak Hit: Mark Progress twice (4/10), but you expose yourself to danger. You are in a bad spot.
Hex's las-shot peppers the beast's exposed tongue with scattered energy beams, visibly deteriorating a portion of it.
The thing lets loose a terrifying screech-roar and pulls harder, the unexpected course correction nearly knocking Hex off of the ship. He catches himself and is dangling over the now-exposed maw of the beast, a row of jagged teeth gyrating and undulating.
Burnout shouts, "Well done, you got it to expose its weak point!" with his off hand, he channels his fire energy into the frame of his pistol then he too leans out of the starboard hatch and takes aim.
Move: strike, +edge, +2 (fire)
Weak hit. Mark Progress twice (8/10), but you expose yourself to danger. You are in a bad spot.
In order to lean out and get a clear shot, Burnout steps onto the NOSTEP of a winglet which shifts under his weight as Phil tries to rock the FILO free. His shot, blazing hot, blasts into the maw of the creature which pulls itself under the sand of the landing pad. Sand onto which Burnout now tumbles.
Creature: Provoke a Careless Response
Pissed, swearing as he pushes himself upright Burnout looks for the nearest vestige of the creature. Seeing the tentacle latched onto the landing gear Burnout empties his mag. The first two bullets strike true, then the recoil drives his aim up and before he can stop two bullets whiz past Hex’s head, ricocheting around the inside of the ship. The slide locks to the rear, empty.
"Hey, fuckin' watch it!"
Hex struggles to pull himself back into the ship, but Burnout's carelessness prompts an idea.
"Phil, do a barrel roll! At the height of the loop, unleash a full burn on the starboard thrusters, we're gonna fry this thing!"
Move: React Under Fire
The ship turned slow, too slow. Phil clearly wasn't used to aggressive or unorthodox maneuvers. As the ship began its maneuver, Hex tumbled back inside of the cargo door, striking his head against the wall in the process.
The creature lashed out, exposing its full form as a tall and mighty sandworm, rows of teeth latching onto the ship's landing gear but exposing its elongated form out of the sand.
Move: Endure Harm (1 harm)
Resist, Weak Hit, trade 1 momentum for 1 health
Burnout slams a fresh magazine into his pistol, determined to settle this score. He takes aim at the creatures now exposed form and squeezes the trigger.
Move: Clash
Strong hit. Mark progress (10/10). Gain control.
Bullets slam into the thick skin, opening wounds that gush blood that is rapidly soaked up by the sands.
Move: Take Decisive Action
Strong Hit. We Prevail.
The creature thrashes once, twice, then falls limp, its tentacles curling up next to it’s body.
Burnout shouts up to Hex and Phil, “Well that’s a new one...you think there are any more?”
Move: Reach a Milestone (Vow: Uncover the Truth about Xiphion II's mystery signals - 6/10)
"Probably!" Hex tosses out a rope ladder to Burnout on the ground. He looked around at the remains of the landing pad, ruined by the creature. It ought to be sufficient enough to hold the ship's weight, although the grating was no longer elevated.
"What if there are more of them?" he hollered down at Burnout, but his eyes were locked on something behind his partner.
He pointed, "Hey, look! Our little friend made an opening to the lower level, by the stairs."
Burnout looks to the stairs, then holds up a finger. “One moment, that guy took a little more out of me than I thought.” He jogs a dozen meters away from the din of the ship settling and pulls fiery energy from the heat baked rocks into his body.
Move: Meditate, +spirit
Strong hit, +3 fire.
After a few minutes, Burnout shakes himself and moves toward the stairs, overtaking Hex and pushing into the depths. As darkness closes in on them, Burnout pulls a torch sized flame from his palm and holds it aloft, lighting their way.
Explore the Dig Site
Move: Undertake An Expedition "Explore the dig site", troublesome. +edge +fire
Strong Hit: Reach a waypoint, +progress (3/10)
The stairs level out after a few stories, with caves going in multiple directions. Signs direct toward dig claims 01, 02, 03, etc. Strangely, none of the openings branch toward the area of the signal. Burnout hmms and says, “If I was a conspiracy theorist, I’d almost say these dig tunnels are purposefully digging around and away from our mystery signal.”
Hex looks about in other directions, wondering what it would have been that changed. He scratched his chin.
"If we assume that, for some reason, which is something that we have two forms of evidence of now, the dig teams are purposefully avoiding digging towards whatever this signal is, then it must have been something else. Maybe some more of those worms like what was outside, or else the one that we killed."
Move: Explore a Waypoint
Strong Hit, Mark Progress (6/10)
"Ah-yep. Here we go."
Hex found a section of hard brown rock where it appeared a cave-in had occurred, but was able to shine his data slate's light down into the hole, revealing an unnatural tunnel with scraggly tooth marks not unlike the row of teeth the pair had seen up close and personal in the creature's mouth.
"It bore through where they didn't want it to go. Maybe it activated some precursor tech."
Burnout sighs as he looks at the hole “Maybe if we pull this rock here at the bottom we can make a hole big enough to wiggle through.” He yanks a large rock out of the way.
Move: Undertake An Expedition, +Wits
Miss: Pay the price, You create an opportunity for an enemy & A surprising development complicates your quest.
The wall rumbles and shakes as a cascade of rocks pours into the open hallway, causing both of them to jump and scramble back. Ahead they hear a sharp crash as some of the rocks tumble the other direction then a loud bang and a hiss of steam releasing. A wave of smoke boils out of the hole, passing over Burnout and escaping into the air through the main stairway.
Burnout peers over the rubble at the newly cleared pathway and sees slithering, writhing tendrils of energy pouring from a gaping wound-like hole in a sphere of perfectly round material. “What the hell is--” he says before the call of another one of those maw beasts sounds from behind them.
"No time!"
Hex takes his jacket off and throws it over the sphere, intent on grabbing it and getting the hell out of there.
Move: Face Danger +edge
Weak Hit, Endure Harm (1 harm)
Resist, Miss, Lose an additional Health
The tendrils of energy fight back, lashing around Hex's thick duracotton jacket and when they make contact with his skin his howls echo throughout the underground. The pain prompts him to fight back, and so he struggles to cram everything under the jacket, which, surprisingly, doesn't catch fire.
"Find. Another... Way.. Out..." Hex says through gritted teeth to Burnout
Burnout looks down the adjoining tunnels, "Surely they have an emergency egress, run!"
Move: Undertake an Expedition, +edge
Weak hit, Progress (9/10), make a suffer move.
Burnout darts through the tunnels, taking lefts rights and lefts, hoping on instinct to find the way.
Move: Lose momentum -2
He only makes a couple wrong turns and has to double-back twice, but as the sound of smashing and thrashing of the beasts behind them gets closer he spots an escape ladder, pushing Hex up before following.
Hex struggles to keep up while trying to keep the...orb? Sphere? Whatever it was contained within his jacket.
"If this thing is driving the worms nuts, let's get it clear! The surface has got to be near!"
Move: Undertake an Expedition
Weak Hit, -2 momentum, Mark Progress (10/10)
It is Hex's lagging behind that saves them. As he stops to adjust the covering, he catches a glimpse of sunlight from outside that Burnout had bypassed, with his unnatural light source.
"Burnout, this way!"
Hex scrambled up, calling to Phil over the comms, "Phil, emergency pickup, now!"
The ship's engines fired to life and it hovered over the ground, kicking up sand. The ladder, left dangling by Hex's carelessness, turned out to be a saving grace.
"On the ship, now!"
Burnout scrambles up the ladder, jumping into the pilot's seat. Trusting that Hex is on the ladder he dumps power into the thrusters and pulls away as the beasts churn to the surface and writhe meaninglessly at the empty air with their tentacles.
Move: Finish an Expedition
Strong Hit. 1 tick
Back to Al’s
He turns back toward Hex, "I think there's a containment unit in the back somewhere, it should hang onto that thing."
Move: Reach a Milestone
Mark Progress - Vow: Xiphion's mystery signals (6/10)
"Yeah, a rad-container ought to do the trick. Although if we're going to study it, we may want to use a signal blocker. In fact," Hex looked up at the ceiling, and spoke, "Hey Phil, can you get a read on this thing? Gather as much data as you can about it before I put it in a box."
Hex walked the device down to the cargo hold and gingerly placed it into an emergency radiation containment kit.
Move: Secure an Advantage w/ Overseer
Miss. Pay the Price (Most Obvious Negative Outcome)
"I can't do that, Hex. It appears the ship's antenna were damaged in our earlier grappling incident." Hex spoke into the nearby intercom.
"Well, shit. I'm a medic, not a...whatever the hell kind of scientist covers this shit. What do we do now, confront Al with the truth?"
Burnout thinks, "What do we even know? What's the truth? Maybe they're just incompetent diggers or...something..." doesn't seem like Al, though...
"Either way, we need to get back and get the ship and Phil looked at."
Hex looked over the burn marks where the tendrils had left the burning sensation on his skin.
"Phil's not the only one. Gonna take weeks for my arm hairs to grow back over this weird pattern. I'll be in the medbay, I gotta heal these wounds before they scar. Short ride back, maybe we can go over the sandstorm this time."
"The sandstorm's moved on by now, should be easy flying." Burnout says as he jets back towards the settlement. "I'll keep it nice and steady while you get patched up."
Move: Heal
Weak Hit on heal, +2 health, lose 2 momentum (now at -2 momentum)
It was going to be a painful process, letting the machine take the burned skin off and graft on new cloned skin from Hex's personal DNA backups. And Hex didn't want to be awake for it.
"I'm be out for the duration of the trip back. Don't wake me when we get there." The anesthetic hit Hex hard, and he was quickly knocked out.
After landing, and fixing himself a little snack, a heating stone dropped into a mylar bag with some foodstuffs to make a passable chili type mix, Burnout flicks the lights on and off in the medbay to wake up Hex. "Let's go see Al, I've got the box."
He slings the small radiation hazard box over one shoulder and walks into town. When he gets to Al's he pushes the door open, past a sputtering man "You can't go in there, he's in a meeting!"
Some meeting, Al sitting in a large copper tub, surrounded by a few of his girls. "Out." Burnout says to them.
He pulls a chair over to the tub, and opens the box, both to show Al the contents, the sphere with its tendrils still writhing, and to threaten to dump it into the bathwater. "What the hell is THIS shit?"
Move: Test your Relationship. +heart
Miss: pay the price, roll twice, you are stressed/you face a tough choice.
Al scoffs, "I've never seen anything like it in my life. Who sold it to you, doesn’t look like anything on the market? But if you think you can scam me with the same tourist crap we pitch the offworlders you got another thing coming. I bet you never even left the damn settlement did you."
Burnout upends the box, dumping the sphere into the water. As Al yelps in pain and struggles to get out Burnout says, "Fuck you Al, for thinking we were anything but honest. Your signals came from this thing, buried right under your nose at the dig site."
Move: Filfull a Vow: Uncover the truth about Xiphion II's mystery signals
Weak hit: Mark quest reward, Swear a new vow
"I thought that maybe you were just afraid, Al. It's understandable, the universe is dark and full of terror even before you have to take into consideration ancient alien artifacts fucking with your way of life."
Hex takes the containment box and scoops the sphere back up into it. As he looks down at Al, whose skin is turning pink from the scalding water, he says, "If there's anything left between the two of us, and remember, you owe me for that prosthetic eye, you'll do us one last kindness before we leave. Tell us who really knows something about alien tech, because it ain't you."
Move: Secure an Advantage
Miss. Pay the Price: most obvious negative outcome
"Get the fuck out of my office and get the fuck off Xiphion II," Al says, looking about for a towel, "You don't know jack shit about this place."
Move: Develop a Relationship - marking progress for "complete a quest to their benefit" (4/10)
As they leave the room, Burnout looks at Hex, and just loud enough for Al to hear it, he says “I swear we’ll turn over this rotten nest you’ve built Al, and uncover the truth.”
Move: Swear an Iron Vow, +heart. Formidable: Get to the bottom of this new mystery.
Weak hit: +1 momentum, more questions than answers
The door shuts, Al’s swears quickly drowned out by the noise of his own establishment. He turns to Hex, “You know anybody else down here?”
"No, but Al does," Hex said, shaking his data slate with the stolen data.
Looking back towards the town's landing pad, Hex says, "Phil's hurt. Let's see if we can't arrange some repairs. In the meantime, I'll see what I can find." When they had made it back to the Last In, First Out, Hex connects his data slate to the ship's network, so that he can work with a little bit more elbow room. Using the ship's indexing feature, he runs a few queries.
Burnout says, “I’ll get Phil looked at, and the ship too while we’re here.” looking at the partially bent landing gear assembly.
Move: Repair, +supply
Strong Hit, 5 points
2 Points to repair Phil, 2 points for +2 integrity for the LIFO.
As Phil powers back up after the tech finishes, Burnout asks, “You feeling better buddy?” Phil’s voice pipes over the internal comms, “Right as ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-” ...a pregnant pause, “Just kidding, five by five here.”
Move: Gather Information
Strong Hit, Take +2 momentum and Envision what you learn
It didn't take long. Hex made a few notes as he went along with his analysis.
When Burnout had rejoined him he gave him a summary, "Alright, so I went back all the way to the first data sets that we have. I didn't care much about the content of the messages, just the frequency that they occurred and then any changes."
Hex highlighted a few message chains, and displayed them on the board.
"This," Hex said, showing an image of a humanoid cyborg, "Is Archeologist 13, a representative from the Synthetic Union that helped to secure the funding for the Hypatia settlement and the subsequent dig sites."
Hex brings up another image, "This monolith was Xiphion's initial claim to fame. The Synthetic Union saw this thing and started pumping money towards the discovery of other precursor relics here. They thought that maybe it could serve as a language guide. But,"
Hex brought up a message chain, "This message here from Archeologist 13 says that the SU believed that they had gotten all useful objects from Xiphion II, and so they left and Al was one of a handful of stakeholders left holding the bag."
Hex posed a question, "Do you think the SU missed this weird sphere because it required an organic's touch to awaken it? Maybe they made a mistake."
Move: Reach a Milestone - (New mystery) gain meaningful insight - (1/10)
They decide to head out in the morning, and take a well deserved nights rest in the comforts of their ship.
Move: End a Session
Focus on quest next session, +1 momentum