Flowers of Algorab - Episode 1 - The Funeral

 

The first session of play was delayed by a week because I had an unexpected work trip that would have seen me just about getting home at the right time for the session if the little gods of the A1, A17 and A47 were kind to me. Reflecting back, that was probably a good thing as I was somewhat rushed that week with Revelation being at the weekend.

I went in the session knowing that one player was feeling a bit ill, so I planned to end just after 10pm rather than 10.30pm. I think we ended up splitting the difference between the times. I spent Monday night, post convention, adding as much material into the VTT ready as possible.

Although we were kicking off the campaign, several of the players had asked if they could have a practice delve so they could understand how things work. It was a pretty split view in the group, and in the end Hattie proposed a solution; we’d start and then flashback to the previous delve. I had a look at two introductory scenarios and decided that The Sky Machine was probably a better fit than The Black Ziggurat. I have two players with Black Toad connections, and I think that the latter scenario would overly drive the spotlight at them in the first couple of sessions, whereas I wanted more of a balance as we started. I also felt that The Sky Machine was a more gentle delve to begin with. I played it at one of the Garricons and it was pretty straightforward.

The only issue that I encountered in the session was that for some reason the Audio Hijack feed was giving me echo of my own voice, and I was concerned that it would impact the session recording. So I chose not to record the session. However, reviewing the recording later on, I realised that the recording side had come through cleanly. I’ve made some tweaks and I hope that they’ll work okay next time.

Role and Owlbear Rodeo both performed flawlessly, and there was far less AV drop out than I’m used to in Roll20. However, the session was mainly using Role, as there was not much need for mappage.

Our Crew

• Arda Qamar, a Guild Surveyor and Traveller who came from the Far Colonies from a Mining Combine operation. She’s the bird handler and Scout for the team. (Played by Hattie).
• Meristo Koulas, an Esoteric Coriolite Seer who grew up in the Fog of the Haze, and has ties to the Black Toad. (Played by Paul).
• Lieto Miesma, a Scholar specialised in Builder Archeology who came from deep inside the Factory City of the Turbine Halls, with a background in the Machinist's Guild. (Played by Graham)
• Fassour Faradi, a roughneck deep miner who also came from somewhere the eternal fog of the Haze, and - like Merits - has ties to the Black Toad. (Played by Simon)
• Rashid al-Masri, a scoundrel Hull Cutter who came from among the hulks and wrecks of Hull Town, and has connections to the Gardener's Guild. (Played by Andy).
• Corvus the Bird, a specter; cobalt blue, with a long beak, always observing. Usually handled by Arda.

The New Seekers (Corvus, Arda, Meristo, Fassour, Rashid and Lieto)

The Session

I opened the campaign with the funeral sequence from The Flowers of Algorab when the crew were invited to attend the funeral of a retired Explorer’s Guild member, Levon Najjar, by Master Moska, their Guildmaster. As quite a junior crew, they were both surprised and honoured to attend the ceremony in the City of the Dead in the depths of Ship City’s asteroid heart.

The funeral was a symbolic and sombre affair, poorly attended and Master Moska gave the eulogy. After the body was committed to the deep, Moska invited the crew to take tea with her in the Hall of the Departed. They gathered around and as their Guildmaster started to explain that there was something about Najjar’s death - a suicide from falling from their balcony - that concerned her, the crew’s thoughts were drawn back to their previous mission and whether their actions there had led to this invite.

Cue the flashback…

The Grasshopper shuttle landed hard on the wings of a storm on the asteroid Moubarra-4, close enough the the Gilens Point mining complex to access it quickly, far enough that any accident during landing would minimise the risk of damage to the facility. Moubarra-4 was an enigma; the asteroid was only 48km across, yet it had a near-standard gravity and an atmosphere that - although thin and cold - was breathable with a compressor mask. The speculation was that it had been touched by the Builders in the past, but no evidence had been found despite the Navigator’s Guild having operated an observatory there for years. The moon was wracked with infrequent quakes, which had attracted the Mining Combine to take over the facility when the Navigators left, as there was easy access into rich seems of metals and minerals.

They’d discussed the mission on the way down; a team of miners had entered a newly opened fissure and only one had come back out, in a bad way, contaminated with Blight and deliriously rambling. Four of his team mates were still down in the fissure and potential ruins, their present status unknown. The Mining Combine had taken a few days to escalate this to the Explorer’s Guild, which probably didn’t bode well for it’s members.

The shear scale of the gas giant Moubarra over the small moon was enough leave the crew feeling very exposed and in awe of the scale of things; how small a human is in the face of the cosmos. Moubarra-4 was inhospitable, isolated and far from the warmth and comforts of Ship City. The journey, rushed and at speed in a shuttle usually used for shorter duration travel was uncomfortable and had left them fatigued.

They were met at the landing point with a rover, and the miner who was driving it soon warmed to the crew. He shared some of the news; the survivor was isolated in the hospital in isolation and he was genuinely worried about his colleague. The Mining Chief seemed to be agitated for some reason. 

As the rumbled across the surface, a sleek white vessel came into sight. Their driver identified it as a Coriolite Shuttle which had brought a new tech crew to the outpost on behalf of the Navigator’s Guild. He observed that it was a long time since they’d checked out the integrity of the Observatory; was it just coincidence that it happened just after a fissure opened with a potential Builder Ruin buried below?

They arrived and after disembarking decided that the best thing was to present their credentials to the Mining Chief, Lia Kalvenetes. They detected an undertone that she was holding back somewhat, but got a briefing of who was missing and how long they'd been gone (over three days now). They were told they'd get nothing from the survivor, Rez Autreb, the surveyor from the mining crew and that he was not expected to make it thanks to the level of blight contamination he had suffered. 

Of course, they didn't let that deter them, and most of the crew headed down to the medical facility bay to try and establish what had gone on, except for Fassour. Doctor Armaty, the overworked clinician whose care Autreb was under also discouraged them because of the risk of Blight, plus the patient's health. The bird, Corvus, used its powers to suppress the blight and - appropriately suited - they asked Rez about what had happened. He rambled somewhat:

Chamber down the fissure... beautiful patterns... I saw a city in the clouds of the gas giant(?) There were towers all around him. Something went wrong. City tilted. "We fell"(?)

When asked how he'd escaped, they got the following:

It was a deep shaft. At least one side chamber off it. And at the bottom was a place... enormous... almost like a cathedral covered in ice. But I left when I saw the vision because it didn't feel right, it felt like I was falling. I left the others and climbed. There were creatures there. I almost didn't make it out. It took me a day.

On his colleagues, when asked if they could have climbed up with him: 

No. I lost some of them. There was a rock fall. There were creatures. They could still be there. You're explorers, you could save them.

The strain of doing this was severe and he relapsed quickly back into unconsciousness.

Meanwhile Fassour was in the mess hall area, and discussions with the miners confirmed their concerns for their colleagues and that they were surprised about the presence of the Tech Team, especially arriving in a Coriolite Fast Picket. Fassour suggested that the Tech Team couldn't be trusted, and that he'd heard of false tech teams that jump claims. He suggested the miners keep an eye on them.

He already knew something was up as he'd talked to the 'tech team' on his arrival and recognised several of them as Black Toad members, especially their leader, Zera Vandao. He wasn't certain they'd recognised him but had took a drink with them, and got the story that they were there to check out the observatory shutters and systems, but they'd be delayed as the moon was about to go into darkness for the next few days.

The crew regrouped and were attended to the formal meal that the outpost held when the moon rotated fell into darkness as Moubarra's shadow falls across it. Held in the observatory, all the visitors were there. They met Ytreppo Ashur Mir-Mira, a very amiable and masked Coriolite he identified as a travelling scholar looking for things of beauty (aka Builder artefacts). He claims to be transporting the Navigator's Guild Team as a way of funding his lifestyle and fast picket. Lieto knew that this guy is really a rich dilettante who collects artefacts. Meritso figured Ytreppo had never actually done the masking ceremony. It's all for effect.

Later in the meal, the somewhat drunken supervisor talks to Arda. Offers to cut her in if she brings out whatever is down them. "Us mining girls should stick together." If it's a good artefact supervisor can sell it for 10,000 rukh. Arda is not interested, still believing the Explorer's Guild and Master Moskva, perhaps naively. Her rejection makes the supervisor annoyed and huffy and the conversation ends pretty quickly.

Once the Observatory is in darkness, and only the small lamps in the room prevail, Ytreppo starts a conversation with Meristo, recognising someone with a shared heritage. He offers generous compensation for artefacts, four times what the guild pays and a favour. There must be something unusual here because of the gravity effects. Ytreppo asks Meristo to think it over, but not to take too long as the offer is time limited.

The team retire for the night, planning to start the mission when they can. Meristo continues to offer his teammates access to narcotics that will help them rest and recuperate, but everyone is pretty skeptical of his motives, even though he's taking them himself and offering them for free.

To be continued...

22 February 2026