Some technical challenges this session; Paul couldn't get Owlbear Rodeo to work initially but we eventually got there, and I had a bit of a problem with Tabletop Recorder again this session, sorted promptly by one of the Devs. However, once again I was in the Days Inn and the WiFi was fine.
Graham was away, and Hattie was a little pre-occupied as she had a work event the next day and she was getting regular messages, but we still got a good session in,. It was a session that reminded me just how dangerous the Year Zero Engine can be, as Paul's character took trauma and rolled a 64 for the result on a d66. A 65 or 66 would have taken Meristo out, which I'd rather not have happened, as it is, he's presently amnesiac. However, we may have made a mistake in doing this as he may have taken hope loss from an equipment dice, so I'm just checking that out with him.
They now find themselves deep in a builder ruin, and they were left on a bit of a cliffhanger.
- 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.
- Gina Zee, a Black Toad aligned expert ruin delver going under a pseudonym. (Hired by Fassour).
- Dr Layla Jaspel, a medical doctor and botanist from the Gardener's Guild. (Hired by Rashid).
- Karmelia Merest, a Navigator's Guild Algebraist, fascinated by the Singularity Spheres and apparently also a lover of Zinti novels. Very much angling to be Arda's BFF. (Hired by Arda)
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| The New Seekers (Corvus, Arda, Meristo, Fassour, Rashid and Lieto) |
The Session (Spoilers for The Flowers of Algorab).
The gorge...
The crew was eight markers deep into the Ashen Gorge, preparing to push towards the builder ruin they had located. They had already cleared the area around their forward cache of blight and killed an Ash Crawler. The only trace found of the missing Nadir expedition was a glove, leaving the team to suspect—without proof—that its owner had been taken by the creature. They had also seen another party descend into the gorge, whom they believed might belong to the Mining Combine.
The team had 142 units of supply stashed at their cache and had brought a substantial load with them. They expected the journey to the objective and back to consume at least 24 units, before accounting for any exploration. Their heavy packs would be a liability in a fight or retreat, but they chose to take enough supplies to press on. A broken message from the Akhander warned that a severe storm was forming. Ash and wind were worsening, and the gorge’s exposed slopes made visibility and movement hazardous, with ash fall and lightning worsening. The Grasshopper and rover had been secured against the weather, before they entered the gorge, so they could only hope that they would still be there and operable when they emerged.
Meristo led the team along the safer path, with Gina Zee’s help. His climbing kit had been damaged earlier in the delve, so Lieto attempted to repair it with Rashid’s support when they arrived at the cache. The repair succeeded, though the journey remained punishing. The team repeatedly had to resist against blight, their health deteriorating as they travelled. Meristo and Fassour were especially badly affected; Meristo used decontamination doses to recover, and offered one to Fassour as well. Arda’s innate resistance helped her to avoid some of the harm. This was hard trekking, along the sides of a kilometre deep gorge covered in scree and ash, perilous and challenging. Fortunately, they were still following the safer path.
Meristo’s attempts to guide the team deeper ate into his hope and further wore down his equipment. Gina’s assistance helped him make progress, carrying the group into territory they had not properly surveyed. They sent Arda’s bird Corvus ahead and used the deep scanner. Its readings revealed a strong contact in location D9: some kind of ruin or artefact, surrounded by heavy blight. Arda tried to use the bird to suppress the blight, but the attempt failed. The team considered retreating to recover, but decided to continue, partly because the other expedition might be ahead of them.
The builder installation...
With Gina’s help, Meristo led the group to the site. As they approached, Lieto became absorbed by ornamental glyphs cut into a smooth section of cliff wall. The glyphs were encrusted with blight crystals. Lieto pushed past his caution to examine them and was contaminated in the process.
The team found a broad artificial platform projecting from the gorge wall, with a hexagonal entrance set into its façade. A metallic door stood partly open. Scorch marks around it suggested that someone had recently tried to cut or heat it open. The platform also had fittings resembling permanent anchor points, where the team could secure their packs.
Arda used the team’s glyph books to study the markings around the door, with Fassour’s help. They identified two glyphs: Ishra, associated with life, and Hadra, associated with power. Gina borrowed Fassour’s pickaxe and easily shifted the door on its runner, revealing that it had been jammed rather than sealed. The team left their shaped charge unused, with Fassour not needing to blow the door open.
While putting his equipment away, Fassour noticed a small powered device fixed to the rock beside the platform. It appeared to be a homing beacon, bearing a Ship-City mark but none of the serial markings the team recognised from the Mining Combine. That suggested another expedition had been there. Fassour switched it off and pocketed it.
The storm was intensifying outside, with ash and static swirling in the gorge, but the installation offered shelter. Arda used the deep scanner to reveal more of the complex. The readings and the life-and-power glyphs led her to wonder whether the technology might create or restore life, though the team had no evidence to confirm that.
The passage opened into a torus-shaped chamber. A thin layer of ash covered the floor, and tall crystalline structures rose from the centre towards the ceiling. Intricate glyphs covered the curved walls; faintly glowing patterns of linked circles and ellipses showed through the ash beneath their feet. The place appeared free of blight and had the feel of a long-sealed facility. Searching it took time and supply, but the team had enough provisions to continue exploring. Arda had to be discouraged from rushing in to explore, full of excitement and enthusiasm.
They found booted tracks that did not belong to them. The prints circled the chamber and ended at a smooth cylindrical shaft, about twenty metres deep. There were signs of disturbance around the rim, but no obvious rope or other means of descent. The tracks did not lead back out. There were four shafts in total around the chamber.
Lieto and Meristo studied the chamber’s glyphs and architecture. They concluded that it had been a monitoring or control station for a larger project. The crystalline structures seemed to form part of the control system, and the faint signs of energy suggested that it might still be active. The team also found six small shards lying in the ash and divided them among themselves.
Meristo’s fall...
Meristo volunteered to descend the shaft using the climbing kit. Rashid and Gina offered assistance, but the worn equipment failed during the attempt. Its cables unravelled, and Maristo fell, with the kit tumbling down after him. He survived with little physical injury, landing in ash and debris, but the impact left him suffering severe mental trauma and complete amnesia.
When Rasheed called down to him, Meristo asked who he was. He tentatively suggested that Rashid might call him “Rooster”, but could not remember his own identity or the people around him. Rashed assured him that they were friends and explained what had happened. Meristo accepted his account, though he could not recall their friendship, mainly as there was something charming and empathetic about the man talking to him. He still understood what his medical equipment was and recognised that the bird was familiar, even if he could not remember why.
Arda successfully directed the bird to help retrieve equipment from above. Fasosur then rigged a way down using the remaining rope and damaged climbing gear, bracing himself as he lowered Rashid to Meristo. Rasheed inspected Meristo’s cracked helmet and carefully patched it. His calm reassurance helped Meristo regain some hope, but did not restore his memories. The amnesia would remain for the time being.
Arda, Gina and Fassour remained above the shaft. Lieto considered whether the descent might use builder technology, reasoning that it could involve gravity or anti-gravity, perhaps activated by glyph panels or a carried device. He could find no obvious controls or way to operate it.
As the team considered what to do next, a flicker of yellow light appeared around a corner on the level below. They glimpsed a figure—or perhaps something surrounded by crackling energy—before it vanished. They could not tell whether it was friend or enemy. The session ended with Rashid and the amnesiac Meristo below, the rest of the team above, and an unknown presence somewhere in the installation.
Source - initially Tabletoprecorder.com, heavily edited for names, clarity and brevity with some parts injected to explain or catch elements missed in the summarising.
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