Twilight's Peak - Part 1
Where
the adventurers upgrade their equipment, do some trading and continue
their search for a mysterious octagon shaped building.
This
note is from the March 10, 2013 session, written up by Carl with edits
by Kipenzi. JoJo took the photo and I did the computer renderings. The map is from TravellerMap.com
Continued from last month's adventure.
After leaving Vanegen, we passed through Gitosy and came into the Rhylanor system on 020-1103 just before midnight, and headed to the Downport. Berthed and with a spare apartment to use, we started looking for more information about where to search for Twilight's Peak.
Sam took a good handle, as always, on the cargo situation. He also took on some funds from the crew for additional investments. He also recalled from his time in this part of the Marches that we are way better off at Rhylanor Down than anyplace else in system, from a safety and information standpoint as well as from the trade view. [ie. Less graft and corruption than orbital ports – Kipenzi]
Meanwhile, in the days we spent on Rhylanor.....
As the highest tech level world in the Spinward Marches, this is the place for Fig to get a new cyber arm if he is going to do so at all. Fig spent the bulk of one of the last days on planet talking with the doctors and technicians and weighing options. More news on that after he makes a final decision.
During our jumps from Vanejen we had done as much research as we could (using the ship's computer and databases) to make some guesstimates on where Twilight's Peak might be. It is not like probably a bazillion folks over the years have not already done that, but from our own viewpoints and with the information we have on ship. The outcome was a set of four worlds, Echiste (Sam's vote), Paya (Kipenzi) and either Valhalla or Fulacin (Fig)
Recalling an old Earth book titled The Wisdom of Crowds, we drew a quadrilateral and looked in the center. Very near the midpoint sits Kinorb, so that one must be in our boresight for sure.
We filled in information about systems that our database did not include, and will use that in our re-evaluation. Along with that, we hoped to find:
- A flight plan that the convoy filed from here, or at least the next stop
- Anything about octagonal buildings that are known or rumored. (Fig had recalled that there was a bar on Regina, named The Octagon Bar, at the Traveller's Aid Society, so TAS is definitely on our list to visit).
- Perhaps other books or legends associated with the Third Frontier War
The
first day, Leon went out with a goodly shopping list for the ship,
including button cameras and repeaters [i.e. comm relays - Kipenzi], a
drone with hologram capability, ballistic cloth long johns for all of us
[two sets each - Kip], breathers for unfriendly atmospheres (as opposed
to truly hostile like Yourbund was), plus oxygen tanks as supplements,
emergency O2 for each cabin on the ship, and a nice useful table for the
break area. Kipenzi came up with at a Rylanor Ikea type store. It had a
metal cylinder base with retractable umbrella foldup with built-in LCD
display.
Kipenzi went to the Port Authority, and Fig to the Scout base HQ in search of flight plan information, but neither got any information, both failing to navigate the paperwork and leaving with a 'try again tomorrow'
On the aforementioned morrow, Kipenzi visited the Navy to ask about flight plans, but ran up against the same paperwork issue. Fig visited the University, and after an unproductive morning nearly tripped over someone who was an expert on the Third Frontier War period, and learned that (at least according to this professor) the Twilight's Peak epic was actually a diary kept by one of the crewmen, so our supposition that the poem was a massive embellishment of a few lines or sentences was wrong, and we may be able to put more faith in the epic than we had originally thought.
Concerning Twilight's Peak:
The Third Frontier War (979 to 986) began in much the same manner as the previous two wars had, with Zhodani attacks in the coreward regions of the Spinward Marches. The initial Zhodani attacks against the lmperium concentrated on Boughene, Pixie, and Efate in an attempt to cut off the Jewell subsector. These opening moves were essential duplicates of Zhodani actions in previous wars; only after the hostilities had continued for several months did the enemy introduce a new strategy to parallel the action in Regina. A subordinate drive. supported only by a narrow string of makeshift bases, pushed through both Vilis and Lanth subsectors straight at Rhylanor. Major forces then took Poroslo and began a siege of Rhylanor. hoping to reduce the world and establish a major stronghold before the lmperium could respond.
During the siege, imperial forces from Regina were diverted to reinforce Rhylanor, even though they were sorely needed elsewhere. Rhylanor was ultimately the scene of several battles, and only the insertion of fleet assets from the neighboring Sabine subsector finally turned the tide of the war.
By 981, the war was back on a more even footing, with actions concentrating in the Regina and Vilis subsectors. Nevertheless, enemy raids were frequent throughout the area for several years.
In 984, a routine request for radiation treatment pharmaceuticals for Regina was routed through Rhylanor to the navy base at Vanejen, which routinely filled the order. Dredging up a 400-ton type R subsidized merchant named the Gyro Cadiz, the navy fitted the ship with a 40-ton interior fuel tank in the cargo hold. Filled the remainder of the ship with cargo modules loaded with drugs and other medical equipment, and sent it on its way. As escort, three mobilized type S scout/couriers were sent along. Because the Gyro Cadiz was capable of only jump-1, it was forced to make several jumps to deep space, and then jump again to a world destination; its auxiliary fuel tank provided this capability.
Being streamlined, the ship and its scout escorts were capable of refueling on worlds with oceans as well as at gas giants. This ocean refueling capability was perhaps a safer method, if only because enemy ships were less likely to be in a system without a gas giant.
In any case, Gyro Cadiz left Vanejen on 101-984. Twenty-four weeks later, the ship was routinely posted as overdue, and earned the official designation of missing after thirty-two weeks, on 326-984. Further word was not forthcoming.
The answer came a hundred years later, in the aftermath of a fringe skirmish of the False War (1082 to 1084). Naval patrol ships reconning the Treece system (Lanth subsector) found, and destroyed, a Shivva class patrol frigate (Zhodani, obviously) in the process of refueling. Afterwards, while checking out the rest of the system, the navy found a single scout/courier in a cometary orbit.
It proved to be one of the scouts from the Gyro Cadiz task force, its crew dead, its power cells long since drained. Its entire memory banks were contaminated and unreadable, with the only clue to the fate of the task force contained in the diary of a crewmember.
The second officer of the ship, a scout named Wen Livern. fancied himself an epic poet, and transcribed the entire history of the task force, from its formation on Vanejen in 984, in the form of a long, amateurish epic.
The work runs 9000 lines, about 100,000 words. Such statistics, however, do not describe it. Arranged in seven chapters, the lines are further divided into groups of three to ten (typically four) lines; each, expressed in thought rhyme, also known as parallelism. The effect is amateurish, the style didactic. There is little meter, and no word or tone rhyme. The poem is terrible reading, and few ever have.
A few samples from the epic will serve to illustrate the style, construction, and quality.
We fought to save the Imperium, /and struggled to vanquish the mutineers.
The lines are synonymous parallelism, also known as thought rhyme. The second line is a thought rhyme of the first, repeating in synonyms the thought of the first. To the uninformed, the lines may simply sound redundant.
The choking dust was our bane, /but our lone ship fed our lungs.
These lines are antithetic parallelism, where the second thought is in contrast to the first.
The wolves and bears clawed at the roof, / and drove us deeper into the catacombs of mystery.
This third form is climactic parallelism, where the second line amplifies and expands the thought of the first.
Kipenzi and Fig met up in the afternoon at the Traveller's Aid Society and inquired about octagonal buildings. It turns out that in years about 300-400, when the Spinward Marches were just being settled, there was a group known as the Octagon Society. They were the forerunners of The Traveller's Aid Society, and built octagonal structures on many of the planets in the various systems, to assist people travelling, but the group wound down and eventually disintegrated.
Leon, as a former Naval person (and from birth more used to navigating the byways of power as well) went to the Navy and actually managed to get the flight plan that the Gyro Cadiz task force filed from Rhylanor:
Porozlo - deep space - Fulacin - deep space - Kinorb - deep space - Echiste - K'Kirka - Rech - Djinni - deep space - Regina
At least this gives us a vector, and three of our systems are actually on it (Echiste, Fulacin, and the 'average' Kinorb)
We got no further useful information in our remaining days on Rhylanor, and left with our cargo on 030-1103, jumping to the first task force stop of Porozlo.
As we came out of warp in the Porozlo system, we got a repeated broadcast of news that a rebellion on Garda-Vilis has resulted in it being declared a Yellow Zone.
Spending a few days at Porozlo, we checked flight plan archives and Leon once again came through, confirming that the task force did in fact arrive here and depart as planned.
Fig encountered another enthusiast, Hubert Dundé, who believes that the Zhodani were responsible for the betrayal of the convoy. He was very happy to get a copy of the notes we took from the epic, and though he did not know any specifics about the Octagon Society, he did point us to the planet Tureded, where their facility was converted to a bar.
040-1103
After some good trading and a little relaxation, we jumped out for Fulacin.
Fulacin is a company planet, with only about 800 people total. The company, MagnetoDynamics, mines metals from the atmosphere and oceans, and they have a very nice class A port, half empty at our arrival time. Breathers are required for sure, to avoid the lung damage from the metallic dust particles in the air.
We found a very helpful official who told us about an octagonal structure on Henoz, and the one on Tureded, but didn't know of any on this planet. The planet was uninhabited during the 3FW, so no records are available for the task force.
We jump to Kinorb, arriving on 067-1103
Kinorb: C-Class starport, low law, tainted atmosphere. There was a small colony here during 3FW, but no records have survived from that time period, so our flight plan search was faltering. The TAS was a small office and knew nothing of octagonal buildings. During our walkarounds, Leon noticed a small set of discs, resembling our coynes, but made from aluminum rather than gold. Medicus dickered the vendor down to less than half the asking price, but we decided to pass on these.
Sadly for the Wisdom of Crowds view, we had to dismiss Kinorb from our consideration since there are no mountains of any note, and we can now put a little more faith in the text of the poem than before.
071-1103
We jump out for Echiste.
Ice planet, the atmosphere is nearly vacuum, so another of the prognostications may have bitten the space-dust
There is a scout XBoat facility under construction here, intended to improve transit times for messaging, hopefully to be completed by next year.
The TAS had some information about an octagonal building at the starport on Jenghe, a bar called the Plantefall Liberty, a renovation of an old stone construction.
Looking at official records, we found no trace of the task force, but records were not comprehensive so we could not reach any real conclusion.
Unlikely or not, Kipenzi took the air raft up for some scanning of the mountains. It needed an exercise run anyway, and some practice is NEVER a bad idea.
We discussed going to Tureded to look for the octagonal building, but decided to continue along the task force planned path.
081-1103
Jump to K'Kirka, arriving on 088-1103
Mountains, snow, seasons, thin atmosphere but breathable. 1.25G is a little heavy but not debilitating. There is a 200Kg predator in the mountains (and 'wolves' could have been very generic...)
Leon went looking for flight plan records, or information from around the 3FW time, and while no flight plan information was available back that far, he did meet someone who spoke of an octagonal building in the mountains. We did get the general location and Kipenzi and Medicus went up to scan for it.
After about 4 hours the weather in the mountains turned bad, and the team retreated, to start afresh the next day.
The second day of scanning was no more productive than the first, but on the third day the team of Medicus, Kipenzi and Fig went up. This day was a little kinder on the weather, and Kipenzi took the air raft down a little closer for better viewing. No good deed or plan goes unpunished, and a snowfall caught us off guard and we ended upside down on a fortunately open area, in the dark as all power to the raft went out. With the practice Kipenzi and Fig had back on Raschev, they were able to get the repairs done in short order. Good thing, as the weather was moving in again. Back to the spaceport for a full checkover.
092-1103
A
noteworthy day, because early in the scanning we actually found an
octagonal building. It looked about 50 feet across and we could see two
stories. With no life nearby other than a small herd of mountain
goat-like creatures, Medicus used his grav belt to go down close and
look. The building is cold to the infrared, and the single window was
too dirty to see inside. There was a door, but it was partly blocked by
deep snow.
Continued in: Twilight's Peak, Part 2
See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma.
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