Twilight's Peak, Part 4

Where the adventurers explore the catacombs below The Octagon and find that they are not alone there.

This note is from the June 2, 2013 session and was mostly written by Carl, the photo and rendering of the vault room are mine.

Location: The Planet Fulacin in the Rhylanor Subsector

Imperial Date: 281-1103

Continued from last month's adventure.

At the end of the day, the initial exploration team (Fig, Kipenzi and Leon) returned to the Skylark 2 which was parked in geostationary orbit above The Octagon.

When we first entered the system, our scans had showed only one satellite orbiting the planet, a 2100 ton traffic and communications satellite, and it was parked over the starport on the other side of the planet. Since we could not see it from the ship's position, we were fairly confident they could not see us, and we decided to land the Skylark. Magnetodynamics, the corporation that owned the planet had regulations against landing anywhere except the starport, but we were willing to risk it.

Leon and Medicus checked our databases for the fauna of Fulacin, to see if there was anything we needed to watch out for, but other than a general caution to not aggravate the local animals, no real warning flags were raised. Any wild animal might attack, we just had to be sensible in keeping our distance.

We had discussed spending a few days "hunting" - sending the air raft down in various places (and flying across the ground to offload some exploration gear at the Octagon). Further discussion led to a decision that we could pass on waiting and just go down. We hoped to find a spot a few miles away from the Octagon (we had discussed 100+ but decided that if things went south we didn't want to be cross country trekking that far). As luck had it, there was a valley near The Octagon, and 3 or so miles down it there were a couple side valleys with trees. We selected one for our best guess at hiding in a reachable place, and with everyone geared up for the initial look-see we all went to further examine the building.

Bio-scanning from the air raft after landing showed us a warm-blooded spider the size of a large squirrel, and "sensible" went out the window as Sam drew and fired on it. He missed so Medicus did not get his sample, and the spider fled into hiding. We also noted something about the size of an earth rhino, living in the area of a swamp, and a group of condor-like birds (database told us these were potentially aggressive in flocks), and one of the ubiquitous "snow cat" creatures.

The first thing of interest was the 'graveyard' across from the front door, so Kipenzi and Sam went to scan the area, in case any equipment or journals had been buried along with the bodies, while Fig and Medicus offloaded such gear as we brought (5 in a life raft is pretty snug). Leon kept guard, head on a swivel, lest some of the wildlife mistake us for food. The scan of the cairns showed only the stones and bones.

There was a pile of crates inside, which we had noted but not inspected on our first visit. From the labels these appeared to be cargo from one of the ships: radiation drugs, ship parts and medical literature. It was a mystery why the crew would carry these some hundreds of miles, but maybe they had a reason... The fusion lantern we had seen actually still worked, providing us with one more light source.

Sam set up two coordinates for the air raft, one right by the door, and one some little ways away, and he configured the camouflage to look like a local rock outcropping. That done, he and Leon tested the "take me back to the Skylark" autopilot option. A little fine-tuning of the process and it was all set. They loaded up food, water and additional supplies for our investigation while Kipenzi, Medicus and Fig further checked out the interior.

Down at the low level, where we had noted sand seepage, Kipenzi gave special attention to the walls and floor there. We didn't want to set ourselves up for a pile of dirt or sand dropping down on us, but it all looked stable. Opening the trap door to the lowest level showed us another octagonal room, with a truncation on the northern side (to support the fireplaces, we figured) and a large compass-like diagram on the floor. Additionally there was a bench and a chair, plus a wall of shelves with glass jars containing a variety of unlabeled things. The bench had a full set of coyne slots, with all of the 36 symbols, but no coynes. After cleaning the dust out we used one of our sets to fill these in, but nothing happened that we could tell. There were three coynes in a compartment, all with a Droyne symbol, and Sam took those into the treasure trove.

The chair was a bit snug for Sam, and seemed suited to a being with wings. Looking more and more like the Droyne in our current times are descendants of the Ancients.

Recalling the trap we found on Yorbund, we dropped a bolt into the room, and seeing no ZAP we went down to check it out.

As Leon and Sam unloaded our initial supplies, and Medicus took samples of the jars, Kipenzi continued her sweep of the walls with the scanner, looking for hollow places that could be doorways.

From the Epic: "On the lowest floor, they found mystic writing, to a base number eight, and a central altar with human bones"

We didn't note anything like an altar, but figured the human bones now were in the graveyard, and allowed that 'mystic writing' could liberally be construed as the slots in the bench.

The supplies were carried down to this level, making us a little staircase from the floor to the trap door (less than 6' ceiling height but easier than jumping), and Fig did a full traverse of the floor, looking for a pressure plate or beam of some kind to trip.

Shortly after Kipenzi found a hollow area in the north wall, Fig stepped on the actuator and a door opened to reveal a staircase. "Magically, a passage down appeared, with stairs leading to the bowels of the world"

So far, plus or minus the horrible writing style, the epic was holding up pretty well. Still no altar, but we were OK with that.

Our breathers were good for several months in this atmosphere if the filters were regularly washed out, no oxygen was needed, and since we had already brought food and water, we decided that an initial checkout of the lower area would put a good wrap on the day. Down we went, with due caution. We all had on our grav belts, and one hand ready to turn them on as needed. But first a lunch break, and during that time we heard a sort of BOOM from somewhere. Fig thought it came from above, and going back up we noted a contrail in the sky and it was oddly quiet, with the local bird and insect sounds muted. Another puzzle, adding on to the 'mystery ship' we saw when we first arrived in system. We were still OK with the air raft camouflaged and the Skylark hidden, and scanning the comm revealed nothing, so the exploration would continue. Sam and Medicus set up the air raft for passive scan and to burst a message to us if anything was detected, with a code for what type (organic or not, ground or air) About the time they got that set up, normal planetary sounds had returned.

Going down the first set of stairs "Down countless flights of stairs, past rooms of mystery, finally to a well of running water"

We WERE keeping count, not just of sets of stairs but the steps too, to get an idea of how deep we were going.

As we descended, we noted that the stonework is now natural stone, rather than worked, with some timbers shoring up support. Medicus took a sample for subsequent dating.

Level 1 down - a corridor led to an empty room, slightly damp. Our sensors said the air was breathable, so we went back up and closed the access door, but kept wearing our breathers.

Level 2 down - Just a landing.

Level 3 down - a corridor led to 2 rooms, with some dust and tracks of small (ratlike) animals. In one of them there was a set of footholds in a wall, leading us to an opening in the ceiling that led back up to the room on level 1.

Level 4 down - a long corridor ending in stone. No hand rails here made us careful to not fall off on the down-side.

Level 5 down - a corridor led us to a widening space with two notable features. One was a series of metal bars blocking further passage down to a tunnel, and the other a walled off smaller passage. We cleared enough of that to see that it went into a narrow tunnel which we could crawl along but would have to drag gear. Both of these were put in the 'we may get these later' category.

Level 6 down - a small landing with loose gravel/rock We took extra care here, and kept ready to use the grav belts, Leon slipped on a rock but was able to hit the switch on his grav belt in time to avoid a nasty fall. The corridor here ended in another rock wall.

Level 7 down - the stairs were blocked by a large web. It looked dry, but when Medicus cut out a sample, he had to bag the knife as well, so though looking dry it is very sticky. Kipenzi burned it out, along with a couple of desiccated corpses of small animals.

Level 8 down - AT LAST we caught up with the epic again. This room had a well. Looking down about 30 feet we could see a room covered with water, rippling water. Theories ranged from a river further down causing the ripples to dangerous fish or animals in it. Fig grav belted down, using a nut and a string to find the water is 10" or so deep. In the northern wall of the lower room was a door, barred from this side. We left it alone at the time.

The room with the well had two features of interest. In one corner there was a pile of rubble and a fissure leading off into another tunnel. The wall opposite the stairs had a masonry-filled passage(?) that was filled deeper than our scanner could penetrate.

About the time we were discussing whether or not to open the door in the room below the well, we got a message from the air raft: "*** Aerial Target Incoming, Inorganic ***".

That, plus the 10 or so hours we had invested into this exploration, got us headed upstairs, using the grav belts to speed along our way. About level 3 on our way up we heard and felt and explosion (in no universe was this a good thing). Continuing up to the compass room, we could hear pounding on The Octagon's front door and a crash as it was broken in. Our plan was to bury the bones we found of the person who was leaning on it, but that is probably out now. The noise above led us to estimate 6-10 heavily armored troops, and suddenly the camouflage of the air raft didn't seem as hopeful as before.

Looking through the ceiling with scanners showed the troops using their own scanners on the walls, apparently looking for secret passages.

We closed the trap door, moved our crates of supplies into the stairway, closed and blocked the door as best we could, got water and food and fled back down using our grav belts to avoid leaving IR tracks on the floor.

In our flight down through the passageways we went through the possibilities of who's armored feet we heard above:

1. Metal pirates who detected us passively and pursued.

2. MagentoDynamics has more going on than they let the visitors see.

3. Imperial facility someplace on world or maybe they are catching up with us over the incident on Vanegen.

4. Some other company intruding.

5. The Zhodani upset over the Haunting Thunder incident.

6. Sword Worlders?

7. Mercenaries hired by any of the above.

As we reached the well again, Sam said "They could never make money on it!", and then explained that the star port is far larger than they would ever be able to support with their current operations, even with their exorbitant charges. It's as large are Rhylanor Down and only had three ships parked there when they were there last. The company had 800 or so people on the whole planet.

Talk of troops and starports was cut short when we went down the well using our grav belts, and opened the door. The floor beyond was above the level of the water, so we could proceed with dry feet.

"Past that well to a long corridor, to another level, to a huge vault door"

Moving down that corridor we could see a room with what appeared to be a vault door on the far side, but as we entered it (Kipenzi with scanner in the lead) a massive spider the size of a terran bear jumped out from a tunnel beneath a stairway and attacked her. It bit through the ballistic cloth armor on her right shoulder when it tried to bite her head off. A few shots later there was a dead spider and a wounded Kipenzi.

"As they stood, a quake shook the chamber; as they cowered, the door swung open"

During the battle with the spider, the vault door opened, swinging down into a depression in the floor.

Two quick shots took care of the two baby spiders, and as the vault door started to swing closed we made it through just in time.

So... there we were, cut off from our ship and air raft, pursued by some unknown force, with perhaps a few days of food and water.

We ended the session as the adventurers floated on their grav belts across a deep chasm spanned by a glowing white bridge. They could hear the sound of rushing water below and see a small landing straight across from the vault door.

Continued in Twilight's Peak - Conclusion.

I was surprised at how cold blooded the players were at killing what were essentially eight-legged kittens. On the other hand they would have starved without their mother, which the adventures killed while it was trying to protect its nest. - Terry

Yeah, 8-legged kittens that had no meals except us. who knows how long it would take them to get to the size of the mother? and yeah, it took a bite out of me. Kipenzi feels the same way about spiders that Leon feels about Zhondani psionics. They weren't cute enough to not kill. - Kipenzi

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma