Skylark and the Pit - Part 1

 

Having explored the cave where the Eye of Yasterdray was discovered, the crew of the Skylark discover that the planet T’yana holds more that they had ever suspected.

This chapter is based on Carl and Kay‘s notes from our November 3rd, 2019 session. Since we are now scattered around the country, we used Discord for voice communications and the Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other. The illustration is cropped from a screenshot done by JoJo.

Continued from: Skylark and the Eye.

Location: The Planet T’yana in the Egyrn Subsector

Imperial Date: 265-1108

After leaving the cave and going back to the visitors’ center, Leon, Medicus and Kipenzi talked with Professor Katzl. He wanted to arrange an excavation, and alert the authorities (in a sense he IS the authorities) about what we had found.

We urged him to be cautious about announcements and get some security. Plus consider the semi-ban on high tech for this planet. He agreed about caution, but didn’t think digging up Ancient Artifacts would be covered by the ban since it would probably not have an economic impact. We offered our services as consultants for the dig, and to help if things go wrong.

We made some arrangements. For some weeks in the future, we will be in the loop and know if they find anything else.

266-1108
We visited the local offices to make sure we understand the local laws and guidelines. No tech imported, but we can walk about and visit places. Fig says “We can go bar hopping”.

The museum was surely worth a second look. Who knows what we can learn about the people and planet?

Kipenzi, Fig, and Medicus headed off to the museum while Sam did his broker thing and Leon worked to repair the broken scanner. Sam heard a report of an illegal Vektish sect broken up last night.

We learned more details and took photos at the museum, but nothing substantive in terms of new information.

Kipenzi discretely asked if Professor Katzl was Vektish. They said that they didn’t think so.

We learned that Vektism will often approve of activities that are illegal, you get points with Vekt but the government will come after you. This place has a long and violent history around the balance between religious and secular society.

Their activities peak after natural disasters, to appease Vekt, be more sinful to avoid the next disaster.

That evening Professor Katzl called us. They found something interesting and asked that we meet him the next morning with the scanning equipment.

He gave us an address and a 9am appointment.

267-1108 0900
Kipenzi, Leon, and Medicus went to meet the professor. Fig stayed with the ship, and Sam continued his sales maneuvering. Sam had reported having some trouble with the machine parts that he was trying to sell. They didn’t do anything that would introduce new technology to the planet, it was just that they were of a higher quality than anything they could produce locally.

Driving to the address we passed into a neighborhood with dilapidated, old buildings. There were a lot boarded up windows. The area looked almost abandoned.

Medicus was armed only with his prosthetic arm. Leon brought his body pistol in case there was trouble. Everyone was wearing a button cam so that people back at the ship could see what was going on.

We found ourselves at a construction site. The signs said that the new construction was the new Vexhill subway station. There were construction machines, a fire truck and a sinister looking large blue van parked outside.

The afternoon before, construction workers had dug up something, called it in to management, who passed the word to the knowledgeable folks. And here we were.

A television crew was filming the event. The professor told them to wait for the press conference later as our away team walked in. The bomb squad was just leaving, having cleared the area, asserting that “It’s not a bomb.”

Fig, monitoring back at the Skylark, lost the picture and sound as they descended into the station and moved out of radio range.

It was something roundish, dark blue, cold to the touch. It was about ten meters across, and was only partly visible in the mud and rock.

Kipenzi set up the scanner and took a good look. No radiation. VERY smooth - dust slid off when disturbed. The scanner could not tell what material it was made from. We had seen similar material at Fulacin, on some piece of the machinery there. X-rays would not penetrate the material at all.

Medicus tried to date the material (fail) but organic material in the clay around it was about 200,000 years old. That was about the same age as the skeleton. Prof Katzl was really excited about that.

Clearly whatever it is has to be moved or routed around, but EXTRA CARE would be the order of the day/years. For all we know or can guess it could be an Ancient War Machine.

According to the scanner, the object went down as far as they could detect, at least 10 meters deep. What the construction folks found was the 'top'. It looked like the thing widened out going down into the earth, and would take (likely) YEARS to excavate and research.

Kipenzi modified the comm unit to emit sonic ‘Ping”, got dimensions of 13.5 m length, 4.8m width, depth >10m, the sides may widen deeper down.

Kipenzi offered our services for the initial excavation work as consultants and the professor agreed.

Suddenly, there was commotion from behind.

<Insert ominous music here>

Soldiers were chasing someone dressed in a Vektish robe and brandishing a leather book.

Kipenzi tried to stop the woman, and held her long enough for the soldiers to catch up.

She seemed very incoherent.

Medicus sedates her. She yells, “Vekt is in there, we have to free him!”

The book was a Vektish prayer book. Afterwards when he reviewed the video, Fig said, “I hope no one read that out loud.”

“You have been reading too much of that ancient horror stuff.”

Kipenzi asks the Professor, “How long has this object been unearthed?”

He replied, “Workers dug it up last night, they called the bomb squad, they thought it was left over from the Civil War.”

“When was that?”

“25 years ago”

Medicus examined the woman, but could not find anything wrong.

Kipenzi said, “You might want more security on this place.”

The professor said, “Apparently.”

“Why do you want to free him?”, says Medicus.

The woman says, “He’s in pain! I’ve had visions!”

Further questioning – she’s had visions for about a week (same time the violence has been ramping up).

Medicus checked the woman's EEG and general state, but could not really determine anything for sure.

Kipenzi checked for communications of any kind emanating from the object but detected nothing at all. Medicus took blood and tissue samples from the woman, for later study.

He took one from the professor too, determined that in spite of appearances the Professor is NOT of Vilani descent. The resemblance is striking but NOT genetic.

Asking about the woman’s visions: hopping demons with leathery wings, Kipenzi shows her a pic of the Droyne, she ID’s them. There’s a Droyne planet about 20 parsecs form here.

She “just knows” Vekt is in pain.

Medicus asks Professor Katzl what changed last week, with the slowly ramping up violence. The workers have been near here for months, but about 1 week ago they were within 100 meters of the object.

Medicus tried the EEG equipment on the machine/thing, and touched it with his artificial arm. There was sort of an echo/vibration, much less than a hum but nonetheless present. It is seamless but pretty sure to be hollow.

The woman had expected ('seen') a door, but nothing of the sort could be detected. Maybe after some further excavation.

Kip reminds people about how they opened the door on Fulacin. The Droynezilla were surprised we opened it, it works telepathically and we aren’t. But it opened when Kipenzi was attacked and injured by the spider-bear, maybe her psychic distress caused an override? Maybe sedating the woman was wise (it puts a whole new spin on “human sacrifice”).

Kip asks soldiers who’s in charge? General An, but the Professor is technically in charge here at this time.

The soldiers take the woman out and call their supervisors, they pick her up.

More guards, and on a rotating shift, would have to be arranged to prevent trouble or attacks or looting. More workmen, and some specialists in artifact excavation would be good too.

We learned that a large chunk of the population of Vexhill mysteriously disappeared one night about 25 years ago, during the civil war going on at the time. Police and the military feared a bomb had destroyed the site, but when they arrived they saw abandoned houses and deserted streets. Hot food sat cooling on kitchen tables; televisions and radios were on, unattended; beds lay unmade; even loose piles of clothing lay about here and there, as though people had divested themselves of their clothes and were running around naked somewhere.

The neighborhood has been mostly abandoned since then.

The new subway station is part of a renovation of this part of the city. Most of the old buildings in the area are planned for demolition.

Kipenzi put her right hand on the thing. Cold, metallic, slippery. She knocked on it, and the thing rang with a hollow sound.

Someone suggested, “Maybe a drill or a blowtorch could breach this thing?”

Kipenzi suggested that moving the clay might reveal an entrance, and is more like a real excavation should be done.

Putting a sound sensor on the thing resulted in hearing a very, very faint sound, maybe fans or motors for air circulation. It appeared that something was still running inside.

They to put more sensors on it and triangulated. The sound is coming from 50 m down and from more than one source.

Returning to street level, Kipenzi suggested to the crew that we keep two people there around the clock based on the likelihood of an Ancient ship being the 'thing'. A news crew met them as they came up but, “NO COMMENT', “Wait until press conference.”

The Professor and the newscaster, Lonia Ribug chatted for a bit, they seem to be more than “good friends”.

We thought that we should maybe set up a monitoring system, with relays to get the signal back to the Skylark, to compensate for the depth of the site. That way we wouldn’t need to hang out down there waiting for something to happen.

We got approval from Professor Katzl to do that, and planned to come back that evening to set things up. We wanted camera triangulation for full view of in and out, plus to cover the passageway.

We probably need to find out more about the geology of the area. Almost certainly a geologist was deeply involved in the tunneling. We contacted and learned that 200,000 years ago the area was a swamp but the river moved and the ground clayed up.

Something heavy like this object would sink right into it.

That evening the away team was Leon, Fig and Kipenzi. They went back with cameras and relay equipment. They also wore their psionic helmets the block any psionic effects from the object and were armed.

We set up one camera outside to show entries and exits. Cameras and relays at corners as we went down the access route. A lot more of the 'thing' had been excavated by that time.

Fig used the sensors in his prosthetic arm but got the same results as earlier, and Kipenzi listened again and there was no change.

Talking with the workers, we learned that they are using shovels and being careful with the digging. For sure they will not be slamming anything into the 'thing'. Everything looked normal for a tunneling development. We put a camera on the tracks approaching the area as well.

The public announcement was going to be coming soon, and we went to the news conference. The announcement that workers may have found something dating back to ancient (Ancient?) times would likely cause a stir across the culture.

Driving back to the ship we saw some dueling protestors - Vekt vs anti-Vekt. Fig managed to avoid getting stuck in the middle, sneaking through alleys and side streets... and not a single scratch on the rental car. Now if he could just refuel the Skylark that smoothly...

We asked about human remains found in the area, and learned that some had been found dating back to 200,000 years, though the vast majority were much more recent. They also found arrowheads and pot shards, but no signs of advanced technology.

The housing and business area above that had been abandoned was about 200 years old, and had been largely unpopulated for a long time before the subway dig.

Back at the ship, evening passed uneventfully.

Continued in Skylark and the Pit - Part 2.

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak, Prison Planet, Leedor on Aramis, First Call at Zilla, Trade War, The Bloodwell, ANNIC NOVA, The Kinunir, Kesser's Return, Justice, Mission to Mithril and Outback.