Skylark and the Pit - Part 2

As the planet T’yana falls into civil disorder and the crew continues their investigations of the Ancient Artifact, a door opens that may lead to the answers they have been seeking.

This chapter is based on Carl and Kay’s notes from our December 8, 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.

Continued from: Skylark and the Pit - Part 1.

Location: The Planet T’yana in the Egyrn Subsector

Imperial Date: 267-1108

Sunset.
After placing our cameras at the Vexhil Subway Station, we have full video and audio of the dig site. We were more comfortable that we were not gonna be totally surprised when the fit hits the shan.

The local security people made sure that the incoming traffic to the dig area was stopped at the previous station along the route, we didn’t want anyone walking down the tunnels and surprising us.

268-1108 Early morning.
They continued the excavation at the pit, while we have a discussion on what to do back at the Skylark.

1. We need to talk to the crazy lady who got into the dig site yesterday.
2. We decide on full disclosure with Professor Katzl. We should tell him about what we found on Fulacin and Yorbund. Almost full disclosure anyway, we won’t tell him we have The Eye.
3. We will need to be ready for the satellite delivery on 272, in three days.

1100
We call Professor Katzl and set up a meeting at the museum.

Driving out of the starport, Medicus, Kipenzi and Fig see a group of Vektish protesters setting up signs – we could not tell for sure what the protest was about, but it looked like some were blaming us for all of the disorder. It actually started before we got here, but has gotten worse since our arrival.

As we approach the museum, we hear on the news about another parade set up for this afternoon.

Once we arrived, we talked with the Professor and got him up to speed on what we know.

Professor Katzl pointed out that T’yana possesses a nuclear capability and it is in the hands of an increasingly apocalyptic, hysterical population.

While the neighborhood around the artifact is mostly deserted, he wants to evacuate a larger perimeter. It seems to affect people more the closer they get to it.

Interesting factoid: the Eye of Yasterdray wasn’t called that here: when they found it, it was called “Volvuth’s Eye”, after the name they gave to the skeleton. It must have acquired the name later when the pirates had it. It is a mystery how it came to be called “The Eye of Yasterdray”.

We want to talk to the crazy lady in detention. The Professor uses his connections to get us access to her.

1300
Her name was Lumusi Ignatiev, she was taking recreational drugs when she had the visions. The drug was a mild hallucinogen and some cults use it in ceremonies.

She doesn’t remember a lot but she seems more stable now, and much more coherent than when we first encountered her. The time at the site seemed to her like a dream.

She believes that Vekt is inside the Artifact. She remembers going toward an open door to try to help him.

She didn’t know what help she was going to give.

We asked her to draw where the door was in her 'dream'. Near the southwest corner of Kipenzi's line drawing. That area had already been cleared in the subway dig, but there was no door there.

The police were not willing to just let her go, but we hoped the Professor could grease the wheels of releasing her for a while. It worked and they took her to the artifact.

We arrived back at the dig first and knocked on the area where she said the door was. It produced a hollow sound. Dream come true, so to speak.

The Professor showed up shortly after that with Lumusi and two security guards. No success opening anything, so we waited.

We asked her to show where the door should be.

Medicus pushes on it with his prosthetic hand, there is no effect.

She did her prayer/cult thing, but still no effect. We asked some about her belief system, and learned a little bit. She was under a mild hallucinogen when the dream occurred, the drug is fairly widely used in various religions and groups on planet.

He asks the professor about other visions reported with the drug, but he didn’t know much, just that over the years, there had been some other 'visions' reported, but no real trend.

Nearby, one of the dig workers says “can you see them?” He sees small creatures flapping their wings and calls them demons.

Kip shows him some pics of Droyne on her handset and he id’s them. None of the crew, the professor or the other dig workers can see them.

The Droyne in the vision seemed to be panicking, trying to get away from something. No sound accompanied the visions.

Medicus asks the Professor about visions and he says people in area have seen these in about a 2 km radius, they are centered on the pit but reported all over city. There have been a lot of them over the last week as well as scattered reports over that last few hundred years and a few more before that.

The Droyne species is older than humanity and in theory they are the Ancients’ species, many Droyne planets don’t have high tech and don’t want higher tech.

Reports of visions last week and over time same demon visions

Back at the starport area, Sam kept trying to sell our cargo and find something the he could buy that would sell off-world. He made some progress with the cargo dealings, both in sales and prospective purchases.

Leon was keeping the Skylark warm and secure, and ready to launch in short order if we needed to. He was the only one of us wise(?) enough to wear his Psi shield helmet.

Evening
The excavation continued through the night, clearing out the area near what we were now thinking of as a ship.

One of the cameras at the dig site had been turned toward a wall somehow. (We monitored it off and on) The cameras were important to us, so we headed over to the subway dig site to correct the positioning.

The camera was easily repositioned, having likely been just bumped by some piece of equipment. We also added a camera onto the back of the ship.

Medicus used the sensors in his hand on the ship and picked up some sounds like circuitry. When amplified, Kip said it sounded like circuitry burning out and shorting. Very faint, but NOT something we wished for.

He also picked up another sound, but it turned out to be the pumps on the far side of the dig. The station is under the water table and needs pumps to keep it from flooding.

Postulating mental waves, Medicus tried an EEG equivalent detection, but found nothing. Kipenzi used her scanner again but nothing new turned up.

Kipenzi and Medicus touch their rings to the metal – nothing happens. It was a long shot, but you never know. Their rings were keys that worked on other sites in the past on Keanu.

We suggested, and the foreman agreed, that the workers be moved out for a while. Then we headed back to the Skylark for dinner.

Different time periods saw these visions, common in some years, not in others, no pattern, seem to be more common visions; Droyne seemed to be panicking and silent, running along the ground in a cave or splashing in water that wasn’t there physically.

269-1108
First thing in the morning we checked the Eye. It is still in the box. Second, we looked at the monitors, and there was nothing new in the subway dig area either.

Morning news has some video of mass hysteria, with some proclaiming the end of the world.

The Professor thinks this is the ship that seeded the planet with its first population and the Droyne were crew. Continued excavation was going to proceed regardless of what we suggested. Against our advice, they decided to hold a news conference in the dig area.

Afternoon
Sam sold 36 tons of pneumatics and hydraulics for 297 KCr. We discuss where we would go next, maybe Candia.

The news conference at the site went off without incident. They want to interview some of the Skylark crew, and set up a talk with Kipenzi and Medicus.

270-1108
Sam sold the rest of the cargo and continues to follow up on leads for things to buy.

There are reports of strange writing appearing everywhere. Strange alien script that vanishes before a sample can be obtained. We saw two types of script on Fulacin, and Fig remembered them. The original permanent markings, and a newer form. This looks very like the older of the two.

The older script also matches what we saw on pottery in museum. There are six words, repeated over and over again.

No interpretation and lot of the same six words, their sampling of language is only these six words which is why they can’t translate it, matching words from Fulacin shows a number maybe, on far left, maybe 0 or 1. Maybe they are all numbers.

Three Ancient languages: one on Yourbund and two on Fulacin.

We thought it would be helpful to give the Professor a video copy of what we found on Fulacin. It showed the text we found there and he passed it on to local scientists to help them translate those six words.

The words did not always appear in the same order. There are two sets of three words that DO always appear in same order, but the sets are sometimes 1-2 and sometimes 2 -1

They do NOT match any known Droyne languages.

The writing is appearing in about a 5km radius of the artifact showing on walls. Reports started a couple of days ago and now people are noticing it and taking pictures of it.

Reports during the war showed it as well.

Officials have decided to evacuate the area, especially since that during the war the area was completely cleared of people, with no clue how or why.

271-1108
Morning news showed officials evacuating the areas around Vexhill, they got more cooperation after a couple people disappeared at random. Some reports of end times, there is also panic in other cities as well. But no reports of people disappearing outside of the Vexhill district.

272-1108
A load of space probes arrived for us to launch. We could still monitor local radio while around this planet, but the second location is on another world about 1-day travel away at 3G, putting us out of range of most local broadcasts. They don’t have a system-wide news feed that more developed systems have, but ground control would relay any significant events to us while we are doing the second set of satellite launches.

Medicus was piloting and he took the Skylark to the specific locations and velocities they wanted. We had no problem ejecting the satellites out of our cargo bay and we were done in just over three hours.

273-1108
Deploying the other set took longer since this set also included landers. The planet where we delivered them was a nearly airless rock 2500 Km in diameter. The landings were no problem, being in mostly smooth terrain, and we were soon on our way back.

274-1108
Back to T’yana, picking up video as we approach and got back in range. We watched as a worker slipped and fell on the 'ship'. An aperture that had not been present was now visible at one end, with people saying "it stinks like a grave".

We land the Skylark at the port, the sun has gone down by this time and it is raining.

On the video feed, we can see workers clutching their heads and holding hands over their ears. Back on the Skylark, Kipenzi can hear a faint whine coming from the direction of the dig. Television news reporter Lonia Vascu was doing a live broadcast with Professor Katzl when she suddenly screamed and vanished in a nimbus of swirling blue lights. The video feed then cuts off.

All of the remaining workers doing the excavation are evacuated.

The Professor calls us and we head back to the site with scanners and tools. Our away team this time is Leon, Medicus, Fig and Kipenzi. Sam stays back at the ship. Everyone except Kipenzi wear their psionic helmets. There might be useful information in those visions people have been having and someone on the team should be able to see them.

We get status on evacuations. Just about everyone is out of the area, except for some looters.

We arrived at the site and the Professor is still there along with some of the Channel One news people who are still packing up their equipment. The sound man is puzzled, he says he didn’t record any sound when everyone heard the loud screech just before Lonia disappeared - maybe mental projection?

Being a personal friend of Lonia, Professor Katzl was clearly shaken up.

We go through the door into the ship. It smelled like death, like an open tomb. Kipenzi pulled out her filter mask and put it on.

Fig removed his psi helmet to see if it makes a difference or would sound the same way.

The Professor stood at the door with a relay for communications to the Skylark.

The passage was slippery, nearly frictionless. We got a rope from the construction site’s equipment storage and tied it to the excavator in case we needed to pull out quickly. Kipenzi tied the other end to herself and went in first.

Kipenzi insists Medicus stay out, so he can help if needed later. The Professor wants to go in but Kipenzi insists she go in first, she hooks up an oxygen bottle to her mask for first assessment – in case of death spores or something. Everyone else followed suit.

Leon and Fig follow her into a cylindrical passage with a spherical chamber ahead and another cylinder passage on the other side. There looked like there was another spherical chamber at the end of that one.

It was dark. Shining our lights, we could see that the walls were a sliver-blue color, with no doors, labels or markings of any kind.

We soon found it was too slippery and decided to go back and get our grav belts.

Continued in: Skylark and the Pit - Part 3.

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.