Secrets of the Ancients - The Hunt

After the landslide at the University of Regina compound, the crew rushes to the Ancient dig site to find the missing archaeologists and has to battle a very small villain and his henchmen.

This chapter is based on Carl and Kay's notes from our June 12, 2022 session. Since we are scattered around the country, we use Discord for voice communications and the Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other.

Continued from: Secrets of the Ancients

Location: Beck’s World, Regina Subsector
Date: 284-1110   

We had just returned to the ship with Kenton Wylde, the only survivor when a landslide took out the University of Regina outpost on Beck’s World. He was being treated for his injuries and we doubted that he would be OK if the looters/whatever had found him first. He said that there were four other people in the research lab, all dead now.

He said it looked like an attack and that we should go to the archaeology dig site right away to check on the rest of the scientists.

We agreed as we were concerned about the dig site itself, because anyone who wanted to take out the research lab would also want the dig site put down. We asked him if there was a child associated with the dig or the research staff. He said that the child with two Vargr escorts was not associated with them, so must be another interested party.

Kenton also said he doesn’t know of the White City, the yacht we saw in orbit.

He gave us the comm frequencies the dig site used, so we could try and make contact.

Kenton said there would be room to land the ship if we flew out, but local law said we could only land the ship at the port, to prevent smuggling in the outback. We thought about it for a few seconds and said, “Bugger the rules”.  Kip mentions, “I keep forgetting we aren’t on the Skylark anymore”.

The site is about 100 km away. There is a planetary defense gun at the downport landing site that we assume has some kind of tracking system. But there’s no visible radar for tracking our ship over the horizon. We decided to risk it.

We noticed the White City has a triple laser turret, so if we moved the ship straight up and out to orbit and then came down, we might be in their sights. The trip should take about 20 minutes from port to site point-to-point, if taking the air raft or up and down it takes a couple of hours.

We took the ship off and flew straight toward the dig site coordinates, not breaking atmosphere.



The surface is composed of endless kilometers of broken black rock. At first, it is interesting to look out at the bizarre landscape and marvel at the twisted dragons and spiked monsters and congealed stone, but eventually all the shapes blurred. We flew through a rainstorm of black sooty water that stained the hull of the ship an inky grey.

After more than an hour’s flight, we descended towards the dig site. It took longer to find than we expected. We wondered how they found this cave, as it looks no different to any of 1,000 other openings we had flown over.

1145
We landed in the rocks just north of the camp itself. It looked deserted and there was no response on the comm.  

Kenton thought the problem could be just one relay down between the camp and the main dig site.
Kipenzi pointed out some tracks that she had noticed. She said that a small craft, either a pinnace or launch, had landed here earlier and left an imprint in the rocky soil. She also pointed out three more sets of tracks, two large footprint tracks with one small - consistent with the two Vargr and child we saw earlier.

Fig remarked that she must have been a bloodhound in a previous life.

Going into the camp, we saw three tents, a cargo container, boxes of supplies, and a cave entrance to the south with a comm repeater at the entrance.

Kenton said that they have repeaters in the tunnels to the Ancient site.  We tried connecting and got a signal, but no response from anyone.  He reiterated that maybe one of the relays is down.

He told us that there is kind of a maze of tunnels, marked in places with bright paint and tape to keep people from getting lost. There should be five people here or at the dig site inside the caves.

We lament the loss of our probes that would have made mapping the whole tunnel simple. Our grav belts would have come in handy as well.

In one of the tents we found survival gear, helmets, climbing gear, lamps and seismic sensors. We helped ourselves to anything that looked useful.  We also loaded up with weapons, armor, psy helmets, hard hats, lamps, rope, pitons, crampons, water bottles, etc. but leaving the FGMP-15 behind as no one was skilled enough to use it without killing everyone.

Watching everyone load up, Kenton looked like he isn’t sure about us.  We reassured him that we really are the good guys.

Medicus stayed with the ship just in case the launch/pinnace came back, and we wanted to protect our doctor from hostile first contact so he could save us later.

Not wanting to trust the existing comm network, we put down our own relays for our button cams and communications. The University of Regina relays were much larger and more powerful than ours which were selected to be small and unobtrusive.

Kenton had spent most of his time at the main base and only been to the tunnels a couple of times, and needed to make his best guess to lead us while we all tried to stay alert and safe. We found some comm relays that bolstered our confidence that we were on the right path.

As we progressed, a rock fall caught Sam. After first aid from Fig, we started trying to find the fluorescent marks, looking down one corridor and backtracking if we did not find a marker. This helped a lot since often Kenton wasn’t sure which way to go a lot of the time.

About 20 minutes in, we found another comm relay and stuck one of ours to the wall nearby. Just after that, the floor opened up under Fig’s feet and he jumped out of the way, avoiding a fall to a lower passage.

With a rope for safety, Kenton got around, too.

Fig tried the comm again, but got no answer from the dig researchers.

We came to another fork where it wasn’t clear which way the path led. Kipenzi took the north passage and the floor gave way beneath her feet, dropping her into a 3-meter pit. Her suit protected her from the worst of it, but she did get a big bruise on her right lower leg that gave her some pain while walking.
Sam found another mark and a comm relay right after that and everyone went down the south tunnel.
Kipenzi called Medicus back at the ship and got a good connection. Medicus was watching the video from our button cams and said that the relays were working well.

1230
We found one of our own relays; we had gone in a circle.

After backtracking, we found another relay to the south.

Suddenly Medicus yells, “Stop!” in Sam’s headset. He had spotted a trip wire right in front of Sam as he was about to trip it.

Sam examined the wire and it was connected to an explosive charge, something like a grenade. The wire was connected to a rock outcrop and if he had stepped on it, it would have pulled the pin. He cut the trip wire and tied down the pin with it.

Fig noticed that the fluorescent paint on the wall over it was not completely dry. We were going to have to be careful and look for traps.

Backtracking again, Kipenzi found another mark on the wall, this one was dry. There was a comm relay nearby, smashed. It looked like someone had slammed it against a wall. We were on the right track.  She stuck another relay on the wall and noticed that the tunnel was artificial; it was veeeeeery old, perhaps Ancient and badly scorched.

Kipenzi led us up a short climb, and we found another marker. Kenton recognized the path, at least at that point.  A little further down the pathway, Kipenzi found another collapsing section, and had to be roped out.

Going south, we found signs of people climbing; Kip slipped while going up and bruised her left hip. She had started to limp a little and was not looking forward to the return trip.

1430
We came to a large cavern with a light globe on the ceiling. There were laser burns on the walls and blood and chunks of flesh everywhere, the remains of at least two bodies, torn apart by claws and fangs. The place was ransacked and wrecked.

The bodies were so mangled that it wasn’t clear how many there were. Fig thought there were three, Medicus and Kenton said that there were two.

Kenton said that that there might be three still alive, or at least they were unaccounted for.
The seismic scanner detected movement to the east, more like machinery than human, but still movement.

Suddenly the comm came on, “This is Volsang calling base camp... can you hear
me? We’re showing a functional relay network, so you should be receiving this... hello?”

“Bah. Stiv, they’re not receiving. The whole grid must be screwy.”

Kenton gave her a rundown; she said she was at the bottom of the Big Stairs.  The signal went dead at that point.

Kenton told us there was a series of drop-offs, over half a kilometer, that they called the Big Stairs.
Every 100 meters or so down the cliff, there is a convenient ledge. The archaeologists theorized that a flying creature like a Droyne could descend the Big Stairs by gliding from ledge-to-ledge. The Big Stairs is a natural chasm, a discontinuity between two continental plates, but it has been shaped by the Ancients.

She would be at the bottom of that.

Everyone checked their weapons.

We got to the Big Stairs; it was on the side of a cavern over 1 km across. Looking down (LONG WAY) we could see three lights far below. Unlike the Droyne, we would have to descend on ropes.

Everyone shut off their headlamps to avoid drawing attention, and Sam got out his multi-spectral binoculars and looked down. He could see the child and two Vargr at an opening in a wall like another cave entrance. We couldn’t hear anything at this distance, but the kid was gesturing and acting like he was in charge.

The archaeologists had already hammered pitons and guide ropes into the rock, so abseiling down from ledge-to-ledge is not as hard as expected.

With a few burps along the way, we descended one step at a time, prusik-ing down the existing ropes. Took a while, but we were mostly out of sight, and with the prusiks, we did not need light most of the time.

When we got to the cavern floor, we could hear the kid using a megaphone. He said, “DOCTOR VOLSANG! I AM BAY VENSHAR AND I AM A GREAT ADMIRER OF YOUR WORK. I WANT YOUR ANCIENTS DETECTOR TECHNOLOGY AND I WANT IT NOW. IF YOU COME OUT NOW, I’LL SPARE THE REST OF YOUR TEAM. OTHERWISE... THIS PLACE WILL BE YOUR GRAVE, DR. VOLSANG.”

We decided a surprise attack was our best move. Moving carefully forward, we were detected by one of the Vargr. So much for surprise, but at least we could attack.

As Kipenzi was lining up a shot, one of the Vargr shot her with a laser rifle. The shot melted her helmet, destroying her psy-helmet and head lamp. It also briefly set her hair on fire and gave her some serious burns.

She dropped to the ground behind the rock that she had been using for cover.

Fig returned fire with his own laser rifle and took the Vargr’s arm off. The Vargr dropped behind a rock, incapacitated.

Sam moved forward, moving from cover to cover.

Kipenzi shot at the 2nd Vargr, who grabbed Bay Venshar and went into the tunnel.

Bay used his megaphone, “This is a mistake, hold your fire, we can make a deal, we can share tech.”

Kip moved forward behind the next rock.

Vargr #2 stood next to his boss and held his fire.

Kenton followed Kipenzi behind the rock and Leon moved up.

Sam hit Vargr #2 with his shotgun.

With both of his bodyguards down, Bey started backing up into the tunnel and said, “Far Hunter crew, tell your boss, Ven Yasha we can make a deal, we can share this technology, I can respect professional work, we don’t have to fight.”

Kipenzi called Medicus to find their launch.

Medicus started scanning the area.

Kenton moved up and hid behind Fig and Leon.

Bay said he has explosives, “I can bring the whole roof down, bury all of you. You won’t escape!”

Sam says, “Neither will you”.

Bay said, “It looks like I’m not making it out alive right now, anyway.”

Kipenzi moved up enough to see both Vargr were down and yelled, “Surrender and you’ll live”.

While this is going on, Medicus had been, and continued to, look for the shuttle or raft or whatever that Bay and his team must have used to get down from their ship.



Continued in: Secrets of the Ancients - Descent

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, Outback, Skylark and the Pit, Last Flight of the Amuar and One Crowded Hour.