Secrets of the Ancients - Otherworld, Conclusion

The crew meets with Nalu, Queen of Rifles, and make an expedition to the White Tower.

This chapter is based on Kay’s notes from our March 12, 2023 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 – Otherworld, Part 4

Location: On an unknown world, possibly in another Universe

Date: 312-1110


Noon
We were back at Makers Valley chatting with our new Ilemdaki friends. They said the teleporters last worked 500 years ago when they arrived in their habitat.

Kip’s vacc suit needed repairs; it has a hole in the right thigh and she’s been wearing it way too long by the smell. Shedin graciously allowed her to borrow one of his robes while she serviced it. The Life Support pack in it expired so she can’t wear the helmet any more.

There’s us, the University of Regina folks, and two guards from the locals. Juni observed that the “Seven” they found references to at their dig site was on Uncle Vlen’s side and is still alive and has been doing stuff in secret and is now coming out into the open. We informed her about Yaskoydray and that what we see here is architecture like the Ancient site on Fulacin (i.e., Yaskoydray’s side).

Juni thought we should talk to the Queen of Rifles. We agreed, they needed to know what we know.
We traveled to the Ilemdaki city; it looked medieval but clean and neat, tidy; we saw a large government building, and guards escorted us to the throne room. We met with Queen Nalu and her advisor Irkur, and an attendant/bodyguard. She’s surprised about the variety of people we are; they look like they’re all cousins. There’s been a 60k population for the last 500 years; all of them probably are by now. The town has a lot of hand-crafted TL2, not much industry. They are human variants that resemble Darrians, but without the pointed ears, and are definitely a separate race unknown to the Empire.

The queen told us that when they arrived here from the Maker’s Valley 500 years ago, there were buildings that indicated other people had been living here before, but they were gone. Evidence showed the Hunters of Men killed them all and maybe other groups before that as well. They think working teleporters and Hunters may be another cycle. They have records showing that they are aware of the transit terminal in the space port, but have never been there and don’t know where it is in relation to their habitat.

No one alive had experience with the starport or teleporters. They are aware of the other habitats, having climbed over mountains and done some exploring. Their society was very stable, and they were not explorers in general. They are fascinated by our weapons. They’re smart but not creative, and their society is mostly stagnant. After seeing what we had salvaged, the adviser suggests an expedition to the scrapyard (the Graveyard). It’s dangerous, but worth the risk.

The Queen examined our guns and grasps the concept of laser tech right away. She wanted a shotgun and said they can make them in their machine shops.  Kip asked for help from the machine shop for our physical weapons. While she was handling the weapons, we realized that her attendant was acting as her body guard.

The Queen strode over to the machine shop, trailing her entourage.  The shops are early industrial, but short on energy supplies (they only have alcohol lamps).  Their crafting is good and they have tools. They look lower tech than they are; if they had the crystals, they could make lasers.

They can do electricity but never realized it could be higher. Population size is small, and they have a very conservative society. The Queen is the only one with a creative imagination and her ancestor created rifles; it’s a technocratic feudalism government system similar to what we have seen on many imperial worlds.

They would wipe out the Vargr if their tech level was higher. They said that the Vargr fight among themselves when not fighting the Ilemdaki. The Vargr break into small factions whenever they try to get organized.

Kipenzi volunteered to teach them how to make the chemical bombs to keep the Vargr at bay, and told them about the graveyard – it’s a scrapyard where they can scavenge the raw materials they would need to manufacture higher tech.

Juni asked about the white tower in the death zone. The Queen said they never visited and doesn’t know about it; they think they can get to it through the mountains. Maybe there’s a teleporter in the Death Zone (we know there is one). They’ve gone through the mountains but haven’t found a path. Juni has the personality that wants to know what’s the next question mark on the map.

Kipenzi asked why it’s called the Death zone. They answered that the plants shoot thorns and it’s full of monsters.

The people fixed our guns and then started to make copies of them. Sam oversaw their repairs, and they are in awe of us; some workers are children, like apprentices.

314-1110
Kipenzi shows medical improvement. We are in discussions of plans with the queen. We ended up planning on sending some of her people to the graveyard for metal scavenging, and we told them of the dangers we found there, i.e., the robots and small mech-gnats, and where to find shelter and set up a camp. We plotted a route to the white tower over the mountain range peaks so we don’t have to go through the death zone or swamp.

Juni studied the people and was convinced they were bred to be a slave race, excellent crafters who follow instructions. One of queen’s ancestors broke the mold and diversified; they’re good at tasks. Medicus checked their DNA and found they’re engineered. Their arts and culture are primitive, they are really short on creative types. Kipenzi showed them how electrical batteries work in addition to the chemical bombs. They have basic raw materials from previous cities and recycle them. Their habitat is mostly self-contained and their population is stable at about 60,000.

316-1110
The teleports stopped working.

We went to the teleport citadel and pushed buttons, but there was no effect.

Seven’s ship or whatever it is, is still trying to get through the sky portal. It seems like it might be glowing even brighter now.

319-1110
Medicus examined Kipenzi and pronounced her fit to travel.  Getting out and walking would be the best thing for the regenerated tissues.
The starport is approximately 120 km from here to the SSE. Without the teleporters, we’ll have to climb over the mountains and then cross the plain to the star port, a 6-day journey.

It’s only two days to the white tower.

We decide on this course of action. We can follow the ridge all the way to the white tower and to the graveyard; there’s a fork on the ridge that goes to each location. The Queen plans to send an expedition of 20 people to the graveyard and two guards with us to the white tower.

320-1110
We started out in the morning from the walled city; they lowered us down to the Maker’s Valley and we went north from there; we saw something like a Roomba in the distance to the east, it’s cutting the grass. We went through the forest on a path created by the Ilemdaki. Above the forest, there is a seldom traveled path up to the top of the ridge. The ridges are mostly bare rock.

The trail split, one path along the ridge, and one down to the death zone. We stayed on the ridge.

At the end of the day, we’re about 1/3rd way to the fork in the mountain; we made camp for the night.

321-1110
We headed out after breakfast along the ridge. We came to a split of the ridge and their path ended; they haven’t gone past this point.

We set up a permanent base camp here in an adjacent valley. We could see the white tower in the distance from there. The Queen’s 20 will make a path to the left toward the graveyard to bring salvage back, and we’ll go to the tower. We expect to take 4 days, and then come back and meet up at the graveyard with the other group.

As the afternoon wore on, we blazed a trail, slowly getting near the tower.  When we got close, we found another trail, leading directly to the tower. The locals said they didn’t build it.

As we approached the white tower, we could see a round opening on the tower wall about 5 meters up.
A Droyne came out of the opening and hovered in the air. It asked in the Ilemdaki language, “How did you get out of your habitats?”, and asked how we got here. It seemed surprised.

 

Kipenzi asked “Are you in charge here?”

It replied, “Yes, of this location.”

It scanned us with a device that it pulled off of its belt. Kipenzi said we’re not from here. Suddenly the device paralyzed us and lifted us off the ground.

The locals had hung back and now were hightailing it out of there.

The Droyne took us inside the tower. It floated us inside to what looked like a larger teleporter; there was a gauzy haze that parted when we moved in; made of thousands of tiny particles. We lost consciousness for a moment and woke up in a type of wormhole; we’re moving with no sense of time.
We came out on a space station over a planet that looked like metallic silver. The station was still being assembled around it; tech level = way up there. Can’t tell but the station feels like a weapon of some sort. The Droyne was a robot, we were met by a trio of similar robots that greeted us in Galanglic. “Welcome, your arrival was unexpected, but welcome.” They grav lifted us. There was a swarm of activity, swirl of robots with a small figure covered in green energy. We felt an urge to prostrate ourselves, there’s a feeling of awe and terror, psychic power coming from him.

This is Yaskoydray.

“I am Grandfather,” there’s a telepathic image of 7, “Breaking through the portal is very dangerous. You must understand.”

We faded from consciousness again. When we woke up, it is 200,000 years ago, and our minds are in five individuals, and we see how the Ancient War started and ended.

We are all someone else. Ayde, Emyakoy, Eskekuk, Gvorr, and Urd. These people have been put together as a team.

From these individuals’ memories, Yaskoydray is an immortal, super-genius Droyne, leader of a Droyne empire for millennia; the rest of the Droyne species as a whole is not, and depends on him for their success. The empire has been “uplifting” lower species and dropping them on planets for colonies. A dissident element has been increasing along the frontier of the Empire, while the interior worlds tend to be obedient to his will.

Continued in The Secret of the Ancients


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 and Secrets of the Ancients.