Session 12 (23 June 2023)

Location: Ancient alien ruins in the Cha Qu archaeological site on Dal Hallen (Far Home 1428)

Date: 090-5600

Time: 80 minutes to extraction

Travellers: Griff Kodiak, grenade-slinging ex-marine; Jacobe Kyman, profit-minded ex-everything; and Ada Windsor, one-armed ex-Top Gun

Despite the periodic tremors, unnerving psionic emanations, and real possibility of being sampled by ancient alien tech, you decide that it's worth continuing your explorations, at least for another thirty minutes or so. Perhaps another reason for pushing deeper into the complex is your realization that the "creepers," lobster-scorpions with considerable appetites, are now infesting the areas nearest the entrance: unless you can find another exit, you'll need to make your way through them somehow. For the time being, it's easier to push forward. The next question is: do you make for the centre of the complex, the apparent source of the psionic pulses, or skirt the edges? 

You opt for the former course of action. The centre of the complex is a huge circular chamber (area M) with a small raised dais at the centre. Dominating the ceiling is a massive inverted pale dome, the centre (and lowest point) of which is suspended only three metres above the dais. Strange flashes of colour move across the dome in seemingly random fashion. There is nothing else of interest here, but while you are examining the space, you experience another psionic pulse. When it happens, the entire dome emanates a blinding white light. The light-filtering visors on your HE vacc suits are still compensating when the chamber is plunged back into darkness milliseconds later.  What connection exists between the brilliant flash and the psychic signals, you cannot say. Your densitometer reveals the dais to be packed with machinery — circuits and tubes — but its function remains a mystery. No one wants to stand on it.

Cha Qu still holds many secrets ...

Leaving the great dome behind, you discover a vault of sorts with a distinct pale blue gel barrier separating the eastern half of the chamber (area I). The area beyond the barrier seems empty, but the floor, walls, and ceilings are covered in hundreds of pitch black lines of varying lengths, like some crazy modern art installation. Are they painted on? It's difficult to tell, but your attention is caught by a shallow alcove at the far end of the vault: two luck stones lie within. They're worth Cr100,000 if you can get them, but there's a problem: this gel barrier, unlike the "doors" you've encountered thus far, is not permeable. It won't let you through, no matter how hard you push. You search for a mechanism to "unlock" the barrier, without success. Time to bring out the laser cutter. It's like slicing a cold slab of butter with a hot knife: it takes a while but you eventually saw through. Having cut a door-like opening, Ada strolls across the vault to collect the luck stones. Ka-ching! — easy money. But on the way back, her companions' eyes widen at the scene unfolding behind her: those black lines are beginning to move! They slide along the chamber's surfaces like two-dimensional snakes, converging on a point in the middle of the floor. One line attaches itself to another, then another, then yet another ... something seems to be assembling itself before your eyes, transforming from a set of 2D lines into something altogether three-dimensional ...  something large, with many sharp and spiky points...  

Time to leave. To buy time, Griff lobs a stun grenade at the thing: perfect aim! The concussive effect seems to stun it momentarily. Clutching your various artifact containers, you hurry back toward the entrance. Moving as cautiously as you can amidst the gangs of creepers infesting the western half of the complex, you finally make your way to the entrance, only to find one of the thinking creepers and some warriors barring the way. This time, a smoke grenade does the trick, blinding the creepers while you slip past them. 

Now in the open, you take advantage of this world's low gravity to bound away from the mound. The finely tuned medium range communicator allows you to radio the pilot and call in your extraction. Looking behind, you see the great mound of sand and rock atop the complex crawling with creepers looking for ingress. As you watch, a terrifying construct of lines and points emerges from the entrance you just left. Its razor-sharp limbs carve through nearby creepers more easily than the most powerful laser and its very touch seems to freeze its victims and drain all life from them. Some nearby leaders direct warrior-creepers to surround and engage it. You're not sure you'd give them good odds on the outcome.

The thing from the vault

You don't stick around to see the end. Your aircraft, having jetted in at full speed, is now settling on the barren ground nearby. You clamber in and the pilot lifts off. As it banks away from the mound, you see a growing pile of creeper corpses forming around the Line Thing. What have you released into the world?

On the return trip there's some discussion about what you'll tell your employer and whether or not to demand a larger payment. As expected, Aarushi Terzis is on hand to greet you at the airfield. Luxurious private ground cars whisk you away to an Exacorp facility where you unburden yourselves of your HE vacc suits and partake of well-appointed quarters to clean and refresh yourselves. Terzis and a coterie of white-coated scientists debrief you and examine each of the artifacts you've recovered: six luck stones, a small lidded box (that contains some kind of goo), a glass tablet (that glows when touched with bare skin), samples of grey goo, and a larger goo-filled casket. Ten artifacts in total. Terzis makes a quick call on her wristcom, then confirms your payment: Cr700,000. Your patron is evidently pleased with your efforts. 

You don't tell anyone about the Line Thing. Surely the nuclear explosion scheduled to take place near the Cha Qu in a few days will take care of it ... right?

Epilogue: as you decompress from your mission, you check the latest news. The most recent newspapers have just come in — a week late, of course — from Merant, the last world you visited, and one of the headlines catches your interest.

Image credits: "Line Thing" illo from the Ninth World Bestiary ©  Monte Cook Games; atomic locomotive concept by Paul Malon, 1960, for the Association of American Railroads.