Session 46 (17 May 2024)

Location: Karth, desert moon orbiting the blue gas giant Tabernas in the Mendezo-Eeren system (Halcyon 2022)

Date: 326–5600

Travellers: Ada Windsor (ex-scout and astronavigator), Torka Jax (ex-navy and security), Griff Kodiak (ex-marine and gunner), Nogudnyk (ex-laser tag athlete) and Jacobe Kyman (pilot)

[A note to readers: pleased be advised that this blog contains spoilers to Joel Hines' excellent Desert Moon of Karth. Read no further if you hope to experience the delight of playing this superb Mothership scenario.]

You spend a morning checking up on your contacts in Larstown, trying to verify the governor's story about her dealings with Onishi, the missing person you're looking for. Some interesting details emerge: it seems Tanaka was indeed seen about town in Onishi's company — they seemed close, your sources say — and personally accompanied Onishi to the Dawnseekers' silver spire with a security detail. But they returned without Onishi and with two members of the detail missing: lost, they said, to sandsquid attacks. 

You decide that it's time to pay the Dawnseekers a visit: it was Onishi's last known location. Although you're assured there's a trail of sorts the leads to the silver spire, you wisely decide that a local guide would be of use. With a bribe of Cr2000 and Jacobe's background in shady dealing, you have no problem persuading the marines to let Huwel Kovacs out of gaol "on bail." He's sober, thankful, and surprised that you're prioritizing this search for a missing anthropologist over retrieval of the coral dust cache that, he says, will make you all millionaires. But he's willing to take you to the silver spire and quickly demonstrates his usefulness by getting you outfitted for your desert expedition.

You leave Larstown on 327–5600. The two-day journey to the silver spire is uneventful. At midday on 328–5600 you find yourselves hidden behind the crest of a dune, observing the Dawnseeker compound from afar with your optics. A cluster of dome-shaped dwellings and hydroponic gardens surround a rather dilapidated tower rising tens of meters above the desert. Its top appears to have been severed at some point in the distant past. A heavy weapon of some kind seems to be mounted on the crumbling wall. White-robed figures move about the compound, apparently engaged in various labours. There's little sign of technology in use and no telecommunication signals.

You ride in on your camels. A white-robed man steps forward with gestures of welcome and speaks to you in accented Anglic that employs many archaic forms. He is Melne, and after hearing about your search for Marie-Eve Onishi, he brings you to the base of the silver spire where several guards in white puffy shirts with lines of thin gold filament on their skin watch you while he fetches their leader. They bear air rifles that strike you as distinctly un-menacing.

Soon enough Melne returns with Asmod, the leader of the Dawnseekers. He welcomes you in turn and bids you enter the spire. Ada, solicitous of Airlock, and Huwel, suspicious of the Dawnseekers, prefer to remain outside. The rest of you proceed into a massive lobby decorated with towering statues. There is artificial lighting and air conditioning, although there's also plenty of evidence that both are in sore need of proper maintenance. After refreshments (water and figs), Asmod takes your questions. He recalls Governor Tanaka arriving with Onishi in tow and acceding to the latter's request to "embed" herself in their society in order to study them. But he claims that Onishi disappeared on her first night; he assumes that she changed her mind and left with the governor. You are welcome to ask around for more information. This hour or so of interaction has left you with a clear sense of the hierarchy here: Melne defers to the guards who defer to Asmod. There seem to be at least three castes here, perhaps more. 

You spend the afternoon dispersed among the villagers, asking questions about Onishi. Many recall her being there. You interview the family who agreed to host her: they show you her sleeping pad and the items she left behind: mostly traveling gear. They recall her taking notes and making recordings; these, along with the satchel she always carried, are not here. They say she left the dwelling as the sun set and never came back.

Something happened here, but you're not sure what. You decide to ask if you can stay the night. Once again, Melne fetches Asmod who grants your request: you will be billeted with the Dawnguards on the second floor of the tower. A glass elevator takes you upward. (You note that your Dawnguard escorts gain admittance via some kind of ocular scan.) Here, you find yourselves in former luxurious apartments retrofitted into tenements to accommodate the Dawnguard caste. A tall man with golden locks and striking good looks introduces himself: Oledore. You arrived while he was regaling the others with tales of his martial prowess and he's more than happy to start again for your benefit. 

Meanwhile, Nogudnyk's latent telempathy is activated by powerful feelings of rage and frustration that seem to be emanating from somewhere below the spire. Determined to investigate their origin, they hop out a window and gingerly catwalk along a tube of sorts that spirals about the tower from the third floor to the base. The feelings are stronger near the ground, and they are distinctly... alien. 

The mysteries of the Dawnseekers are deepening for you. The answers may lie underground, but how will you get there: try to gain access to the glass elevator or seek to enter the tube?

Image credits: Drawing of the silver spire by Logan Stahl; image of Asmod screengrabbed from a YouTube video of AI-generated sci-fi images.