Session 47 (24 May 2024)

Location: At the Dawnseekers' compound on Karth, a desert moon orbiting the blue gas giant Tabernas in the Mendezo-Eeren system (Halcyon 2022)

Date: 328–5600

Travellers: Travellers: Ada Windsor (ex-scout and astronavigator), Griff Kodiak (ex-marine and gunner), Sasha Danlami (social scientist and comms), 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 are standing on a cantilevered balcony that projects from the side of the great silver spire at the centre of the Dawnseekers' compound. It is part of the quarters of the Dawnguard, a middling caste of supervisors and managers in this society. One of their leaders, a vainglorious warrior with the looks of an  Adonis, an ego to match, and inversely proportionate brainpower, is busy recounting tales of his martial prowess. When one of you surreptitiously sends out some recon drones to map the environs, a cry goes up among the assembled Dawnguard: they suspect something sinister. Oledore leaps toward the lip of the balcony, right arm outthrust: a blindingly fast silver object jets from somewhere within the tower and comes to rest in his hand. It's some kind of high-tech lance, about 2 metres in length and studded with controls of various kinds. Without making the least effort to aim, he points in the general direction of one of the floating drones. A shaft of blue light shoots from the tip and blasts the device. You quickly intervene to explain the innocent nature of the drones. He seems mollified, especially when you express admiration for his weapon. He boasts of his marksmanship — but you suspect that the blue visor he wears has some kind of advanced targeting HUD that is in fact responsible for the device's accuracy.

Soon enough, Griff and Oledore have agreed to a shooting contest. If Oledore wins, Griff must surrender one of his precious grenades; if Griff wins, Oledore must give you a comprehensive tour of the silver spire. Oledore seems supremely confident. Cleverly, you persuade him to take you to the summit of the tower for the contest: there will surely be more targets from that high vantage point. As the glass elevator carries you upwards in Oledore's company, you pass an entire floor devoted to some kind of medical research that apparently involves internal surgery and organ transplants. You emerge at the summit and find yourselves in a lush pleasure garden, complete with exotic plants, shimmering pools, and sparkling fountains. As you make your way to the edge of the tower, several Dawnguard men and women abandon their hedonistic activities and form a small, curious crowd nearby.

Ada, who has remained with the camels below, finds herself tasked with throwing targets into the air for the two rivals. For a few turns, they are neck-and-neck, but it's clear Oledore is barely trying. The odds are that Griff, as accomplished a shooter as he is, will eventually miss a shot. Jacobe and Sasha move to the side and begin analyzing the communications between Oledore's visor and lance; working quickly, they hypothesize that they will be able to produce a pulse that could temporarily disrupt the connection. Meanwhile, Ada conspires to throw up targets that are easy for Griff and challenging for Oledore. Between this unsportsmanlike conduct and your jamming pulse, you manage to make Oledore miss a shot. Shocked, he immediately begins to test his lance by shooting blue laser beams all about Ada, missing (intentionally) by millimetres. Satisfied that his weapon is still working, he grudgingly accepts his loss. You seize the opportunity to suggest he begin the tour in the basement. He acquiesces, but enjoins you never to tell Asmod about this.

The elevator whisks you to an underground chamber: another medical laboratory, but one far more distressing than the one above. Here, an unsmiling and obviously obsessive scientist named Rena works alone, perfecting the process of organ removal and transplantation. The bodies of her subjects — victims? — are everywhere, in varying states of near-life and death. She is displeased at being disturbed but, seeing that you are outsiders, wants to enlist you in organ-gathering from the Larstown pool of sophonts. Or, better yet, in becoming organ donors yourselves. She offers to reward you with technological marvels. You politely decline. Secretly many of you are repulsed by the values of this society's elite caste and its willingness to root its longevity and prosperity in the sacrifice of the bodies of "inferiors".

Here, underground, Nogudnyk senses the proximity of the mysterious source of alien emotions. It's nearby, but not in this chamber. You press Oledore to deliver on his promise of a complete tour and he confesses that there is another underground chamber. But Asmod has forbad him to take outsiders there after what happened to "the last one." With some further careful probing you discover that Oledore took Marie-Eve Onishi there at her request. He claims that something strange happened to her and that she ended up fleeing the tower. Oledore seems more interested in making a good impression on Rena than on answering your questions, however. Pulling you aside, he suggests that in exchange for information about Onishi, you might help him woo the scientist: after all, many of you seem conversant with "science." Perhaps you could play Cyrano to his Christian de Neuville?

You leave Rena's laboratory, sickened by what you saw there but in possession of more pieces to the puzzle of Onishi's disappearance. It seems clear that Onishi left the compound abruptly under her own power, but why? Did she rejoin the governor's retinue camped nearby? If so, why didn't she return with them to Larstown? A few key pieces are still missing; where to search next?