Sessions 44 & 45 (26 April and 3 May 2024)

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

Date: 324–5600

Travellers: Nogudnyk (athlete-entertainer and steward), Sasha Danlami (social scientist and comms), Griff Kodiak (ex-marine and gunner), Ada Windsor (ex-scout and astronavigator), Torka Jax (ex-navy and security, 44th only), Dr Fomstep (ship's doctor, 44th only), and Jacobe Kyman (pilot, 45th only)

[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've just arrived in Larstown, a ramshackle boomtown on a remote moon, looking for a missing anthropologist. From speaking to Marie-Eve Onishi's parents, you know she had some connection with the lunar governor, Steig Tanaka, and Sasha's close reading of Onishi's letters home led you to speculate that that connection might even have been romantic in nature. You can see the dome-shaped gubernatorial "mansion" nearby, retrofitted from majestic crumbling white ruins that were no doubt built by the same ancient society that constructed the space elevator. How to approach this delicate situation?

Governor Tanaka

You decide to knock on the governor's front door and announce you're looking for Marie-Eve Onishi. You are not admitted; a brusque voice from the comms panel shoos you away. As you depart, you catch a glimpse of a figure in an upper-story window staring down at you. It's the governor. Clearly, you caught her attention.

Meanwhile, Griff and Nogudnyk visit the Desperado Karaoke Bar to glean information from the day drinkers. While Griff take the stage, Nodugnyk chats with a conspiratorial drunk named Slim who's convinced Tanaka has a sinister past: he claims she killed her own father in order to assume the mantle of governor. Naturally, he has no proof... 

You next visit the Manian government office, which is essentially a military barracks with some personnel tasked with administrative duties. Bored but patient, Sergeant Hiromi shows you a stack of missing persons files on his desk: Marie-Eve's is there. It becomes clear that the Manian marines do very little in the way of actual policing here: they guard the space elevator, enforce collection of export duties, and tamp down on the worst violence, but have no time to search for the prospectors, vagrants, and would-be ascetics who come to Karth and disappear in the desert. From your perusal of the files, it's evident that Marie-Eve is an exception to the norm: most of the disappeared were solitary, marginal individuals who had few connections or resources. Typically the last record of their whereabouts was an entry noting that they'd spent a night in the drunk tank at the nearby gaol (also run by the marines). 

Marshal Moses Clarke

The visit does produce one useful outcome, however: Griff acquires a bounty hunting license. During the required interview with Marshal Clark, the commander of the marines, you discern the man's antipathy toward Governor Tanaka. He intimates that if you demonstrate your reliability and skill by turning in a bounty, he may be inclined to offer you some "special jobs." In another unexpected development, one of the marines guarding the office complex recognizes Nogudnyk as a laser tag athlete. He's a fan; one of the few diversions on this moon is watching (and re-watching) recordings of old sports events. You decide to seize this as an opportunity to glean information from the guard and his buddies by meeting them for drinks later that evening. 

While Griff is getting licensed, Ada visits the nearby Church of the Purple Sun and speaks to Reverend Oboku. He readily shares his dislike of the Dawnseekers who so haughtily refused his efforts at ecumenical dialogue. He believes their image of austere communal piety is a facade concealing some secret depravity.  But, like Slim, he has no proof.

As evening approaches, you head to the Desperado Karaoke Bar to carouse with the off-duty marines who are fans of Nogudnyk. Getting information from inebriated soldiers on garrison duty is like taking candy from a baby. You learn that Marshal Clarke has formed an elite unit of marines tasked with night patrols in Larstown and desert patrols outside the walls. This unit is quartered in the basement of the government building where it's cooler. There's little fraternization between these elites and the ordinary grunts. One of Nogudnyk's new friends points out three figures huddled around a table in the back: they're muscled, scarred, and scowling. The ordinary marines evidently resent the preferential treatment the elites get but are generally deferential toward them. 

By this point you've sketched out a plan to get some of you into the gaol's drunk tank to sniff out any unusual business related to the pattern of missing persons: you're going to get yourselves arrested for causing disorder. Sasha's settled in to drink heavily to that end when Griff decides to approach the three elite marines unsolicited in an attempt to engage them in conversation. Unlike the ordinary marines who are fawning over Nogudnyk, these ones rebuff him rudely. Making quick eye contact with Jacobe, Griff decides to bring on the disorder. He throws a drink in the face of one of the trio. Jacobe backs him up by throwing a punch at one of the ordinary marines and shouting an anti-government slogan. Soon fists are flying, but the conflagration doesn't spread as widely as hoped. When an on-duty marine patrol arrives minutes later to restore order, Griff is still standing, surrounded by three angry elite marines, while poor Jacobe is on the floor after a serious beating. The off-duty marines are sent back to their quarters while a handful of civilians, including Griff and Jacobe, are hauled off to the gaol. Sasha and Nogudnyk are untouched. Ada, meanwhile, has left the premises, having elected to follow a woman who very purposefully left the bar the instant the brawl began. She tails her back to the inn and, after querying the innkeeper about her, boldly knocks on her door. The woman, Alma, opens but is guarded. Ada infers from the conversation that Alma is some kind of smuggler who, for a fee, can get things on and off the moon without government interference.

While Jacobe and Griff cool their heels in the drunk tank, they meet Huwel Kovacs, arrested for theft and concerned that Clarke may inflict some summary justice on him. He promises to guide you to a huge cache of coral dust if you can bust him out.

The rest of you regroup at the inn after surreptitiously placing surveillance cameras around the gaol to record any comings and goings. The innkeeper delivers a message from the governor: you are invited to tea on the morrow.

Image credits: NPC portraits are screengrabs from YouTube videos of AI-created art.