Sessions 48 & 49 (31 May and 7 June 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), Sasha Danlami (social scientist and comms), Nogudnyk (ex-laser tag athlete) and Jacobe Kyman (pilot, session 48 only), Dr Fomstep (ship's doctor, session 49 only), Griff Kodiak (ex-marine and gunner, session 49 only)

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

Vainglorious and dimwitted, Oledore has thus far proven susceptible to your schemes. Guessing that he can be strung along yet further, you propose additional contests of skill: a camel race and a foot race. Eager to demonstrate his superior athleticism, he agrees. Ada convinces Oledore, who lacks familiarity with the camels brought from Eeren, that Airlock is the speediest among them (his flatulence being the obvious proof thereof), then secretly uses her newfound camel-whispering skills to ensure Airlock's collusion in fixing the race. In the contest that ensues, Sasha easily rides her camel to victory. Supremely vexed, Oledore remains confident that he will win the foot race. But here too he is disappointed, for plucky underdog Nogudnyk takes the prize despite being outmatched by the larger, stronger, and drug-enhanced Dawnseeker. [The liberal use of Spacer's Luck made all the difference here!] 

Deftly deflecting Oledore's anger by appealing to his sense of dignity and honour, you insist he make good on his promise to show you the underground chamber where he took Marie-Eve Onishi. He does so, once again reminding you not to tell Asmod (or Rena, for that matter) about this. When the elevator doors open, you behold a massive underground chamber hewn from the rock, its centre dominated by a huge floating crystal icosahedron in which writhes a blue-gray mass of pulsing tissue and pseudopod tendrils. It's a creature of some kind! Nogudnyk's untrained telempathy detects its feelings of anger and frustration over its captivity. It yearns to be freed. Bolts of electrical energy flash upwards from the crystal to a metal column descending from the ceiling: this entity is the power source for the Dawnseekers' silver spire — indeed, the root of their whole economy.

Oledore, bored by the whole affair, advises you not to get close lest you suffer the same fate as Marie-Eve: disorientation and a fit of madness, as he relates it. Your close investigation of the space reveals another problem: an array of invisible monofilament barriers between the elevator and the crystal cage. You don't have time to investigate further, for Oledore insists that it is time to make merry and celebrate the day's victories. He whisks you back to the pleasure gardens at the top of the spire where food, drink, drugs, and a bewildering variety of hedonistic activities are on offer. Many Dawnguards are already engaged in sating their appetites. You are invited but not pressured to join in.

You huddle amongst yourselves and resolve that freeing the creature below is the best course of action. It may reveal more about Onishi's fate and, as least as importantly, its liberation seems likely to bring about the fall of the Dawnseeker leadership — Oledore, Rena, and Asmod — for whom you have developed an intense dislike. Knowing that you'll need a Dawnseeker's eye to operate the elevator, you decide that drugging Oledore into compliant submission is the way to go. Dr Fomstep prepares a suitable concoction from the materials at hand and the contents of his medkit. But before you can put the plan into action, Asmod and Rena arrive. Asmod greets you politely and pulls Oledore aside for a private conversation. From the looks it, he's giving the harebrained Adonis a dressing-down. 

Ada moves into the crowd and manages to conceal herself behind a large exotic plant within earshot of the conversation. She overhears Asmod tell Oledore that his contacts in Larstown have informed him that you are people of no consequence who will not be missed: Oledore is to ensure that you are dealt with overnight and your organs harvested for the benefit of the Dawnseeker elite. His instructions delivered, Asmod returns to politely bid you goodnight before departing. Rena, meanwhile, begins a private party of her own in a far corner.

Noting Oledore's longing glances in Rena's direction, Ada moves in and begins a whispered campaign of suggestion, intimating that Rena's affections might be quickly earned if Oledore replaced Asmod as supreme leader of the Dawnseekers. What better way to demonstrate his excellence? Why take orders when he could give them? Ada imagines for Oledore a glorious future leading the Dawnseekers with Rena as his consort. The mutinous whispers fall on fertile ground: Oledore says he will think on it. Griff moves in with the spiked beverage and challenges Oledore to a drinking contest. In short order, the tall Dawnseeker is reeling under the effects of the drug. Two Dawnguards propose to carry him to his quarters; you beg leave to accompany them as you, too, wish you to retire to your accommodations for the night.

Once in the elevator, you disable the guards and operate the controls to return to the basement. You are lucky: no one on the spire's three levels notices the goings-on in the glass elevator as it descends through the transparent shaft. Once more in the chamber with the pulsing alien blob, you use Oledore's unconscious body to test the monofilament defenses, nearly disemboweling him in the process. After some quick first aid to stabilize the hapless and still-unconscious Dawnseeker, you develop a more scientific method of detecting the monofilaments. Realizing that you can readily crawl underneath them, Sasha volunteers to investigate the crystal more closely. She gauges that, though strong, the material could be susceptible to shattering with ballistic weapons or explosives. As a final measure, she reaches out to touch the surface with her bare hand — and her mind is instantly wracked by vibrant visions channeled to her by the telepathic blob inside. She sees a succession of images revealing the history of this moon: how it once was a green jungle world populated by coral-like hexapods, united in a collective consciousness; how it was violently colonized by Asmod and the Dawnseekers, who imprisoned the seedmind and hunted the hexapods to near-extinction; how it became the barren desert it is today. The entity begs to be released, promising it can return Karth to its former state. 

Overwhelmed, Sasha collapses; you quickly pull her to safety. She recounts her experience. You feel that this information gives you further reason to carry out your plan. Boy, you really hate those Dawnseekers now! Privately, Sasha notes that she feels different somehow — changed, perhaps, by her brief connection with the seedmind.

Determined to free the creature, Griff experiments with his gauss rifle, aiming at an upper section of the crystal cage while Nogudnyk encourages the seedmind to press itself against the base. A few shots from the powerful weapon are enough to make large cracks appears in the icosahedron. It quickly becomes evident that the cage was less a physical restraint than a psychic one, for its diminished integrity allows the seedmind to exercise hitherto unsuspected psionic powers. Telekinetically blasting the weakened crystal cage to shards, the seedmind levitates upward and begins to rip chunks of rock from the ceiling, casting them heedlessly aside (and injuring several of you in the process). Soon enough it has opened a wide passage to the surface through which it now floats, rising triumphantly into the sky amidst the alarmed cries of Dawnseekers both within and without the now-darkened, powerless spire. You see it briefly outlined against the night sky before it flies out of sight without so much as a "thank you" or "goodbye". 

You realize that you are now in the middle of the proverbial hornet's nest. There appear to be two ways out of this underground prison: somehow ascend the transparent elevator tube, or climb up the rubble to the opening created by the seedmind. Or will you remain here to await the arrival of Dawnseekers and hope to convince them that you were somehow not involved in the escape of their most precious possession? And what will you do with Oledore, the prideful fool you manipulated to bring about his own people's destruction?

Image credit: Seedmind image screengrabbed from a YouTube video collage of AI-generated sci-fi art.