Sessions 52 & 53 (12 and 19 July 2024)

Mysteries of the Wigoy

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

Date: 329–5600

Travellers: Sasha Danlami (comms), Nogudnyk (steward), Torka Jax (security), Dr Fomstep (ship's doctor), Griff Kodiak (gunner)

[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.]

Captain Kelly proves as good as his word — unusual, perhaps, for a pirate and smuggler. But in restoring to him the ancient medallion you retrieved from the gullet of Old Three Eyes, you have made him a rich man. Or so he believes! At any rate, his gratitude can easily accommodate your modest request: to be transported to the strange organic hive-like tower to the north that you believe to be the destination of the freed seedmind brainblob — and also of the hated autocrat Asmod the Dawnseeker.

The camels are a problem: the Catherizer hasn't room for all of them. You decide to leave Huwel with the camels; he will make his way overland and rendezvous with you later. 

Soon you are airborne. There's a palpable tension aboard the ship as the pilot skims low over the surface of the moon: no one knows for sure if the medallion will work properly after lying for weeks in the digestive system of a mammoth sandsquid. Erring on the side the caution, the pilot flies as low as possible to avoid being targeted by the orbital laser batteries. So far, so good: the Catherizer deposits you a short distance from your destination. Kelly hands you a 1 kilo package of coral dust as thanks and bids you farewell.

The Wigoy hive

It's night, but the bright stars overhead light up the bleached-white spiral tower of dead coral forms that rises from the sand ahead. It's over 100 m in height. There are a half-dozen larger-than-human-sized holes or crevices near the base and several others further up. You send your drones to 3D-map the exterior. Their cameras suggest some kind of bioluminescence from within. You think you glimpse movement as well, as if creatures are active inside.

You keep your weapons handy but approach with gestures of peace. Before you reach the base, a voice sounds in your heads. "Welcome, new bipedal alien invaders who released us from the captivity of the original bipedal alien invaders. We are the Wigoy. We have gifts for you."

At the bidding of the telepathic voice, you enter the lower chamber of the hive, a ribbed coral cave as large as your ship's cargo hold. Several 3m-tall, six-limbed, blue-gray creatures with bulbous,  lobular heads and a single toothy orifice are at work here, moving amongst hundreds of dry, broken pods. They are gathering them and carrying them through a soft sphincter door that leads deeper and upwards into the structure, then returning to continue the removal. Each time the sphincter opens to admit one of the creatures, a powerful odour of cardamom wafts toward you. There's no sign of the brain-like blob you freed from its crystalline cage, but you quickly deduce that it and the six-limbed creatures are united in a collective consciousness. Through them, it can "see" you (though neither they nor the seedmind possess anything resembling eyes), in addition to sensing your minds.

The Wigoy explain that they are cleaning up the ruin left by the Dawnseekers who attacked the hive centuries ago, carving open the polyp pods from which new individual Wigoy are born and imprisoning the seedmind. They are rebuilding their forces, absorbing organic material so that the seedmind can produce more polyps. The Wigoy would be honoured if you wished to add your biomass to the endeavour. You politely decline for the time being. It becomes clear that the Wigoy aim at the total restoration of the moon's ancient ecosystem: a green space that is home to no other sentient species but the Wigoy, with sandsquid resuming their place in the blue waters that once dotted the tiny moon. In time, all humans will be absorbed so that this can happen. 

In the interim, the Wigoy are content to gift you with a powerful mutagen they produce, as a token of gratitude for the freeing of their seedmind. Griff is the first to accept; Nodugnyk, Torka, Sasha, and Dr Fomstep all follow suit. To each, a Wigoy comes forward and extends one of its upper tentacular limbs: the tip of one of its three "fingers" folds back to reveal a bony protrusion dripping with liquid which it presses into your flesh. Almost immediately, you sense change flowing through your body. The sensation is unnerving but not painful.

Wigoy gift changes

Griff: your skin becomes slightly translucent. Once every week, a bud grows on your side, quickly expanding and separating into a blobby body double, superficially indistinguishable from Griff. (You immediately baptize this simulacrum “Cliff.”) Cliff (UPP 8A6440) follows your instructions but is not capable of speech; he can perform tasks you are trained in but is not capable of independent action, abstract thought or innovation. (For example, he could shoot a gun at a specific target that you designate but could not grasp the difference between “friends” and “enemies”. He could go to a specific location but could not “find help” or “pretend to be lost.”) He has no strong instincts and, without direction, just stands around in silence. After 24 hours of existence, Cliff dissolves, screaming, into a puddle of ectoplasmic goo — a rather disturbing sight to behold. Each time you bud off a new Cliff, there is a 10% chance he proves uncooperative and a 1% chance he is hostile.

Nogudnyk: a pair of tentacular arms grow from your rib cage below each of your arms. They can grasp and manipulate medium-sized objects but lack opposable digits, making certain manual fine motor tasks difficult or impossible (firing a gun or operating a data pad, for example). If you wrap them close about you, you might conceal them beneath loose clothing. A standard soft vacc suit will accommodate them but form-fitting garments or hard suits, such as combat armour, will require customization. Everyone says you now give the best hugs.

Torka: your body hair falls out and your skin turns a deep blue-grey. Your Endurance characteristic increases by 1D+1 points. (Roll each day or session to see how it has fluctuated.) You also cease to age and develop a nasty allergy to standard healing drugs: they make your face swell uncomfortably, increasing the difficulty of all skill checks by one step for ten minutes after exposure.

Sasha: Vibrant, bioluminescent stripes appear up and down your flesh: you look like a psychedelic disco zebra. You can control the colour but the pattern is fixed. The effect cannot be turned off but could be concealed — for example beneath thick, all-encompassing clothing, a head covering and a mask.

Dr Fomstep: your saliva is now a potent neurotoxin to which you are thankfully immune. Other humans exposed to it (a good lick will do the trick) must pass a Difficult (–2) Endurance check or suffer paralysis for 1D+4 minutes.

This close telepathic contact with the seedmind helps Sasha come to grips with the weird psychic ability she acquired during her previous encounter with the brainblob. Psychic Rend: as an action, you can target the mind of a sophont you can see within 50m, causing it to bleed from its eyes and orifices. (2D damage to PSI, then INT, then END; bypasses physical armour but is fully blocked by psionic shields.) Each such use costs 1D Psionic Strength Points; if this cost brings you below zero, then any excess points are substracted from your Endurance score as damage. 

Onishi's fate

You think to ask about the Wigoy seedmind's encounter with Marie-Eve Onishi. It remembers Oledore bringing her to its subterranean prison where, like you, she developed a desire to free it from captivity. When she touched the crystalline surface and came into telepathic contact with the seedmind, she panicked and fled, overwhelmed by the experience. The Wigoy sensed her only thought, which was to run toward someone she loved and trusted. A few revolutions of the moon later, the seedmind dimly sensed the extinguishment of her consciousness, somewhere to the southwest.

The seedmind has other useful information for you: Asmod's whereabouts. The Wigoy spotted him taking refuge in ruins to the southeast. It seems his flying technology was failing. For the moment, they do not fear him, knowing that the dunes between him and the coral hive are full of sandsquid attracted by his devices. The Wigoy would be happy to have Asmod's body placed in the organic absorption pools so that his biomass can contribute to the restoration of the moon's indigenous life. What you hear is that Asmod is wanted dead or alive, and you're more than willing to take this "bounty."

The Hunt for Asmod

Travellers: Sasha Danlami (comms), Nogudnyk (steward), Griff Kodiak (gunner)

You camp outside the coral hive. (The Wigoy offered you shelter within but proximity to the organic absorption pools kind of creeped you out.) Rested, you begin the hunt for Asmod. Thinking to send Cliff ahead to scout the ruins, you equip him with what gear you can scrape together: a spare shirt and underwear, a laser pistol, and a personal comm device.

Asmod's hiding place

Within hours, there's an incoming call from Cliff's comm. He's been intercepted and detained by two Rangers, Pyeat and Aybram, who have been tracking Asmod. Their heavily-tattooed faces, framed by the hoods of their brown desert cloaks, peer out at you from the screen. They know which ruin Asmod's hiding in, but they need your help.

Soon enough, you're gathered in the lee of a dune near one of the oddly vertical ziggurats. Pyeat points toward a rectangle of darkness at the base, an  entrance leading to the interior. The Rangers, four of them, followed Asmod within but he killed two with some kind of weapon that fired projectiles capable of tracking targets around corners, deadly needles that followed their prey unerringly and, upon impact, caused instant necrosis of the flesh. Pyeat confirms that Asmod's energy shield still seems to be working, as it deflected their crystal-tipped arrows. He believes, however, that if they could get within melee range, their crystal knives would be able to penetrate the barrier.

Your earlier success at interrupting the link between Oledore's visor (still in Griff's possession) and laser lance leads you to hypothesize that scanning for certain frequencies might allow you to pinpoint Asmod's precise location. After some electronic jury-rigging, you find that you are indeed able to hone in on the Dawnseeker: he's in the middle of the ziggurat. From the Rangers, you know that the interior is a grid-like maze of passages, no doubt built for some ancient ritual purpose. You split into two parties in order to take Asmod in a pincer movement. One group will blast him with ranged weapons, then both will charge into melee. You'll also broadcast the same pulse that interrupted Oledore's weapon in the hope that it will prevent Asmod's weapon from tracking you through cover. It's very dark inside the ziggurat, but enough of you have night vision goggles.

Moving stealthily into position, you discern a figure sitting slumped against a wall. You recognize Asmod in his helmet, cape, and harness. You notice a bulky bracer-like device on his left forearm which may the source of the faint shimmering that surrounds him. In one hand, he grips a pistol with an absurdly thick barrel. He does not seem to be aware of you,

You launch your ambush. Gauss rifle slugs and laser beams tear into the energy shield; some of the damage gets through. Then you're charging at him from two sides. Asmod has but one opportunity to unleash his weapon's deadly cloud of darts; he chooses a side, aims — and misses completely. [Snake eyes on the to-hit roll!] You and your Ranger allies are now upon him, blades slashing and stabbing. He goes down quickly. Nogudnyk deals the killing blow, quite deliberately.

You relieve the cruel autocrat of his gear. Pyeat invites you to visit the Rangers at their fort and, upon hearing of your exploits at the Silver Spire of the Dawnseekers, quickly dispatches Aybram to "ride" a sandquid back to their base so that the important news of the spire's collapse can be shared.

You've completed your self-appointed task of bumping off Asmod and you've filled in more of the pieces of the puzzle surrounding Onishi's disappearance. You've garnered a MCr's worth of coral dust (assuming you can smuggle it off-moon; otherwise the Manians at Larstown will take their 50% cut). The Rangers would like to host you, but somewhere out in the desert, Huwel is heading toward you with camels and a plan to get even more of the blue-grey powder. Whither to next? 

Asmod's gear

Psionic shield helmet: artificially creates a barrier to protect against telepathic interference, as per the SHIELD ability. TL 12, Cr40,000.

Arm-mounted energy shield: effective against energy and ballistic weapons (Armour 12) but offers no protection against melee attacks. Currently at 23% capacity; no obvious interface with TL 10–12 electronics or batteries.

Grav harness: fly at speeds up to 100 km/h. TL 13. Damaged, appears to be malfunctioning.

Necroneedler: gyrojet pistol fires a cloud of self-propelled darts that track targets. Taking the Aim action allows a target lock that makes any shot Easy (DM+4). Rate of fire 1, 3D damage. 4 shots remaining.

Vibroknife: 2D damage, ignores 4 points of Armour.

Lazarus patch: advanced cocktail of healing drugs delivered cutaneously. Instantly restores 1D physical characteristic points. Even works on creatures that are "dead" (i.e., all three physical characteristics at 0) if applied within 2 rounds. Asmod had three in a belt pouch (and appears to have used two others on himself in recent days).

Image credits: Wigoy hive illo by Logan Stahl; desert ziggurat ruins by Paul Chadeisson.