Sessions 57 & 58 (16 and 23 August 2024)

Location: The Old Seahorse mine, an abandoned Manian dig site on Karth, a desert moon orbiting the blue gas giant Tabernas in the Mendezo-Eeren system (Halcyon 2022)

Date: 339–5600

[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.] 

You're standing outside an abandoned mine dug into the side of a rocky cliff face. The light from the twinkling stars and that reflected from various celestial objects illuminates the sand and rocks around you but does not penetrate the dark recesses of the tunnel ahead. You pull out your flashlights and examine the entrance. Not far ahead you can see a cave-in that has blocked the main passage to the interior, but a narrow side tunnel has been carved on the right. You also notice the grates covering what must be ventilation shafts that draw air from the exterior to the chambers deep within. They're easily dislodged and soon Torka's two scout drones are mapping the tunnels and airshafts — until they run into barriers that bar their passage. Some things don't look right: the cadavers of several miners trapped behind the cave-in seem exhibit odd puncture wounds; a strange dark resin coats many passages and walls; and a number of grates and doors have been smashed open.

Mine office computer

After claiming some gear from the miners' lockers, you make your way to the office adjoining the generator that powered the mine. Cranking the generator back to life, you succeed in turning on the air scrubbers, the lights, and a massive ore crusher. Huwel explains how the operation worked: chunks of rock were carved from the walls with hand tools like proton augers and laser cutters; those that showed promise were sent to the ore crusher to be smashed into small pieces, revealing any ossified Wigoy fragments contained within. The office's computer contains little of interest other than employee records and equipment inventory. The mine was too small to have warranted detailed mapping, it seems.

There remain two unexplored passages, both lacking the rails, lighting, and infrastructure that character the older, established areas of the mine. Huwel gets excited: surely these were the most recent excavations and therefore the ones most likely to retain valuable fossils. You send the drones down one tunnel that descends sharply into a maze of twisting passages, the result of miners eagerly and randomly pursuing rich "veins". When you follow them, you discover something the drones did not detect: badness in the air. Undetectable to your senses, it puts Jacobe sleep before you realize the danger. Retreating and bringing your comrade back to consciousness, you don air filters and proceed cautiously. You discover that in their digging, the miners broached the walls of a massive rift running through the rock: it continues well beyond your lights in both directions. Apparently pursuing fossils deposits on the other side, the miners had built a ramshackle rope bridge to cross the chasm and access chambers on the far side. Nervously, you cross the bridge, only to find that the way forward is blocked by another cave-in. Astonishingly, you hear tapping on the rocks: someone is trapped within and wants out!

Grabbing what discarded miners' tools you can find, you set to work clearing the rocks. After two hours of hard labour, you've freed the poor souls on the other side: four Dawnguards who'd come here in search of salvage and Wigoy bones. They've been trapped for days and — importantly — have no idea what's happened to their home and their leaders. You decide to keep them in the dark. In gratitude for their rescue, they offer you half of the fossils they found: a goodly prize that, when refined, will score you many, many kilocredits of profit if you can get it to market. (The good feelings dissipate somewhat when, later, you take the remaining half at gunpoint.)

Meanwhile, one of the drones investigates a narrow shaft that leads to a strange environment of bulbous organic shapes and giant tentacle-like bioluminescent plant fronds. You catch only a short glimpse before something destroys the drone. The freed Dawnseekers have no doubt: it must have been one of the monsters that stalks the mines. Spooked by their stories of bleached hexapods moving with lightning speed and striking unerringly from afar, you decide that you've achieved your goals and exit hastily. Some deftly placed explosives bring down more rocks at the entrance, sealing the mine once again. 

You bid farewell to the Dawnguards and put some distance between yourselves and the mine. After a rest, you return to the Wigoy coral hive. It's changed dramatically in the days since you left: many more Wigoy are about, accompanied by menacing creatures that you haven't seen before, warrior-beasts that will step in to assimilate any alien organics who prove reluctant to contribute their biomass to the regeneration of the moon. The seedmind shows only slight disappointment when it learns that you are still not ready to give your flesh to the cause. It acquiesces to Nogudnyk's wish to once again partake of the potent mutagen in the hopes of improving their telempathic abilities. The service performed, the young laser athlete finds themself once again transformed: they've lost the capacity to speak but gained a form of telepathy.

With many of your goals achieved and with the Wigoy ramping up their preparations to scourge Karth of its alien invaders (which include you), you figure it's probably time to leave. But you doubt it's wise to return to Larstown ... You hope is that Captain Kelly will get your message and return in the Catherizer. If he doesn't, your options will be few indeed.