The Rissan Simulation

Re-cap of sessions 89, 90, and 91 played on 13 and 27 February and 6 March 2026.

Location: Rissa (Halcyon 3211)

Dates: 172-5601 to 188-5601

You arrive in the Rissa-Yarid system safely and make your way to the mainworld: a class-B starport orbiting a small planet that has a (barely) breathable atmosphere but is otherwise only marginally hospitable due to cold temperatures and exposure to solar radiation. Most of its 4,000 inhabitants live on the starport and are connected in some way to the megacorporation that owns it. Jacobe grew up here and despite his years away still remembers the ins and outs of the place.

You meet his old friend, shipbuilder and mechanic extraordinaire Stepan Kitto, in a gritty spacer's bar catering to independent traders like yourselves. Kitto is intrigued by the ancient plans for maneuver drive modification that Griff found on Typhos. He'll even do the work for free (off the books, of course, because it's technically an illegal mod), but he needs a favour from you in return.  His elderly father-in-law, Hiroshi, is dying, and his final wish is to spend a few hours in a virtual-reality simulation reliving the moment he first met and fell in love with his long-dead wife, Wandia. And because they were both avid fans of an obscure author from old Earth named Jane Austen, he wants the simulation to be set in Regency England. He will play Mr Darcy and a computer-controlled Wandia will be Elizabeth Bennet, meeting at a society ball. Kitto has set everything up with a local business that caters to such escapist desires: Memor-Eez. You lie down on a couch, have the Simscape 7000 strapped on your head, are placed in a light coma, and enjoy a dream-like experience in your mind.

The thing is, as Kitto explains, everyone on Rissa knows that despite the amazing sensory verisimilitude that Memor-Eez's computers can provide, the sims are always better when there's more than one human mind involved: the interaction of human arbitrariness and computer programming just produces a more satisfying experience. To that end, Kitto has hired some off-world professional actors to work as "extras" in the Austen sim. But recently Hiroshi's health has taken a turn for the worse and they've decided to move up the sim while his mind is still active. The actors are only set to arrive in several weeks from now and Kitto needs someone to take their places. Will you do it?

It turns out that you are surprisingly eager to pull on breeches and petticoats (in VR, at any rate) and act like primitive Terrans of four millennia ago. Nogudnyk decides to attend the ball as dashing Lt. John Stone of the Royal Navy.Torka adopts the avatar of an older, retired navy captain sporting outsized mutton chops. Griff elects to play against type as a young sensitive poet named James Bennet, cousin to Elizabeth/Wandia. Practical-minded Jacobe figures that he can best fulfill this mission as a "below stairs" character: he will be Evans the butler. Your remit: to act our your roles as best you can while ensuring that nothing disrupts the budding romance between Hiroshi/Mr Darcy and Wandia/Miss Elizabeth. Kitto jabs his finger at you: "No hitting on my dead mother-in-law. Your job is to make Hiroshi look good so that computer-Wandia has no trouble falling in love with him. I mean, she's kind of programmed to, but something unexpected could throw off the algorithm. You need to prevent that. Think of it like being his wingman for the night."

Thus instructed, you make your way to the Memor-Eez clinic on the main mall and settle into the couches where your bodies will lie, unresponsive, while you attend the ball in VR. (Hiroshi is "plugged in" from a different location, a palliative care facility on level 4.) You find yourselves at Northlake Hall in southern England, 1813: it's a fine early autumn day and a string of horse-drawn carriages are rolling up to the entrance of large country house, disgorging the finely attired guests who are attending the ball. Jacobe/Evans takes up station on the portico to better keep an eye out for the arrival of Hiroshi and Wandia, while Nogudnyk/Lieutenant Stone and Griff/Mr Bennet are ushered into the ballroom where most of the guests are gathered. Soon enough, Hiroshi/Darcy arrives and finds his beloved on the dance floor. So far, so good.

When you spot Elizabeth's younger sister Lydia pushing through the crowd, apparently to reach Elizabeth and convey some important news, Nogudnyk/Stone intervenes quickly to prevent any disruption of the couple's mood. As it happens, Lydia is more than happy to gain the attention of the dashing young navy officer. She explains that she and her young friends — a gaggle of teenagers and tweens — have been marvelling over a curious discovery in the so-called "Long Corridor" that leads from the manor's small parlour to the gardens at the rear. While playing hopscotch there, they realized that the corridor appeared to have grown longer. (Through long use, the children had become accustomed to the number of hops and skips required to travel the length of the corridor.) They then confirmed their suspicions by counting out, in paces, the length of the Long Corridor compared to the adjacent servants' hallway which *also* runs from the parlour to the back gardens. Although architecturally the two passages should be almost exactly the same length, the children had determined that the Long Corridor was in fact several paces longer than its neighbour. It made no sense!

Nodugnyk, aware that this is probably just a glitch in the VR simulation, succeeds in convincing young Lydia and friends that this apparent discrepancy can all be explained by geometry: Stone launches into a long and convoluted discourse about this science that ultimately persuades the youths that there is no real mystery here. Losing interest, they drift off to other pursuits, although Lydia lingers somewhat longer to enjoy the attentions of the handsome lieutenant. Crisis averted.

Meanwhile, Griff/Mr Bennet makes the rounds of the guests. Although he botches his effort to politely thank his hosts, Lord and Lady Northlake, with an impromptu poetry reading, he fares considerably better when he slips Hiroshi/Darcy a love poem that can be deployed to impress Elizabeth. 

A second dangerous distraction looms when a member of the kitchen staff approaches Jacobe/Evans to say that a servant has gone missing. The butler retraces her path from the kitchen to the ballroom and discovers, while passing through the small parlour, that the door to the Long Corridor is now closed. Entering the dimly lit Long Corridor, he spies a single discarded shoe about halfway down the passage, along with spatters of blood. Not finding any indication that anyone exited to the gardens, he examines the area more closely and realizes that a section of the nearby wall seems to be phasing in and out of existence: each time it fades, he sees a vast, desolate rocky plain stretching away in all directions under dark roiling clouds, illuminated from time to time by violent lightning strikes. Evidently the VR simulation is glitching out somehow. Will this be a problem? Perhaps not, if the corridor can be sealed off from the ballroom next door. Suddenly, a flash of lightning silhouettes a creature moving across the plain: something vaguely humanoid in shape, but with strong, thick arms ending in sharps claws; headless, but with eyes and a fanged mouth set in its chest.

The ravenous horror from the dark realm

Concerned that this creature may have abducted, even slain, the missing kitchen servant, Jacobe tries to seal off the Long Corridor at both ends, discovering in the process that the north and south doors were both clearly designed to be locked and barred from the inside. Uncertain of the significance of this detail, he secures the south door and sets a watch on the north one. When he sees the creature's hands and shoulders emerge from the portal — which seems to be growing wider all the time — he shouts and waves his arms; the creature retreats through the portal, just as cautiously as it had entered. Jacobe collects Griff and the two arm themselves with halberds seized from the ornamental suits of armour in the entrance hall, earning surprised looks from several guests as they do so. 

About twenty minutes later, four of the creatures emerge into the Long Corridor. You rush them, slay two, and drive the others back through the portal. But when you do, you get a glimpse of the dark realm beyond. There are many fissures and crevices criss-crossing the desolate, rocky plain, and scores of furred arms and eery headless shoulders are emerging from many of them. The creatures are legion. And they look hungry.

Change of plan. It doesn't seem likely that you will be able to contain these creatures long enough for Hiroshi to complete the Jane-Austenesque romancing of the avatar of his late wife. You decide instead that it's time to mash up genres. You hustle back to the ballroom and confer with Hiroshi/Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. You explain that, as improbable as it seems, the manor is under attack by a regiment of brutish, hairy Americans (it is 1813, after all) and it is imperative to get the innocent non-combatants to safety. Taken aback at first, Hiroshi soon warms to this turn of events: what better way to demonstrate his bravery and his love for Elizabeth? 

You leap into action, organizing an exodus of the vulnerable toward the portico and the carriages that will whisk them away to safety, while others run around the manor gathering up weapons from various locations: a brace of pistols from the upstairs bedroom, dueling swords from the library, fowling pieces from the basement, and a blunderbuss and knives from the kitchen. [Torka's Leadership skill plays a key role here.] You hear screams as the horrors burst forth from the Long Corridor, attaching party-goers in the gardens and breaking windows to gain access to the ballroom. They smash through the southern door and swarm into the small parlour, but Jacobe slays four and drives the rest back in a stunning display of halberdry [box cars on his combat roll!], giving Griff/James Bennet time to engineer a deadly mound of combustibles in the centre of the ballroom and allowing the last of the non-combatants to flee to safety. Then you retreat up the stairs to the second floor, fighting a rearguard action in which Nogudnyk weaves a balletic dance of death with dual smallswords [another nat 12!]. To your astonishment, Hiroshi decides to remain with you, evidently relishing this new direction the simulation has taken. Below, Griff is surrounded by the ravening horrors in the ballroom: he is prepared to sell his life dearly by igniting the combustibles before he is torn limb from limb. But Nodugnyk has no intention of letting this happen: he grasps a chandelier rope and swings down from the balcony to pull Griff to safety just as he lets fall his lit taper. A fiery conflagration ensues, destroying many more of the creatures. 

Yet still they come. Barricaded in the main bedroom, you figure there's still a way to give Hiroshi an uplifting ending to this simulation. Using curtains and bedsheets, you lower yourselves to the ground through the window and flee across the grounds. A half-dozen monsters spot you and give chase. One by one, you turn to face your pursuers, buying Hiroshi time to escape and rejoin his beloved. In the final scene of the simulation, Hiroshi fells the last of the horrors just as the pale light of dawn begins to lighten the sky, then turns and salutes his fallen comrades before hurrying away to find Elizabeth. The simulation is over.

You awake on couches in the Memor-Eez offices and tarry a while as the technicians and medics ensure that you are ok and not suffering from side-effects of the drugs and the Simscape 7000. Soon enough Stepan Kitto contacts Jacobe to report that his father-in-law was thoroughly delighted with the simulation. You have made a dying old man very happy. Of course, this also means that Kitto will be motivated to express his gratitude by getting to work on your maneuver drive mod right away.

You ask the Memor-Eez manager why a Jane Austen simulation took such an unanticipated turn. After some analysis of the records, Dr Bogza hypothesizes that this novel element was introduced into the simulation by Jacobe's mind. He wonders aloud if Jacobe has, perhaps, untapped mental powers of some kind. You prefer to deflect from this line of questioning. 

Before you leave, Nogudnyk pitches the idea for a branded simulation based on their laser-tag experience, while Torka offers to serve as a programming consultant to refine the Memor-Eez software. Dr Bogza promises to take both of these proposals to his superiors.

Image credit: Portal horror from Regency Cthulhu © Chaosium