Play date: July 6, 2014
Game date: November 9, EY218
Location: Orange Valley, Bashois, Nodapar system
Previous events: Bishop cheats on Warden Whang
What Volkova has found partway up a slope looks like a thin doorway, over two metres high and half a metre wide, with its outline partially obscured by the scree. Malcolm is the first to enter the dark recesses, brandishing a flashlight. The extremely narrow hall means that he needs to turn sideways to get around. It's awkward and he leaves his backpack at the entrance with the rest of the party. He shuffles down a bit until he finds what looks like a broken door that was made out of thin stone. Clambering over the rubble he comes upon a four-way intersection with the same narrow corridors heading off. He shrugs and goes right, marking his way with a grease pencil he pulls from his Blingmaster. After some more shuffling he comes across a carving in the wall, like a trough or bas relief of a thin tree.
Not sure how to interpret the carving he shuffles back to the entrance and enlists Volkova's help. Her more generous proportions make for more of a squeeze but she manages it. The broken door looks like it was broken somewhat recently. The sharp edges haven't worn down yet but then again this far from the entrance the debris is fairly protected from the elements. She estimates the door was broken within the last decade or two, but can't be any more accurate.
Finally squeezing her way to the trough that Malcolm found she examines it for a while before deciding it likely contained xenotech of some sort, maybe of the sort that Choi was apparently going on about. There's a fragment of something in there, a dull piece of what looks like twisted, striated metal about two centimetres long. In such cramped quarters and with only a flashlight she can't tell much else.
They continue on and after another strenuous sideways hour during which they pass by various intersections, alcoves, and other incomprehensible features, they find a trough with the xenotech still in it! It's about fifty centimetres along its longest axis and indeed does look like a branch or tree in shape. She removes it very carefully, finding it fairly flexible, and then she and Malcolm head back, following his grease pencil marks back to the outdoors.
Volkova notices that the branch reacts strongly with the strong magnetic field of the planet when she waves it about and how it reacts depends on how she bends it. What it actually does is a mystery, though, and licking it doesn't give her any more ideas. She decides to try Dreaming and focuses on the branch, but all the squeezing in the tight labyrinth has tired her out and she falls asleep, the others only realizing that she's not meditating when she begins to snore. Waking her up, everyone agrees that it's best to head back to Minty Alley and try to glean some more information when everyone's together.
Back at Minty Alley, Bishop spends the day continuing to instruct the Alleyans and by the time the day is mostly done he's convinced that they'll be able to keep the slug colony alive and use is properly. He heads out to see how his captain is doing and finds her in the same state that she was earlier. He leaves her along and sits near her tent waiting for the others to come back.
When Ester, Malcolm, Samiksha, and Volkova come back they immediately show Bishop the branch that they found. Jillian briefly rouses herself to see what everyone's excited about and then returns to her tent with a disappointed sigh. Bishop doesn't have any idea what it does... but surely the Dreamscape would know! He Dreams while the others set up their tents; they'll be here for another night, after all.
What Dreams come are of Bishop looming over one of the small crustaceans that stole their food on the first night, which the Alleyans call a "marrella". He's holding the treelike xenotech in one hand and using it like a puppetmaster to control the marrella's movements. When he wakes up he thinks he knows what the tree does but not how to actually use it. Now that Volkova's also a Dreamer -- he shudders briefly at how debasing to the wonder of the Dreaming that statement is -- he may be able to help her work out exactly how to use the technology.
Both Bishop and Volkova drop into the Dreaming, Bishop smoothly and Volkova like a bull, and he guides her through the details of what he saw before. When they come out of their shared Dream she's convinced that she knows how to use the tree to control the nervous system of the indigenous wildlife! She's sure that it's the interaction of the device, the magnetic field, and the peculiarly high metallic content and make-up of the nerves of the animals here: it won't work on non-native creatures.
Once she's out of the Dream Volkova immediately blurts out what she's realized and everyone's impressed with the exception of Samiksha and Jillian, who is still in her tent. It's late and Volkova hasn't quite worked out all the details of how to use the branch, so she lays it next to her when she goes to bed and resolves to work it out soon. Bishop heads back into Minty Alley for a last night with Ella and everyone left outside sets up watches. All in all it's a night that's pretty much the same as the previous few with the exception of Volkova's mind furiously working out how to use the branch effectively.
November 10, EY218
Bishop starts off the day refusing Ella's offer to stay in Minty Alley permanently. He tells her that he really does need to find Choi and thinks that she likes the sex more than she really likes him. It's definitely time to go. He succeeds at getting more water from the Alleyans, two days' worth, which should get them back to the Hummingbird, and a dory as well! Ella and the other residents of Minty Alley assume that he's going straight to Carerra and are more than generous. Not wanting them to suspect otherwise he takes them up on their offer. He's a little confused by the emphasis they put on its non-metallic construction but it turns out that several of the creatures on the planet, including the enormous predatory anomalocaris found in deeper waters, use magnetic fields to locate prey -- metal makes up a large part of the structure of most of Bashois' life.
Ella also warns him of "ghosts": tall, thin, pale creatures that live on the mainland. No one on the island has seen them but they're legendary and apparently dangerous, if they actually exist. She says her final farewell to Bishop and states her hope that he'll come back some day. He agrees, keeping his real feelings a secret, and takes his leave.
Not wanting to arouse suspicions, the group decides to take the boat. Jillian's pretty sure that the tongue of water they followed for a while on the way here does indeed link up with the ocean and that they can take the boat a fair amount of the way back to their ship. The dory is wide enough it requires two people to pull the oars and Ester and Volkova apply themselves to the task.
Jillian's right, and they follow the inlet for most of the day. By the time they run out water to follow they decide to pull the boat far from the water and flip it upside down before make camp; it's more or less a day's walk from this point and they can get an early start in the morning. It's an uneventful evening, with no pseudopod attacks from the water and Bishop finding them a good place to camp. On Ester and Volkova's watch Volkova uses some food to tempt a marrella and manages to get the tree working, making the marrella move piles of rocks for a while before finally letting it feed. She works out that the smaller the creature the easier it is to control and that when it comes to how easy it is to control animals size does matter. The size of the xenotech tree, that is.
November 11, EY218
The day gets off to a poor start for Bishop when he announces that it's his birthday -- and the beginning of his last year as a teenager -- and Jillian is harshly dismissive. No one's sure what's gotten into her head now but Volkova tries to make things being a bit more festive by offering to make a marrella dance for Bishop, or perhaps letting him fire Irina. He thanks her but refuses.
While camp is being packed up Jillian and Malcolm work out a more efficient way to get back to the Hummingbird's cave. It's all he can do to bite his tongue at her nasty mood. The path they work out despite her snapping at him makes the trip back a very nice one and the pleasant stroll takes them half a day. The Hummingbird is exactly where they left it and inside they find a cat who is very happy to see Jillian!
Everyone takes turns taking very, very necessary showers. Malcolm and Volkova do a check of the ship's systems and everything's fine. Jillian takes the heart sculpture that she put as a centrepiece outside and smashes it with a borrowed Khnuta, mumbling something to herself as she does so. Once that's done she's in a much better mood and, she insists, so over Xao. When she climbs back into the ship she sees that Volkova's placed the tree as the mess table's new centrepiece.
If they're going to fly to Carerra they'll have to wait until it's dark. They take advantage of the downtime to have an impromptu birthday party for Bishop. Samiksha cooks a surprisingly nice Vishnan meal. Jillian apologizes to Bishop for her earlier behaviour and insists that she'll make a special piece of art just for him later.
While they're eating the matter of exactly how they're going to get to Carerra comes up. They could land in sight of it and hope to threaten the inhabitants with their cannon, but that doesn't feel like a good idea. The mainland here is very flat with shrubby plants that wouldn't come anywhere near to hiding the Hummingbird; if they land on the scrubland anyone, military or not, who comes anywhere near the ship would see it, even with the camo netting. There would be lots of places to hide the ship in the foothills and mountains to the east, but those are far enough away to require a week's walk down to Carerra. Volkova insists that she could make the ship waterproof; the hull is already airtight and she could pipe oxygen from the large life support supplies directly to the atmospheric engines. The Hummingbird wouldn't be able to dive deeply at all but could remain submerged and lift off from the water's surface. She's completely serious but her idea only gets her raised eyebrows and mocking stares.
The eventual plan is take the dory all the way to Carerra, hide it nearby, and pretend to be Gandhis. Jillian's certain that they'll be treated with deference if they pull it off and she's also certain that she can pretend to be one. Samiksha's very reluctant to shave her head, and as it turns out she won't have to. If they're not taking the Hummingbird it will be a good idea to have someone on board who can fly; if they're not back in ten days Samiksha will fly the ship to a spot two kilometres east of Carerra and wait for them there.
Everyone has a lovely night of sleep in comfortable beds that night.
November 12, EY218
Loaded down with three days' worth of water and six days' of food per person, everyone says goodbye to Samiksha and trudges off when it's bright enough. They've got their camping equipment, weapons, and the xenotech tree. It's a half day of walking to the dory and then a half day of rowing to the island's edge, the stronger members of the group taking turns at the oars. They camp and work out the lighting so they can row most of the way in dim light but get to Carerra in the dark. It's tricky, given the bizarre pattern of light and dark on a moon thats orbiting a gas giant, but they think that they've figured it out before they go to bed.
November 13, EY218
Rowing across the straight is simple enough and everyone hopes that the dim light that's bright enough to let them know the way to land -- the magnetic field varies enough that a compass is useless -- is also dim enough to keep them from being spotted.
No helicopters come by but about a third of the way across a large shape can be made out in the water. On the order of twenty metres long, it's stalked eyes and row of flaps undulating down each side indicate it's likely an anomalocaris. There's a moment of panic when Volkova states that although the dory might not be metal they have lots of metal items on them and the beast likely sensed that. She pulls out her tree and starts to bend it to attempt to control the thing in the water before Jillian orders her in no uncertain terms to stop. They don't seem to be tempting enough for the anomalocaris to take a bite and as it glides smoothly past they all let out a long-held breath.
A light fog's come up and they're surprised when Carerra suddenly makes an appearance, much closer than they'd hoped for. There's no response from the prison, so they quickly make for the shore and hide the boat in a small shelter, happy to not have been spotted.
Flipping the boat over and hiding as best they can under the strange plants near the water's edge they creep up onto shore. Ester and Jillian have their assault rifles openly slung on their backs and Volkova's got Irina over her shoulder. Malcolm goes for the dashing sword look. Bishop, as always, is armed only with his charm.
There isn't any road running along the coast and so they head inland in a curve keeping a good distance from Carerra; its lights make it easy to locate. if it's an old prison there should be a road leading to it from some direction. The plants here are brittle and fanlike; Volkova in particular breaks them as they walk along.
Malcolm's the one who finds an old, broken road running due east of Carerra. They form up and start walking west, hoping to look intimidating. There's a guard post up ahead in the chain link fence that surrounds several buildings.
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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 1, shockingly cheating on Warden Whang (running total: 19)
Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 0
Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 7, rounding up)
Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 0 (running total: 4)