WttSS session 35: 'Time to Rest or Time to Play?'
General Summary
The party sits in the middle of the Crossroads, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the desert. Out here, it remains deathly quiet for the most part, the only common sounds the party's voices echoing down the rock's corridors.
Their questionning of the Crossroads' AI continues through the medium of Murad. Whilst waiting for his interpretation of its drawings and feelings there's little or nothing to be seen or heard but the flat rock face. But at least the mystic-killer radio is not playing, proof that the AI has accepted the party as friends.
The only noise to break the silence is an occasional crackling in the sky above the rock, too low in the atmosphere to be part of any normal cloud function but perhaps still part of the normal Crossroads' operation...
In the shadow of the Crossroads
(GM note: we discussed the downtime information that I posted in Discord, which is actually stored under last session's report.)
Build-a-blade
The questionning complete, Murad sets out to the real business: creation of a
kharatuk blade, choosing to augment his with the aspects of the Merchant and Lady of Pain - alongside the Dancer. These choices please the AI, which is still worried about him coming into too close a contact with the power of the Dark Between the Stars.
The AI constructs the blade by letting an further-advanced mercurium seep out through the pink seams in the obelisk rock, which drips sideways off the rockface under an altered gravity, gathering in the air before Murad. The drips slowly assemble themselves into a mercurium rod the size of a classroom ruler.
Legion lockdown
Whilst the blade is created, Zarzur gets a ping from her headset to warn her of activity within the Legion databases. It seems they are going into a strict lockdown, with extra walls and safely between each system that would need manual interventions and permissions to breach. Not wishing to lose her access, she sneakily goes up against the Legion data djinns and manages to keep her door open.
Leave it how we found it
As the party then makes ready to leave, the Crossroads asks what state Murad would like to leave the rock in and whether he wants it to contact him about anything in the future. The party decides to put things back where it found them, to return the rock to its previous standby mode, and that they would like to know of any trouble occuring here.
Murad passes on a message to Zarzur, the AI rock having asked if her headset should be the method by which the rock communicates. It would certainly be the most discreet but it did have a lot of trouble modifying itself even to talk to Murad, the most kharatuk-like of the party. Zarzur agrees to a test run, within which her brain is only
slightly blasted, causing her nervous system to overload and her arm to spasm out of control. As she collapses to the floor, the AI apologises deeply, promising that it really tried not to hurt her and that it'll get better each time it gets to practice. Zarzur agrees to take any messages but that communication should only be in emergencies.
(GM note: 6d12 used against Zarzur's current mind points; reduce by 1d12 each time until Zarzur resists the stress damage - safe communication will then occur thereafter.)
As agreed, when they leave, Murad and Kerman hang back a few moments and safely hear the sound of the music of the rock begin to chase round its corridors once more.
JUMP TO CONTENTS
A shuttle... glide through the desert
The party returns to their shuttle to find that the damage caused by the Crossroads' energy beams, combined with the mechanical surgery needed to assemble Khalil's coolant weapon, has left the vehicle in a bad way. He could make some pretty ropey and temporary fixes to get it going again and the party back to the city in a normal travel time or some safer - still temporary - fixes that would allow the shuttle to slowly hover back within a day.
Not being in a hurry, the party takes the latter option and rides what is essentially a very hospitable grav cart back over the sands; but it does give them good time to rest. Out here the only thing that might disturb them is a dirhad pack or two, but with the shuttle hovering some 10m off the sand the predators just watch bemused as the party drifts by.
Friends with better scanners
Contacting Ghodar Station, Masruq asks if it can scan the middle and deep deserts between the Crossroads and the area around the suspected location of the City of Brass. It is Maina that speaks to them - the operative that seemed to be spying on Zarzur when the party first arrived in Ghodar and who Kerman warned off, thinking Maina was just interested in a pretty, young woman.
Maina says the station's operatives would be happy to help, though they would prefer to do so after having heard the party's latest exploits. Masruq promises that he'll tell all when they come up to the station to retrieve the Caliban Crow once its repairs are complete. Comfortable that they will be the first to hear the new stories, Maina accepts this deal.
When he hears the details of the scans the party wants however, he becomes elusive, though still friendly, admitting that he's not really allowed to reveal what he's seeing. Masruq pushes a little but Maina insists that he's promised not to say anything and Masruq doesn't want to make it a tier-1, social-standing, "I'm better than you" command. Instead, he asks Murad to speak to his spy friend Dana, still pursuing her investigations from the Caliban Crow.
Dana immediately reveals the station's secrets, breaking into their data with ease - but with enough etiquette at least to share this on a secure comms only to Murad. The station has observed the desert tribes gathering a great caravan on the edge of the deep desert. Though the party knew this was happening, it is interesting to them that the tribes have a connection to Ghodar Station given the trouble between the colonists and the tribesfolk.
Dana also reports her suspicions that both her and Murad's patrons' operations have been compromised by a spy in their midst. She offers to leave the Portal-Builder finding compass on the Caliban Crow and declares her intent to return to the Rimward Reach to unveil the spy. She asks that the party keep pretending she is still with them, to give her a cover story to operate more freely beneath.
JUMP TO CONTENTS
A compromised refuge
Under cover of darkness, the party sneaks the Yazdan-household shuttle back into its dock in Bakhtiyar's mountainside home. The party members decide that they are due a proper rest and spend 3 Coriolis days in the household's hospitality.
2 days pass comfortably enough. Khalil learns as much history as he can from the household library and Masruq's computer. In return for their continued good will, Masruq also makes his history database available to Bakhtiyar's academics, who gratefully accept. Masruq in turn makes overtures to Khamzi's court, schmoozing and befriending, partly to obtain another audience with the city's ruler but partly just to keep the connection secure. Khamzi will be available to meet the PCs on the 13th of the Deckhand, in fact the same day the Caliban Crow's repairs are due to finish.
Black Sparrow, she's here
Zarzur spends her idle time keeping track of the people whose computers she's hacked and kept open channels to. One of which is that of the Black Sparrow, whose location Zarzur can track each time the operative comes online to check on the Caliban Crow. On the 12th of the Deckhand, Zarzur gets a ping: the Black Sparrow is here in the Yazdan household.
Zarzur and Murad race to the location of the signal, whilst Masruq checks in with Bakhtiyar to make sure the head of the household doesn't mind them pursuing more spies on his property. He remarks that the party has a lot of these 'friends', but in good humour and has no objection.
Upon reaching the house's dining area, Zarzur and Murad see the servants laying out breakfast, but clearly no obvious spy in their midst. The only beings present are the servants, overlooked by some of the household's treasure-seeking marmosets, who would take a great interest in a
kharatuk blade given the chance.
Seeing nothing obvious in the room, Zarzur turns her attention to the tabula on the hall's wall, which provides connection to the household operations room. Sneaking in, Zarzur easily finds the Black Sparrow's programmes that have been set to monitor the Yazdan household and its communications. As soon as they are found however, they all shatter themselves in virtual flock of black sparrows flying away with a voice acknowledging "you got me again".
Out in the hall, Murad overhears one of the servants asking where Aisha has gone, getting the reply that she's not working today. The servants ponder how and why Aisha was here and yet now has gone. As Zarzur extends her virtual connection to the house's security camera footage she sees that one woman left the dining hall but never reappeared anywhere else, despite the same number of people entering and leaving the one relevant corridor.
The Black Sparrow is Ahlam's Temple, moving freely with perfect physical and digital disguises...
Legion inbound
Zarzur also kept watch on the Legion during this time. Their lockdown remains in effect. However, their destroyer, the Harir, it seems is making its way back to Ghodar. Moreover, as it approaches, it seems to cause interference to Ghodar Station's scanners and comms. The Legion apologises and claims that the same energy problem that affected it in the asteroid belt is still causing trouble. They're still working on a proper fix but can't turn away, as they have business around Ghodar.
The Harir will reach Ghodar Station on the 13th of the Deckhand, as the Caliban Crow comes out of repair there, and when Khamzi can give the party another audience. The closer the Harir gets, the less contact with Ghodar Station is possible...
JUMP TO CONTENTS
