The Widening Gyre Campaign/Session 2

Having partaken in the visions floating through this time loop, Zylch doesn't respond well. Thankfully, he's ignorant enough to avoid perceiving the true extent of the horrors outside the cockpit window, which saved his mental state.
We now enter a true null zone. The longer we stay in this space, the more our etheric supply will drain until we, too, become lost and absorbed into the vast nothingness. A quick aside about null zones like this: they function as Ley line insulators, and they can be utilized to jump between lines (assuming one has the space to do so). Due to their relative lack of stability, null zones are typically small, as any disruption in the surrounding aether can collapse the null space, producing an effect like a small null bomb. Then why is this space so large? Does it have to do with the staged collapse taking place around Bishant?
Now essentially flying blind, Zylch uses the ship's shields as a dowsing rod, to follow the trail of energy drain. His focus on this has the drawback of not watching that intently for anything, or anyone, following us, not even the ghost ship from before.
The Kidney has re-established control of Durham's body and can finally remove the ventilator. Durham's last moments of consciousness are spent panicking over the loss of all his senses before being locked once again within his psyche. This is completely fine, and no one should think about the ramifications.
Bradley and Bartholomew are recovering from their injuries. Fritz, who was unharmed, is itching to help. Gundahar decides to give Felix and Brent some therapy, using two wildly different methods. He approaches Felix with a nihilistic message, his life being meaningless in the scope of the mission. Felix rebuffs him, confident he's here to assist in the advancement of mortal knowledge. It becomes apparent that Sylvia's "students" are here partially to satisfy their curiosity with various horrors, as well as to validate her narcissism. Dissatisfied with the response, Gundahar kicks Felix out and moves on to Brent. He gives Brent more of a traditional "good vibes" approach, emphasizing how much Brent matters to this mission and how devastated he would be if anything bad happened to him on the way. He even claims that he would be the most devastated by Brent's death, except maybe for one of the capuchins. Brent seems downtrodden, but then takes a different meaning from Gundahar's words and gets the impression this is more "personal." Gundahar, keeping things strictly professional, sends him back to his boss.
The bridge is extremely quiet. As Zylch pilots he begins to hear something. The flow of aether draining from the shields begins to form a pattern, flickering and creating something like a song. He records the pattern and listens back to it. The signal of this song seems to be coming from a different direction than the one we're headed in, and Zylch decides not to pursue it for now. Captain Marley, having heard the song before, recognizes it as a simplified Idolmarite tune. Rumor has it that those who hear and investigate the song's origin can never find it, and often meet their end doing so. Leaving the song behind, still distracted, Zylch doesn't notice the approaching threat until the last moment. He's barely able to swerve the ship to avoid a sneak attack, lurching just out of the way of etheric lance fire. The ghost ship is back, having hidden in an etheric wave, and it's now attacking us! It fires another lance, but Johansson manages to redirect our shields to absorb the etheric energy.
The ghost ship, now close enough to be seen in more detail, appears to be no more than 50 years old, though it's extremely battered. It's unclear whether this damage came from the null zone or previous wartime activity. It fires one last desperate lance at us, exhausting its supply, but the ship and the shot are swallowed up by the wave, both disappearing.
With the threat gone (for now), the executives and some officers discuss the time loop phenomena. Sylvia proposes the absorbed energy from the ghost ship has become quantumly entangled with our supply, which isn't ideal. She decides to head outside again, seeing our shields flicker and drain in the direction we're headed. The vast null space also allows her to see the Basilica in the distance, seemingly intact and gleaming with a light she knows shouldn't come out this far. This is probably a vision from Noloth. She devises an alternative method to travel that she thinks will save us time and energy, cutting the engines and using the shields as an accelerator.
The null zone effect attacks her, and she realizes she must get back inside. She relays her method to everyone, and we debate the risk. Zylch is not convinced we can maintain the direction and fears overshooting the target. The Kidney abstains. She tries to convince Gundahar by opening her mind to him and sharing her vision of the intact Basilica. Her mind is apparently pleasant, and somehow, he can see the vision, even as just an empath. He recognizes both the Basilica as the one we're targeting, and that the method can work, but the experience freaks him out enough that he votes against her. He runs off to his quarters to relieve the burning in his eyelids.
Zylch then informs her of the Idolmarite song and shares the recording with her. She goes out into the open aether (again) to listen to it. Essentially staring into hell while she listens, her vision of the Basilica flickers. Sometimes it's burning, sometimes it's intact. She sees shapes of… something… living there. Is it a god? Is it a normal person? When is this image in time? Did it really survive? She focuses on the pattern of shadows moving around, concluding it's not a single entity, but a confluence of people. Not just that: it's a mirroring of various times and timelines. Who could be here? Kirva? Leandra? Othal?
Zylch is still piloting. On the way to the edge of the null zone, he and Captain Marley crack open a few beers and chat. Gundahar puts aloe on his eyelids. Sylvia spends "quality time" with her students. The Kidney decides to search for a religious connection to Sylvia's findings, and it discovers something interesting: when Kirva did not, in fact, bring the end times, there was a schism of sorts: some followers turned to Leandra, thinking Kirva had abandoned them, while others viewed Leandra as a false prophet. Kirvanism declined in popularity, and many, seeking comfort and healing in times of destruction, turned to Idolmar, who had a sort of renaissance. Additionally, the end times inch ever closer, and the Horizon is coming. It's unclear whether this will result in the reopening of the Pantheon War (and the annihilation of the cosmic population) or the gods abandoning the cosmos entirely. It's unclear whether the mirroring Sylvia saw at the Basilica may refer to a timeline in which the former or latter has occurred. (Gundahar also does something in secret. All anyone else hears is "spongy.")
We've hit the edge of the null zone and are once again back in the open aether. The vision of the Basilica vanishes, no longer able to project into the null zone. Approaching what we think to be an island of some sort, we discover it's a ship graveyard, replete with vaporized and slagged automata. The etheric flow seems to pool here, leaving a mass of junk and casualties as far as the eye can see. The ships seem to vary in age based on their radioactive decay signals, some having been junked for a few weeks, others for centuries. However, Gundahar knows the vibes here are rancid. If some ships have only been here for weeks, could someone be hiding here, watching us? We may not be alone any more...
Category:Session Summaries