Session 13

Session 13 Notes (Audio Recording available here)

Recording starts at 4:15, Recap starts at 4:20

Lorelai asks if they have a graveyard, to which Jorge mentions that dying of old age isn’t a problem they have. After that, Jose starts talking more about their military training, armories, etc. to which Janick and Jedidiah take an interest. The party gets taken up to a room that looks relatively expanded, perhaps by dynamite or some other crude force. The room is domed, about 10 feet high, and is jam-packed with computers (although, without the computers, there would be room for a half-court game of space ball). Jedidiah notices two stations for operating guns, probably ground-to-air. Jose calls it the “heart of the sand”.

4:38

We get taken to a table in the center of the room with lights and indicators representing the surrounding area. They explain the need for food due to living in the caves, point out training grounds and very dramatically talks about the training grounds. They were started by a group of miners who started a new life here, after their tunnel collapsed. Things have gotten harder over the last couple of months. They were no more than a colony of freedom fighters, but Aegis and their “goons” have been putting a vice grip around Varvaressos, which has led to a need for more military action (but also an increase in people flocking to their cause). More people means a need for more food. There’s been more happening in camps under Marisan control, with more heightened security and more mining hours. Since these events, they’ve had to turn from a safe haven to a group of action, adopting the name the “Red Sands”.

4:46

We get a map with tunnels, with one tunnel being a different shape. They are mining through, hoping to connect to a tunnel network connected to one of the cities on Varvaressos. The capital city of Malleus is surrounded by other cities, but there is one city that is much further away from Malleus than the others called Panarium that the Red Sands believe they could take and control, even with their few numbers (due to coming from the tunnels). They expect that they won’t be retaliated against due to having bargaining power. Marisa was never part of the Galactic Hegemony: the Marisan houses are a very large employer of the brain guard, and are largely backstabbing and paranoid. Rowan doesn’t know if the plan will succeed, but knows that the Marisan nobility wouldn’t unify to fight back. The Red Sands don’t expect us to help with the invasion, but want help preparing by getting food and weapons.

5:00

Panarium has a police force armed with laser weaponry and riot gear and probably has more militaristic gear, as well. The city is conical, going down into the ground. Jose has general blueprints of the city (probably not much more than you could find online) and a general idea of where the militaristic stuff would be. They are planning on raising up more of a resistance group in the city, but much closer to the invasion. Ground transportation from the city takes a day, and the city is almost self-sustaining (could probably survive up to a year or two with the entire population, extended by the city’s production). The party starts discussing how long to help and how to help. The party has a transponder chip from the “Handling the Truth”, the ship that was destroyed.

5:12

Aquila notices that the tunnel is no longer green, but red on the table. The drill (named Bertha) is reporting that it’s no longer drilling, but is still running, and Jose is talking frantically into a phone in Spanish. Rowan does a weird brain connection thing to cloak his connection to Jose, but can hear the conversation. Jose mentions there being no more tunnel to drill, and the party joins him on an adventure to the tunnel. There’s a 4x4 with a trailer in the back that the party can get in. Jose is mumbling in Spanish, but Rowan can hear him complaining about what it even means for there to be no tunnel anymore. Lorelai and Jedidiah talk about training soldiers to pass the time. The tunnel is very long, and there appears to be debris and dried up mud everywhere. The stuff at the end of the tunnel has a steam punk vibe: it’s more advanced than TL3, but it’s not quite TL4 (but still a marvel of engineering).

5:25

Rowan is listening to Jose talk to the engineers, and is feeding the information to Lorelai through another psionic contact. The engineer is talking about a void on the other side of the wall that they’re trying to break through, and their seismographic equipment isn’t very good. The others hear a thumping noise coming from the front of the drill that sounds like it’s coming from the outside, but you have to go through the drill to get to the front. The party starts to head there, telling the engineers that they’re moving forward, which triggers loud grating sound.

Combat! We kill 5 pit vipers, which are slithering around the pipes.

6:40

Jose talks about getting the bodies out of the drill, because of their acidic/corrosive bile. They ask for help. Jedidiah investigates the hole: there’s something coating the hole that’s irritating and causes a miniature rash. Shining a flashlight in the hole, there appears to be a cavern with collapsed rubble and smooth stone, unlike something from the drill. Lorelai is wearing two of the pit vipers, but the other three are piled up (they’re very thick, and about a meter in length, with a rocky carapace exterior, like a lampray eel). The party offers ship scrap from the ship that was destroyed to assist with repairs, to which Jose says it would be very nice. Jose wants to go investigate the damage, and the party agrees to go with him (he mentions that Lorelai seems to enjoy it).

Jose whips out a 12-gauge shotgun (he only has projectile weapons), and goes up to the hole that the pit vipers made. On the other end of the hole is a cavern with smooth walls (with cracks and ruptures, probably from the drill).

7:00: Session ends