GM Jhaeman's "Dawn of Flame, Chapter 3: Sun Divers" (Inactive)

Game Master Jhaeman

1. Tulgram spent RP to heal SP.
2. He absolutely collected ash samples. Why is not clear, since he realized that this is an ordinary salmandra, but still...
3. He was definitely helping Jin break down the door. This is a normal job for a duergar, tedious but persistent.

Well, are we breaking down other doors now?

With Xylian rolls in the Discussion tab, we can easily go through all the remaining doors

Zharis tugs a little harder.

Strength: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15

Yes, let's at least get the other two doors leading out from here.

Yeah, Xylian has a weapon that ignores 10 points of hardness, so I think we are good with the other doors.

The tiny ship model breaks off in Zharis' hands. Instants later, polyfluid exudes from within the display, slowly rebuilding it.

Having come so far, the determined expedition team has no intention of letting some stubborn doors stand in their way! Through persistent application of force, entrance is made to another room. The walls of this high-ceilinged, cylindrical room are lined with thousands of hemispherical recessions. Most hold dull gray crystals, but several contain crystals that glow.

An Engineering or Mysticism check may provide some more information about the crystals.

This is room C6 on the map.

Zharis puts the little model of their ship in her pocket, and then proceeds into the cylindrical room, picking up one of the glowing crystals to examine it.

Engineering: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (2) + 14 = 16

engineering: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (11) + 18 = 29

Hani considers the purpose of this room and the crystals that seem so purposefully arranged.

Zharis and Hani take a look at the crystals. Hani picks up the brightest one and staggers, nearly losing his balance as his eyes roll back into his head as if he's entered a trance! In a matter of moments, the brightly glowing crystal becomes dimmer and dimmer.

Xylian begins to think a remedial course on surveying and cataloging finds before interacting with them is needed.

Hani... Hani? Are you okay?

Hani seems to be in a deep trance, and is unresponsive!

A Medicine check might provide some more info.

Medicine: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17

Jin is happy about his 'not touching anything' policy.

Well, it doesn't seem to be hurting him. I think I'm just going to leave him alone for a while and see if he comes out of it on his own.

She moves into the other room they opened up. Or waits till we open it up... not sure if we broke them both down and then started looking in, or we're doing one at a time.

An investigation of the room to the south shows it half buried in rubble, as huge, angled slabs of metal lie askew throughout. The walls are scorched and scored. It all leads to only one conclusion: a massive explosion must have wracked this confined space!

Zharis checks the rubble to see if she can find out what happened here.

Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12

Unfortunately, her brain is still reeling from what happened to Hani and she isn't really paying the attention that she should.

Jin will move in to explore the corridor between C10 and C2:

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (6) + 10 = 16

More medicine on Hani

Mad: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (4) + 16 = 20

Engineering check to discern something about the rubble: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (16) + 14 = 30

While Tulgram examines Hani and Zharis pokes through the debris, Jin decides to explore one of the corridors to the south.

What a shame. There used to be a technomagical portal here that allowed travel to a different part of the galaxy. Those collar junkies must have destroyed it for some reason. I wonder if the AI can repair that too, given time. Doesn't look all that hopeful to me. Such a missed opportunity. Honestly, the collar junkies need to be stopped. Destroying priceless things and enslaving everyone... it's so over-the-top evil it's practically fictional.

"Looks trapped." Jin concludes, examining the corridor, before moving towards the last one, counting on Xylian to also shoot it open.

Zharis looks through the rubble to see if she can find pieces that a museum or the DCI would be interested in... ones that might have some magical resonance, or ones with carvings or runes or something that shows what it used to be.

This is storyline stuff... not trying for loot, just the idea of preserving a record of all of this for posterity, etc. She'll collect some samples here, go get some pictures or a video of the alien corpse... that sort of thing, before they leave.

After she is done recording and gathering some samples, she returns to check on Hani. She wonders if he is communicating with the AI that runs this place, since she hasn't seen any other way to do that.

Zharis continues poking through the rubble as Jin explores another area in the complex.

Zharis finds some interesting glowing crystals along with the rubble she was trying to collect for the museum. She shows the rest of the party when they are back together (and Hani is awake again, providing that happens).

As a dusty Zharis returns from digging through the rubble and Jin and Xylian return from exploring the rest of the complex, Tulgram is keeping an eye on Hani when suddenly the telia's eyelids flicker. He's coming out of the trance!

@Hani: You're up :)

@Everyone: Please assume an hour or so has passed since your encounter with Sulphrax.

"I believe we are done. Finish collecting all the samples and evidence you need, we should begin our trek back as soon as Hani can move." Jin waits to see if Hani is still himself.

If sci-fi horror movies taught me anything, we have a couple of hours before the alien bursts out of Hani

Ha ha... that's a good possibility, but who knows. Doesn't have to be horror... maybe it is more like Star Trek or Stargate and he has had an encounter with benevolent aliens who have blessed him with technology secrets that his brain can barely handle. :)

Zharis cleans herself off with a token spell, and does as Jin suggests, making sure she had her pictures and samples and mentions the glowing crystals she found to the team.

Jin, LOL!

Fifty-fifth minute of trance. Pulse is normal. Deep breathing. Pupils move under closed eyelids. Tulgram makes a short recording on a dictaphone, looking at Hani and watching the indicators.

As Hani comes around, he opens his eyes and a gentle smile crosses his face. Finally, he speaks. "My...FRIENDS! I have returned! The things I have seen! My consciousness has been expanded. I have seen some incredible and strange technologies. Truly some amazing visions! At one point...it was troubling...though I am not certain what I saw was someone who wished me harm. There was a being in my visions of impossible stellar geometry, seemingly made up of the stuff of the sun itself!"

Hani finds a place to sit for a moment. "Oh yeah...these...are grenades." He hands some of the crystals to whoever wants them.

As noted in the spoiler to Hani (which you may all read) from on or about Sept. 14th, there were some Mark II Reduction grenades among the crystals Hani handled. THE HEADLINE is that one of the crystals turned out to be a Mark II Ability Crystal. This COULD make Hani's intelligence 20. I might decide to add it to his Wisdom purely as a role-playing device (though having a better will save might be nice). But having a 20 Intelligence changes LOTS of things. Yes, I could use it on any ability score, but considering the nature of the visions, it really ought to go in either wisdom or intelligence.

I don't use grenades, because then I have to scrape the genetic material off the walls later. Well, let's get out of here?

Zharis wishes she could take the holographic chamber with her, but she just turns it off so that her old pal the skittermander wouldn't have to dance to death. She makes sure they didn't leave anything behind and then she joins the others for the walk back to the ship.

Who hasn't gotten their individual XP bonus? What still needs to be done?

I didn't. I don't know - I identified literally every creature here (except maybe that fire snakes) but still didn't fulfill my mission. Maybe creatures for my quest was on other hexes? In any case, no means no. Only the GM sees the big picture.

Okay. If you want, we can go back slow in case there is something else to identify.

XP question covered in Discussion. For the walk back to the ship, what route are you taking?

A straight line would be great, what does the pink star and yellow bars represent again?

The stars and bars are just hexes you haven't been to yet (for a while I was trying to distinguish which were accessible from your current hex, but that proved unwieldy). Any hex with a letter is one you have visited.

"We should ascertain if the inbound ship belongs to the salamander and, if, so, destroy it, so they cannot do further damage to our archeological site."

Having explored The Core thoroughly and delved deeply into the secrets of Noma, the weary and wounded explorers decide to backtrack to their landing site. Hours of walking pass slowly in the unchanging light of the sun, but at last, their destination is reached: the Sun Diver! Hop flashes the ship's exterior lights as you approach and broadcasts a welcome: "Woo-eee, pards! I sure got lonely here holdin' down the fort while you were off gallivantin'. Glad to see y'all made it back in one piece! Though some of y'all could sure use a lie-down by the looks of it."

I think the backtrack plan represents the consensus view expressed in this thread and Discussion, but I'll happily adjust if I didn't get it right.

Hop, got anyone inbound on your sensors? If not, "let's blow this taco stand." She quotes herself from one of her famous early-career movies.

They will do a full systems check and make sure everything is topped off.

I am guessing that our earlier request to have the bots come and dump some resources here didn't work? Just checking in case there are some; don't want to miss that.

I don't think that there was a ship in-system, just we thought that they would show up to find out what happened to slave-collar salamander guy... so if they haven't shown up yet, nothing to fight... and would rather just go back (if possible) since we don't have a lot of Siccatite to use for repairs anymore.

On the one hand, as a researcher, I want to say we have discovered an amazing city, and the universe should know about it. On the other hand, as a bioengineer, I am categorically not happy with my findings.

Tulgram rubs his chin thoughtfully and scratches his beard.

Although I am not sure that we will find something biological here in principle, but. Perhaps some preserved remnants of biomaterial? Everything can be... I'm in favor of exploring the city a little more.

After a good night's rest in the bunks of the Sun Diver, the expedition team decides that they came all this way and it'd be a shame to depart without exploring the rest of Noma!

Okay! Let's assume a night passes. You all recover SP, RP, and daily-use limited abilities. You also regain HP equal to your level. However the food synthesizers work, deduct a meal. Please pick a hex and we'll see where the spirit of exploration takes us.

@Zharis: You don't see any deposits of siccatite left near the ship--either the Speakers didn't understand, or there's no siccatite to be had in Noma.

Treat Deadly Wounds, take 10: +5 hp everyone.

Aye, let's take a look at yer wounds. Well, well, well. Here it is necessary to change the seams, here I will prescribe these antibiotics for you, and here I will simply sew a tentacle for ye. Just kidding! Not a tentacle. Heh!

Hani is pleased to take just a little more time to explore this place. "This is an opportunity we may not get again. We must learn more about this place,"

While on the ship, Hani does take the time to check all of the ship's systems. Should anything be awry, we can rethink further exploration until things are repaired.

engineering check, if needed: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (11) + 18 = 29

Hani takes a thorough look at the ship's systems.

"Looks like everything checks out on the ship. I'm dying for a hot shower and something equally as hot to eat. Be back in a bit."

Okay, in terms of exploring more... blue sun, then the 5 hexes on the far left of the map?

Just a random choice, but we need to pick something, so throwing it out there.

After some sleep and refreshment, the intrepid group of explorers set out once again.

(Zarine is narrating her own vidjournal for this step of the journey... she'll do flashbacks with stills for the earlier part that she didn't directly narrate. Should come through great in editing.)

After some sleep and refreshment, the intrepid group of explorers set out once again. The tall buildings and open plazas of the area near where they landed soon gives way to an area of the bubble-city that displays mixed architectural styles. One style is boxy and brutalist, while the other features graceful arches and curved exteriors. Sections of the area seem to be in one or another of the two styles, but there's a contested area mixing both, and here reclaimers seem to be in a war of fast-paced demolition and construction! With the sides so evenly matched, however, it's hard to see how one side will ever win out.

This hex is now labeled "M" on the map.

Here we go again. Meaningless tasks of meaningless robots. Tulgram looks around gloomily in search of a building that may have been here for a long time and is not subject to constant rebuilding.