Campaign of the Month: April 2011

Planejammer: The Spelljoined

Sirens a Go-Go
Do we ask him where he keeps his cape?

Sirens go off. Kenari runs to the door to keep an eye on the hallways. Mel digs deeper with the computer checks. Dinya sticks close to Mel.

An Illithid appears next to Etsuriko in loose fitting silks and does a flurry of blows to Etsuriko. Dinya uses Sanctuary on Mel as she works on the computer. Lenata summons a Spiritual Ally. Kenari flicker steps closer and shoots it. The Illithid Monk trips Etsuriko and she is now prone, and he shatters her collarbone with his elbow, then kicks back and trips Ef Utan before he mind blasts him and he is now unconscious. Len’s spiritual ally hits the monk. Len casts Touch of Incompetence on the monk but fails. Etsuriko attempts to grapple the monk but fails. Kenari shoots with another gun. The Illithid channels his ki/psionics to attack Etsuriko. Len attempts to change fate but it still hits. Finn sneaks down the hall. Mel breaks through the firewall to find out the location where the alarms came from. The alarm was auto, the response was manually triggered. Somewhere on this level is where it was triggered. Etsuriko strikes again and Ef wakes up to get an attack of opportunity at it. He then casts Scorching Ray at the Illithid and drops it to its knees. Kenari switches places with Dinya and Ef so she can get an attack on it. Vedis uses Energy Push on the Illithid but he dodges. The Illithid attempts to grapple Etsuriko but she pulls away as tentacles grab at her head. Finn shoots at it but it seems to bounce off like a force field.

Dinya strikes the monk and chops off one of its arms as the tentacles go wild. “Lunch time is over.” It’s engulfed in purple smoke and disappears.

Mel attempts to connect her portable computer to the ship’s computer. Most of the sensors are burned out. Most of the active functions are tied into systems the Illithds are tapped into. She accesses a number of diff files, a few that detail a project going on here: enslaving chronomancers and pooling their abilities, project used across realities. They attempt to tie the computer files to Finn’s circuitry. Also a smattering of info:

There is a report on the relative success and failure ratios of their thralls with Wayland Utani. In addition, there are notes of a number of alternates where they already have complete control. Note of an alternate
that is completely under Aboleth control. Note of the reason they are using this space as a base in this reality is that they followed this chunk of the Warden through a weak point in the alternates. One set of files say “Thune” – see Illithid Cultists of Thune says Klassath – that completely self-destruct when she tries to access it. The Cultists of Thune are a weird branch that are explorers of the planes/alternate realities. The mindflayers of Thune are what came back after an expedition into the Far Realm. Mel checks their ship databases for the word Thune, Far Realms, etc. Info on the Far Realms is sketchy. Occasional probes yield lovecraft-esque effects.

“Quintessence” – Illithid extraction drug. Are they extracting that from the chronomancers?

Lenata casts a spell Hero’s Fortune that gives everyone a hero point.

Kenari detects lightning traps on the door and finds a way to break them. Finn manages to open the door. There’s a block of weird Illithid machinery about as big as a car in it with not as much dust on it as the rest of the place. Seems to be active, with a hairlike line around it.

Kenari finds a variety of traps around it, but they are aimed inwards rather than outwards. No obvious interface. There’s a concealed panel in the wall and where one of the big conduits comes out of the wall into the machine is a lightly glowing emerald, green crystal imbedded into the machine on the side of it. Mel checks the panel. Whatever is pacifying whatever is in there is some kind of radioactive mineral turned to gas and pumped in there. There is a note as to its quantum signature. This can be used to
trace what reality it’s from. “Highest priority, limited access, Tamer’s Creed Only.”

Scry – Looks like a dark-haired male human in his late 30s

Mel discovers it’s a telepathic interface with the control panel. She turns off the traps and opens the box. Psionics take 3pts non-lethal dmg. Top half levitates into the air as mist rolls over the edges. Hand comes out. Skinny 5’9 short dark hair, plain clothes, white tunic leather belt and good boots. He looks really groggy. Lenata checks him medically. Not infected.

Finn reads his aura. LG Human, 5 lvls Fighter, 10 lvls Monk. Vedis offers water. Mel took the green crystal and put it in a radiation proof box. “Thank you for helping me.” “Kor” is his name.

He led a fight against the Illithid on his home planet of Earth. (Earth Prime?) “I hail from the colonies. We take in many immigrants despite the king across the ocean.”

Why did they take him prisoner and not kill him? What did the Tamers want with him? Last thing he remembers is cohorts were engaged in battle and they were losing. He’s not fond of magic. It’s not common where he’s from. Most often wielded by individuals with great power and little ethics.

Mel finds a small bank of subject files that might include him, but she can’t get into them yet. 367 entries under Earth, each with different quantum signatures. There are 8 files, his is one of the locked ones.

They were having a final battle in a place called New Amsterdam. His reality is one of the ones that fell. Kor was one of the last ones left who fought them till the end. For a brief period, he was under the control of the Illithids. He crumples a piece of iron debris like it was paper. “Some things make you more of a target.” Kor of the House of El. CALLED IT.

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You've Got to Ask Nicely!
Meanwhile...

Lenata – “There’s no trigger Melchior…you just push that blinking button and ask Penumbra very nicely to fire.”

Melchior – (scratching head) “…no offense ma’am but I think I might be better off on the Nomad…”

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A New Form of Interrogation
Meanwhile...

Ef Utan – “It took you eight hours to get the location we needed from that captain?”

Vedis – “Well we had to butter him up first before we could get him to talk…”

Ef Utan – “And when did Finn start using actual butter? Wait… I don’t want to know…”

Etsuriko – “Come on Kenari, we are leaving!”

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A Late Night on the Penumbra
Meanwhile...

Melisande – “How could you stand being an empath in a bar? People can be so disgusting…doubly so when shit faced.”

Vedis – “Oh you have no idea…I worked hard to limit it to just picking up drink orders after my first night with some orcs on a rager…”

Melisande – “Have you tried a Polar Storm? That tends to remind people how to behave.”

Vedis – “When you’ve got a Beholder for a boss you tend to not want to destroy the bar…”

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There was waltzing!
Meanwhile...

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Finn and Etsuriko practice their dance steps as Etsuriko slyly guides Finn where she needs him to go.

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Scenes From a Dock
Meanwhile...

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Lenata – “Kenari, you know we need to finish loading these supplies on the Penumbra, right?”

Kenari – “So Melchior, does any pistol count as a holy weapon of Murlynd?”

Melchior – “I’m glad you asked! I have a copy of his edicts right here actually…”

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The Warden - History Files
Melisande's data reconstrcution

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Reconstructed historical files from the Silver Citadel / Starship Warden as compiled by Melisande Denaris and the Artful Driftdodger AI.

1945 First use of atomic weapons in warfare

1957 Sputnik I, the first artificial earth satelite, launched

1961 First manned spacecraft, Vostok I, launched

1969 First manned lunar landing made by Apollo XXI spacecraft

1981 American space shuttle service begins earth orbit

1988-1990 World War III, world-wide general conflict between East and West, limited nuclear weapons exchange before ceasefire

1999 First self-aware “think tank”computer activated

2002 First manned spaceflights to Mars launched (Ares I and II); primary base established at Mariner Valley

2003-2021 Ecosystem collapse in Atlantic and Pacific oceans; world-wide food and water shortages, severe civil disturbances; collapse of Japanese and European economies

2010 American, Chinese, Indian and Soviet international conferences lead to establisment of the First World Council

2013 Rise of the first commercial blocks to control countries

2019 First commercial spaceport opens (First Texan Space Complex)

2020 First Earth-orbital commercial space factory assembled

2034 American and Canadian governments unify and form United North America

2046 Orbital city Atlantis becomes first politically independent space colony; moves to Martian orbit

2047 Columbus, Magellan, and Marco Polo unmanned, interstellar probes launched from Earth orbit

2050 Brazil establishes SAEU (Unified South American government)

2061 Columbus reaches Alpha Centari and maps local planetary system

2066 Establishment of Mount Olympus and Mount Arsia colonies on Mars

2072 Magellan reaches Tau Ceti; discovers terraformable planet (Gaea)

2076 All Martian colonies gain political independence through treaties; Federation of Mars established

2077 SAEU collapses after civil war

2078 Mutiny aboard International Space Station One (first true space war), arrest and execution of mutineers

2087-2089 First Venerean terraforming project attempted, but fails

2095 Lunar population reaches 10,000at Tycho Center moonbase

2100 Genesis project (re-terraforming of Earth’s environment) completed

2101 Terraforming of larger asteroids begins

2104 The Three Suns the first manned, interstellar spacecraft launched toward the Alpha Centauri system

2104-2111 Widespread civil disorders in Asia lead to formation of the Asian Coalition; collapse of the Soviet Union

2109 Thorium fusion propulsion system perfected and goes into system-wide use

2120 Three Suns arrive at Alpha Centauri, establishes first extra-solar human colonies at Gagarin, Armstrong, Greenwood and Sorokin; Second Venerean terrforming project attempted, project crew lost in satellite collision

2126 Start of international conferences to develop a world government

2131 Sorokin colony abandoned

2132 The Humanity launched for Tau Ceti

2138 Artificial gravity control achieved

2144 Martian world population reaches 10,000 (combined colonies)

2145 World Union established; all national governments subordinated to World Union General Council in London; uniform currency, the Domar, established worldwide

2163 Construction of Trans-Plutonian Spaceyards completed

2182 Autonomists Society established, a terrorist organization promoting world-wide democratic anarchy

2200-2300 General dates for the “Great Migration” of manned and unmanned interstellar spacecraft to worlds within a 10-parsec radius of Sol; 28 colonizations missions and 196 exploratory missions dispatched

2236 IMT (instantaneous mass transporter) tested and developed

2261 Albuquerque accident kills 5 million people in nuclear explosion

2266 Breakup of WU General Council; United America, Asian Coalition, India, and other countries develop divergent policies

2277 The Warden, the largest interstellar colony ship ever built, laid down at the Trans-Plutonian Spaceyards by the United Western Starship Cartel program

2282 League of Free Men established, promoting the rise of pro-world government factions, terrorism increases worldwide

2288 Warden completed; trials and loading begin for 45-year voyage to Xi Ursae Majoris double-star system

2289 Work on giant starship Morden begins at Trans-Plutonian Spaceyards

2290 Warden leaves Solar system; 1.55 million human colonists and crew aboard

2314 Warden is hit by a cloud of an unknown form of radiation while enroute. Most of the crew dies from the radiation, while the remainder suffer genetic level damage exhibiting a wild array of mutations.

2420 Warden encounters an interdimensional rift. This environment module was ejected in order to reduce mass and aid the ship’s escape.

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Brains Go POP!
The next room of chronomancer tubes is taken care of...

Ef and Etsuriko attack, Mel casts Bubonic Plague in the room vs. the Illithids. She changes the atmosphere and Ef sees the cluster of Illithds wink out but it’s more like a hologram being shut off. As that happens the tube part of the tubes drops to the floor and chunks pull together into a vaguely humanoid 9ft tall brain golem.

Kenari hacks at tubes on the machinery with her Acid Dagger. Finn triggers his summon spell dampening and hacks at the machinery too. Finn finds a “striator” that illithids use to write with and takes it.

Lenata Flame Strikes the Brain Golemn as it continues to form and it washes off like water with no effect. Ef uses his Flame Tongue to attack the Brain Golemn in a flying charge. the brain matter refills the hole that he slashes. “Neutral Creepy” – Dinya casts Detect Chaos and stabs with Cat Herder and misses. Etsuriko moves up by Dinya. Mel casts Mind Thrust at the Golemn. It Mind Thrusts us. 5 POINTS DMG.

-1 HERO PT FOR KENARI. She tries to phase shift on it but fails.

Finn enables HASTE on party. Etsuriko uses flurry of blows on it as it burbles into a pile of goo. Mel takes a sample of goo. Ef uses a scroll of Scorching Ray to make sure it doesn’t regenerate. As he does a silver tendril shoots out from one of the tanks and hits him in the ankle as he feels stupider. -6 INT. Lenata affects his chances of fate and the attack then misses. Dinya notices the attack.

Etsuriko attempts to cut off the tentacle and it pulls back in the space between the tubes. Mel attempts to sense it and gets a burst of psychic static from it. Mel, in a burst of frustration, casts a Polar Vortex over the area where it is as we all get splashed with goop from the tubes. Finn and Kenari check the small rooms. Canisters with multicolor mist wired into the ceiling and floor.

Lenata casts RIGHTEOUS CONDIMNATION on herself. Ef casts Lightning Bolt on it. Dinya holds. Machinery at front of room is nonfunctional. Etsuriko checks to see if there’s wiring, we didn’t catch and that’s why things aren’t popping. There are some large wires in the bottom right corner. Mel looks for more baddies that might be hiding. She finds a fiberoptic camera on the west wall. Mel heads to the room with the mist.

Kenari flicker steps over to Etsuriko who needs help breaking the wires, and she breaks with extreme prejudice as she crosses wires on the machinery. Fluid starts to boil in the tubes.

Finn tosses alchemist fire in the room with the mist and goes to the next room. The door opens up and sees computer screens and REF SAVE. The door he just closed is blown out of its frame 30 ft into the isle as it
knocks Finn back his head hanging over the raised platform. 16 pts BLUDGEON DMG. His clothes are fine though his shoes are heavily scuffed. The lights in the room go dim.

Etsuriko “I think we broke it.” she flicker steps up to Finn on the stage. Mel tries the middle room on the left and sees machinery similar to a planar aperture drive on the Dodger. This definitely isn’t original to the ship.
Mel attempts to remove the tech but doesn’t think she can salvage it. She then decides to take her anger out on the tech with her gun. It’s def hybrid technomancer territory. Dinya helps Mel break things.

Ef flies Lenata around critter hunting. It shifts around like Venom goo. “Brain Ooze” reacts badly to telepaths and close contact. It feeds on intelligence and heals itself with it. Lenata tries to hit it with an ice javelin but misses.

Third room is glass bottles full of pale amber fluid. Kenari grabs three of them (for science).

Finn opens the last room to a wide array of conduits that lead to a 2ft diameter column rising up in the center of the room. At the top of the column kind of blurry and hard to focus on about chest level is a pale vaguely translucent brain floating there. It makes his circuitry itch.

Ef uses his magic missile want but can’t overcome its resistance. Tubes burst and flood the area around it.

Etsuriko stands next to Finn, takes count of everyone and looks for enemies.

Mel goes to Finn and sees the floating brain and attempts a MIND THRUST for 51pts dmg. Brain goes POP! All of the machinery seems to have gone quiet.

“Hey what was that noise? I found these funky bottles of stuff.” – Finn identifies them as bodily secretions from Illithids. Are they the source of their spell resistance? Mel goes “Ooo! Fill my armband with that shit!”

Finn – “Do we have porters? Where are the porters?”
Etsuriko “For fucks sake Finn, grab a bottle.”

Lenata uses a Holy Javelin at the Brain Ooze. Ef drops Lenata and attacks with his sword and dagger and kills it.

We decide to be thorough and make sure the tubes are destroyed. Mel patches into computer systems to try and self destruct the tubes. Some of us disable tubes. Ef looks around and sees nothing else in the room.

Mel does her computer checks – No destruct protocol for anything on this level. However, there are environmental controls and whatever the computer is feeding out of she gets two pieces of data: Figures in tubes are chronomancers. Collected energy focus generated by the chronomancers is being funneled to a single point somewhere deep in the Dreaming. (It was a rift in the Dreaming that caused the loss of Falak 13). As to the video feed it seems to be monitored from 3 different points on this level and one below it.

Suddenly sirens go off.

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Etsuriko - Journal Part 32
IRL Game Dates: 3.10.23 and 4.7.23

Anya,

We’ve been in the Phlo for over a week or so – we are almost to Oerth & Greyhawk.

Lenata spent some time on the Artful Dodger learning to pilot that ship. Aspodel, Takero and Bennu stayed with us while the bulk of the crew were moved into the Harrowing. We are running as light as possible – mostly to keep everyone else safe.

We had some excitement on the Artful Dodger almost as soon as we hit the Phlo. Distortion waves rippled over that ship – causing some of the more annoying alarms to bleat and whinge – then a huge warrior in full, black, plate armor with a giant polearm landed in the engine room. Her name is Dinya and Kenari recognized her from one of her trips away. Ef Utan promptly flipped out because one of the really nice things about the Phlo is how you can’t just “teleport” in or out of it. [Truly, one of my favorite things – no one can just sneak up on you.] But we weren’t able to come up with an explanation for her appearance and then we were distracted by Lenata glowing brightly and passing out. Not a usual thing for her. Vedis and Kenari decide to hop over to the Artful Dodger to check on her. Of course, your Uncle thought that meant he would be in charge, but the Commodore told him it would be me. Poor guy.

Melisandre used her medbay and checked Lenata out – but came up with nothing really. It was all right though – eventually Lenata woke up again – but different. All of her arcane magic had been burned out of her and she’s now just a true cleric of Celestian.

I wasn’t there – for that – or for Dinya’s explanation about her group’s trip to the Loom and her polearm – but the Commodore filled me in later. Apparently her weapon was covered in some kind of goo that is that was both psionic and filled with luck magic – but evil luck magic. So we suspect the Illithid. [Because of course we do.]

Fenelyn and I were notified by the Artful Dodger that there was a long range contact. Turned out to be three nautiloids. I do wonder how they keep finding us. Though I suppose we weren’t really keeping this next step in our journey a secret. But the Artful Dodger blows up the first ship (the weapons on that machine!!) and that explosion ends up taking out one of the other two nautiloids. I checked Penumbra carefully and didn’t find any Illithid. We get the call that Mel’s ship is crowded and a bunch of us hop over. There’s an Illithid there holding 3 fate-eaters on leashes. Kenari (sly cat) starts grabbing leashes and teleporting the fate-eaters outside and dumping them in the Phlo. Fighting ensues and we’re making a mess on the bridge when Mel decides to follow up her Life Bubble with a poison spell, completely ruining the atmosphere on the bridge. One of the fate-eaters breaks out into plague boils and Lenata quick casts Homeward Bound on it and sends it back where it came from. The Illithid keeps trying Mind Blast (to rather mixed results) and Lenata throws out a Holy Smite that may have hurt more of us than it… Accidentally Ef Utan discharges a Dispel Magic into the fate-eater and that hurts it rather badly – so the Commodore follows up with another and then Lenata hits it again and between them – they kill one of the fate-eaters.

We wipe out the Illithid and I return back to Penumbra to check on our crew. Unfortunately, we had lost 2. One was in shock because he was now a she. And our cook has forgotten how to cook – and wants to go home to make weapons. Takero told us that the third ship raced towards Greyspace – and we are trying to catch up – but not getting any closer.

We made it into the Greyspace sphere. I’m getting these last bits down as Lenata navigates the Grinder. Our plan is to head to Barrier Peaks to investigate (destroy) whatever the Illithid are working on there. Mel’s been scanning with her ship and the whole of Greyspace is riddled with access points, time displacement magic and magical activity on levels she’s not used to – but I suppose since everyone knows the Grinder is fairly Illithid friendly – the rest of us aren’t surprised.

Planning to ship this via Seven Stars mail when we get to Greyhawk. Will write soon.

Love, E.

Anya – pass this on to all the New Hive & Seven Stars crews – Dispel Magic will kill fate-eaters.

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The Silver Citadel
Nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure...

Dinya and Kenari share mental images of what we remember of the ship.

MIND LINK: KENARI, LENATA, VEDIS, DINYA AND EF UTAN

We enter and go through an access shaft. Mel uses the control panel on the wall to try and access the computer system. Primitive tubes!

Pattern of burns and laser bursts along balcony so looks like AFTER when the Parasol Patrol was here. Mel says do we want to check the radiation room since they couldn’t before?

We’re being watched by cameras on the wall. Finn feels a shiver as the dimensional anchor about the space seems to flicker for a moment. Etsuriko grabs a camera off the wall and hands it to Mel.

Etsuriko and Mel and Dinya go to radiation room. Moderate lvl radiation readings as Mel opens the door. One tube has a being in it with a stencil: STARSHIP WARDEN. Computer workstation in upper right corner. Mel
looking for computer logs. Med readouts on figure show in stasis, encrypted notes about a parasite infestation. Statis, life support and a mid level force field. Mel accesses files – ALIEN FACEHUGGERS.

VIDEO FEED OF CAMERAS ALONG THE BALCONY. Generation Ship called the Warden that came from North America on Earth.Crate pops and has racks meant to hold things double the size/thickness of a quarter. Crate behind guy in tube is cracked and that’s what is leaking RADIATION.

We all port and step to the island with the access tunnel. Mel activates the elevator as Finn and Kenari see froghemoths swimming in the water and about half way down as we see it going into the floor…
we’re used to the fields of portals and this is almost like going through a portal but we’re still in the same place on the other side. Weird shifting feeling. 5 more minutes to the bottom floor. We notice another fluxuation in the anchor – borderline power outage.

Could it be a time shift? Finn attempts to scramble the “portal” – reasonably sure he did “something.” Etsuriko notices his psionic circuitry is being shinier than normal.

Mel’s emotion sense picks up on a dozen or more as the tube lowers down.

Ef Utan powers up with scrolls: Shield, Badgers Ferocity, etc.
Kenari activates Shield necklace.

Platform island in large pool with human tubes on one side and android tubes on the other. Long tadpole pool on the right. Movement in room to the south and some to the east.

Lenata casts GLIMPSE OF TRUTH. Lots of cameras on all four walls around us near the ceiling. Ef ferries us across the pool. When Finn gets closer to the wall with all of the bodies behind it he gets a tingling sense
near another door and wall as well. Door to chronomancers is def trapped with lots of electricity. Finn touches it with his hand with the Illithid circuitry. Some of it flows out, reconstructs and goes into the pad.
The anti=personnel field drops and the door clicks open. Each tube has a creature in it – Elves, Elan, Dwarves, etc. South end is a staged area with machinery and Gieger-ish Illithid craft to it. In the center is a large
broken sphere with signs of activity and recent work done. Len does heal checks inspecting tubes and Mel looks for computer records. All are “rated” but no definition as to what the rating is. (Human – Class 5 etc).
Cables connect to the machinery down south. Finn looks for a control panel. Ef casts Diamond Spray on the cables and takes 22 points of dmg as it blows out with a big burst of energy and Ef giggles. Dinya facepalms.
The lights in the room drop to low light levels. The doors click shut and a faint buzz as the anti-personnel field goes up. Finn casts a summoning dampening field. 100ft per 10 rounds.

Tubes start to explode. Kenari flickersteps to the door and pulls some wire out of the wall to deactivate the field. Mel goes to use the panel to open the door as the tubes boom. Finn and Etsuriko arrive at door and Finn
uses circuitry to get the door open as more tubes explode.

Room south, Illithid tech everywhere – to the right is rows of bodies in tubes with machinery. MIND BLAST. Four Illithids crouched down among tubes that Ef hits with Magic Missile.

Finn stealths and searches for machinery since he’s not fighting. 32/28 – a lot is broken but some reasonably intact. Three power stones pulled out of it fully charged. Acid Short Sword. Two hours wandering so far.

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