Starving, Stranded, and Pug-less (UVP - Campaign 1 - Session 7)

PCs:

Adella - Maker; expert in gyroscopes

Gallin - Vance; editor of open source spells, class of 485AW

Arc, Adna, and Ren had been standing outside a burn't out hovel, debating their approach to entering the titan R8-By, when suddenly their three companions disappeared in a flash of light and temporal energy. The two vislae scarcely had time to be stunned before a second flash brought them (plus two Vances) back as if no time had passed. The aftershock of their return knocked out everyone in the party for several hours, including the involuntary time travelers. Darkness and dusty ash settled on the strewn forms of seven vislae as night descended on western Indigo.

Eventually, two vislae stirred: Adella and Gallin. The Maker and Vance noticed each other moving and got together to try and take stock of the situation. Gallin still had Levin's Blessing in his mind, so he cast it to regain some of his strength. Adella went over to the mules to grab a ration and do the same, and discovered some unfortunate facts. Vorgo was missing, along with two of the mules and the lion share of their supplies. There wasn't enough left for the week-long journey to the Porcelain Citadel. That was the direction the mule tracks lead. Had they been betrayed by their zilat hireling? Would Vorgo really make an enemy of some vislae if he thought he could get away with it? In any case, Bron was missing as well. This wasn't looking good. Most of the other vislae were injured, unconscious, or both. They helped and/or dragged the others into more sheltered positions, and then settled in till morning. Come dawn, we'll all replenish our magic and we can sort this out, they reasoned.

As dawn crept over the artificial mountain behind them, Adella and Gallin did indeed feel the light of the Invisible Sun seep back into them. They were once again in tip-top shape, adventure ready. Unfortunately the others were not. It seemed that for everyone except the two of them, the violent return trip through time had wiped out their magic. It might return in a few hours, or perhaps not for a few days. Bron and Vorgo were still missing. They needed to act not or face a week of starvation and dangerous foraging for want of supplies. Adella and Gallin told the others to stay put while they prepared a ritual to try and figure out what was going on.

They knew the ancient gate aperture at the summit of the mountain was a place of power, so they could likely use that for some long form magic. Adella and Gallin hiked to the top, discussing what they should use the ritual for. They decided a scrying ritual to try and locate both Bron and Vorgo was most pragmatic. At the peak, they felt the latent energies of the place and retermined the necessary ritual ingredients. Four hours of time (relatively straightforward) over the course of which they needed to slowly pour out several measures of water which had not been touched by sunlight for at least a week (somewhat less so). They hiked back down the peak, discussing where they could find this component. In the mule packs maybe? Perhaps the water in their flasks was sealed enough to count. No, most of them were among the missing supplies, and it was best not to pour out what was left in a ritual if they weren't sure it was a qualifying ingredient. They'd need that water to stay alive. What then? Well there had been water down in the first room of R8-By, visible by the hellish light of Bron's summoned Ash Knight when they opened the sealed doors. And those doors were covered by a hovel, so the water down there was likely still untouched by the sun, and had been for some time. They decided to risk trying to retrieve some of that water.

Back at the hovel and equipped with a skull and a battered and empty keg they had found among the refuse of some long gone revelers, the two vislae carefully opened the door. They planned to tie a rope through the eye sockets of the skull and then lower it down into the water to scoop some out and seal it in the keg. It would take about two rounds to get enough water. Huddled together in darkness, they began drawing water. Immediately they heard a horrible screeching from below.

"QUERY? QUERY?!! ENTER SEARCH! ENTER SEARCH!"

Through the darkness they could just make out the form of what looked to be a bear-sized owl below them. Its movements grated as if it was made of stone or metal, and it sounded like it was getting closer. The snapping sound of a large beak was quite alarming. Gallin blurted out:

"Uh, Vancian textbooks!"

The owl golem stopped and there was a whirring sound. Faintly glowing tendrils of liquid data immediately began worming out of various locations from the drowned book stacks and coalescing into a vaguely humanoid shape in the air right in front of the owl's beak, which was open and emitting light in a way which suggested it was projecting the figure that was forming. The flickering ghost transmission took shape over the course of a round, babbling garbled, static-y data snatched from various Vancian textbooks as it took shape. Adella tried to ignore this and draw up skull-fuls of water as fast as she could. They didn't have quite enough by the time the engram projection was complete, and it clung to the doorway attempting to crawl up towards them while the owl golem resumed screeching and getting closer also.

Thinking fast, Gallin cast a Knock spell to dislodge the solid-data engram projection and tried to come up with a harder query for the search golem, hopefully something not cached locally so it would take longer to fetch.

"Gottfried's Study Of Book Stacking: The Genteel Vance's Noble Pastime!"

Adella would have raised an eyebrow if she wasn't trying not to drop a water filled skull dangling at the end of 40' of rope, but the query seemed to do the trick. A much thinner data stream snaked up from somewhere deeper in the soggy stacks, and the search engine golem opened its beak to begin what was looking like a slower projection process. The book existed, but it was self published by an old teacher of Gallin's and had extremely limited distribution, niche to say the least. It was somewhat astonishing that this creature was apparently fetching it, or some garbled version of it, and Gallin began to wonder what wasn't in R8-By's archives. Gallin's quick thinking bought Adella just enough time to get the last of the water they needed, and they dumped the last of it into the keg and slammed the cellar doors shut. Time for the ritual.

Another tiring hike to the peak ensued, this time lugging a partially full keg of ritual water unspoilt by sunlight. The two vislae arranged the keg in the center of the gate's aperture and began the four hour process of chanting and slowly pouring out the water. Gradually, steadily, an vision took shape in the air above them. It was huge, stretched across where the ancient portal once was like a lens in the sky. If it was a lens it was a bifocal lens, because the top and bottom portions were showing different visions. In the top vision, they could see Bron and the Ash Knight fighting what looked to be a being that looked like a ball of rapidly shifting faces and light wreathed in fire. It was blasting copious amounts of said fire which the Ash Knight was barely absorbing. Possibly some form of angel? In any case, the surroundings indicated Bron probably wasn't far away. It looked like he was in a craggy area just to the east of them.

The bottom vision showed what looked like mechanical horses with gun mounts for heads. The riders wore bulky space suits with opaque glass helmets. Spectrum Satraps. They were riding northwest towards the Porcelain Citadel, leading what was undoubtedly the party's stolen mules. Adella and Gallin could see the supplies still on the mules, as well as a little cage that hadn't been there. The vision shifted, and they caught a glimpse inside the cage where a little pug cowered. Vorgo! Perhaps not betrayal then, but kidnapping by raiders.

And that's where we called the session! Gallin was voted MVP.

-------------------------------------------------

This was a relatively short session since we only had two players able to make it and ended up using most of our time just hanging out and talking game mechanics. It was a nice bit of open ended problem solving, and kind of ended up being an introduction to long form magic since there was a place of power close at hand and both of the present PCs had recently unlocked the ability to perform long form magic. I tried to inject a bit of uncertainty and suspicion with Vorgo and Bron being missing, and I think that landed well. Bron is currently dealing with the fallout of time travel on behalf of the rest of the party! Paradox Angels are no joke.

In regards to playtest feedback, I got notes from the players that they were enjoying sessions which featured exploration and wanted more of that. Hopefully there will be lots ahead as we begin to unspool the map ever westward. I also got some notes that the MVP voting was feeling a bit awkward, especially in sessions with only a few players, so we might drop that. I may just start rewarding extra vim for "clever uses of magic to solve problems" and "experiencing the unique qualities of new locales" or something like that.

Hopefully next week we'll have the whole caravan back together.