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Part 4: The Harvest

The fourth and final episode is the punch-line, so to speak, of the whole adventure. The party has stumbled into a nasty little trap, from which escaping is by no means assured.

Remembering that there is a downed lifeboat filled with survivors from the cruiser Warwamo, the party will want to continue to the starport. They will have 'adventures' along the way and may end up having to deal with the Sword Worlds' base (perhaps steeling a vehicle or two). This should be played conventionally but the Referee should keep track of the days spent since emerging from the Ancient site. This is because the party never left! Everything from the moment the control panel on the ziggurat was touched is an illusion.

Note the Life rating (STR + DEX + END) of everyone in the party (player characters and NPCs). This will reduce at a rate of 2 points per day if wearing a vacc suit, or 4 points per day if not ... but will not affect the perceived Life rating in the illusionary world. Once reduced below 3 for any character that character falls unconscious, and below zero is dead. Should a character become unconscious or dead he will seem to vanish from the party's sight. Should a character be 'killed' in the illusionary world make a difficult Determination role to wake up in the real world (failure means the character is in a coma). This is how the Referee can 'rescue' the payers from their predicament: by running the illusionary world in a more lethal style than normal.

Any character who wakes up will see the following: they are all still in the cavern of the Ancient site. Energy is coursing through the grid pattern on top of the blocks and some kind of portal has opened in thin air on the ziggurat besides them. The portal shows the silver-grey haze of jumpspace, but the greyness deepens to a black spiral, stretching away into infinity ... some kind of immense jumpspace tunnel. There is a moderately strong wind blowing into the tunnel and crackling electricity sparks around the edge.

More disturbing still, a procession of people are emerging from the tunnel and walking down into the cavern. At first glance they appear to be walking wounded, but on closer inspection they will appear to be walking dead! These are the souls (psychic remnants) of many of those who are dying violently in a range of several parsecs from Mithril (many are casualties from the Fifth Frontier War itself). As each figure moves into the cavern they will be absorbed by one of the blocks and that block grows marginally. This place is a giant psionic battery charging itself up by harvesting the energy released by a sentient being at the moment of death.

The character who touched the control panel is still standing there with his hand in place. To rescue the others the awake character must knock the hand away and break the contact. Once this happens make a difficult Determination roll for all the other characters, those that make it will awaken immediately, those that don't will fall unconscious for several minuets. Either way, recalculate their current attributes based on their remaining Life rating. Meanwhile, the portal will close, the last of the figures will be absorbed, and the whole place will return to its age-long dormancy.

The party can now leave, but in a debilitated state. Healing will occur at double the normal rate (as the damage is due to lack of food, not physical injury). Injuries sustained in the illusionary world do not exist.

Okay, so why are the Sword Worlders digging on Mithril, and why now? With the Fifth Frontier War the Sword Worlds' Gram Fleet invaded the Lanth subsector. As a result they encountered the Ancient site on Victoria (detailed in JTAS 2). Comparing this with information they had previously gained from other Ancient sites led them to believe there was a site of potentially enormous power on their own doorstep. What use it will be to them once they find it is anybody's guess.

Why do vacc suited characters deteriorate half as quickly as non-vacc suited characters? Vacc suits contain drinking hoses that a character can draw water from without conscious thought. Thus they were starving, non-vacc suited characters were dying of thirst as well.

Why can't psionic shields protect the party? With the huge amount of stored power available to the Ancient device any shield (technological or otherwise) is easily overwhelmed.

Why did the Ancient's construct such a device? You can speculate ...

For sound effects back in the cavern play "The Cenobites" from the Hellraiser soundtrack, in the background on continuous loop. Start this upon returning to the cavern and seeing the harvest. Also, for added effect try adjusting the temperature where you are playing to just fractionally below comfort level.


 

     

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