Mysterious Qada'ath [CHA'ALT campaign, session 12]

 

This week, we had only 3 players.  Drogon the human sorcerer, Gorra the grog (sand construct) priest, and Juan Tufrifo the crystalline warrior.  

They leveled-up, and I asked them to each check out Cha'alt Ascended [free download here] for special abilities and feats.  Each PC would pick one based on either their class, race, or events of the campaign.  Juan picked explosive damage (class).  Drogon picked glyph scrying (class), and Gorra picked engineer so he could become a sort of techno-priest (little by little, he'd been exposed to the high-tech universe of the Federation).

Normally, I'm prone to speeding things up, getting to the central action that I've built-up, taking care of that, and then on to the next big thing.  But for whatever reason, I decided in this session that I'd slow things down, alter the pacing of the campaign.  What if, I thought before putting pen to paper, the whole adventure took place on this luxury starliner while on their way to Alpha Blue, the space station of lust?

While that would extend the arc to more than 3 sessions, some of the narrative threads would fulfill an entire seasonal arc.  Would that make this more like a bottle episode because it's rather self-contained?  I don't know.  In the end, this session was another fun ride in the CHA'ALT campaign, so let's dive in.

I assumed that when the PCs looked up at the big monitor at the starport connecting-gate, trying to find the right flight for them, they saw a "3" on the travel time column and assumed it would be a 3-hour flight to Alpha Blue, which is definitely possible with light-speed or faster-than-light drive.  However, this particular joyride, on the S.S. Vernice, was a Weyland-Yutani pleasure cruise around the more scenic parts of the galaxy, and was scheduled to take 3 standard days.

After the PCs woke up from their post-coital nap involving the female passenger, Kassy and the obsidian dildo, they found a note.  Kassy thanked them for the good time and VIP treatment, but after waking up, she realized the washer/dryer wasn't working properly and switched rooms, so the adventurers could keep this one all to themselves. 

Before I forget, the PCs had a collective dream, as is common on Cha'alt and among natives of the planet... does it have something to do with the free-flowing zoth?  Perhaps.  I'll transcribe it below...

"You're dreaming about the slutty zoth-witches - open desert, twin suns, fuchsia sky, purple-veined worm that's about to enter a chocolate cave, but the cave is too small for the worm's head.  The purple-veined worm secretes an oily, chartreuse syrup that glows feverishly in the inhospitable desert heat.  The worm goes for the cave, breaching it.  The worm seems to be moving through time and space.  In its wake, a portal opens, leading to Quorta'ath, the dimension of gelatinous horrors and unbidden flesh.  A translucent magenta ichor oozes over an obsidian landscape, pink tentacles reach out... slippery, undulating; they find loathsome purchase upon your seven souls - and then you wake."

This didn't happen until the end of the session, but it'll make more sense if I explain it now.  The sex-magic performed by the zoth-witches provided the adventurers with knowledge of how to access Quorta'ath.  However, those specific memories won't be consciously available until after their task is performed.  A sneaky way of getting the PCs to fulfill their end of the deal before the witches reveal the crucial information.

Once their sister-witch has been freed from the ambassador on Alpha Blue, they'll know exactly how to find the way to Quorta'ath.

Shortly after reading the note and getting themselves situated, there was a knock at the door.  A neighbor in the suite next to them came over to borrow a cup of atomized sugar.  While he was there poking around their kitchen, he asked them who they were and what they did, reciprocating by telling them he was Professor Parsley, a botanist who perfected a sophisticated light array that could be used to help agriculturally poor ecosystems.  

As he was leaving, the PCs heard people in the hallway on their way to the cafeteria.  I reminded them that they hadn't eaten in quite some time and were starved.  They followed the crowd (on the way, spotting a casino room where they'd have Arcturus Hold'em in the evenings) and reached the cafeteria... but without bracelets that needed to be scanned before entering.  There were 3 passenger bracelet grades, tangerine, teal, and light-blue.

Several ideas were bandied-about on how to acquire bracelets.  Thankfully for everyone aboard, the PCs chose trickery rather than ultra-violence.  They convinced a small group of tangerine-banded passengers who were still drunk from the night before (it was about noon right now) that they'd won some free upgrade comps.  So, just give them the bracelets so they can load them up.  They agreed to meet them a bit later at the bar.

Putting on the bracelets, they went into the cafeteria to have lunch.  "Welcome back, Dr. Hennessey."  Welcome back, Kotter."  "Welcome back, Mason-Dixon."  These, presumably were the new identities the PCs had assumed.  

After washing-up (I used my own recent experiences on a cruise ship as a guide), they went through the buffet line to see what was available to eat and drink, such as a hot-pink fruit salad in jello with marshmallows.  Next to that was a heated bowl of blue gravy, a station of hot pear slices, protein-enriched gray stuff (someone behind them said, "Try the gray stuff, it's delicious."), followed by sweet breads.  Everyone had a choice between new-coke (syrupy piss-water), Purple Prizm (the only alcoholic drink available), and milk-fizz (which tasted like a cream soda).  

Much different than the worm-based cuisine they were used to, the PCs took a bit of everything and sat down to give stuff a try.  While seated, they overheard a conversation at the table next to them.  Words and phrases like containment facility, cryo-hibernation chamber, alien specimen, and something about giving the dark nebula a wide berth.

Looking over, they saw the three people seated - a scientist, a corporate stooge, and a starliner officer.  Just before finishing their meal, the people at the next table stood up and the starliner officer shook his head wondering how in the Hell the corporate stooge, Bachmann, convinced the captain to let that thing aboard.  He also mentioned that anything can happen in a dark nebula and the ship's insurance wouldn't allow them to go directly into it with this kind of cargo aboard.

Seeing opportunity among the mysterious circumstances, the PCs decided to follow Bachmann, the corporate stooge.  They accosted him in the hallway outside the cafeteria.  He turned out to be a colorful fellow who had traded the captain a ka'alaxian crystal in order to look the other way, since taking alien lifeforms of a certain size off-world is restricted by the Federation.

They went back to Bachmann's room to continue the conversation, which Gorra decided to record.  I wasn't sure if the PCs would have had the time or wherewithal to acquire communicators since their fuchsia tentacled butterfly resurrection, so gave him a 2 in 6 chance of having a new communicator on him (which he successfully rolled).

Turns out that Bachmann really wanted the ka'alaxian crystal back.  So, he asked the PCs to do a little switcheroo.  They would replace the ka'alaxian crystal in the Captain's quarters with a fake but similar looking hunk of greenish quartz.  And in exchange, he agreed to pay them 100 credits each.

The PCs took the job, but had to come back in an hour.  By then Bachmann's forgery guy would have a duplicate keycard for the Captain's quarters.  Curiously, that was around the time that the S.S. Vernice would be passing by the dark nebula.

I think they went back to their room to rest and figure things out before going back to Bachmann's room.  Long story short, the PCs managed to enter the Captain's quarters, swap the crystals, and Gorra (who became a trail of stealing sand) managed to convince a rubik's cube named Artemis-5 to come with them and enjoy a life of thievery and shenanigans.

Oh yeah, the PCs also went to the containment facility, sneaking in as repair men (Gorra's techno-priest abilities came in handy).  They took a look at the Cha'alt star-spawn frozen in there at -111 degrees, and shuddered... not just because of the cold.

Meanwhile, Drogon and Juan could feel the ship changing course.  Shortly after, the lights started flickering and they could see they were heading directly into the dark nebula.

Before panic set in, the PCs went to the casino which opened up early due to the space turbulence and occasional power loss.  

They ran into the same 3 NPCs (in a way) from the GaryCon CHA'ALT scenario - Goldie the gold-skinned female humanoid, Grape the purple space-ape, and UX-45 a droid all sitting around a table, playing Arcturus Hold'em with the dealer.  The PCs joined them, but before long, they were interrupted by a zith lord's apprentice who wanted revenge on the trio of NPCs for murdering his master.  Similar excuses as before, Goldie had period cramps, Grape had a Blue Balls injury, and the droid had assassin's elbow.  They made their excuses and scrammed out of there, leaving the PCs to fend for themselves as the apprentice drew his laser-sword.

Drogon used a spell to dominate him (I rolled poorly on the save) and made him stab himself in the heart.  They stole his keycard and went to his room (info provided by the eccentric but extremely useful Artemis-5), finding a zith holocron and a fancy black cloak which Gorra donned.

About this time, the PCs asked Artemis-5 [being a pop-culture stand-in for Orac on Blake's 7] if he could reroute power to the containment facility where the alien specimen was currently frozen.  He tried to do so, but the dark nebula was creating a lot of interference.  

Eventually, there was a riot at the life-pods (not enough escape pods to go around), Bachmann revealed his plans - he was secretly the High Priest of some xenomorph cult and had stolen the alien from a subterranean temple on Cha'alt where a xenomorph had laid an egg and burst through the chest of a servitor of the Old Ones, grown nearly full-size, and captured by the corporate stooge.  Bachmann wanted to fly the S.S. Vernice into a black hole in the center of the dark nebula and ride the star-spawn to the tentacled bosom of Yog-Soggoth or some such.

Realizing Bachmann was probably mad, they tried to stop him and his creature, the star-spawn also known as Yegwa'az, had escaped hibernation and was on the loose, in the dark, devouring people and souls.

The PCs knew that they needed firepower, and that light would be their best weapon against the ultra-telluric creature.  Aha, Gorra realized - Professor Parsely and his super-light could be used against the star-beast!

They rounded him up and his light, then went after the creature, getting its attention with a whoopie cushion, throwing a blue-stained talon at it, and calling it like a kitty-cat.  It had a fair amount of magic resistance and regenerative properties - which were stymied by the harsh light blasted at the thing - but the PCs wittled it down as Gorra took 2 nasty tentacle attacks, the second a crit putting him at negative 5 HP.  2 more points of damage and he would have been dead.  They asked Artemis if he'd try to blow the thing out the fucking airlock.  He tried, but failed.  

Since their techno-priest was unconscious and Drogon down to his last spell (after a successful fireball), It was up to Juan to save the day by both blasting it with the plasma bazookoid (needing 2 rounds of inactivity to fully recharge) and the next round grabbing Gorra's blaster and firing both while Drogon gave away his fuchsia stone Divine Favor to mitigate the Disadvantage of two-weapon fighting.

They were successful, splattering the star-beast all over the place.  Bachmann tried to make his escape while promising revenge, so the PCs killed him.

Upon agreeing to never fly on this particular cruise line again and not to discuss what happened with anyone, the S.S. Vernice gave each adventurer a blue card loaded with 1,000 credits each so they could have a great time on Alpha Blue.  They debarked from the starliner and headed deeper into the space station of lust.

That's where we ended things.  We talked about laser-scrying glyphs onto Juan's crystalline body, Forgers R Us, the Crimson Bastards turning Bachmann's head into a crimson mist, "We do have a whoopie-cushion," to which I replied "Fine bait for the star-spawn!" and a sandquarium.  

There was some time at the end, and the 4 of us discussed what would happen if everyone died (again), individual PC death (just roll up a new character or play him as a scarred remnant of his former self), my personal abhorrence for railroads, structured (with guardrails) vs sandbox play, and my GM style that tries to accommodate for as much player agency along with PC choice as humanly possible, etc.

Next time, I'd like a less structured session, so will work on some more random tables for Alpha Blue adventuring.  I've got 3 weeks to come up with stuff, since I'll be on a family vacation very soon.  

Oh, and coincidentally, I was finally able to convince our two older girls to watch Alien last night, for the first time, hours after the game concluded.  Danielle was there, too.  My wife had seen that movie with me twice since we'd been together, but couldn't remember much about it.  I think last night was the only time she stayed awake for the end.  Hey, 3rd time's the charm.  I must be in double-digit territory by now because I love Alien, and Aliens even more... if that's possible.

I love to read your feedback, so if you have questions, comments, or want to say anything at all, say it down below!

VS

p.s. You're running out of time to get your weekend badge for the most exclusive, old-school, anti-woke roleplaying game convention in the entire universe.  Of course, I'm talking about VENGER CON III: Revenge of the OSR this July in Madison, WI.  And if you want your very own CHA'ALT hardcover trilogy of books, get 'em here!