Eyes and Pyramids
It is 1121-153, and the Deepnight Revelation is in Jump heading towards the system of Ixisa Yxe/1720 in the VS-X sector. Once it reaches there, it will be only 11 parsecs from Terminus, its destination.
The death of Yan Holdry is still sinking in with the crew, and though many are shocked, the majority support the decision that resulted in his death. There will be a funeral service for him when the ship comes out of jump, allowing him to have a space burial.
Dr Namaper, the head of the biology division, has organised a service, and is asking everyone to prepare something positive to say about Yan. Her plan is to concentrate on his life, not his death.
On arrival at Ixisa Yxe, it is decided to rename the system after him, so it becomes the Holdry system. The service goes well, and nobody causes trouble.
The Deepnight refuels whilst scouts examine the two habitable worlds. One of them is a small desert world with only a small amount of surface water. There is food to be obtained here, but it is very basic microbes. The inner world is terrestrial in size, but has a poisonous atmosphere caused by very heavy volcanic activity. There isn’t much life there, at least not on land.
Scanning of the planet picks up the remains of a probe on the moon. It’s relatively low tech, so definitely not Droyne manufacture. Probably built by the Verg – the species that inhabited this region of space 300,000 years ago. Given that it’s been sitting in vacuum for that time, it’s survived without too much deterioration. Having, it’s data banks haven’t survived.
A closer look at the planet shows signs of previous habitation. The real problem I have with the time scales involved is that very probably there wouldn’t be anything left after 300,000 years. For game reasons though, I’ve allowed there to be some things left. The pile of nuclear material in an old fission reactor is something that would survive. The outlines of a city just off the coast maybe not. But there’s enough to pick up the patterns of walls and streets.
It looks like a coastal settlement was reclaimed by the sea. There is evidence of a few small settlements on this world – maybe it was a small colony. There is also evidence of the Entity – fungal deposits in the soil, and signs of modification in the aquatic ecosystem. Land life has been either buried under volcanic ash and lava, or wiped out by the fungus.
The plan had been to head directly to the system of Orafo/1623, but instead a detour is made to Thidahcan/1922. According to their Droyne AI, this was the homeworld of the Verg.
Now though, the world is mostly dead. There is some life, but there are large patches of dead ground. There are ruins of heavy industrialisation in the distant past, including lots of fission reactors. Also cities, aqueducts and graveyards. Remains of Verg are found – both formally buried and left to die in the cities. There are signs of infection by the Entity in many of the bodies.
A large dead zone surrounds the southern pole. There is hardly any life, though signs it existed in the recent past. As the scout teams head northwards, there is a line where there are plants and animal life, but it is in the process of being consumed by the Entity. It’s spreading outwards in a huge growing circle that will envelope the planet. However, it seems to be consuming more slowly that it has been observed to do in the past. There are also signs that it has done this before. Layers of death can be found in the soil. The Entity consumes everything it can, then dies out. When life recovers, the Entity starts again.
In one of the cities there is a large pyramid, built of stone and metal. It seems to be maybe a library or place of worship. Books are found in the rubble, but they are incredibly fragile and only found by careful scanning through the ground. The cover of one seems to have many circles on it.
The crew make a search for vaults – places that the Verg may have fled to as their civilisation collapsed from infection by the Entity. One is found near one of the northern seas. It is currently buried under ice, but having spacecraft with hot exhaust from their thrusters means the team can melt through the ice in a few days without causing damage.
There is a vault here, and cutting through the stone doors leads to a settlement of sorts. It is full of mummified Verg – it seems about a hundred of them came here to die. They didn’t die of infection, but probably lack of food. On one wall of their tomb is a drawing of a pyramid, and above it seven circles (possibly eyes) forming a larger circle. Spacecraft are heading up towards the eyes on pillars of flame.
There are some books, including a children’s book which seems to explain their religion. The pyramids were central to the religion it seems, and the eyes were the focus of their worship. The aim of the religion seemed to be to head out and reach the eyes.
Going further into the vault, it seems to have been some form of seed bank. Many of the stores had been raided, but there were enough left to be able to compare the life here 300,000 years ago to what is left behind now. It seems most species have been wiped out – only those able to hide themselves away in dormancy, then recover have survived the spread of the Entity.
But there is something about the Entity here – it seems slower at consuming that versions that have been found before. It is still consuming at an exponential rate, so is doomed to consume and starve. But the rate is slightly slower.
Almost three weeks is spent exploring the world and the civilisation that once lived here. Technology seemed to have been low for a space faring civilisation. Computer tech was limited, and they had fission power rather than fusion. But they had jump drives to reach nearby worlds.
After leaving this world, they head to Orafo/1623. There is a world here which seems lush, with no signs of dead spots or infection. It is also inhabited, with long necked humanoids which have a vaguely reptilian appearance. They have stone age technology, and pyramids. At night, fires burn in holes in the pyramids, like eyes in the dark.
The plan is to go down and visit these people.
The Deepnight is now only 7 parsecs from their destination.
As the Deepnight Revelation approaches its final destination (before heading back home), I wanted the players to encounter signs of the Entity. In the campaign as written, there is none of this. For reasons I’ll come to later, I wanted the Entity to be having some influence on the worlds and civilisations nearby. Whether this will work out better I don’t know, but I think it gives me some options to tell more about what it is before they reach Terminus.
It will also provide some options for the players, in terms of what they want to do. Or might have to do depending on what decisions they make. Some of those they might discover at Orafo.
Also, the players seem to have become fixated on Pyramids at some point. I put a few in on earlier worlds, simply because they made sense, not for any big reason. But since the players seem to find them interesting, I’ve made them an important part of the religions in these civilisations.
