Do Not Lick the Fungus

Our second session of Deepnight Relation after arriving at the Terminus system. At the end of the previous session, the scout ship Far Reacher had jumped in order to escape an infected ‘space whale’, and the latter had headed back to its lair at some trojan asteroids.

Before it jumped, it had picked up that there was something high tech within the trojans.

Meanwhile, the scout ship Night Runner was heading towards the other (trailing) set of trojans, where it hadn’t picked up any activity, and the scout Princess Starfire was heading towards the habitable planet, where it was picking up signs of life.

Since we’d forgotten, it was decided that the Solomani vessel Leonard Hussey had stayed behind at the previous system, with instructions to head home if they didn’t hear anything for two months. Every month, an update would be sent to them via scout, so they a record of what had been discovered.

The current question was how to get rid of the space whale carefully. They could shoot it with a particle spinal mount. One of the problems here, is that spinal mount weapons have changed quite a bit since the adventure was written. In the updated rules for Mongoose 2e, the damage done by the ship’s weapon has gone from 2D to 16D. That damage value is then multiplied by a 1,000. The space whale has about 10,000 hit points, so will get obliterated by the ship’s main weapon, even if you consider armour.

I do think spinal weapons are just way too overpowered.

But, the players think that this involves getting in too close for comfort. There is an idea to send in some nuclear warheads covered in energy emitting lights, since their previous encounters with them have suggested that they are attracted to energy. Nuclear weapons do too little damage. Only 1D6 x 10 for a nuclear warhead. I assume this damage is so low, because the missile is assumed to explode many kilometres from the target. If it could be placed right up against the whale, or even inside it, then I’d rule that it’d do a lot more than that. I’d already decided that the Solomani ships had some nuclear missiles – I’m assuming that they each carry about 30 nuclear warheads.

Further scanning indicates that there are other, smaller, whale-like signatures in those trojan asteroids. And they seem to be clustered near to the high tech object.

At the other set of trojans, the Night Runner had found signs of mining in the asteroids. It looked like some high tech mining had been done, looking for specific minerals in the rocks. Eventually, further investigation suggests that the minerals mined would be using for building anti-gravity equipment.

At the world, the Princess Starfire discovers a large water filled crater which appears to have been created via the extensive use of ship based weapons. There is now vegetation here, and signs of Fungus infection. There is also a central mountain in the middle of the crater.

A close examination of the crater picks up signs of wreckage from a large Droyne craft, as well as what appears to be a Droyne shuttle. It is old, half buried in vegetation, and there is what looks like an encampment built around it. Even the Droyne technology is showing signs of heavy aging though.

The players really do not want to put boots on the ground unless it is absolutely necessary, given that there are signs of infection. The Princess stays in orbit around the world, carefully scanning it. The crew are given very explicit instructions not to lick any of the fungus. Or anything for that matter.

Back aboard the Deepnight Revelation, the physicists are complaining that they’re not being given enough computer time to model the gravitic shell. They are told that calculating jump vectors in case the ships need to leave suddenly are of more importance. The Erline meanwhile are playing around with designs for ‘lures’ to send to the space whales in order to blow them up. If there are multiple space whales, then this might be too dangerous though.

The Deepnight and the two Solomani vessels head out to the asteroid belt, looking for further signs of mining. Given the size of the built, it’s not surprising that they don’t find anything unusual. Around about now, the Far Reacher comes out of jump space, relieved to have escaped the whale. The final things that they recorded before they jumped suggest that there are maybe half a dozen smaller whales, no more than about 100t in size. They also got feelings of hunger, pain and the need to protect just before jumping.

Then Princess sends back pictures from the planet – there are Droyne markings on the cliff face near the shuttle. It is guessed that these need a sensitive to ‘read’ them, so Shinzaro is sent across in another shuttle. Meanwhile, the larger craft head in-system towards the ice world.

Previous times that they’ve encountered Droyne writings, several of the crew have been able to detect deeper meaning from the writings. These come as visions and memories, but the crew member has to be physically there. So Shinzaro made sure that she was suitably suited up, equipped with a grav belt, and hanging from a harness from one of the scout craft so she wouldn’t need to touch any of the ground. Even though there were no signs of infection at the cave face, they were taking no chances.

As she gazed upon the writings, she started to ‘remember’ what had happened.

The Droyne had arrived in the system aboard their ship the Tresskvuess. It was in pretty bad shape by this point. They had left in a hurry, and hadn’t have much time to plan. Most of their resources had been used up.

The gravitic shell was the most interesting item of interest. They wanted to explore to see if the Entity was within it, but getting through the shell would be tricky, even for the Droyne.

They spent months carefully gathering resources, and building for themselves a Gravity Modulator which could be used to stabilise the gravity around their ship, and get them safely through the shell. Their studies showed that there was something inside – probably a habitable world.

Meanwhile they were gathering resources from the world outside of the shell. What they hadn’t realised until too late was that this world was infected by the Entity, and that they had allowed it to infect some of their crew.

A battle commenced between the infected crew members controlled by the Entity, and the rest of the crew. The main location of the Entity on the planet was found, and they blasted it from orbit as best they could before losing control of their ship. The uninfected tried to program the ship to power dive into what was left of the Entity, and left in one of the remaining shuttles. The gravity modulator, which was almost ready to use, was left somewhere safe amongst the trojan asteroids.

However, the Tresskvuess merely crash landed, failing to destroy the last of the Entity. So the captain, Oyskrusk, and his remaining crew set off to destroy the Entity on foot. They believed they succeed, with the use of biological weapons, flamers and disintegration weapons. However, they themselves were infected. Oyskrusk turned his disintegrator on his crew and himself.

So the Droyne had come to an end here, thinking that they had destroyed the Entity on the world outside the shell. But the world still seemed infected by the Fungus, so very probably they had failed. It did mean though that the high tech signature the Deepnight crew had picked up near the ‘space whale’ was probably the gravity device, which could be used to get through the gravitic shell.

If the crew wanted to do that.

There is still a strong feeling amongst the players of possibly just turning around and heading back home with the information that they have. Why should they risk trying to enter the gravitic shell? If the Fungus Entity is really in there (which has been their assumption, though the Droyne seemed to change their mind about that), would going in free it?

Would it be better to head back with the information that they have, so that a bigger, better, more prepared mission can come back later and deal with the problem?

For now, the player’s plan, in order of priority, is:

• Destroy the Fungus on the habitable world (this may involve destroying the world with heavy asteroid bombardment)
• Explore the rest of the safe bits of Azathoth (the name they’ve given to the system)
  • Nilfheim – the icy world
  • Cthon – the gas giant core.
• Retrieve the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator (aka the gravity modulator)
  • This may involve culling the Cthulhoid Space Whales
• Explore beyond the veil (but they need a reason, and also need to decide who goes in)
  • It may be a monkey jar
  • It may be a prison

That’s where we left things. For now they are heading to Nilfheim, and sending a scout ship back to the Leonard Hussey with the information they currently have.