Seen and Unseen, or, Here Be Dragons
Quest Summary January 16 & 22, 2016 Campaign Day 36-37
Participants: Ceru, Faendal, Frank, Krazztar, Rethkka
Location: Festival Grounds, outside Karros
CERU and RETHKKA share the information that they learned on the previous day with the rest of the group. They use RABBIT to map Rethkka’s coordinates for NIKOLAI BLACKSTONE’s research station, finding it to be just southeast of KARROS, about five hours away by way of the TASMETRA RIVER. Ceru and Rethkka plan to rent a small motorboat and journey there with FAENDAL and KRAZZTAR to investigate.
Ceru decides not to tell ISAAC that she is going to look for Blackstone, not trusting his state of mind. Instead, she distracts him by suggesting that he spend the day working on his project for the ELF MAFIA.
While the quartet gather supplies and prepare for their journey, FRANK returns to the campsite and asks to accompany them.
Location: Along the Tasmetra River, southeast of Karros
CERU, FAENDAL, FRANK, KRAZZTAR, RETHKKA, CUPCAKES, and RABBIT land their boat on the banks of the river and find the location of the coordinates, which lays on a small flat landing outcropping from the face of a rocky crag. The group climbs the crag to the landing, and FAENDAL finds what appears to be hidden door in the side of the rockface, but with no apparent way to open it. After spending some time investigating and trying to force the door, it suddenly opens, and an ELF SCIENTIST emerges, pointing a blaster rifle at our heroes as he demands to know who they are and why they keep pounding on the door.
Location: Blackstone’s Research Station, underground, southeast of Karros
After seeing Rabbit and the crest on Ceru’s armor, he decides to let the group enter, leading them into a high-tech subterranean research station built into the cliff. They descend a lift into the main section of the station, where they find a living room and a second researcher, a DWARF SCIENTIST who is relaxing in the station’s living room and munching on snacks packaged in wrappers and containers bearing generic black and white VOSS GROUP labels.
The elf leaves the group in the dwarf’s care as he goes to fetch their boss, returning a few minutes later with NIKOLAI BLACKSTONE. When he asks our heroes what they are doing here, they reference the WATCHTOWER on the outskirts of NESTORA. Blackstone initially misinterprets this to mean that they are affiliated with the CHILDREN OF CHAOS, bemoaning, “Don’t tell me you’re with those psychopaths,” but the misunderstanding is quickly settled.
Blackstone explains that he was introduced to that group by his former assistant BILAKAY, not realizing who they really were or what they meant to do. He further states that he agreed to help them because his curiosity about getting to work with the ancient technology they had discovered, which is so far beyond anything he had ever seen, eclipsed any concern he had about their motives. After he saw what they were summoning, he cut all ties.
CERU asks him about his work for the DARK ACADEMY, and he confirms that he developed both the original drone model used by the Academy’s first class, of which Ceru and Rabbit were part, as well as the newer model that uses a HELLION brain. He further explains that he doesn’t know much more about the Academy’s activities or day-to-day operations, as his association with them only extends as far as the delivery of drone units. Ceru demands to know the identities of the masters of the Academy, but he refuses to disclose this information. When she attempts to threaten him, he replies that the research work he is doing is more valuable to him than his life, that if he was no longer able to do it his life would have no value or meaning, and that his ability to continue his research depends on his ability to keep the confidences of those who are funding him.
RETHKKA asks about his ties to the VOSS GROUP, and he confirms that they are one of his backers, providing both funding and periodic supply drops to the station. She tries to bluff him into providing the information that Ceru wants by implying that she would be able to use her position to cut his funding, but he counters by stating that he is a longtime personal friend of CHAIRMAN VOSS, who has told him to his face on numerous occasions how much he values his work.
When challenged on the morality of his work, he argues that war is by its nature messy, and that if our heroes had indeed seen what was underneath the WATCHTOWER then they should understand what VALKANA is up against and how imperative it is that they have weapons powerful enough to defend themselves. This leads our heroes to ask to see what he is working on at this station, which he agrees to show them but also warns, “There are some things which, once seen, cannot be unseen.”
Location: Ancient Ruins, underground, southeast of Karros
BLACKSTONE leads the group, minus CUPCAKES, into a second lift with descends further underground. They emerge into an ANCIENT RUINS, and Blackstone explains that they found this site while investigating electromagnetic anomalies in this area, and then subsequently built the station on top of the ruins to research ways to neutralize the location’s strange electromagnetic properties. When asked by our heroes why they want to neutralize the effects, he clarifies that once they see the source, they will understand.
With that, he leads the group deeper into the ruins, into a large chamber where a variety of advanced scientific equipment is arrayed. On the far wall is a large curtain held up by steel rigging, He flips a switch to mechanically draw the curtain, revealing a massive, flat piece of glassy volcanic rock. At first as our heroes look into its surface, they see only blackness, but gradually their perception starts to shift, and the surface appears to take on a distinctive texture. The longer they look at it, the more depth and texture they see, until it appears to take the form of a patch of scaly hide on a massive beast. Our heroes become disoriented and feel their sense of their surrounding fade away, becoming enveloped in the blackness of the rock, as the form that they are looking at begins to look very much like the mythical -- and as far as they know, fictitious -- beast called a DRAGON. It appears to be slumbering before them, massive on a scale that defies all comprehension, as they float, weightless in the darkness, unstuck from time and space. And then as the sleeping beast comes into full definition as their brains finally begin to fully conceive what they are looking at, they realize that the beast does not have the typical reptilian head of the dragons of legend, but rather an amphibious, squid-like head with long, slimy tentacles extending from around its mouth.
Suddenly, BLACKSTONE flips the switch and closes the curtain, pulling our heroes back to their senses even as they are paralyzed by consuming existential fear, feeling physically sick as they struggle to reorient themselves in physical euclidean space.
Location: Blackstone’s Research Station, underground, southeast of Karros
CERU, FAENDAL, FRANK, KRAZZTAR, RETHKKA, and CUPCAKES spend the night in NIKOLAI BLACKSTONE’s research station, though their sleep is troubled by disturbing dreams. While there, they are given nearly free rein of the main living quarters. FRANK takes that opportunity to search through some of the rooms, including a few of the offices and labs at the back of the station. She seems interested in the computers and data disks, as well as some microphones set up to take dictation, but as the computers appear to be locked and password protected, she ceases her investigation.
On her way out of one office, she runs into BLACKSTONE, who is exiting another lab down the hall. He stops to ask her what she’s doing, and after a brief, evasive exchange between them, she asks if there was ever a young woman down here, explaining that she had heard her friend had been down here. Blackstone becomes incensed and storms down the hallway, into one of the bedrooms to begin chastising the ELF SCIENTIST, whom he calls DESMOND, about sneaking girls down into the base. Desmond is caught off guard and denies having done anything wrong, insisting that he honestly hadn’t done it since “just that one time”.
Blackstone doesn’t seem to buy his denials and warns his research assistant that this is his second strike. He then returns to the lab from which he was emerging when he encountered FRANK. As he is entering, Frank glimpses what appears to be another man just inside the doorway. This new man is not wearing the generic jumpsuit that the other three are, but is very sharply dressed in an obviously expensive, custom-tailored suit. However, as Blackstone walks past this SHARP-DRESSED MAN, he passes right through him, revealing him to be a hologram as he glitches just before the door shuts closed.
The DWARF SCIENTIST then leads the group back to the surface so they can begin their trek back to FESTIVAL GROUNDS at KARROS.