Jump to Session 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Session 1: Arrival on Origin World - O.D. 16154-16155  /  Nov 11, 1998

or "Slow Voyage to Meet Some Speeders"

• Preliminary reading:  Player background information, Additional information

The Prometheus docks (in zero-g) with the space station "Florense" (sic) as most of the prisoners lie strapped to their cots, wearing their loose, ill-fitting, generic clothing.  After a substantial delay, a group of guards and attendants enter to manacle and unload the prisoners.  An elevator ride takes them from the zero-g docking hub through a spoke to the rotating ring of the station where a sensation of gravity is restored.

The prisoners congregate in a plain room with benches where they catch a glimpse of the planet below through a pair of portholes which are (strangely) in the wall.  One by one, the prisoners are given 10-element alphanumeric ID numbers which are written on their arms with marker, and their thumbprints are recorded.  Following this brief processing, the prisoners are again led through hallways and into an elevator where they are brought back to the docking hub and loaded onto a transport ship, marked "Elephant 24."  Out the portholes, the passengers note a remarkable view of Origin World with a terminator line cutting across the planet right below them.  On the dark side of the terminator, the PCs see three clumps of light which they presume derive from equatorial cities.

Following a quick but bumpy voyage into the planet's atmosphere, the transport vessel skids to a rough stop on a dirt runway.  Looking out the windows, the passengers note that they are at least a hundred yards short of a building marked "Elephant Runway."  A voice over the intercom explains that the passengers will have to walk to the terminal.  Guards enter from the front of the spaceplane, wearing masks, and one opens the door.  As a guard begins to lower the stairway, the passengers feel the cold air from outside needling through their thin shirts and pants.  The prisoners line up and file down the stairs and across the "tarmac" towards the terminal.  All of them feel the biting cold (about 40° F) and the low oxygen content of the near-Earth-normal-pressure atmosphere.  Aradhana jogs a bit and rapidly gets winded.  Aaron chooses to test the limits of his endurance by running full speed until the wrenching pain in his lungs forces him to his hands and knees.  Questioned by the others, he states that he found the experience "educational."

Inside the building, which is somewhat separated from the outside air by a pair of sliding doors, the convicts find (groan) more seats.  But, quickly, some uniformed folks start calling out numbers: "All A's come with me!"  "All B's!"  When C is called, the 5 PCs stand up, but no other prisoners.  As the PCs are led away, they hear "D" called and the rest of the prisoners stand.  The PCs are led down a hall by a single, Asian, uniformed man while two armed guards follow behind.  At the end of the hall, a jetway leads into the doorway of a ground vehicle.  The Asian man quickly jumps into the front of the vehicle, which resembles a bus in the interior, and closed a door in the metal mesh wall which separates the cab from the body of the bus.  The PCs see that this man has joined a uniformed driver in the front, while a plain-clothed man is in the back.

The man in back introduces himself as a prisoner, Yevgeny Zamyatin (or Gyenovich for short(er)).  He introduces the guards, Wangchuck Dorji and Tapio Korjus (the driver).  As the electric bus begins its 12-hour cruise, he proceeds to spend the next hour telling the PCs all about their destination (Carter Dome), with occasional interjections from Wangchuck and questions/comments from the PCs.  The PCs are quite surprised at how content Yevgeny seems to be in his role as a prisoner, but several dismiss that as a symptom of his 15 years at Carter Dome.  Yevgeny describes the simple labor that the prisoners do, including farming and breaking rocks.  Siriyan disparages the role of a farmer and the agrarian lifestyle in general.  Aaron in particular seems surprised that Wangchuck not only was born on Origin, but seems somewhat proud of it.

Eventually Origin Star sets, leaving the sky temporarily lit solely by Legume, which has a brilliance similar to Luna.  When Legume sets a short time later, the heavens are dark and the prisoners settle in for some rest.

Six hours after leaving Elephant Runway, the sleeping prisoners are awakened by the lurching halt of the rickety vehicle.  They see that, as anticipated, Tapio has pulled off the road and has halted the bus facing a small shed.  Yevgeny passes out CO2-filter masks and the prisoners all exit into the still, frigid air.  Jon investigates the surroundings and discovers some low, fibrous scrub blending in with the brown dusty landscape.  Wangchuck comes out of the cab-cage, unarmed, and disembarks to approach the shed.  When he unlocks and opens the door, he jumps back as he flips on a light switch.  Siriyan, looking over Wangchuck's shoulder, sees a many-legged tan and brown mottled beast chewing on a cable connecting to a large battery.  At almost the same moment, Jon, Emmet and Aaron all see movement out in the darkness.  Siriyan yanks Wangchuck out of harm's way and leaps into its path himself.  The beast in the shed pivots and leaps at Siriyan, barely missing and instead ricochets off the sheet metal wall with a resounding clang.

Outside, Jon and Aaron watch two other shadows slowly approaching the shed from the nearby darkness.  Siriyan leaps out of the shed and slides the door shut.  A moment later, everyone hears the beast, called a "speeder" by Wangchuck, squeal ands scratch at the door from the inside.  Several members of the group manage to climb inside or on top of the bus as one of the speeders rockets out of the darkness and slams into the shed door, on the opposite side of its comrade.  A third speeder collides with Yevgeny, who was standing frozen, but now has his wits knocked back into him.  The now-bruised Russian rushes the shed and slides open the door.  Instantly, the entrapped speeder zips off, followed soon after by its peers.  The danger out of sight, tension slowly declines.

The battery, seemingly intact, is swapped with the drained one in the bus.  The latter one is plugged into the shed, to be recharged by solar panels on the roof.  Everyone re-boards the ground truck as Wangchuck shuts up the shed.  Then the lead guard spells Tapio in the drivers seat and the bus trundles down the road towards Carter Dome.

• Followup reading: Timekeeping on Origin World

or "The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Mid-Morning"

From this vantage point, the prisoners can see some of the details of the dome which Yevgeny mentioned the night before.  It is roughly a quarter-mile in diameter, made of a steel-skeletoned, translucent ceramic that is used commonly in Martian domes.  The bottom 20-30 feet of the dome is opaque, blocking the view of most of the interior structures.  Through the translucency, the PCs can see the inner dome ("Central") where the prison administration is housed, with its tall buildings.  Above this dome, a narrow shaft rises to the opaque apex of the outer dome where Yevgeny says the "Skyport" is located.  The interior of the main dome is divided into four sections by heavily-reinforced vertical walls made of the same material as the dome itself.  Yevgeny explained the night before that these sections are "Res" where the prisoners reside, "The Farm" where some greenhouse agriculture is performed, "Max" where the "Crazies" are housed, and "The Ruin" which is uninhabited.

The bus approaches a large garage door outside the Res section of the dome, but does not enter.  Instead, the PCs disembark with Yevgeny and Wangchuck.  After a brief dash through the cold, thin air, they approach a small door beside the vehicle entrance where Wangchuck hits a button and instructs a face on a video screen to let him and the prisoners in.  The door hisses and opens, allowing the group of seven to enter an airlock chamber.  After passing through the inner door, Wangchuck halts the group and waits silently.  After a brief wait (during which the PCs meet Rio, an airlock guard), a group of about a dozen people rounds a corner and approaches.

The welcome party includes Ruprect Rebka, accompanied by a red-jacketed guard along with several prisoners.  Rebka recites a short and not-too-friendly welcome and introduces some of the prisoners who accompany him as representatives elected by the prisoner population.  Fatima Chaudhry, an old woman with a cane, speaks first.  She is a long-time representative whose constituency includes many of the "Veterans," or those who have been incarcerated for many years.  She expounds on the progress made during her terms in office.  Next speaks Gabrielle Goswami, a short barrel-chested woman who claims to represent the "Locals."  She claims that this segment of the population, Origin World-born colonists, suffer the oppression of the Offworlder-run prison administration.  She vehemently expresses a desire to remove the prisons from the planet and return the world to the colonists.  Finally, they let Jean Allard speak.  Allard (who claims to have only received 24% of the prisoner vote, so he is short of the 25% needed to be an official representative) introduces the PCs to his large, muscular, Middle Eastern "assistant" name Lu Li.   Allard explains that he and his assistant represent "La Famille" among the prisoners and that it is a much better life in La Famille that out of it.
 

As Allard wraps up, a voice from the small rabble of prisoners behind the representatives pipes up.  "I have something to add!" exclaims a bony, tall prisoner in a longish coat.  He pulls a pen-like object from his pocket and clicks the top down.  He opens his coat to display a row of plastic blocks taped to his torso and wired together.  He threatens to set off this bomb unless everyone listens to him.  He then rants for several minutes about a group called "The Preservers" who receive direction from "The Old One."  This man, whom Yevgeny calls Virgil, proclaims that Humanity does not belong on Origin World and that the Old One has prophesied death and destruction to all who do not flee the planet. Virgil speaks into a small electronic device pulled from his pocket saying "Open them."  Shortly after, the airlock doors (both inside and outside) open and klaxon sirens start wailing all over the dome.  Those near the door feel a strong breeze as the dome air blows out the door.  Siriyan hurries around the corner of a building, followed soon after by Aradhana.  Guards arrive at the scene, but Virgil waves them back as he orders people out the airlock door.  Emmet tries to distract Virgil with soothing words, but the bomber's tirade continues.  Meanwhile, a distant explosion is heard, which is explained as an explosion at the Farm airlock.  When three more guards arrive on the scene, Aaron takes advantage of Virgil's divided attention to sneak up from behind and grabs his hand containing the supposed trigger, holding the button down with his thumb.  Rebka exclaims "Shut him down!" and guards approach.  Then Virgil slumps unconscious in Aaron's arms.  After some brief guard incompetence, Aaron disarms the bomb and Virgil is taken away.  As the excitement wanes and people depart, the guards round up Siriyan and Aradhana while Yevgeny reluctantly tells the story of Rocket Day, mentioned by Virgil.  He explains that some time ago with no apparent warning, many rockets launched from Origin World.  While the rockets clearly came from the planet, nobody knew where on the planet they were coming from or who was flying them (according to Yevgeny anyway).  On the way out, one or more of the rockets apparently assaulted Carter and Doom Domes, creating "The Ruin" in the former while nearly destroying the latter.  The launches occurred over a two day period, followed by a lengthy period where the rockets' engines were visible leaving the Origin system.  The rockets left behind some holes in the ground and some pieces of strange materials and electronics.  Yevgeny hesitantly admits that the prisoners get paid by the dome administrators for retrieving such materials.  After relating this information, the clearly distressed Yevgeny leaves the PCs holding his head.  Finally, after all this delay, Wangchuck leads the PCs to the nearby hospital, where they meet the prisoner-doctor Nina Kuscsik, a moderately old woman.  Nina enters the names and ID numbers into her computer and directs the group upstairs to the next doctor.  This subsequent stop involves a non-prisoner doctor injecting some material in the back of the neck of each PC.  Most struggle in some way to avoid this, but only Aradhana appears to have had any sign of success; she leaves the doctor's office with a metal bracelet, unlike the others.

• Followup reading: None

or "Hiho, hiho, it's off to work we go"

The PCs serve themselves (noting there is no meat available) and sit.  As they chat amongst themselves, a woman with short, blond hair approaches.  Leaning into the group, she introduces her self as Allison and offers a short and enigmatic (but friendly) welcome to Carter Dome.  After she departs, Siriyan suggests she is a member of La Famille.

The PCs finish their meal and start to leave.  On the way out, they notice a large board on the wall on which is written "Sandor Wladar: 85" and "Michelle Quen: 48".  The man at the ID-scanning table explains that is the "bet board" counting the number of days prisoners have been missing.  He implies that most turn up dead or not all.

The five Fresh Meat realize they need clothes if they are going to work outside.  So they leave the building and go to the adjacent "store" where they find a single (prisoner) worker and a sort-of wide variety of clothing, foodstuffs, etc.  Realizing they have no credits, they follow the shopkeep's advice to go to the barracks for generic (but free) prison duds.  They wander across the courtyard towards the barracks, but they have to move aside to let a small guard-driven vehicle laden with sheet metal and tools pass by and through an open gate to the other half of Res.  Some prisoners walking behind the vehicle explain they are headed to the Farm to fix an airlock damaged by a bomb (simultaneously with the confrontation with Virgil).  Those prisoners also walk through the gate which is in a roughly 15-foot high wall spanning a radius of the Res section.

The PCs find a barrack and enter in the back where a couple prisoners are doing laundry.  They are pointed to clothing and change in nearby (gender-segregated) bathrooms, leaving their drafty white clothes in the laundry.  They then head back towards the airlock where they first met Rio.  Next to the airlock (but still inside the dome) they detour into a storage building to get "breathers" and warm jackets/gloves/etc.  Entering the building, they see a couple guards, a few prisoners sitting on benches and one prisoner behind a counter.  Upon spotting one of the guards, Jon Smith conspicuously freezes and does not respond to quiet inquiries made my Aradhana.  After some moments pass, he stiffly progresses over to the counter with the others to get his breather mask and clothes.  In the bustle, he surreptitiously hands a small item to Aradhana, as the others later learn (more on that below).  Equipped for the outdoors, the PCs turn to see one guard approaching them and two prisoners rising to join them.

They learn the guard is Fred McNally, a black haired and bearded gruff man.  They prisoners are Xiaosahuang Li and Irina Kalinina.  Xiao is an unattractive Mars-Chinese male with glasses and a perpetual friendly smile.  His polite demeanor ingratiates him to the PCs.  Irina (also somewhat unattractive and barrel-chested with very short blond hair), on the other hand, is brusque or even rude as she strides ahead.  Suffering Rio's sarcasm, the group exits the dome, and heads west into the fields, stopping to grab tools from a storage chest on the edge of the field.  Xiao and Irina grab planting tools and many PCs follow suit.  Jon grabs a hoe, as he keeps eyeing Fred.  With Irina in the lead, they head into a nearly vacant part of the field.  After a hike, Xiao slows and looks to Fred, implying that this is a good place to plant.  But Fred orders them to keep walking into the waist-high wheat, to the confusion and despair of the prisoners.  Fred marches them for about a mile through the fields.

While marching along the rows of crops, some of the PCs detect motion in the wheat.  And then some more!  The more experienced prisoners identify the motion as "fractals," but there is no time to explain (except to say "Don't let them get on top of you!!") before the unseen entities begin to slowly approach the group.  Aaron and Aradhana (followed shortly by Siriyan) flee in the one direction (east) where they do not detect any sign of the creatures.  When Fred turns his back to look for more Fractals, Jon takes advantage of the opportunity and lifts his hoe shaft to reach over Fred's head and grapple/strangle him from behind.  Emmet reacts quickly and grabs Jon's arms from behind to stop him.  Jon elbowed Emmet hard in the ribs, making Emmet let go so Jon could continue his charge towards Fred.  But their struggle attracts Fred's attention and the guard turns a draws his electrolaser.  He squeezes off a few hurried shots, but most miss despite the close range (although Emmet and Irina are nearly hit).  Emmet initially drops to the ground to avoid being hit, and then retreats from the fray.

Meanwhile, off to the side, Aradhana, Aaron and Siriyan are looking at the thin, metallic wafer Aradhana received from Jon when they spot a black shape leap from the wheat 15 yards away, pouncing on something unseen.  Suddenly, a shape appears abruptly near the location of the leaping beast.  The new non-human figure is thin and blue with a yellow, zigzagging stripe down its serpentine back.  The figure turns, revealing a shiny metallic object below its neck.  A flash of light is emitted from it and a sound like a needler is heard by all.  Moments later, the figure bends and vanishes as quickly as it arrived.

Meanwhile, one of the fractals approaches Fred from behind while the guard shoots Jon (knocking the prisoner down).  However, the fractal veers at the last moment and leaps at Jon.  Fred, with a surprised look, aims his weapon, but then lowers it and retreats over to where the prisoners are congregating far from the action.

"What was that?" several PCs ask at once.  Xiao replies describing the black fractals.  Irina claims the mysterious blue-and-yellow figure was a "worm."  Fred becomes angry and demands that she should not call it that.  "Then what was it?" someone asks.  "That... was the Old One..." Fred says distractedly.  Coming to his senses, Fred angers and demands that nobody talk about what they saw here!

Followup reading: None

or "He's dead, Jim"

They move to the nearby medical building where a non-prisoner medical attendant directs them to put the body on a table in an examining room.  The attendant then shoos the PCs out and all but Fred leave the building.  Irina quickly walks away without a word, but Xiao stays with the PCs answering some of their questions.  However, he is also quite new to the prison, so he cannot answer much about fractals or worms.

With Xiao, they decide to visit the recreation building where they play darts, lift weights and watch TV (just old mindless rerun Earth programs).  As the sun sets, they go to the barracks where Xiao shows them some rooms with simple beds.  The PCs decide they will stick together in one room and retrieve bedding, parting company with Xiao.

Then they go to the cafeteria for dinner.  They find it more than half full, with several familiar faces in the crowd.  They each hand over their cards and 0.3 credits are deducted, leaving 0.3 credits each.  They sit with Michael, the kitchen worker they met at lunch, and a few of his friends.  Among them are Todd and Achmed, also kitchen workers, and a small man in a wheelchair called Bramin Weddensilla (or "Bramin Wheelchair" as Michael calls him once).  Bramin seems quite shy and reserved compared to the others in the group as the PCs relate their adventures.

The PCs spot thin newspapers littering the tables and pass some time perusing them.  Aaron soliloquizes on the absurdity of the end of Literati Novelle.  The PCs note a man with red hair at the end of their table blatantly staring at them.

The room hushes as a man in black enters the building.  Achmed mutters that it is Solomon Weatherby.  Solomon approaches the PCs' table and, eyeing them, begins to speak loudly in a menacing tone.  He begins to expound on the Preserver cause and how the PCs have committed sin by interfering in the events that morning (involving Virgil).  He threatens them not to interfere again and preaches to the whole room about their necessary (forced?) departure from this planet.  Amidst his tirade, some prisoners pipe up suggesting that the PCs might be planted by the administration, since they acted suspiciously (cf. Virgil and Jon) and arrived as a small group.  Weatherby concludes by reading a short note he claims is from Daichi Suzuki.  (Note: the PCs recognize that name as an ecoterrorist from Earth who led a group to capture a fusion plant on Sicily and hold it for a few days before somehow destroying it, damaging much of Palermo)  The message says that anyone interfering with the Preserver cause does so under penalty of death.

After Weatherby leaves, Michael, Todd and Achmed all make excuses and depart, leaving the PCs alone with Bramin to field the dirty looks of the other prisoners.

Followup reading: The Offworld News