Psi-Wars Tūrelil jē Sekhmet Part 2

Today’s post is a continuation report on Tūrelil jē Sekhmet. It won’t be entirely chronological in order to make the summary more coherent. See [part 1])(https://calmquist.github.io/2023/11/25/turelil-je-sekhmet-part-1.html) for more information. No amount of “reading ahead” would provide any real spoilers for this part.

More on Jahāwlāīñ

After Gorum’s escape, Harvard was able to stabilize Kayta who eventually regained consciousness. Þēra also recovered. He was greatful to be rescued but not exactly thrilled about getting shot. He was confused at the whole situation. Ñēna was also happy to see her father alive (and somewhat well).

Þēra explained that Gorum attempted to steal a particular memory crystal. Þēra gave Gorum a crystal, but it was a dummy. Gorum didn’t have the telepathic ability to examine it himself and was thus unable to verify its authenticity.

Þēra went with Kayta to the healers who were able to help her recover. The people all had outward appearances of politeness for the heroes who rid their community of the Lavitna, but they were all wary of Kaglen who was “clearly unhinged” and “shot people to rescue them.” Kayta was aware of the hidden emotions, but Kaglen lacked the innate sense for those hidden thoughts (cultural familiarity penalties also helped to disguise any visible worries).

With a potential lead on something exciting, Kaglen and Kayta called for their ships to leave for Samsara to deliver the recovered goods to the temple. This is why Crank was unavailable at Jahāwlāīñ. Someone needed to fly Kayta’s ship.

Battle above Jahāwlāīñ

His name was Gorum the Great, not Gorum the Petty. The ambush above Jahāwlāīñ was a calculated move to rid him of dangerous enemies and not for revenge.

Kayta’s Wildcat had advanced sensors, and the ambushers were mostly mooks. This was a sort of “space combat tutorial” fight. The “ambush” was not particularly successful. Gorum’s forces consisted mostly of Piranhas and Hammerheads. The mook pilots insisted that their ships were “highly advanced” and of “superior quality.”

The fight itself took a little over a session due to length and format, but it wasn’t particularly complicated. The heroes made short work of the mooks until a mysterious Wildcat Worthy entered the fray. Kayta was able to defeat Leo, the jagarathi pilot, but it was a bit of a challenge (don’t I have a great naming sense). Leo’s proximate cause of defeat was a critical failure on his HT roll for a high-G maneuver, but Kayta had a bit of an advantage in piloting ability.

They decided to collect scrap from the Piranhas, but there was obviously not much left to salvage from the Hammerheads. Leo survived. He was a hired mercenary rather than a Lavit, so Kaglen took him aboard his Nomad and towed his damage ship back to Samsara.

Landing on Samsara

After defeating their would be ambushers, the heroes’ trip to Samsara was relatively uneventful. They landed in the Maon space port and let Leo go free.

Kaglen received a transponder message that someone from the Sub Rosa Alliance was in the area.

As they headed for the temple, the heroes might have been accosted by unscrupulous folks, but Kayta noticed a mysterious figure shadowing them and frightening any would be ne’er do wells. It seems that the priestess had a hidden body guard from the Dark Vigil “escorting” her to the temple.

The Temple

Naturally, they arrived safely at the temple and were greeted a guard, Abagail Long, affiliated with the Dark Vigil outside who was expecting them and the head monk, Maron Sīþaren. Sīþa was happy to see Kayta back. Kayta explained what happened in her quirky manner. Sīþa was deferential and polite but was clearly confused at some of the details.

After returning the stolen loot, Kayta inquired about the memory crystal. Sīþa committed to organizing some research of the crystal. He also asked if Kayta would be teaching now that she has returned.

Meeting Leo

While Kayta met with various friends at the temple, Kaglen went to the space bar to visit Leo. Leo was there with several fellow mercenaries and bounty hunters. They discussed rumors, and Kaglen convinced one gaunt fellow to drink some monstrosity of an alcoholic beverage. With a +8 to resist, the drink had little effect (his lost sense of taste also helped).

One particular rumor they discussed was someone from the Phoenix Cluster allegedly visiting arcades to recruit from high scorers on the space simulators. After Kayta arrived, she and Kaglen decided to visit the arcades, earn the high scores and get recruited.

To the Arcade

The Imperial rule of Samsara wasn’t all bad. Maon got some neat tech imports including arcades and space simulators. Kayta knew of one such arcade not far from the temple. Unfortunately, that particular arcade was in the middle of a tournament for a recently popular game, Storming of Shaddai. They will need to return after the tournament ends.

They located a few other arcades and began taking high scores on the simulators. The encountered a kid who was annoyed that he was stuck at work rather than participating in the Storming of Shaddai tournament in the other arcade, ruined a Shinjurai girl’s chances of easy admission into a major academy and even piloted strange trader ships in a “hard mode” simulation designed for traders.

In each arcade, they earned the top or near top scores, but they have not yet met the mysterious recruiter from the Phoenix Cluster.

Individual Tasks

Kayta went to the temple to teach. It was … interesting. The congregation was confused at some of her analogies involving attempting to grapple slavers wearing spiky armor, but it was otherwise well received.

Kaglen visited a contact from the Sub Rosa Alliance and was able to get Harvard’s perception upgraded by an “inferior” Redjack mechanic who “did an adequate job.” Harvard considers all robots that aren’t ARC to be “inferior.”

Kaglen also learned some interesting news about the Lavitna being low on money and looking for some sort of ancient treasure to supply themselves with needed cash. He also began inquiring how he might “upgrade” his own body with Enhanced Time Sense like traders.

Examining the Memory Crystal

Kayta learned some information from the memory crystal. It was a memory of a priest named Tēnnaren who was on Temjara mourning the loss of his brother. While near a place known as the Contemplation Chamber of Sekhmet, he received a “vision” of Queen Cānelin from the ancient keleni monarchy. This “vision” was disturbing, and Tēnnaren believed it was not what it seemed.

The memory crystal was not dated. Kayta knew of Queen Cānelin but only knew that her tomb was supposedly lost to history. Neither Kayta nor Sīþa knew what a Sekhmet was, but they knew that it wasn’t keleni.

Thoughts

This adventure is clearly longer than a single shot as I intended. This part contains some “side quests” that I didn’t plan much in advance, but the PCs are now back on the “main quest.” It has been fun so far. It will be interesting to see how they plan on arriving on Temjara and locating the Contemplation Chamber while avoiding trouble from the Imperial blockade.