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, part 2, part 3 and part 4 for more information.

Note: The PCs have aliases. I refer to them with their aliases when acting with their false identities and with their regular names when they are not.

Departure to the Contemplation Chamber

Sālaren took Kayta to his cottage and helped her recovery from her injuries, but she was still not back to her peak condition. Sālaren began teaching Kayta some more advanced staff forms.

Vance was not really injured since he was merely downed by a stun grenade, but Abagail thought it a good idea to leave the area before Ska realized that he was duped. Abagail acted clingy, but Harvard suspected that she was attempting to scam his master. Harvard has Paranoia, so his opinion was not necessarily particularly useful.

After a bit more time an more caution, it was time to depart for the Contemplation Chamber of Sekhmet.

River Monsters

The journey to the Contemplation Chamber was on foot since bringing spacecraft too near the facility would be dangerous or something (Xiao Tan-Shai was vague with the details). The crew consisted of the heroes, Dr. Xiao Tan-Shai, Tai-Kai Shrike, a group of troopers and support staff. It took a few days. Rust vultures attempted to raid the camp by night, but the heroes (mostly Harvard) were vigilant and prevented them from doing too much damage.

The journey was mostly uneventful, but Kayta spotted some rust vultures before they attacked as the crew was crossing a river. This allowed the heroes and Imperials to attack first. This saved the day. After defeating the birds, as the Imperials began crossing the river using some shallow spots and rocks, they were attacked by a giant snake and a giant alligator/caiman/crocodile type creature. Since Kayta spotted the rust vultures before the giant animals attacked, they managed to deal with the problem with minimal casualties.

First Attempt

Eventually, they arrived at the entrance to the Contemplation Chamber of Sekhmet. Xiao Tan-Shai lacked an appropriate key to open the chamber but has some sort of equipment to “pick” the lock and an “authorization token.” Getting in took a while, but they were eventually successful.

Dr. Tan-Shai warned everyone that there would be “psychic imprints” in the chamber, but they everything should be safe. They should not attempt to engage. The “authorization token” would ensure that the “psychic imprints” would not do any harm, and hostility would activate the facility’s defense mechanisms.

The facility appeared to have featureless corridors. Most everything looked identical until they arrived at a mostly featureless, circular room with a console at the center. Xiao Tan-Shai did some strange symbol drawing on the console and activated a transporter mechanism that “beamed” everyone to some other room that looked nearly identical.

They continued down nearly identical, featureless hallways and equally featureless “warp rooms” until a group of scouts got too far away for Tai-Kai Shrike to maintain discipline, and the scouts got spooked by a ghost and tried shooting it. That activated the defenses and forced a retreat. Dr. Tan-Shai was not pleased.

Second Attempt

After being forced to retreat, it became necessary to wait outside to “reset” the credentials (Dr. Tan-Shai didn’t explain). Dr. Tan-Shai acted pretty cold toward Vance and Lūa but kept insisting that Lūa was an “important cultural expert” and that she was “vital” to the success of the expedition. Kayta became suspicious since there was nothing keleni about the facility.

Sleeping in the facility was a bad idea, so they camped outside while waiting for the “credentials” to “reset” (or something). The heroes patrolled again and found evidence of others nearby but did not actually find anyone. They reported the information. They might have competition.

The next day, they reentered the facility with strict orders not to engage with the “psychic remnants.”

The advance was fairly slow and steady despite being rushed. After multiple “warp rooms,” Dr. Tan-Shai confirmed that others were in the facility. “The simple cook,” Abagail, paid close attention to what Xiao Tan-Shai was doing with the symbols. Vance found some devices that he hoped would aid in his “communication device” switcharoo but still could to determine what the actual device was.

Sekhmet

Eventually, they arrived that the main chamber. Gorum, Ragtime, Ska, a mysterious ranathim slave and several other Lavitna were already there. Sekhmet was in some sort of sphere in the center of the room. Oddly, despite wearing a collar and Gorum having a control device, the mysterious slave seemed to treat Gorum with contempt and even talked back to him.

Xiao Tan-Shai and the mysterious slave, Maishen, attempted to negotiate with Sekhmet about something (none of the PCs understood Eldothic). Both were disappointed when Sekhmet ordered the groups to battle each other before she would negotiate with the victor.

The Imperials had the Lavitna pretty well outclassed (especially with the PCs on their side), but the mooks on both sides went down fairly quickly. Tai-Kai Shrike shot plasma and grenades out of the air. Ragtime fell fairly quickly while Ska lasted a bit longer. Lūa and Maishen fought for a while with Maishen having a slight advantage despite being unarmed (except for reaving).

Gorum was cornered and attempted to use some special device to do something with it but was disarmed, surrendered and was incapacitated before he could complete whatever he was doing. After getting surrounded by Lūa, Leo and Abagail and threatened by Vance from a distance, Maishen retreated and drained the incapacitated Gorum.

Two suits of possessed power armor appeared in the room but they were not under Gorum’s control. Xiao Tan-Shai confirmed with Sekhmet that her team was technically victorious and ordered a retreat. The heroes, the Lavitna and the downed troopers were seemingly left to perish.