Session Two: LAY OF THE LAND [Recap]

Session Two Recap

[NOTE 1]: Roy’s player was not available for this session.

[NOTE 2]: While we plan to record our sessions for proper recap, for now, we are relying on memory and notes for this recap.

LAY OF THE LAND

As the story continued, our heroes (CORNELIUS, FRAEL, and PETRA) descended through the icy waters of the submerged ocean on Europa. Guiding the heroes to the ocean were large, intelligent, dolphin-like creatures that came to be known as Selanians. When the heroes made it to the bottom of the ocean, they found a huge city known as Selania. This massive city was built to be large enough to accommodate the Selanians and was thus quite staggeringly huge to the humanoid heroes.

The Selanians led the heroes to a large tower, centrally located within the city. Inside this tower were seven Selanians, differently-colored than the others. These creatures were known as SAGES and these beings possessed PSYCHIC POWERS. The sages used telepathy to communicate with the heroes; it was confirmed that the heroes found themselves on Europa and that there were no other known cities on the Jovian moon. The Selanian sages explained that other creatures – most notably, the aggressive and dangerous Rapathians – also existed in this underwater region. At that point, a HUMAN WOMAN, whom the Selanians introduced as QUEEN ATHENA, was brought in. Queen Athena immediately recognized the heroes as not being from Europa and wished to speak to the heroes in private.

The heroes conveyed to Queen Athena that they wished to return home. Surprisingly, Athena revealed her own desire to travel back to Earth. Athena, though, being the Selanians’ ruler, wanted to tie up a few loose ends before leaving the moon. Athena did explain that she knew of a way to return to Earth without need of a spaceship; she did not reveal the exact nature of this mode of travel.

Athena’s first concern was that the Rapathians, known to be aggressive and violent, had been targeting Selania for some time and an attack on the city was impending. The queen explained that the Selanians, being naturally passive and rather lazy, were unlikely to mount an effective defense on their own. Athena wished to have the heroes help with the defense of the city. As such an attack would come at an unknown time, Athena and the heroes decided to table this task for now.

Another concern was a set of ancient ruins located in Rapathian territory.  Athena revealed that she was really an alien archaeologist and had come to Europa to find and investigate these ruins. The obvious problem, of course, was the risk of running across bands of Rapathians.

Queen Athena also revealed that Europa’s ocean bed was rife with volcanic vents, each of which was regularly belching out rare minerals. As the Selanians did not engage in trade with anyone and did not really have a sense of materialism, Athena believed that these rare minerals could be gathered and used to instigate trade between the Selanians and the universe beyond Europa. Athena briefly discussed the idea of including the heroes in some sort of business venture using the rare minerals.

The queen’s final concern was that an alien species – which turned out to be Frael’s species, the Kraelekians – was regularly visiting Europa and kidnapping young Selanians for an unknown purpose. One of the recent abductees was HANDMAIDEN ASHA, whom Athena was grooming to become queen once she left Europa. Athena explained that the Kraelekians visited from time to time, but that they came from some extralunar location and that the heroes would have to act once the “visitors” returned.

Based on this information, the heroes decided to pursue the most obvious of these tasks, investigating the ruins. Queen Athena wished to accompany the heroes and provided them with special bio-engineered helmets. These helmets would allow the heroes to breathe underwater.

Athena and the heroes traveled into Rapathian territory. There, the group encountered a Rapathian warband. One of the Rapathians used telekinetic powers. Frael immediately charged the sorcerer, while Petra peppered the Rapathians with magic missiles. Meanwhile, Cornelius kept back and aided Frael and Petra. The Rapathian patrol was defeated without much effort.

Once free of the patrol, the heroes headed to the ancient ruins.  Athena explained that, prior to coming to Europa, she had traveled the Sol system seeking evidence of a “mermaid”-like species that had existed long before humans. The ruins were likely more evidence of this species.

Inside the ruins, the heroes found a strange membrane. Beyond this membrane appeared to be the rest of the subterranean ruins. Frael braved the membrane and went through, finding that there was air and “normal conditions” within. As the heroes explored the ruins, they ran into various bio-engineered traps, as well as golem-like guardians.

The heroes found themselves in a round chamber (like a cistern) and within, a series of strange runes and symbols. The heroes eventually determined that the runes could be “activated” to invoke one or more of the “classic elements”: air, fire, stone, and water. The heroes used water to escape the chamber and rose to the chamber above. There, the heroes witnessed spectral beings (perhaps ghosts) re-enacting a scene of sacrifice, where a creature was thrown into the rune chamber and destroyed.

Leaving this area, the heroes found more ruins guardians, but were able to avoid these golems.  The heroes explored the ruins and ran into a group of Rapathians also exploring the ruins. A fight broke out and the heroes were victorious. During this exchange, though, one of the Rapathians was able to mind-control Petra for a short period of time.

The heroes determined that the Rapathians had come to the ruins to find an armory. Once the heroes entered this armory, they found a set of bio-engineered assault rifles as well as a large, yellow crystal. Petra took particular interest in the crystal, while the others grabbed a few of these rifles. The crystal spoke to Petra and revealed that it was called a Shard of Evankin. Petra was determined to learn more about it.

It is important to note that Queen Athena was able to invoke “magical powers” at times. These powers aided the heroes at various times. These abilities were powerful, but Athena seemed reticent to use them all the time. This may bear future discussion.

On a rules mechanic topic, we decided to try out a house rule. During the Level Up move, a hero will gain 1 Hit Point. We will revisit this house rule at a later time and determine if we will continue using it.