Traveller: DA1 "Shadows" - Artifact Explored

 ...south of the border.

Several parsecs into Solomanni space, in the Jardin Subsector, on the hostile yet habitable planet of Chinon...

from [CLICK]

...a sophont artifact is being investigated by the BWI Team "Bravo -7". As our dedicated viewers will remember, the Chinon job is a  subcontract with the Albadawi Bureau of Sophont Culture, Art, and Archaeology, which is acting on behalf of the Imperial Ministries of Technology and Health.  Each Ministry has an interest in the further investigation of the alien artifacts, for reasons of alien technology and the mitigation of potentially deadly plagues.

***SPOILER ALERT*** 

If you plant to play "Shadows" from Double Adventure 1, then you should not read these posts!

We return to the triple-pyramid artifact where the ground teams have made steady progress...amid the occasional seismic tremor...and are they getting stronger?

***SITREP***BRAVO-7

0945LOCAL_CHINON_Q3_LAT40.15_LON-75.12

B7 continued investigation of S-artifact with the following teams:

Surface Relay Team: Oran Beil [NPC, Red L], Simpson [Tony G, Red B]

Away Team 1: Glitch [Tony F, Gry A], Phil [John P, Red H] 

Away Team 2: Heinrich "Doc" [Greg M, Grn L], Gabriel [Mark S, Red K], 

Research Team: James Moffitz [NPC, Gry J], 

Shipboard Team

Hildegard [Bill R, Gry F], 

Jerek [Mark S], Ship's Engineer

Referee's Note: As all players are actual sophont artifacts from the 1970s themselves, and therefore have multiple middle-age responsibilities, I have taken a genial approach to PC involvement. Basically, "everyone is on the ship, somewhere, somehow, and they deploy into the action if they are present; if not, they work support in the background as an NPC at low risk". Think of the Starship Enterprise [original TV series] and you'll get it. This keeps it fun and makes regular player participation possible - it's a game, after all. So far, this has been working. 

It should be noted that the Patron, Black-Wagner Interstellar, LLC, was designed to justify such a large team of PCs. In the future, it may work out that a specific tangential adventure may be desired by some players who want to meet more often - we'll see where it goes!

Teams 1 & 2, accompanied by Dr. Moffitz [the shotgun-wielding archaeologist contracted from Albadawi], investigate what appears to be the main habitable level of the S-artifact.  The interior has unusual rounded corridors and rooms, with a central magnetically raised floor and input ducts near the ceiling, down which a vapor slowly falls, lands on the floor then drops around the edges of the flooring. White light illuminates most areas, and the moving vapor also indicates that a power plant is still running...somewhere.

I love these diagrams!

After staging in the main shaft from the surface, the team discovers a number of dormitory style rooms to left, and a series of agricultural cultivation rooms on the right, in a cautious, tactical search. In these, Moffitz is thrilled by the various stored textile and other artifacts, which he feels obligated to discuss to the Team in detail. The Team is less thrilled to be edified in this manner.

Towards the end of the corridor there was another shaft down to a lower level, with an unusual pendulum-like rope dropping into the distance - it's uncertain what is at the bottom, slowly and regularly moving, but a periodic "klunk" may be heard. As there was no danger, the teams investigated two large rooms [10 & 11] which proved to have large murals of cultural importance. Dr. Moffitz had to be restrained from running amok, as it was the exclamations were not tactically sound...but is anyone [or anything??] listening?

Corridor 13 is partially concealed, but the team chose to not enter it at this time, since signals back to the relay team are getting weak. It was decided to take a knee, evaluate the situation, perhaps change out a couple of team members.

**At this point, with level 1 cleared, we ended the session**

The next phase of infiltration saw an exchange of personnel - Glitch swapping out for Hildegard, who, being very light, is the best candidate to rapelle into the lower level of the complex, back at cavern 1. First, the team secures direct contact with the relay team by opening an [obvious] exit that pops a door, hidden from the surface, right by the G-carrier. Then, using the cable winch, they set up Hildegarde for the drop down, as the Away Teams secure the area and keep eyes on her. Comments of being fish bait are made, but Hildegarde is undeterred. 

Dropping lower and lower, she finally reports that there is a location with damage caused by seismic activity - the shaft has shifted, making a ledge. On it are...snake skeletons and a shiny coin. At the bottom, there's a lot more snake skeletons, the odor of droppings, and not a lot else. "Snake skeletons...why did it have to be snake skeletons..." someone mutters. She notes that there are corridors with faintly visible rooms in all four directions. The teams decided to descend.

Room 16 is just another residential cell, and 18 is empty. 17 is protected by a shock plate in the hall that lightly wounds one team member, and the large room has lots of vapor and an icy floor - a quick check reveals another mural, which is dutifully photographed as using the latest technological wonder provided by BWI:

After a careful exit, the team continues down the main corridor.

19 is uninteresting. 20 is in darkness. The room has had a partial ceiling collapse - likely from the occasional seismic activity that the group feels through the soles of their vacc suits. A careful search reveals a body in the rubble! An alien body, badly decayed, but likely the same size as those on Annic Nova. Some easily accessed bones and DNA samples are taken. A pouch with gold coins and a very unusual knife is unearthed as well. As dust and debris continue to drop from the ceiling as the teams work, it is decided not to dig much more in the unstable room.

In the better light of the tunnel, the coins are all examined, and found to be identical: gold with a flame on one side, and a stylized system map on the other.

Farther down the teams discover a large central room that opens way up to the first level above. Astoundingly, there is a pendulum at the end of the knobby cable discovered above in room 9. The pendulum appears to be following an intricate floor design. With three large rooms [one in darkness] nearby, the teams decide not to investigate farther but secure the rooms. 24 is mostly empty but has a raised dais upon it - is it a throne room? There is a dark shaft up above. 

22 turns out to be the control room for the complex. There are about 100 bar dials, each runningfrom floor to ceiling. Some have fluctuating readings, some have constant readings, some have very low or no readings. While it is clear what they must do, it is not clear how to operate them. After considerable debate, the group decides not to mess with the controls. 23 is a similar control room, but the ceiling is partially collapsed and all the instruments are dead.

Having cleared the level, collected valuable data and specimens, and seen an increase in activity among flying and scurrying rodentia, the teams decide to exfiltrate the level.

**At this point, with the sub-level cleared, we ended the session**

Again, the team has a few member swaps as they regroup near the G-carrier. Simpson switches with Doc who joins Oran as the Relay Team; Simpson pairs up with Gabriel. Meanwhile, the away teams advance down the mysterious partly-hidden hallway [13] with the relay.

As reception weakens, a transmission system is set up [green "P" with crosshairs at #9 to green "G" ] then out to the G-carrier which relays to the ship. Hildegarde keeps eyes on the relays and guards the shaft at 1.

The Teams are now:

Away Team 1: Glitch [Tony F, Gry A], Phil [John P, Red H] 

Away Team 2: Simpson [Tony G, Red B], Gabriel [Mark S, Red K]

Research Team: James Moffitz [NPC, Gry J], [Hildegard [Bill R, Gry F] at relay]

Entering the hallway at 13 and descending, the Teams enter what is clearly the power plant [no pun intended] area. Much of the machinery is still running, but some of it is infested by the small mammals [some flying, some scurrying] that have been observed in the other levels. And in the largest storage tank area - PLANTS! Lotsa plants...some obviously hostile. 

Glitch and Phil start mowing the lawn at a choke-point corridor, and the branches and debris pile up, with leaves flying everywhere, flung by an SMG tornado. Moffitz offers to help, but the wisdom of having a shotgun-wielding archaeologist is dubious...

Simpson and Gabriel go on a rodent hunt, working to hold at bay - and even capture - some critters to take home. Hope they don't have Chinon rabies...

The action is pretty intense, but spine-shooting plants don't stand a chance, and the rodents are more dangerous in hand than in the corridors.

The bottleneck proves easy to hold, and the plants that shoot spines all miss, and then are ruthlessly cut down by a team that doesn't hold plant life sacred, clearly.

With everyone relatively intact, the teams decide to exfil the same way they came in, for the sake of speed. The gather around the G-carrier, and decide to quit the artifact - true, they may have missed a few things, but the main mission to find possible connections to the alien sophonts of Annic Nova, as well as cultural, archaeological, and biological samples, has been successful. Clearly, a better-equipped team will need to work with the various authorities to further explore the artifact, which means "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" for BWI.