STORY: Veni sighs, looking unhappy. He shakes his head. “I did not mean for any of this.”
ALEJO: “Assassinating folk has a funny way of getting messy.”
ALEJO: Alejo straps in.
STORY: “It was my first time.”
STORY: “I’m a teacher.”
STORY: “…They said I should do it for my people.”
TUELLER: “They always do.”
TUELLER: His air started to run low, but more seriously, his boots were starting to melt. He took a moment on a hardened chunk of pyroclast to let them cool down. If he got back, he’d beat Esi’s record for surviving out on the lava flows unaided, but he had to get back. He could see the capital city swinging back around, the air cushion rippling over the lava deceptively fast. His long experience with the mobile cities allowed him to read it like a book—it was not coming back directly towards him. He needed to move. He launched himself off of the relative safety of the pyroclast, sending himself soaring in the low gravity. This was going to hurt. He arched himself so he landed on his hands, letting his arms take some of the heat; he let his feet touch lava only long enough to launch himself up again. He was only getting started, but he could see he’d make it. He never doubted it for a second. He’d be the new record holder.
—
STORY: This raises a question I hadn’t thought to ask before. Does Tueller have any burn scars?
TUELLER: No. If you get burned on Io, you’ve got such serious problems that you don’t tend to survive.
STORY: Like that car in Hawaii
STORY: Makes sense
TUELLER: Tueller has a spiderweb of scars on his back and arms.
TUELLER: What from? No idea! I’ll figure that out next time I roll Conflict.
STORY: All right! Last session we left off with Veni changing his appearance to look human and his agreement to take you to the grell to ask for help if you can secure the main office and get him to the Rookery, whatever that is.
TUELLER: Tueller’s ready to go to work.
STORY: You’re in a hallway being peered at by one remaining zombielike guard, with the other five, Lt. Rax, and Teka around the corner.
STORY: The guard just watches you impassively.
TUELLER: As evidenced by his “Time to go to work, I guess,” which is where I’m ready to go.
STORY: What do you do?
TUELLER: “Okay, stick behind me, and be ready to fight.” Tueller moves over to a large thick ornate side table, sweeping the fancy lamps and decorations onto the floor.
TUELLER: He picks up the thick table and brandishes it in front of him as a shield, and starts to move down the hallway using it as a shield.
ALEJO: Alejo moves in behind him, stun baton ready.
TUELLER: Hoping that the wood is thick enough to stop pistol rounds.
TUELLER: “Keep an eye out so we don’t get flanked.”
TUELLER: Tueller peeks around the corner quickly to make sure he’s keeping the table between him and the guard, trying to close the distance as quickly as is possible with a large wooden shield.
STORY: The guards are roughly split in the middle of the room, three on each side. Lt. Rax stands in the back, in front of Teka, who is sitting behind the table with a beatific smile. Let’s have a Launch Assault!
TUELLER: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: chris.stuart rolled 6 + 2 = 8
STORY: What’s Alejo doing?
ALEJO: He’s with Tueller, moving in attack formation.
TUELLER: Coming in behind me ready to jump out at a moment’s notice as well.
ALEJO: Alejo moves in behind him, stun baton ready.
STORY: Alejo, let’s do Get Involved + Physique
ALEJO: /roll 2d6+1
STORY: ablair01 rolled 5 + 1 = 6
STORY: A 6 means you have no effect on the situation, so Tueller, you pick what goes wrong on a Launch Assault, right?
TUELLER: I’ll cause collateral damage.
STORY: You stride into the room confidently, the side table absorbing a few bullets before one of the legs shatters and sprays splinter shrapnel backwards, hitting Alejo in the face. Alejo, you’re uninjured but effectively blinded for a moment. Tueller, describe for me the violence you do to these three guards, please.
STORY: The end table is no longer useful as a shield, for the record.
TUELLER: Tueller flings the table at the guards, trapping one of them underneath it. He charges up the table, using it as a ramp, further pinning that guard, and then superman dives into the second one with a sickening crunch, which he rolls out of, grabbing the third by the gun arm. which he uses to fling him as hard as he can in an indescriminate direction.
STORY: Three guards are knocked out, and three more come barreling towards the two of you as Tueller stands back up and Alejo brushes splintered wood off his eyes and face. Millie, what are you doing?
STORY: Veni is hiding behind the door, not even daring to peek inside.
MILLICENT: “Good work, Captain Tueller! You’re doing a very fine job with your violence!”
TUELLER: “Still guns out here Doc!”
MILLICENT: Millie peeks out to shout encouragement and ducks back
MILLICENT: “Yes it looks quite thrilling!”
STORY: Excellent. Tueller, Alejo, you’re being rushed. Rax stands nearby, hands on her hips, watching you, as Teka rises to stand.
STORY: What do you do?
TUELLER: Hurt the guys charging.
ALEJO: Alejo runs towards the three attacking guards, assaulting them.
STORY: Alejo leads the assault, Tueller Gets Involved!
TUELLER: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: chris.stuart rolled 8 + 2 = 10
ALEJO: /roll 2d6+1
STORY: ablair01 rolled 6 + 1 = 7
STORY: I assume Tueller you’re going to make this into a full success?
TUELLER: Oh yes.
STORY: Okay! Alejo, tell us what you do, I’ll pitch in with the complication, Tueller can let us know how he ameliorates it, and I’ll think about how to manage fights with multiple PCs in my brain space.
ALEJO: Two of the three guards engage Alejo. He hits one across the face with the baton while dodging a punch from the other. As the first guard crumples to the floor, Alejo spins, grabs the other’s wrist, and breaks it, causing the guard to drop his pistol.
STORY: The third guard takes out a small handheld tricorder-type device, squared off, with two small wire leads sticking out of the end, and points it at Tueller, squeezing the trigger. Tueller?
TUELLER: Tueller does a deft pirhouette, diagonally forward to dodge and close the distance, spinning 360 degrees and backhanding the guard across the face with his full momentum behind it.
STORY: The two wires shoot out of the taser and bury themselves into the floor as the guard crumples silently. The two of you turn back to Rax and – wait, where’s Teka?
STORY: Rax charges you. Tueller! What do you do?
TUELLER: Tueller tries to take down Rax, trying not to put a mark on her. Just get her down on the ground and knock her out.
MILLICENT: Millie kept an eye on Teka, did she see her move?
STORY: Millie, she stood and slipped through a door in the back of the office that’s fairly well camouflaged.
STORY: Tueller, let’s make that Face Adversity + Physique please
TUELLER: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: chris.stuart rolled 6 + 2 = 8
STORY: Millie, do you do anything when you see Teka run?
MILLICENT: Millie grabs Veni’s hand and guides him around the violence toward the door
STORY: Tueller, you can pull Rax down and pin her, but you see the door behind the desk sliding closed. You can either pursue Teka or subdue Rax.
STORY: Veni yanks his hand back, Millie, and scowls angrily at you. “Don’t touch me!”
TUELLER: I’ll subdue Rax
TUELLER: I liked her. I don’t know shit about Teka.
MILLICENT: “Oh yes, dreadfully sorry. Would you come with me, please, Mr. Veni?”
STORY: All right. The door clicks shut. Six unconscious soldiers, Veni screeching in the hallway, and Rax writhing underneath Tueller’s knee in the main office.
MILLICENT: If he doesn’t come with she goes anyway
STORY: Veni peeks in and, seeing the violence-making is over, steps in. He gestures to Rax. “You have her quite firmly?”
TUELLER: Tueller nods.
STORY: He nods, placing a hand on Rax’s forehead and closing his eyes. She stops struggling and sighs, her head bowing, then opens her eyes more clearly and looks up at Veni.
STORY: She begins to struggle anew, this time more deliberately trying to free her hands. “You fucking traitor! You treasonous son of a bitch! Let me go!”
TUELLER: “Ease down Lt.”
TUELLER: “I don’t want to accidentally hurt you.”
ALEJO: Alejo goes to examine the hidden door that Teka went through, keeping an eye out for any other guards and letting Tueller handle Rax.
STORY: “Let me go! Do you know who this is?”
STORY: Veni stands uncomfortably.
TUELLER: Tueller helps Rax up, but does not let her go.
STORY: Alejo, the door is smooth across the whole panel, with no visible handle or hinges.
MILLICENT: Millie’s already there checking it out
MILLICENT: She tried to get to the door before it closes
STORY: Same as Alejo’s conclusion – no visible handle, hinges, or way to manipulate the door. No panel.
STORY: Just a seam on either side of the wall panel.
STORY: Rax spits at Veni, hitting him on the cheek.
STORY: Veni quietly wipes his cheek with his sleeve. “You see how they treat us.”
TUELLER: “What’s the story, Rax? The squid said he was helping us out.”
STORY: “This piece of shit poisoned the Governor.”
STORY: “He’s probably controlling all of this.”
STORY: “Let me go so I can arrest him. I demand it.”
TUELLER: “Sorry, Lt. That’s….not going to happen just yet. Sorry.”
TUELLER: “I don’t know what’s happening just yet, but you were clearly just under the control of the kid.”
ALEJO: “Lt., do you know how to get this door open?”
ALEJO: Alejo interjects, as if unaware of the conversation.
STORY: Rax glances back at you. “That’s a panic room. Can’t be opened from out here, now that she’s safe inside.”
STORY: “Thank heavens for that, at least.”
ALEJO: “Nobody is safe if she’s really inside with no way to get to her.”
MILLICENT: Millie examines the door with her specs, any connection to a bigger system coming from the room?
TUELLER: “Thank heavens she got away?”
STORY: Let’s have an Assessment + Interface, then.
STORY: Rax looks confused. “Thank heavens she’s safe from this assassin. What has he told you?”
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6+1
STORY: josh rolled 9 + 1 = 10
TUELLER: “That she was causing the wilding that’s going on.”
TUELLER: “Doc got the details. I was busy on guard duty.”
STORY: Millie, you check out the currents running through that wall, and find a cluster that you assume indicates the tech panel controlling this door. It can likely be disarmed with a local EMP or a well aimed bullet. You also gain a Data Point around Nahar technology.
STORY: Veni is watching you quietly, Millie.
TUELLER: “Ejo, keep an eye on Veni. He doesn’t get a shot at the kid, please.”
STORY: “Dr. Breedlove, wait please,” he says, holding out a hand delicately.
TUELLER: “Fuck, I hate not knowing who the good guys are.” Tueller says to himself.
MILLICENT: Millie turns from the door, her mouth already opening with her discovery. Seeing Veni. Gestures a go on gesture.
STORY: “I have no doubt you could access that room with sufficient time and ingenuity. But I made a deal with you, one I cannot honor if you open it.”
STORY: “If Teka is freed, I must kill her before she causes more harm. It is the best I can offer by myself. We must seek help if you want to take a less permanent option.”
TUELLER: “Okay, as an erstwhile bad guy myself, I know that the person advocating killing kids is usually the bad guy.” Tueller releases Rax.
MILLICENT: “What are you recommending, Mr. Veni?”
STORY: “I recommend Lt. Rax call the shuttle for us to reach the Rookery, where we can seek help from our leader.”
STORY: Rax shrugs you off angrily, Tueller, glaring at Veni.
STORY: “No fucking way, beakbrain.”
MILLICENT: “Your leader is at the Rookery?”
STORY: Veni grimaces. “She is. I do not know that she will help us, but I know she can.”
ALEJO: Alejo steps between Veni and Rax, not threateningly, but just enough to prevent Rax from charging.
STORY: “She is… less compassionate to the needs of the Nahar than I am.”
MILLICENT: “Is she the only one who can grant us access to where Teka has fled?”
TUELLER: …
TUELLER: “Clarification here as I understand it. That’s a safe room. It doesn’t go anywhere. Going to the Rookery is a different path, correct?”
TUELLER: “You’re asking us to go to the Rookery to get your higherups help in ‘stopping’ Teka.”
TUELLER: “Right, Ven?”
STORY: Veni nods.
STORY: “The Rookery is where my people live. A cruel name.”
TUELLER: “Controls to get the shuttle to the Rookery are over there somewhere. And Rax has access.”
TUELLER: “This make sense to you, Lt?”
STORY: He nods again.
ALEJO: “What’s the plan for stopping Teka that isn’t about killing her, again?”
TUELLER: “A higher power at the Rookery.”
STORY: Rax looks angry. “This is a trick. He wants to be sent back to the Rookery to be safe, so he can lock himself away and escape justice.”
ALEJO: “Yeah, but what’s this higher power going to do?”
MILLICENT: “According to Mr. Veni, we will take a trip into their psychic dreamspace, find and rescue Teka.”
MILLICENT: “Again, according to Mr. Veni, if we do things that way we save the lives of those currently afflicted.”
TUELLER: “Well, that does sound plausible. Lt, you were under the control of a powerful psychic. You got a cure for that we don’t know about?’
STORY: Rax looks confused. “I was what?”
TUELLER: “Hmmm.” Tueller is quiet.
ALEJO: “I don’t much like him, but he’s kept his word so far.” Alejo gives Veni a sidelong look.
MILLICENT: “I don’t know how objective I can be, if I am honest, because the term “psychic dreamspace” gives me the most delicious shivers.”
MILLICENT: “The lieutenant would have us disbelieve every word Mr. Veni says, but she did also let what sounded like an ugly slur slip earlier. So we must question her judgment in this matter as well.”
TUELLER: “Well, I’d hate to think I just beat up a shitload of people who _weren’t_ under psychic control.”
MILLICENT: “Lt Rax, do you have any not racist arguments you’d care to make?”
STORY: Rax stands rigid. “This grell attempted to assassinate the Governor and then took over the mind of her daughter. He is trying to convince you to send him home, where he will be shielded from Nahar justice for his crimes. I cannot allow it.”
STORY: Veni hisses at Rax. “I was fighting for my people’s freedom. I would never hurt Teka if there was another choice.”
STORY: Rax shrugs this off. “Your people are free. You live up in that station, protected from everything, practicing your weird science shit. Don’t complain to me that we feed and protect yo–”
ALEJO: Alejo stuns Rax with his stun baton.
STORY: She drops to the ground, unconscious.
TUELLER: “Whoa.”
ALEJO: “Too much talking.”
STORY: Veni nods to Alejo. “Thank you.”
ALEJO: He turns to Veni. “If you’re lying, I’ll kill you.”
TUELLER: Tueller eyes Alejo.
MILLICENT: Millie’s eyebrows hit the stratosphere.
STORY: Veni nods, understanding. “The access codes are likely in her badge comm.”
MILLICENT: “It seems that our course is set. Mr. Veni,” Millie grabs Lt. Rax’s badge comm, “lead on.”
MILLICENT: She whispers to herself, “Psychic dreamspace”
TUELLER: Tueller eyes Rax on the floor, sorts her out so she’ll be as comfortable as being unconscious on the floor can be.
STORY: He holds out his hand for the badge.
TUELLER: “I’d really like to be able to come back here and engage in the morkfish trade.” Tueller says to himself.
TUELLER: “Tasty shit.”
TUELLER: Tueller shakes his head.
MILLICENT: Millie starts to examines the badge, but seeing Veni she passes it over.
STORY: “We taught the Nahar to catch morkfish,” Veni says as he pushes a near-invisible button in the center of the badge.
STORY: It pops open, and a holographic console appears. Veni uses his fingers to gesture his way through the menus, waving some away and opening others until he finds one that he expands to max size.
STORY: “Punch this in to that console there,” he points to a screen in the desk surface.
MILLICENT: Millie takes a look at it first
STORY: It’s symbols you can’t read, may as well be sanskrit.
MILLICENT: “Due diligence.” Millie punches it in
STORY: but there’s a keyboard below the screen with symbols that seem to correspond.
STORY: There are a few friendly dings and a radar screen comes to life, with a blip that appears to be headed toward the center.
STORY: Veni points to it. “That’ll be our ride. Shall we?”
MILLICENT: Millie smiles hugely. “Let’s!”
TUELLER: “Indeed.”
STORY: He leads you upstairs, to a landing pad, where you wait by the door until a shuttle arrives and lands. The door slides open, and a pilot stands in the opening, waving you in.
TUELLER: Tueller takes a look at Rax as he goes.
STORY: Rax sleeps comfortably. Ish.
ALEJO: Alejo lets Millie and Veni go out to the shuttle first, but he follows closely behind, keeping a watchful eye out for any trouble.
MILLICENT: Millie definitely goes right in
TUELLER: Tueller goes in. He doesn’t bother to look threatening or anything.
STORY: Veni steps inside and sits down on the small portside padded bench. An identical bench is on the starboard side, with no other furniture. Veni does not engage the lap and shoulder belts.
MILLICENT: Millie does!
MILLICENT: Safety!
STORY: After the four of you enter, the pilot slides the door closed and sits down in his seat, performing checks as the shuttle starts to hover over the pad.
STORY: Veni sighs, looking unhappy. He shakes his head. “I did not mean for any of this.”
ALEJO: “Assassinating folk has a funny way of getting messy.”
ALEJO: Alejo straps in.
STORY: “It was my first time.”
STORY: “I’m a teacher.”
STORY: “…They said I should do it for my people.”
TUELLER: “They always do.
ALEJO: “Who’s they?”
STORY: “Zura, and her followers. She leads a resistance within the grell.” The light sky outside the shuttle starts to dim as you ascend out of the atmosphere.
STORY: “I explained some to Dr. Breedlove. The grell, my people, we live in this dimension only inasmuch as we occupy it physically. Our lives are led in the weave.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods quietly, giving Veni a softer look than he has before.
STORY: “Imagine a world made of your dreams – the good ones and the bad. It’s the best way we have of explaining it to non-sensitives. We live there, it feeds us, rests us – gives us the vitality to exist here physically. We are stuck between these worlds.”
STORY: “We lived on the planet below here, until the Nahar came, fleeing the destruction of their own planet. They found us, convinced us to work with them – and then locked us up.”
STORY: “Most grell would say we went voluntarily, to protect the Nahar. You see, the weave is everything – it is life and joy and wonder, but it is also corruption and anger. The corruptive side, it is appealing to some grell, weak ones.”
STORY: “One who becomes psychically infected is known as a lusus. Beings native to the weave try to enter this world through us – and occasionally succeed. It isn’t safe for non-psychics to share space with grell.”
STORY: “So my people, loving peace, willingly went aboard their ship and imprisoned ourselves there, to study and live safely. The Nahar use our technology to improve themselves, and they house us in the protection of the Rookery.” He flinches at the name.
STORY: “Nahar knights watch over us, as caretakers, they say.” He shakes his head. “Jailers.”
TUELLER: “Were the nahar psychic before they met you?”
STORY: He shakes his head. “We don’t know. Perhaps nascently. Sensitives began to emerge early into our relationship. Whether they were already part of the population and only awakened to it in our presence, we cannot guess.”
ALEJO: “How long has this been the way of things?”
STORY: “Since their arrival on New Vesta, six hundred years ago.”
STORY: “We are a peaceful race. We had no weapons, no way to defend.”
STORY: “For centuries, we did not even understand we had been colonized. We accepted their version of the story because they let us live safely.”
MILLICENT: “Do all the Nahar know how you live?”
STORY: “That I do not know. This has been my first time off the Rookery.”
STORY: “We are born there, die there. Apostates live on the planet below, but the Nahar hunt them.”
MILLICENT: “Hunt them?”
ALEJO: “Jesus.”
STORY: “For capture. They fear a free grell.”
STORY: “They’re sent to the Rookery, to live chained and muted, and die there.”
ALEJO: “Why? If you are peaceful, are they so afraid?”
STORY: “Those of us who desire more, they risk turning into monsters. Lusus.”
STORY: “Abominations.”
STORY: “They become beasts, infected by the shadows of the weave, spreading misery and pain however they can.”
STORY: “The Nahar do not wish to risk inviting such danger into their homes.”
ALEJO: “So, I take it, you mean more than just the sort of monsters greed turns anyone into?”
STORY: He nods. “They tend to grow quite large and have spikes.”
ALEJO: “Kinda sounds like your eldest,” Alejo smiles at Tueller.
TUELLER: “Hmmmph.”
MILLICENT: “What was step three?”
MILLICENT: “Step one was getting close to the governor and step two was killing her. What was step three?”
STORY: “Escape, or die trying.”
MILLICENT: “For your movement.”
STORY: “Oh. I do not know.”
STORY: “I assume Zura has further plans, but I was not told of them.”
MILLICENT: Millie nods, satisfied.
ALEJO: “Let’s hope Zura is in a helpful mood when we get there.”
STORY: “Yes, let’s hope. That you helped me escape may make her happy. I do not know how useful I am to her anymore.”
STORY: The shuttle approaches a large vessel in orbit around the planet – you catch sight of it as New Vesta falls behind your view. The two must be tidally locked.
STORY: It resembles a tower more than a ship, a large, long cylinder with metallic arches in rings around the vessel.
TUELLER: “Millie, do you still have the Peregrine on comms.”
TUELLER: “You might want to give them a heads up.”
MILLICENT: “Noma, we’re headed into low orbit. Can you scan the ship we’re approaching?”
STORY: As the shuttle approaches, you get close enough to see through the ship’s portholes. Large areas of the interior appear to be distorted somehow – underwater, maybe?
TUELLER: Oh shit, we’re boarding the _Event Horizon_ aren’t we?
STORY: Noma comes in on Millie’s comms. “Scanning. Anything in particular you would like me to search for?”
MILLICENT: “Weapons, outgoing scans or ships. Anything out of the ordinary.”
STORY: “None, Millie. It’s locked up tight. No public servers or comms to access, no active weapons systems that I can find.”
STORY: “Which is in itself out of the ordinary.”
MILLICENT: “Thank you, dear.”
STORY: “You are welcome. How is Tueller?”
MILLICENT: “We’re told it’s something of a penal colony.”
TUELLER: “Has this ever been documented before off-world?”
STORY: “This ship is not in the public Ark records. That’s not necessarily uncommon, as Ark civilizations are not required to disclose all active vessels, but one of this size is surprising as an omission.”
TUELLER: “Kept off the Net. Huh.”
MILLICENT: “I don’t suppose I’d keep my penal colony slave ship on public records either.”
STORY: Veni grits his teeth.
ALEJO: “Six hundred years on this thing?” Alejo peers at it with a frown.
MILLICENT: Millie smiles in what he thinks is a comforting manner, “I wouldn’t keep one at all.”
STORY: “Seventeen generations.”
STORY: “We don’t live as long in captivity.”
MILLICENT: Millie does a quick search of Nahar ships that are public record.
STORY: Half a dozen large shipping vessels, the major ships in their armada, and a few luxury liners they attempted to market as vacation packages are listed.
MILLICENT: Millie takes a quick scan through the shipping vessel and luxury liner bills of lading for the time they’ve been public record
MILLICENT: Anything unusual there?
STORY: All were listed in the same decade, 90 years ago when the Nahar first made contact with the Ark and became a partner nation.
MILLICENT: Nothing fitting the size of this tower?
STORY: Nope! It’s entirely off the rolls, from what you can tell.
MILLICENT: Okay thanks
STORY: Anyone have further questions before we land?
MILLICENT: nope
ALEJO: No.
TUELLER: nope
STORY: All right! You approach, Veni standing and resting a hand on the back of the pilot’s chair as you do, shaking his head unhappily.
STORY: “Home again, home again, jiggity jig,” he mutters.
STORY: You pull up to an airlock, and the pilot sets to completing the docking sequence as Veni takes off a bracelet, leaving it on the dashboard without acknowledging the pilot.
STORY: “This way, gentlemen.”
ALEJO: Alejo will follow Veni.
MILLICENT: Millie picks up the bracelet on her way out. To the pilot, “Is this payment?”
STORY: Veni steps into the airlock and opens a panel. “I assume you aren’t amphibian, correct?”
TUELLER: Tueller shakes his head.
ALEJO: “Definitely not.”
TUELLER: We are wearing spacesuits.
MILLICENT: Millie shakes her head
STORY: The pilot doesn’t acknowledge you. Veni calls back, “He’s an automaton, Dr. Breedlove. That’s a stillsuit.”
STORY: “It’s for the next person to travel to New Vesta.”
STORY: He removes three small devices from the open panel and distributes them. “Rebreathers. Hold them on the roof of your mouth and they should make talking and breathing possible. The salt water will dry out your hair, though.”
MILLICENT: “Oh, fascinating! ”
STORY: “Well, your hair,” he nods to Alejo and Millie.
MILLICENT: Millie nods sadly to Alejo
ALEJO: Alejo nods sadly back, in solidarity.
TUELLER: “My eyebrows”
STORY: Veni types in a code to the panel and the door behind you closes, hissing as the air is displaced and the other side of the lock opens.
MILLICENT: Millie visibly has no sympathy for Tueller
STORY: Millie! Please describe for me the general layout of the room beyond. To start you off, New Vesta and the planet below it are jungly, humid places, and the planet (which is unnamed, and only referred to by the grell as their homeworld) is 80% water and most land masses are swampy.
MILLICENT: The room doesn’t fit most definitions of a room. There are four old, well cared for stone walls, but there’s no ceiling.
MILLICENT: And the floor is marked with the occasional hole, which obviously leads into swampy water.
STORY: What is where a ceiling usually goes?
MILLICENT: A tightly knit canopy of woven vines. Woven in distinct patterns.
MILLICENT: There’s water in the floor, gently running down the walls and in the air.
MILLICENT: It’s the kind of environment only a fish, or fish-like race, could love.
STORY: Across from you stands a hunched-over Nahar in an ornate robe, punching something in to a console. As he finishes, he stands to face you and each of the holes in the floor winds closed like an apeture.
MILLICENT: The humidity is insane
STORY: “Veni,” he says, halfway between confused and warm.
STORY:
STORY: “Commander,” Veni says with a nod. He is not pleased. “Let us in, please.”
MILLICENT: Millie waves.
STORY: Madro shakes his head, walking slowly towards you, leaning on a cane. “I cannot. The Rookery has been overtaken. I am sorry, Veni, your people are lost.”