SWT: Entity - Chapter Two

Meeting the Locals

Welcome back to Solum’s Weird Tales - Entity. Last chapter is more of a prologue with some scene and objective setting. This chapter, we can begin our first expedition! As a journaling game, you can lean into as little or as much as you want for each setting, but for my first expedition, I’ll try to give each section the same amount of attention. Let’s jump back in and catch up with Arden!

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IAP Arden (They/Them)

ADAPTIVITY - 5 ANALYTICS - 4 TECHNOLOGY - 3

Survival - 3 Physics - 2 Robotics - 1

Communication - 1 Biology - 1 Information Technology - 2

Navigation - 2 Chemistry - 3 Engineering - 3

Arden’s Cave - Day 2

I spent the rest of the day getting my space suit’s integrity as high as I could with no resources and a sun that seemed at the end of its life cycle. 95% was not ideal, but was likely the best I could hope for. After that, I sat down outside my new, cramped home and activated my long range scanner. Most of the area around me was barren desert, but my scanners picked a few areas of interest. I would need resources and supplies, and any information about this planet would also be useful. I found an interesting anomaly 10 clicks to the south and worked backwards through my scanner to route a path.

LOCATION: Scorched Glass Fields: Vast plains of solidified molten sand, turned to smooth, reflective glass by ancient, intense heat.

TRAVEL: Opportunity

OPPORTUNITY: A crashed satellite’s black box could hold valuable insights. Gain 4 Data on Success.

The flat plains of the desert gave way to large, curved hills and valley’s of sand after 5.5 kilometers, and I deviated from my projected course slightly to investigate a smoking pit at the top of a large sand dune. It was a satellite. Ruined from entry into the atmosphere and impact, it nonetheless may have something useful.

Andromeda over the Sahara Desert - Credit & Copyright: Jordi Coy

Choice of Skills - Survival, Robotics, Communication

Challenges, Opportunities and other things requiring checks usually offer multiple approaches. I’ll strike through the options I do not choose.

Action Roll DC 8 - 7 and 5 Success - Gain 4 Data (4/10)

There was an input port that I didn’t recognize, but I cracked the casing open and was able to pool some gel from my multitool to fashion a makeshift adapter, scooping up whatever parts I could reconstruct from the satellite to upload the data from the black box. Once it was uploaded into my drives, I left the satellite behind and parsed the data. It was mostly geographical and there were words in a language with a lexicon I didn’t recognize at all, but the imaging could be helpful for plotting routes locally, if nothing else.

LOCATION ENCOUNTER - Spent 1 data +1 to roll. 4+1=5 - CHALLENGE (Disadvantage)

You’ve inadvertently provoked a hive-minded alien species. Now they’re attacking both physically and through your tech systems.

Biology, Communication, Survival, Robotics

Action Roll DC 8 with disadvantage. 10, 9, 4. Reroll the 9 for 2 energy and get a 1. Weak Hit. Strain.

The field of glass at the edge of the desert was smaller than I had imagined from my reading on the scanner. Small pockets of glass seemed to have burst outwards, leaving a shattered hole surrounded by broken fragments, beneath which the terrain was familiar grains of sand. I felt the glass tremble beneath my feet and tried not to stumble as the source of the holes readily became apparent. With perfect synchronicity, 4 small forms burst from the glass, spraying shards around them as they leapt into the air and landed on the balls of taloned, bird like feet. They had 4 arms and were the size of a human child, if the child was overfed and exposed to rigorous exercise. They moved in tandem with each other and my short range scanner pinged from each of them in turn. Their heads were somewhere between avian and reptilian, but parts of their skull had been removed and replaced with writhing wires that sparked with electricity. They spoke in a sonorous, almost musical voice that I didn’t understand, but their intent was clear when my HUD flashed a warning. They were trying to hack my system. I diverted power to my defense system, but had to duck away as a filth encrusted claw bounced off my helmet, knocking me backwards in a spiral as I tried to regain my balance. The space suit was intended for more hostile environments, preferably in low or 0 G so while it was sturdy enough to fend off the worse of the blows that rained down on me, it lacked the mobility to do much more than weather the blows while I devised a possible counter measure. I had no physical defense skills, an oversight I had been long aware of but I and my suit were usually sturdy enough to escape any hostile encounters long enough to be retrieved by the Phaeston’s away team. If these were normal adversaries, things would not look good for me, but fortunately for me, they were attacking me through my heads up display. This meant that for all their feral bearing, they had some technological implants and thus, a vital weakness. Running further scans while working my stabilizer jets to avoid being cut open was a test of my processing power, as much as any physical constraints, but after a taking a few swipes and some cosmetic damage, I managed to ping the individual hardware for each creature. It was fascinating. Four identical signals communicating constantly with each other and something else, much further below the glass. The same signal, through 4 different routers. Truly fascinating. Fortunately for me, the tech seemed slightly primitive and was rigged directly to the creatures brain. The signal’s only defense was it’s near constant onslaught on my own defensive software, but it was easy enough to slip through and overwhelm each router with a counter signal that caused their main processor to overheat. Overheat may be a slight understatement. Once the data package was delivered, each creature froze in place, limbs twitching as smoke began to pour from the wires and panels on the side of their heads. As one, there was pop and the processors exploded. It was not a large explosion, but enough that a small spray of blood coated the glass of my helmet as they each tumbled dead to the ground.

Side Activity - Data Retrieval DC 8 - 3, 2 (4 Data Gained)

Tempted as I was to flee, there was an opportunity to be had here. Much like the satellite earlier that day, there was data to harvest from the creature’s hardware, if I could figure out how to interface with it. One was more intact than the others and I spent 47 standard minutes recycling parts from the other three corpses to create a way to interface with something that was similar to a motherboard. It was interlaced perfectly with the brain of the creature, an interesting marriage of biology and technology. The mind was alien of course, but there was plenty of data to harvest, mostly to do with the local area and ecology. It would take sometime to sift through for useful tidbits, but I had a long walk back to my base of operations.

Expedition finished. Aspects 0/4

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Arden’s Cave, Day 4

The problem with harvesting data from something with physical needs is that most of the data relates to fulfilling those physical needs. I knew, somewhat, where all of the local watering holes were, and which of the local wildlife could be eaten without getting sick or dying, but neither fact was particularly useful to me as I didn’t need to eat or drink to survive. Perhaps the data would be useful in mapping the area as a whole, but only time would tell. I spend the next day consulting my long range scanner for flares of heat or energy readings and found a few potential locations of interest. Eventually I settled on one and then returned to searching through the data I had retrieved to see if could get a lock on the best path.

Location - Vortex Springs: Natural springs that don’t just gush water, but create mesmerizing vortexes. (I wrote the part about all the water before rolling this haha)

Cross referencing the signature with the data from the satellite and the avian creatures brains, I was sure it was some kind of gravity phenomena surrounding a water spring that housed the signal I was picking up. I was hopeful it wasn’t as dangerous as the last signal I had traced.

Travel - None

I was able to map a clear path through the desert and into a more lush, wooded area. I was unbothered on my journey but for the constant presence of that damned floating pyramid tracing a lazy orbit through the alien sky. Once I had moved deeper into the forest, I saw water of a dozen different shades and colors, coalescing into a swirling, flooded vortex in the center of a wild spring. I had never seen anything quite like it. I had taken the readings for a gravitational anomaly, but could this be something else?

A Waterfall and the Milky Way Image Credit & Copyright: Xie Jie

Use data - 5

Location Encounter - 6 (haha rolled a 1!)

Challenge and Opportunity. (D) (I’m taking this to mean the challenge is rolled normally, and the Opportunity is at disadvantage)

Challenge: An alien entity capable of perfectly mimicking your actions appears. It copies everything you do.

I watched the springs for a while and considered taking a sample of water back to my cave before remembering I had no diagnostic equipment. There was a waterfall just behind the vortex, shimmering shades of purple and blue so crisp I could see my own bulky reflection in the surface of the water. My sensors flickered a few nonsensical readings as my reflection began to move of its own volition. I stood still, observing the water and the swirling vortex, but the figure in my reflection continued walking until a figure emerged from the deluge, water dripping off an identical and equally battered space sealed suit. It tilted its head, an oddly human gesture unlike any action I would take, and then it lurched towards me with its arms outstretched, its face plate pitch black, but for the slight reflection of my head light.

Communication, Biology, Survival

Action Roll - DC 8 (8, 5) Strong Hit

I moved to the side and attempted to send a data package into it’s comm hub, assuming it’s space suit electronic infrastructure was the same as mine. But the package bounce off it as though I had sent it into a wall. It turned to me and scrambled at my chest plate and I pumped my stabilizer jet to create space between us. It’s fingers glanced against my chest plate, but they weren’t armor plated, like my own would be. They flexed and bent as though made of flesh and bone, leaving a small stain of grease along the metal. That was enough to give me pause, but if I couldn’t find an opening electronically, I would have to rely on my bulk. My previous pivot had put the vortex behind the new threat, and so I hunkered down and bulldozed forward. My shoulders hit the thing in the chest and it crumpled slightly inwards before being shunted backwards into the water. For a moment, I saw an alien visage, completely unrecognizable, in the screen of the helmet before it toppled back into the swirling vortex of water and disappeared.

Opportunity (D) - You locate an alien transmitter. Gain 4 Data on Success.

The source of the signal I had been following was behind the screen of water, tucked away in a small cave. It was a transmitter of some form, the signal coming through loud, although not particularly clear.

IT, Communication, Physics

Action Roll (D) DC 6 - 8, 6, 5, a weak hit. 4 Data and mark a strain

Extra activity - Data retrieval

The signal spiraled out in the upper atmosphere and I traced it into the clouds, harvesting more data, but something was wrong. There was something else riding the signal, and I felt a sudden heat as every processor in my suit began to work overdrive.

DC 8 - 4 and 9 Weak Hit. 2 Data harvested

I was overconfident and tried to leech more intel from the alien signal, finding a treasure trove of potential atmospheric readings, but I was too late to realize that the signal worked both ways, and it was already in my suit. I imagine it likely got more from me than I did from it. Steam rose from my suit when I jolted out of the signal, my readings red across the board and I ran a quick diagnostic. 80% integrity. I needed to get back to my cave and process what I had learned. More importantly, I needed to rest. Some time in my pod would do me good.

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Two expeditions with not a lot to show for it! No Aspects yet. I’m seeing how important data is in this game, otherwise you’re looking at a 1 in 10 chance of getting what you need, and a 50% chance of getting nothing but danger. Rolling 6-9 on the Location Encounter chart will at least get you opportunities and chances for resources, energy or data, so I feel like a minimum spend of 5 Data is a must, but I’m already thinking too much in game and mechanic terms. Even if I don’t get Aspects, my character has the opportunity to learn more about this alien world and its various dangers. I’m enjoying the gameplay loop though, and there is more action than I thought there would be when I read the synopsis! Thanks for reading!