Five There Were [DRAFT]

# Incoming Transmission
# Source Identifier: Ninth Truth, Borderlands Botanists
# Destination Identifier: TE3-Firebrand#Her Glorious Command#Starlight Ebbing#Muse IX#Unquiet Journey#*
# Subject: Explorers Wanted
# Message Begins

You know the drill by now: the Borderlands Botanists would like some help exploring some tunnels on Kylal.

Events from a few months ago have opened up some new tunnels in the Pentagonal ruins that we and Zeitgeist have been researching, and we’d like to know what new insights about this mysterious civilisation these tunnels might yield. Our initial investigations indicate that there might be some danger to exploration, so we’d like some backup before we go any further.

Interested participants should meet me in Kyholt for further briefing. This is Kylal: dress accordingly.

# Message Ends

• Delicate Harmony - Mike
• Gathering Flow - Phil

• The party meets in Kyholt, where Ninth Truth explains what he wants - following the events of Internal Error, when Aspexx employees broke through into the gate chamber from a previously-blocked Pentagonal tunnel, there is a possibility to explore more of these tunnels and learn the mysteries of the Pentagonal Civilisation. However, there is also a distinct possibility of Aspexx still being down those tunnels, and Ninth Truth wants to avoid a Diplomatic Incident, so is hiring a party to go in first before letting any overly-keen Borderland/Zeitgeist scientists loose down there.
• Ninth Truth first sends them into Kyholt to meet up with Undulating Current, a Zeitgeist scientist who has designed some experimental breathing filters which can help people avoid the horrible effects of the spores often encountered in Pentagonal tunnels - for a little while, anyway. While picking these up, the party also meet Cold Boot, a disgruntled local who's suspicious of Aspexx, and particularly suspicious of Elegant Solution, an Aspexx employee who's recently been hanging around Kyholt trying to get access to the gate - indeed, Elegant Solution also approaches the party and asks them if they would escort her through to the gate.
• The party agree to this, though keeping an eye on her, but Ninth Truth is unimpressed when he finds her investigating the gate's surroundings, and promptly bears her off to his office to show her all the excellent public research which has already been done on the gate so she can read that instead. The party are shoo-ed in the direction of the tunnel they're supposed to be going down.
• Inside the tunnel, all is much as would be expected by anyone who has entered a Pentagonal ruin before: it's a tunnel, cross-section of an inverted pentagon, carved out of rock. The party walk down it quite a long way before turning a corner and encountering some hostile rockwork, which attacks. Delicate Harmony is able to draw on previously-gained abilities to partially control rockwork, and they are able to disable/destroy the rockwork creatures before they do too much damage.
• Another long walk further on, following what appear to be a number of footprints in the dust (though most pointing towards Kyholt, as though more people came this way than later went back), the tunnel turns again and enters what appears to be a broken decontamination chamber (similar to some previously encountered). This one also, however, contains an Aspexx-branded communicator, an Aspexx uniform jacket and a key stamped with the Aspexx logo, all apparently dropped by someone else coming this way. The party leave the communicator behind as Gathering Flow's pilot beacon is blinking - and, at the end of the tunnel, they encounter a handy 'Decay starts here' sign left on the wall by someone else - but pocket the key for later use.
• They walk another long distance along featureless tunnels, until eventually they start to notice a feature - small pentagonal mosaic tiles, in five different colours (blue, green, orange, pink and purple) start to appear along the walls, increasing in frequency/density as the party proceeds along the tunnel. It becomes clear that these are leading somewhere - at a junction, the tunnel turns at a corner, but ahead is a dead-end pentagonal room containing a) several mosaic artworks and b) a lot of rather poisonous spores floating in the air.
• The party use their breathing apparatus, and their own skills, to enter the room, study the mosaics, make sketches of them and discuss their suppositions. Broadly speaking, these are the obvious facts of the room:
  • This room looks old, and well-used - the mosaics appear somewhat worn as though by being touched or brushed past.
  • There are three areas of mosaic - an initial diptych of two simple images, a tetraptych of some more complex scenes, and a final huge single image.
  • All images feature five five-limbed creatures and the five colours of the mosaic tiles, each one seeming to be linked to one creature.
• The party is unable to spend as long as they might like staring at these images, due to the spores, but they make notes and sketches to pass on to Ninth Truth at the completion of the mission (see Aftermath below for details of what knowledge is now publicly available).
• Continuning onwards, the party are aware that this is now a very long trek they have been on. How far they now are from Kyholt is underscored when they reach an area where seismic or glacial activity has actually split the land apart, and the tunnel now has a several-meter gap and an offset, with a rope across (apparently left by Aspexx) and ice surrounding the break. Ice which is full of cavern worms. Both characters have ways to get across the gap without difficulty, but run into problems when the cavern worms attack ferociously. Luckily they are finally able to fend them off and continue on their way, only slightly worse for wear.
• Following the tunnels (and the footsteps) further, the party eventually end up in a very surprising location - another Pentagonal Gate room. It looks a lot like the ones they have previously encountered, except that in this one there's an Aspexx specialist on a communicator call in an ops tent. The party get the specialist's attention, and everyone asks questions about what everyone else is doing here. It turns out that Aspexx, despite suffering significant losses of the fighting troops sent here with the scientists to protect them, have managed to find this chamber with a dormant gate in, establish an operational base here, and then sneak through to the Kyholt base to try to investigate the operational gate there. They were foiled in really investigating it, but in the months since have finally got to grips with the gate controls enough to get it activated a few weeks ago. The specialist indicates that in fact there's an Aspexx scientist through the gate at the moment, exploring what's on the other side - but before the party follow, she points them at a pile of spacesuits next to the gate. Because the other side of this gate is, somewhat unexpectedly, in space.

• Bullet points of what characters did in the aftermath of the mission

• Breakdown of consequences for characters - rewards, effects, contacts.
• Also mention any wider consequences for the world

• Consequences

• Consequences

• Consequences

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