# Incoming Transmission
# Source Identifier: C14 Abiding Storm # Her Glorious Command
# Destination Identifier: TE3-Firebrand#Her Glorious Command#Starlight Ebbing#Muse IX#Endeavour#Unquiet Journey#*
# Subject: Operation: Five Point Star
# Message Begins

CAPABLE EXPLORERS REQUIRED FOR DANGEROUS MISSION

Recently, discoveries on the surface of Hive IV observed by Dr Neatly Birch of the Hive V Observation Station have been correlated with images of the buried civilisation on Kylal - in particular, a large pentagonal structure has been identified.

The Zeitgeist Research Department, working from Endeavour, are seeking a team to embark on a trip to the surface of Hive IV to investigate the structure and return by virtue of Ship Heart Intervention.

Owing to the consistent failure of previous expeditions to the surface of this moon, the risk level of this Mission is considered at its maximum and compensation will be given accordingly.

Interested parties should attend a planning conference aboard Endeavour at 2000 hours this coming Fifthday.

Vaunted Platinum ZRD Research Expansion Division Leader

# Message Ends

• Warded Path - Tamsin
• Budding Leaf - Alex ET
• Delicate Harmony - Mike

• The party are brought to a conferencing suite aboard Endeavour where everyone is quite excited, although apprehensive, about the upcoming expedition. Vaunted Platinum, the Research Expansion Division Leader for the Zeitgeist Research Department, briefs the party on a curious structure observed on the surface of Hive IV by the Hive V observation station. Dr. Neatly Birch, slightly reclusive research leader of that observation station, explains about the large pentagonal structure found that matches previous observations of ancient structures found beneath the surface of Kylal.
• The structure, as yet unnamed, is found in the “Fifth Sea” (named by superstitious Vyixian research students), and looks to be as large if not larger than any previous installation - all of which have thus far been found only on Kylal.
• Obviously, everyone is concerned about the fact that every single expedition to Hive IV so far has met an ill fate, but this time they are optimistic that the plan - which is to send a one-way drop pod to the surface and use an Intervention from Endeavour to bring them back - will succeed due to not foraying far into the planet's forests.
• The party discuss the arrangements with various interested parties, including Dr. Curious Direction who works closely with Budding Leaf. Some photos are taken to either inform the newscast of great success or to illustrate obituaries, and Endeavour is consulted on its thoughts which are found to be cautiously interested.
• Off on the drop pod, everything is going well as the one-way transport is launched toward the planet, however on the way down its navigation systems go haywire and it careens off course. The pod jettisons its floatation devices which land close to the Fifth Sea. The pod itself smashes as expected into the planet's surface and the party get out into the darkness of Hive IV's night.
• In the darkness, they observe creatures that have strange bioluminescent spots on them. Initially curious, these creatures turn hostile quickly and attempt to savage the party. Between flashes of fighting, the party observe two types of creatures: bipedal ape-like creatures with rough bark-like growths on their faces, and large bulky creatures with crystallised bark patches that are impregnable to ranged attacks.
• The party push on in the direction of their jettisoned supplies, cognisant that a lot is riding on the expedition and backing out now would be a waste of resources. They encounter more of these creatures, as well as a large willowy creature that has glowing spores floating around it that proves a tough adversary as it works to support, enhance, and heal the other creatures. Curious, the party observe that there are definitely different species on the planet but they seem to be working together.
• They press on and encounter another new creature next to the jettisoned raft, but this one is not hostile. It's small and cute and trills at them, and they befriend it as it imitates the sounds they make. Warded Path feeds it some mint cake which it delights in, and repeats the words “Mint Cake” sufficiently that the party name it as such and take it with them on the raft.
• There's a reprieve as the party sail across the Fifth Sea without incident, but on arrival on the surface of the Pentagonal Structure they find a large number of Decay Creatures that look like they are the bodies of Hive IV denizens, as well as some of the ancient pentagonal Crypt Guardians. Defeating those, Delicate Harmony forces the party's way into the structure and they push past a decontamination routine to find the structure in perfect repair within - particularly compared to the decrepit state of the Kylalian relics.
• As they proceed within, the facility begins to become more operational - they are accosted by Crypt Monitors and Crypt Transports before being met by wave upon wave of Crypt Guardian rollers as they reach the middle of the facility. Upon arrival, they find a large dormant pentagonal archway with a control panel that Delicate Harmony interfaces with to gain access to its privileges and begins to activate what is calling itself a gate.
• The party continue to fight off Crypt Guardians while from above they are warned that there's a surge of Decay heading toward them. They hold out, and the pentagonal archway fills with a ghostly blue light - the party dive through it and immediately feel the chill of Kylal. They blink and look around, right into the face of some Kylalian archaeologists who look absolutely startled and perplexed. The party start explaining themselves, when Mint Cake reveals itself and immediately the shout of “QUARANTINE!” sees them quickly and eagerly split up.

• The party are subjected to a short but intense quarantine procedure, during which Delicate Harmony constructs and iterates on a flamethrower attachment for their shoulder mounted gun.
• Warded Path, who was subject to a Decay based Curse, undergoes a strenuous regimen of avoiding sleep to flush the Decay out of her system. She approaches the next Operation with little sleep so calls in some favour to drug herself awake and alert.
• Budding Leaf performs some autopsy on the materials brought back from the planet to satisfy some questions about the creatures they've been fighting.

The Borderlands Botanists would like to seize the opportunity presented by the newly discovered gate linking Kylal and Hive IV to discover more about Hive IV's flora and fauna, as well as safe routes for future expeditions.

• Warded Path - Tamsin
• Budding Leaf - Alex ET
• Delicate Harmony - Mike
• Tiny Ember - Iain

• Several days pass since the previous mission, during which time Endeavour moves from Hive to Kylal to bring everyone else to wear the party now is. The previous party completes their quarantine and are released, while the 'Mint Cake' creature remains quarantined by the Botanists for further study. Tiny Ember joins the party.
• Ninth Truth wants to seize the opportunity presented by this newfound 'gate' linking Kylal and Hive IV, and asks the party to head back through and perform further study of the flora and fauna there - this time in daylight. This will involve heading back across the Fifth Sea and into the forest, but Ninth Truth suggests that the party avoid going too deep into this dangerous area, and instead only go a short way and parallel the coast, looping around to come back out near their raft, in order to minimise the risk. If the party can determine a safe route, this will be invaluable information for future missions.
• A second party is also preparing to head out: a mystic named Undying Dawn, from Endeavour, and their party of (questionably competent) guards. They intend to follow in the wake of the first party to get out of the pentagonal facility, then take a different route through the forest for their own purposes.
• The party head through the gate, and discover that the Crypt Guardians are not hostile towards them, instead seeming somewhat confused. The doors out of the chamber have been sealed (perhaps to repel the previous Decay attack), but Delicate Harmony identifies a control panel which Tiny Ember is able to operate to open the doors out. The party pick their way through the facility and out onto the beach to find the raft they left there; Warded Path leaves a series of notes written on the facility walls to guide Undying Dawn's party past the traps and decay creatures.
• After fending off the Skulkers long enough to get the raft back into the water, this second journey across the Fifth Sea is more eventful than the first one. The waters are choppier, and aquatic creatures accost the party; the first group are more docile, but the second are aggressive and attack the raft as a group.
• The party reach the mainland and make their way through the forest. They encounter several groups of creatures. The first group is a mixture of quadrupedal, emaciated beings accompanied by more of the bipedal ape-like creatures from before, all working together on something, which attack the party as soon as they arrive. Once dealt with, the party move on, and soon come upon another group of the same creatures. However, this second group is very docile, and the party are able to spend some time amongst them, observing them, before moving on.
• Tiny Ember tinkers with her communicator in an attempt to run some diagnostics on the buzzing static signal coming from the planet Hive, wondering if it might have had any malignant affect on the drop pod's earlier navigation. While the tinkering is by no means perfect, she is not able to discern anything notable about the static - it just seems like normal static.
• From a high ridge looking down into a valley, the party observe what appears to be basic organised agriculture. Tall, spindly figures with many arms and scything claws work the ground, overseen by more of the large willowy creatures from before. An immense bulbous form sits in the centre of this arrangement, with smaller bulbous forms seemingly growing around the site. Tiny Ember attempts to get closer, but the creatures sense her at a distance and she is forced to retreat.
• Moving onwards in the forest, the party come upon a glade containing ship wreckage and corpses. Much like the rest of the forest, Warded Path and Tiny Ember do not detect any decay here (so no risk of these corpses getting up). Amongst the wreckage is the party's drop pod from the first mission, as well as part of the remains of the Lesser Horizons settlement ship that first tried to land on Hive IV. Drag marks on the ground, coupled with the party's understanding of where their drop pod originally landed, indicate that none of this wreckage originally landed here, but rather was brought here from elsewhere.
• The party call in their finding to the Endeavour, and conclude that they have now completed their mission objectives, suggesting to the Endeavour that they should prepare for an Intervention to pull them out. Before leaving, they salvage a variety of items from the site for further study. As Tiny Ember pulls the flight recorder out of the Lesser Horizons hull panel, the party becomes aware that the Hive IV creatures (or at least, the aggressive faction of them) have been alerted to the party's presence and are closing in.
• Warded Path calls an Intervention from Endeavour (the ship heart) to relocate the party and their loot back to Endeavour (the ship). The world starts to fade around the party as they would expect, and then… doesn't. The party are still in the wreckage glade on Hive IV. The creatures are still closing in. No-one, on the ground or on Endeavour, is quite sure why this has happened. The party are forced to run.
• Thanks to following Ninth Truth's directions, the party are at least not too far from their raft, having paralleled the coast and looped around. However, in their scramble through the forest, pursued by the many different creatures encountered so far, Warded Path is grievously wounded and dragged away, forcing the party to double back and retrieve her. It is a hard fight, but they eventually make it back onto the raft, get it out onto the Fifth Sea, and fend off further waves of aggressive sea creatures. The beach at the pentagonal facility is at least not immediately swarming with decaying Skulkers, and the party are able to head back through the gate to Kylal before anything else goes wrong.

• A series of tinkerings from during the mission are Mark II'd into permanent upgrades (see individual consequences at end of page).

A distress call is received from Prof. Blistering Quarry, Endeavour’s captain, to Kylal, where the PCs are currently based. Endeavour (the ship heart) seems distressed and it might have something to do with recent events.

• Delicate Harmony - Mike
• Warded Path - Tamsin
• Budding Leaf - Alex ET
• Tiny Ember - Iain

• Before they can decide what to do about the distress call, Endeavour (the ship heart) Intervenes (or performs Reality Swap? It's a little unclear whether this is exactly the same thing as Startouched can call on ship hearts to do) and brings the entire party to the bridge of Endeavour (the ship). It somewhat incoherently demands that the party go find its Mystic, who went out on a mission to Hive IV at around the same time as Operation: Index but has not yet returned, and communication with them has been lost. Endeavour appears impatient with any concerns and, after having delivered its message, Intervenes everyone back down to the surface of Kylal (including some of its own crew who are very much not dressed for the conditions).
• The party agrees to go try to find the Mystic, Undying Dawn, and their party of guards.
• They manage to retrace the other group's tracks across the ocean (their boat is still sitting on the other side) and through the forest a little way, getting attacked by creatures similar to those they had previously encountered.
• Some way into the forest, they come across a pile of creature corpses and a pile of guard corpses - plus one guard who is only 99% a corpse, who they are able to revive. This is Certain Footing, who remembers that Undying Dawn was swarmed by the creatures but has no memory of what happened to them. Certain Footing is very jumpy, and is unwilling to listen to the party when told that not all of the creatures are actively hostile. The party try to convince Certain Footing to go with them to retrieve the Mystic, but she has had enough of this moon and its creatures and runs off back towards the ocean. She still has a communicator with her, so the party shrug and ask those back at base to try to keep in contact with her.
• The party follow the marks of a body being dragged deeper into the forest, but encounter a concerted effort to repel them - cadaverous monsters and others clearly working together to identify individual party members and hunt them down. The party manage to emerge victorious after a tough battle, but these creatures clearly do not want them here.
• Eventually, they find Undying Dawn being guarded by a huge lizard-crab-type creature, which appears to be aware enough to know how to stop the party extracting them (e.g. using PULL). The Mystic themself appears to be comatose, possibly dreaming, possibly chanting in tongues… it's hard to say exactly what's going on, behind the many crab limbs, but they're clearly not themself and clearly making some strange not-quite-language noises. After the party has been fighting the monster for a while, Undying Dawn collapses, apparently overwhelmed by whatever has been happening to them.
• The party eventually manage to defeat the monster, extracting and healing Undying Dawn, who unfortunately appears to have no particularly clear memory of exactly what's happened since they were abducted from their guards. They appear quite confused, but are also clearly upset that they can't feel Endeavour's presence at all, and they want to return to Endeavour in person as soon as possible.
• Luckily, this aligns with both the party's desire and the clear desire of other creatures on Hive IV for all intruders to leave now. The party race back to their somewhat damaged raft as fast as possible, cross the ocean and land their mostly-just-a-pile-of-wood-now on the shore, before dodging the Skulkers one last time and diving through the Gate to Kylal.
• ….where things do not seem to be going to plan. As soon as they arrive, Undying Dawn is extracted from amongst them - presumably by Endeavour? Warded Path uses her own connection to get Endeavour to extract the rest of the party as well (but not Certain Footing, who has made it back on her own but is considered a liability at this point).
• On Endeavour, things are going…. poorly. All is chaos, but the party quickly gather that Endeavour (the ship heart) is no longer managing the functions of Endeavour (the ship) as well as one might wish. Indeed, life support, gravity, navigation and most other critical systems are either offline or glitching badly. Decay is being seen in rooms near the hull of the ship. While the crew focus on evacuating everyone into shuttles, with help from some of the party, Warded Path goes to seek out Endeavour, where she also finds Undying Dawn pleading with Endeavour and trying to help in any way they can. Endeavour appears to be in great distress, and seems to be trying to answer questions helpfully but is clearly struggling with something major. It doesn't appear to want to hurt either Undying Dawn or Warded Path, and it confirms that its SCION unit is still operating correctly, but it just is not behaving in a way anyone has seen a ship heart behave before (or survived to tell anyone that they saw it, anyway). Undying Dawn and Warded Path agree that, while they want to help Endeavour, nothing they are doing right now seems to be helping, and the priority should be evacuating everyone for now and figuring this out later. They go to help the rest of the crew, at least until Undying Dawn suddenly disappears - presumably taken somewhere else by Endeavour.
• The escape shuttles and pods launch through a wave of Decay creatures on the outer hull, but make it out safely and retreat towards Kylal as everyone holds their breath to see whether Endeavour explodes.
• Endeavour….does not explode. For now.

• Having concluded that whatever is going on with Endeavour does not pose an immediate risk of an Orion Gate style explosive catastrophe, there is a brief period of calm.
• Tiny Ember contacts Firebrand to bring them in to help collect up the escape pods from Endeavour. Ember also asks Firebrand to give the Kylalian Research Station near Kylal proper notification of the escape pods landing. Firebrand will send Cooperation assistance to help with the influx of refugees.
• Observation of Endeavour from Firebrand shows the ship has heavy damage from Decay but is still in one piece. The captain has been confirmed to have remained on board to communicate with the Ship Heart.
• Budding Leaf confirms that Curious Direction got off the ship okay, which they confirm and state they're heading to Kylal. Curious Direction is unsure whether the rest of the escape pods got out okay, but is looking to unite with Ninth Truth on the surface to meet later.
• Warded Path checks and confirms that she can still access her Startouched Abilities and can still feel the presence of Endeavour, but notes its lack of lucidity when they spoke.
• Warded Path connects to Endeavour and asks about Undying Dawn. In return, they receive not so much words as an image of Undying Dawn wrapped in bubblewrap, and conclude that this means Undying Dawn is safe somewhere although they have not arrived on Kylal.
• The party guide their escape pod to the main Kylal settlement and start helping to organise the other Endeavour refugees as they arrive, since this is a much larger population influx than Kylal is prepared to deal with.
• Budding Leaf contacts Dr. Neatly Birch on Hive V to see if anything has been observed as having changed on Hive IV's surface, but nothing has.

• Budding Leaf investigates the bodies that they found on Hive IV during Operation: Index and found that the corpse that was holding the notebook they recovered was about 100 years fresher than the rest of the corpses - including the one holding the recording they found. Doing some digging, he finds that the Fjenix Academy had sent a team to Kylal about that time, but that little is known about that expedition's fate partly due to it having happened several centuries ago, and partly because the records would be stored on Fjenix, outside of the system.
• Budding Leaf also investigates Mint Cake to see how it is doing. It's not been killed and dissected yet since the Borderland Botanists want to observe its behaviour. It's considered adorable, but also probably not Sapient.

• Delicate Harmony establishes a research group to look into the Pentagonal Gate and checks whether or not it it had been activated at any point before - specifically during the period that the corpse with the newer notebook would have been there. Harmony finds it was indeed opened during that time, and had since closed by itself.
• Delicate Harmony uses Clout with the Mytene Industrial Corps to ask how things are going with the Forge - they're collaborating with the Botanists to share information and now the Mytenean Various Forge is about as functional as the portable Forge aboard Unquiet Journey. They use the Mytenean Forge to integrate their Mk II'd reflective carapace into themselves.

• Tiny Ember investigates the Solar Shielded Flight Recorder from the Lesser Horizons debris found during Operation: Index. They found that the ship's weapon systems had activated in response to hostile fauna after the comms and navigation rigs were initially scrambled on approach. This was not, however, what brought down the ship. It appears that whole systems of the Lesser Horizons were deactivated or destroyed wholesale one after the other as the ship descended.
• Tiny Ember reports to the Captain of the Firebrand to request a promotion to Lieutenant, which is granted.

• Warded Path reports for Quarantine due to their various injuries and Curses. This briefly results in the rest of the party being brought in to investigate the Decay Curse that everyone except Tiny Ember was suffering from. The Decay Curse looks to be dormant but something the Borderland Botanists are interested in experimenting with, the Severe Injury from the willowy Hive IV creature they determine is not an active danger to Warded path but rather something personal to them that produces an empathetic effect.
• Confident they are not an infectious threat to the fleet and society at large, Path looks into the fate of the Endeavour's chief mystic, but nobody seems to have heard from them. Path observes Endeavour and notices that the ship is starting to bend at one end due to Decay, and over time Her Glorious Command is brought in to fly quarantine around it in tandem with Firebrand. Most of the Endeavour's crew have fled to either Kylal or Unquiet Journey.
• Path also checks in on Mint Cake and shares in the scientific declaration of adorableness and non-sentience.

• The party are asked for suggestions for names for the creatures they encountered on their expedition, and the following names are given to the creatures whose features are publicised by the distributed Zeitgeist Research Department:
  • Mimic - a small creature that can copy the actions and sounds of those who interact with it.
  • Ruffian - ape-like bioluminescent creatures that are most common in the forests.
  • Willow - tall graceful creatures that coordinated and empowered the other creatures.
  • Reflector - tough heavy-set creatures with crystallised bark that bounce back ranged attacks.
  • Huskee - gangly predators with skin stretched over their bones.
  • Seel / Serph - aquatic hunters that attack in packs.
  • Lizardcrab / Clawgasbord - enormous armoured creature with enormous claws and spitting tails.

• A gateway now exists between Kylal (near Kyholt) and “Beachhead” in the Fifth Sea of Hive IV. It is accessed via the tunnels and its operation is under the control of the Borderland Botanists and their new Gateway Research Team which is headed by Delicate Harmony.
  • Linears to Hive IV are now possible for anyone to run provided they go through this gateway - advice will be updated on Bestiary and 'Running a Mission'
• Beachhead, an ancient Pentagonal Structure, contains scores of Crypt Guardians who keep Decay at bay and - while they remain unprovoked - consider anyone who has passed through the Gateway to be an ally. A small base is established on the Hive IV side of the Gateway to take advantage of this, to research, and provide a base camp for launching further expeditions.
• Further locked passages into the depths of Beachhead are discovered but remain as yet unexplored.
• Bodies have been recovered from Hive IV that date back centuries.
• Information about the creatures found on Hive IV is proliferated throughout the Keter Borderlands.

• The Endeavour has been fully evacuated and gone dark in the sky. It is actively known to be Decaying.
• The Ship Heart only responds to its Startouched with perfunctory and obtuse responses.
• The Captain and Chief Mystic of Endeavour are missing in action. The Captain is presumed to be aboard the ship, but the Mystic's location is unknown.
• Firebrand and Her Glorious Command are flying a cordon around Endeavour - no ship is permitted closer without their express permission.
  • Linears to Endeavour are possible but require discussion with the Ref Team before being embarked upon.
  • Clout with Endeavour and clout with Endeavour's Ship Heart are now different things. Existing pools of Clout considered with both may be split however you choose.

• 5 Clout that can be assigned to any faction that was involved at any point in any operation:
  • Endeavour's crew / the Zeitgeist Research Department
  • Hive V Observation Station
  • The Borderland Botanists
  • The Borderland Botanists - Gateway Research Team
  • The Galactic Cooperation / Firebrand
  • Her Glorious Command
  • Endeavour - the Ship Heart (now considered a separate Clout pool to the Ship's Crew)

• +5 Clout with the Borderland Botanists
• Access to the Ouroboros Experimental Tree.
• Mk II Adaptive Scanner Memory Slot:
  • Your Adaptive Scanner now has a second slot for storing a scanned quality. You must choose which slot to overwrite when scanning a new quality.

• +5 Clout with the Borderland Botanists
• Access to the Ouroboros Experimental Tree.
• Access to the Gatekeeper Experimental Tree.
• Mk II Flaming Hot Hardpoints:
  • You may choose to load your weapon from Hardpoints Mean Prizes with a flamethrower round instead to call BURN instead of PEW. You must decide which you are charging before you load your weapon since if you take damage while loading for your BURN then you must call MASS BURN which you yourself must take, and start loading from scratch.
• Mk II Literal Preigniter:
  • You may choose to use your Weapon Preigniter to instead load your flamethrower. Due to inefficiencies, this only loads a single round of BURN (rather than 3 rounds of PEW). Due to consequences, only the first use per encounter functions without side-effects: further uses in the same encounter will also inflict you with BURN at the conclusion of the HARVEST.
• Mk II Crystalline Carapace:
  • You may call HARVEST to gain the ability to call PING against a YOU call that you then must immediately make back against the source as you reflect it.

• +5 Clout with Firebrand
• Promoted to full Lieutenant on the Firebrand.
• Mk II Gun Runner:
  • Your gun gains a simple homing program, and legs!
  • If the gun becomes separated from you by more than a short distance, it will do its best to run back to you, within the limits of the terrain (e.g. it cannot swim) and its fairly simple programming (e.g. it is not smart enough to hitchhike).
  • The gun is reasonably stealthy while in motion, though is not immune to being spotted if in especially obvious circumstances.
  • The gun is not capable of loading or shooting itself.
  • You may disable / reenable this feature with physical access to the gun and 5 seconds of appropriate roleplay (for example if you wanted to hand the gun over to someone else without it trying to escape them).

• +5 Clout with the Crew of Endeavour
• Severe Injury - “Wind of the Willows”
  • Whenever you call EXECUTE you take on yourself a sympathetic BREAK on a relevant limb.
  • When you hear music you feel additionally tranquil.
  • The sounds that the Hive IV Willow creatures make sounds melodious and musical to you.
• Access to the Ouroboros Experimental Tree.