Barille 03 - Searching Through Reck

BARILLE
Okay, Barille, let's take stock. Some sort of other-world, mind-warping portal is opening in the walls, and something is walking through it. Reck's a cluster on a good day, and this isn't a good day. The Ascendancy's attack has everyone in chaos, and there are still other players moving in the dark.

Let's assume Karthick was taken, or joined up with these... entities. Is the upper-class religion built on this? Or is it just coincidence?

What's the play, Barille... think...

Barille lets out a long, slow breath, then looks down the corridor the way the human-shaped thing went.

BARILLE
Yeah. Let's follow whatever that was.

Going to try and use undetake an expedition to chase this thing through the settlement. He sets off to Track the other-world entity to its source Undertake an Expedition(Shadow)—6 vs 9|5 Track the other-world entity to its source +1 (2/10)

INT. RECK — LOWER CORRIDORS, FOLLOWING THE ISOTOPE TRAIL — NIGHT — HAUNTED

Barille moves quiet and fast, the hand terminal painting a thin line of decaying isotopes ahead of him. The trail runs downward and outward — toward the settlement's edge, toward the smoke.

He follows the readings down through the settlement until the corridor opens onto what used to be a Area(47)Market or trade Feature(80)Panoramic viewport Peril(85)Heartbreaking memento of lost lives

The trail leads him straight into the thing he'd been dreading. This is where the Ascendancy frigate hit. Reck is carved into the canyon wall, and here the settlement's outer skin gave way entirely, the ship came in at orbital velocity and punched clean through a market gallery, its wide viewport shattered open to the poisoned sky. Personal effects are scattered everywhere across the rubble. The trail runs on, deeper into the settlement, but it runs through this. Spirit:5 → 3 Endure Stress(Spirit)—5 vs 1|10

Crews are still working the wreckage, still fighting fires, still pulling at the collapsed rock. The entity's trail doesn't wait — but neither do the people trapped under all that stone.

Barille looks at the terminal, then at the crews. Then he pockets the terminal. He can't not help here.

Explore a Waypoint(Wits)—7 vs 10|7 Pay the Price Spirit:3 → 2 Endure Stress(Spirit)—4 vs 8|3 Spirit:2 → 3

The guilt lands hard as he moves. He grabs a mask off the wall, then a medical pack, and throws himself into the chaos. Yeah. Just have a beer at the bar, coward. Someone else's problem. Sure.

He goes in after whoever he can reach. Face Danger(Heart)—7 vs 5|7 He finds Number(70)Many people pinned behind a fallen wall of rock and flex-steel, and he works the gap for the better part of an hour, digging, prying, hauling rubble aside, until the hole is finally wide enough to pass a body through. He hands the last of them out and drops to his knees, spent. Health:5 → 4 Endure Harm(Health)—5 vs 7|9 Health:4 → 3

One of the survivors puts a hand on his shoulder. Given Name(94)Vuldar Family Name(246)Hollodo

VULDAR HOLLODO
Hey. Thank you. Name's Hollodo. I don't think we'd have made it out if you hadn't dug us free.

BARILLE BLACK
Don't mention it. Are there others?

VULDAR HOLLODO
Everyone I know of got out. What the hell happened? You know?

BARILLE BLACK
It was an attack. A suicide run at orbital velocity. I don't know why they hit you, or what would push anyone to do that.

VULDAR HOLLODO
Gods. Who'd want to attack Reck? You look half-dead yourself, we're heading to the medical ward. Come on.

BARILLE BLACK
Sorry, *coughs* I've got a hot date. Watch your back, Hollodo.

VULDAR HOLLODO
Suit yourself, kid. See you around.

Barille drags himself back into the cleaner stretch of corridor and lies flat on his back, chest heaving. Then the hand terminal pings, another isotope trace. The trail is live again.

End a Session Track the other-world entity to its source +1 (4/10) I forgot to mark progress way back when for the initial space battle. So, being kind to myself and givng a bit of progress for it. Investigate and report on the rumored horrors of Reck +2 (5/10)

Picking this up in the next journal: Barille 04 - Hollodo is taken