Echo 02 - The Bones of Giants
PRESENT
INT. MAUSEFORT - AN ENDLESS DROP INTO THE VOID
Begin a Session Momentum:6 → 7 Begin a Session(92)Unforeseen aid is on the way or within reach Descriptor+Focus(91)Ancient Obstacle
Echo was falling. She was falling and couldn't see where to for the life of her.
Is the ground approaching? Is there any ground at all? I need to see!
She tried to still her mind and quell the rising panic and let her left arm out, if she timed it right- Secure an Advantage(Edge)—8 vs 4|8
She managed to flip on herself and get a glimpse down: no ground, just infinite fall, but she's seen an enormous shard of bone, what looked like the femur of a giant ten times bigger than her, that was protruding in the drop. She shook the thin grappling rope and readied herself, and as soon as she passed by it- Face Danger(Wits)—6 vs 4|9
The grappling hook sunk into the surface, the rope tensed and Echo shoot off, the tension making her rebound and land, hard, on the bone's surface. Health:5 → 4
She hissed and waited a moment before standing up.
At least nothing's broken. Now to see if there's any way forward from here. Momentum:7 → 8
INT. MAUSEFORT - GIANT BONES HALL
Explore a Waypoint(Wits)—9 vs 5|2 Momentum:8 → 9
The trip over the bone surface looming over endless void was short, but terrifying, and she felt only relief at stepping past a threshold and on solid ground (bone?) again, even when the shadow of the rest of the giant skeleton fell over her and, looking up, she saw the metal twisted through it. This must have been one of the creatures "made for war" on the planet's surface, the fall must have taken her closer.
Find your way through the Mausefort to the Hourglass +1 (3/10)
She climbed up the bones to see better what laid around her. Gather Information(Wits)—9 vs 6|1 Action + Theme(88)Locate Relationship Descriptor+Focus(72)Unnatural Mechanism
Her eyes lit up on a single patterned tile in the smooth bone, up over the giant skull, and then on the opposing side of the large room, where a glimmer of light revealed a similar pattern in a dark red gemstone, where the outline of a passage was barely visible in the wall.
ECHO
Looks like there's more climbing to do.
Face Danger(Edge)—7 vs 9|4 Momentum:9 → 8
It took a while, Echo almost tripped a few times, and her bruised back was clearly making itself heard, but soon she found herself on top of the skull and pressed the pattern, hoping for the best.
She wasn't an archaeologist of any kind, would this even work? 50/50(26)Yes
INT. MAUSEFORT - RUINED CORRIDOR
Undertake an Expedition(Wits)—5 vs 9|8
Action + Theme(25)Begin Corruption Descriptor+Focus(28)Mechanical Remains
The moment Echo stepped past the threshold the guns of the half-destroyed combat droid, mostly in pieces but for its weapon capabilities, were on her and she froze.
The corridor itself was much dustier, the bone enamel broken and not smooth at all, with smaller chunks of bone that reminded her of the statues that had come to life earlier.
Its speaker croaked to life, metallic and shrill.
DROID
Halt!
Echo did, her hands going up even as she caught the symbol on the side of its head.
Does she recognize the symbol on the droid? 50/50(11)Yes
Is it one of our known factions? 50/50(9)Yes
1 - Ascendancy of the Awakened Worlds, 2 - Circle of the Elder Stars, 3- Household Serrato, 4- Risen union 1d4→4
The symbol? Descriptor+Focus(23)Guarded Energy
The symbol on the droid's chassis was one that Echo had seen many times in her travels through the forge, the yellow shield with a white reindeer in its center of the Risen Union, but the model wasn't familiar.
Fair enough, from the amount of bone dust on it... It's positively ancient.
Initial Disposition(13)FriendlyUsually when she'd met their members they'd been enigmatic, but generally friendly, if distant. She cleared her throat and twitched when the droid's firearm swayed a little more in her direction.
ECHO
Don't shoot! I'm not an enemy, the statues attacked me too!
Compel(Heart)—4 vs 5|4
Echo saw its lens scan her from head to toe and analyze her person for signs of battle: whatever it was that the droid saw, its weapon lowered. Momentum:2 → 3
DROID
Condition- Critical. Assistance required.
ECHO
Sure, I'll... try and repair you. I can't work miracles though. What were you even doing here?
She took out her equipment and started lining up the, admittedly sparse, robotic repair kit she usually brought with her, showing it to the Droid as they talked.
Gather Information(Wits)—8 vs 9|10
Were they trying to find the Hourglass too? 50/50(14)Yes Were they involved in the planet's war? 50/50(59)No Does the droid know current orders? 50/50(21)Yes Is the RU still now searching for the Hourglass? 50/50(93)No
In its grating, halting speech, the droid told her more that she thought it would: about how the Risen Union of decades past had been searching for the Hourglass in here, how most of the team inside had been attacked and died and only a few had managed to flee. How it had been monitoring the RU's frequencies ever since, but couldn't communicate its own status due to a broken comm unit, and had to spectate as the ones fleeing from here formed their own splinter group, obsessed with finding the Hourglass, among other relics and precursor technologies, to their own end.
Were this splinter group the ones she was 'supposed to stop'? Well, if she took it first they'd never begin anything in the first place.
Stop those who want to take the Hourglass +1 (2/10)
She'd first have to see where this machine stood, of course.
Secure an Advantage(Wits)—7 vs 2|10
DROID
I recently recognized once again their speech patterns in the comm channels. It's statistically likely that they are infiltrating the Risen Union and searching again.
ECHO
And what about you? Where do you stand about the Hourglass?
DROID
My loyalty to the Risen Union is programmed. I will complete my last mission, unless my orders change.
ECHO
Got it! Makes sense.
Echo tried to make it sound cheerful even as she prepared to fake with everything she had. It looked like she'd have to repair the droid's issued to death. She warned it that she was beginning and took her tools. Face Danger(Shadow)—6 vs 2|5 Momentum:3 → 4 Repair(Wits)—9 vs 6|2
Echo was extremely thankful that this unit was so old, she was sweating by the time she'd finished, after disabling its comm unit completely and talking it into believing that she was doing it simply for the repairs. She watched the chassis fall to the ground completely inert as the computational unit was removed, then took the data storage and hid it inside her suit, to look at once outside the Vault and its many nightmares.
She readied her blade and steadied her breath, and looked down towards the rest of the corridor and its grey shadows. There was no time to dwadle.
INT. MAUSEFORT - RUINED CORRIDOR, DEEPER
Undertake an Expedition(Wits)—9 vs 7|6
Find your way through the Mausefort to the Hourglass +1 (4/10)
Interior Feature(40)Looted or dismantled technology
Echo proceeded forward, stepping over the remains of that decades-old battle between the enamel-covered undead and the RU splinter faction, closing her eyes every once in a while to give all her focus to the bell tones, trying to understand the next steps forward.
Secure an Advantage(Wits)—7 vs 4|10 Momentum:4 → 6
She could feel the old robotic parts littering the ground, see the old pieces of ammo and weapon, the discarded archaic-looking armor with the shield-and-reindeer emblem on it. She simply followed the trail of the old battle deeper forward, feeling the deep bell-tones resonate in her bones.
Will she search for further info? 50/50(93)No
Echo gave the passage one last look as she felt the bell-tones shift towards one specific door. She could search further, if she wanted to, and maybe she'd find something useful. But the hair on the back of her neck was standing up, and she could feel something in the winds of the beyond slither forward: something was paying her too much attention right now.
Echo didn't want to linger here. She stepped forward.
INT. MAUSEFORT - ANCIENT WAREHOUSE
Undertake an Expedition(Wits)—9 vs 1|6
Find your way through the Mausefort to the Hourglass +1 (5/10)
Interior Feature(298)Looted storage facility, Inscrutable object lies dark and silent
The dust, shining vortices in the still air, greeted Echo as she walked in the opening. Shelves protruded out from the walls, made of bone and mostly empty, some destroyed. Some things had been left behind by whoever had been here first and had emptied the place, and Echo could understand why: at a quick glance she couldn't even guess their use.
ECHO
Why here, you damn bell? Is there even another door here?
She clicked on the lights from her insulation suit and detached them, lifting them up into the air with a command on her comm unit to reveal the vast room, and looked around.
Explore a Waypoint(Wits)—8 vs 5|6 Momentum:6 → 7
Echo scanned the place carefully, before her attention was pulled to the unseeing... nothingness in the far corner of the vast space: if not for the out-of-tune wavering of the bells that had been her constant companions inside the Vault, she wouldn't be able to see it. As it was, even as she walked towards it almost involuntary, she couldn't focus her eyes on it.
Find your way through the Mausefort to the Hourglass +2 (7/10)
Was this the Hourglass? Likely(47)Yes
Something in the sound over the winds beyond answered her unspoken thoughts: yes. We brought you here, you wanted this Hourglass, here it is; that something seemed to say. Echo didn't know if she could call that feeling, that almost-voice, friendly.
Finish an Expedition(track)—0 vs 7|6 Find your way through the Mausefort to the Hourglasscompleted Take the Hourglass relic and keep it safe +1 (2/10) Momentum:7 → 9
Echo walked up to the Hourglass, trying to focus her gaze on it and failing again and again. The dissonant bells kept chanting their deep, striding song, now so loud in the spiritual winds that she couldn't even hear her own breathing.
ECHO
No need to be so insistent about it, I'm here now, aren't I?
Peril(50)Spectral manifestations of your fears Action(64)Manipulate Theme(1)Ability
Begin the Scene Overcome the Hourglass' Protections The Hourglass protections overwhelm Echo(0/The Starforged/Campaign Echo 'Phantom' Stirling/Clocks/The Hourglass protections overwhelm Echo.md)
She tried examining the relic with her comm's scanner, walking a circle around it. Trying to touch it physically proved to be a very... weird experience, even for someone who regularly took missions from the dead. Her hands could definitely feel something, but no grip was enough, no touch communicated any defining features, was it smooth? Sharp? Cold? This probably was one last defense mechanism.
When nothing worked she stopped in front of the relic, calmed her breathing down, and called forward her spirit sense. Something had guided Echo here, that meant that the something must be here and have its own kind of agency.
ECHO
It's not really how this usually works, we'll just have to force it out, won't we, unseen friend?
She brought the rush of the spiritual wind forward, the eerie tones that had guided her forward becoming louder, more dissonant, until the sound itself coagulated midair in front of her, on the other side of the Hourglass, in an humanoid mass.
ECHO
I followed you here upon your prompting. It is me, Phantom. You must answer now, as the contract says. How do I take this Relic?
Face Danger (Scene Challenge)(Heart)—6 vs 10|2
With every world reminding the spirit of the unspoken contract those of the First Light had allegedly stipulated with the dead so long ago, formal and weighty, the gravity in the room became heavier, the atmosphere darker, even as the Hourglass started to shine an almost-purple light beyond the darkness that cloaked it.
Is the spirit going to be the one that has to unlock the relic? 50/50(88)No What's the clue it gives Echo? Action(92)Suppress Theme(200)Wisdom
Working through it... I'm seeing 'suppress wisdom' as something that says that you must do the opposite of common sense. Like putting the hand on a flame purposefully, putting your fingers in an electrical socket, etc. Common sense here is that Echo is trying to TAKE something, so she instead has to GIVE something. Descriptor(133)Extinct Focus(164)Motion
SPIRIT
Give Phantom... over... to it.
Overcome the Hourglass' Protections +1 (2/10)
The reluctant words whispered in her ears became daggers of ice as the images became a flow, known and feared. She was in the First Light, awake and scared. She heard the whispers. Elize's voice, so like her own, but cold, ranting.
[MEMORIES]
-a mere puppet, a replica, an *echo*, and its necromancy is that much more powerful than mine! You know what we could do with it, Vesper! With our tech!
Elize, we don't interfere with the mundane world for a reason! Let the old relics be, you can't just jump bodies and take, the clans will notice!
Who cares about those forge-damned Clans when--
As Echo shook out of her memories she noticed that she was now standing in the cloning chambers of the First Light as she remembered them to be, Elize Stirling, her much older mirror, smiling sweetly in front of her, the relic still between them.
ELIZE
Yes, my darling Echo, give the Hourglass your power, maybe you'll like its plans better than mine. But how can you be sure of that?
The Hourglass protections overwhelm EchoThe Starforged/Campaign Echo 'Phantom' Stirling/Clocks/Completed/The Hourglass protections overwhelm Echo → 0/1
Echo felt her words dry out, the fear of back then striking a place deep in her soul. She felt exactly what would happen, as if it were reality: her power stripped from her, her autonomy taken, trapped in a body with another soul shoved in it, taking advantage. What would that even feel like with something as alien as a relic?
And as Elize had said, what would its plans be?
Then she remembered that exact wording.
ECHO
You are not Elize, are you? She and I never talked when she was alive, and any necromancer worth their salt knows that you can't use your real name with those gone beyond. So, what is it you want? Who are you?
Echo saw Elize open her mouth and brought on the pressure, feeling something in her head seize up dangerously, though this was dangerous either way. So she pressed on, eyebrows creasing in concentration: if this was indeed a spirit it was bound to answer truthfully to her demand.
Secure an Advantage (Scene Challenge)(Heart)—7 vs 7|2 Momentum:9 → 10
I'm treating this as if it were a GI move from Echo's Necromancer asset, because I say so lol
The spirit melted, losing its semblance of anything but a dark vortex of shadow moving erratically in the currents of the winds beyond, but the menacing feeling of being watched didn't go away. Whatever it was, it clearly wasn't Elize - or the spirit of anyone dead, really.
Face Danger (Scene Challenge)(Wits)—10 vs 6|1
Overcome the Hourglass' Protections +1 (4/10)
Echo could feel the indecision freezing her, as the vortex of shadows stretched towards her. It was shadow, impossible to understand, difficult to see even... That clicked in her brain.
Almost like the protections on the Hourglass...
The shadow had communicated with her in the form of Elize, but it wasn't. There must have been a reason for it. Echo would very rarely do what Elize wanted at all, and what if that was exactly the point?
Does Echo trust her intuition? 50/50(14)Yes
It was a gamble, more than dangerous, but she had little option now. She screamed, loud, as she began to pour her power into the Hourglass itself, beyond its protections, and felt pieces of her soul start to tear.
Face Danger(Heart)—3 vs 9|3
Overcome the Hourglass' Protections +1 (6/10)
When she found herself again, the world had morphed once more. Mutated bone shards floated in a field of rotating stars, without gravity and atmosphere, spinning in outer space. Looking around wildly, none of the stars were even recognizable to her eye, changing position as fast as they were. The only fixed point was the object in front of her, an incomprehensible black hole.
Awake.
The Hourglass.
THE HOURGLASS
WHY DO YOU WAKE ME?
Face Danger (Scene Challenge)(Heart)—3 vs 10|8
Before she could even start to speak and explain, she felt her own power reach to her from the relic and tear the answers out her soul. The universe spun around and inside, dying and coming back to life a thousand of times, every time just a little different as time spooled out of from a thread into too many possibilities, too much to bear for Echo as the sentient relic examined her motivations.
Pay the Price Spirit:4 → 3
The Hourglass protections overwhelm EchoThe Starforged/Campaign Echo 'Phantom' Stirling/Clocks/Completed/The Hourglass protections overwhelm Echo → 1/2
Echo saw the conversation with Vesper and Roman Savela again, from the outside. Her memories of Elize and the cloning chambers, her fear of being taken over, used without consent as an empty vessel... was this the Hourglass' way to communicate? Could it think?
Following this wild hunch, she brought to the forefront of her mind her freshest memories: the droid, telling her of the splinter faction of the Risen Union that was searching the Hourglass for its own gains, Roman insisting that she'd take the relic before someone else did and keep it safe, her vow to the bone statues of the Mausefort. She wasn't in this for herself.
Secure an Advantage (Scene Challenge)(Heart)—4 vs 2|5 Momentum:2 → 3
Echo felt the Hourglass latch on that last thought and was overwhelmed again as her own necromantic gift flowed back inside her, the winds fading back into her supernatural hearing and crashing on her like a storm, but suddenly the shadow was opening. Echo reached up, fighting against an impossible pressure, and grasped at the relic.
Face Danger(Heart)—8 vs 10|5
Her hands closed on the relic and, eyes closed against the tornado of shadows that was now buffeting both of them from the outside, she wrenched it out of its pedestal and to her, her head ringing with her own conviction.
ECHO
I will not let you here to be taken by just anyone. I have made a vow to protect you, and I'll take it to the end!
Overcome the Hourglass' Protections +1 (8/10)
The Hourglass protections overwhelm EchoThe Starforged/The Starforged/Campaign Echo 'Phantom' Stirling/Clocks/Completed/The Hourglass protections overwhelm Echo → 2/3
Finish the Scene(track)—0 vs 8|5
The Hourglass protections overwhelm Echoresolved Overcome the Hourglass' Protectionscompleted
Echo staggered to her feet an unknown amount of time later, blinking in the sudden grey light. Her arms were empty but for her normal gear and she was standing in front of the Ilex-zed, her ship.
ECHO
The relic! Where...?
Before she could descend into a panic a cold sense of certainty came to her: the Hourglass was here, awake and watching.
Well. This makes keeping it out of sight easier, if nothing else.
As she climbed back inside the ship, exhausted, she looked back at the corridors: most of them were still here, unexplored bone, but the one that she'd taken first was gone.
For a moment she was tempted to go and see what else was hidden in there, then she shook her head and closed the airlock behind her.
No thank you, someone else will have to take a crack at it.
She inserted the coordinates to a peaceful-looking part of space and laid back on her pilot chair, ready for a nap.
Take the Hourglass relic and keep it safe +1 (3/10) Momentum:3 → 5
End a Session
I'm thinking less necromancy next for Echo, mainly because I want a bit of a rest on the spooky stuff - and talking to more people that are alive can't but be helpful for Echo's mental health... but we'll see what comes up: she still has her 'keep the hourglass safe' part, that and "stopping those that want it", that splinter group of the RU, so that's probably what she'll go and poke her nose into next.
Momentum:5 → 6