This is probably going to be Part 1 of several posts and I try to dig myself out of the hole I dug for myself.
So, we’re likely down one player this Friday – he’s going out of town and said he might be able to play via Fantasy Grounds & Discord from the hotel, but wasn’t sure – and where we left off makes it very difficult to have a PC out.
Far worse, however, is my planning for this ep. I’m currently looking at the following outline:
Still in the temple that’s on the surface of the star (which is impossible according to their known science):
- Baefre has disappeared and the door he just opened is now closed (and missing the options to re-open it.)
- For him, he ends up finding himself face-to-face with the jackal-headed Old God who identifies himself as ‘Anpu, Master of Secrets and Foremost of the Divine’ – this is another name for Annubis, of course, but the Taareh were originally “alien space Egyptians” so that’s fine.
- From Anpu, Baefre will learn that a wormhole has been generated in-system … but is not entirely stable as the machinery of the temple is unbelievably ancient & didn’t function correctly.
- Previously, I was leaning toward doing the big-ass space battle during this session, but as the player who was most looking forward to it is the guy who’ll be out, I’m going to have to postpone that for a week.
- Instead, I was leaning toward the PCs (specifically Baefre) transiting through what amounts to a stargate to … somewhere else … but to what end? That’s the problem I keep struggling with. Obviously, the logical thing they need to do is stabilize the wormhole … but this is tech way, way beyond them so they’re not likely to truly understand what they need to do.
- Hmm. Baefre could maybe have a Prothean beacon vision thing that could basically flash-imprint the knowledge of what to do upon reaching the the end point, but that just seems too obvious to me. Still, I can probably use that as a basis … maybe sticking with the Stargate reference, I can rip off that episode that introduced the Asgard and have Baefre be super-intelligent for a brief period of time but he’s wholly focused on erecting some device that would allow the PCs to Do A Thing (which is the stabilization stuff.)
- That said, if the PCs gate away, the question is definitely a “Where?” Do I want them to still be in-system during this? Or do they gate to someplace far, far away? I kind of want them to be involved in some capacity with the big space battle, even if its limited to them having to run the gauntlet of the space battle to enter the wormhole … oh. That could be a great way to end my run, with their ship getting blasted into bits and tumbling, end over end, into the wormhole that then collapses behind them or something.
- So back to the question: where do they gate to? Logically, if they return to the asteroid, then I need to come up with some “action” to keep them on the asteroid/mine … and then end with them all being aware that three different fleets are converging upon their location …
Going to have give that some more thought…