We were invited by Jacquie Hobson, a former raider, to Materua, small town in Aotearoa at the base of Mount Tane-Nui-Tiwhatiwha which has been acting up ever since strange research team arrive.
In first class seats from JFK we were recording our “prep” on the flight there.
Learn the Hard Way
When the mystique of adventure and the thrill of the chase falls away, who will we become? We decide, together. At the start of each session, the team chooses one hard lesson:
- We can’t outrun the past and its consequences forever
We thwarted the raider Emily Lo-Atkins (accidentally) when in the alps. We were only saved by her sister Amanda Lo-Atkins stepping in to act as our patron and defend us. Amanda was the one that connected us to Jacquie Hobson, and sent us to Materua.
Arrival
Jacquie greets us at the airport with hugs and hot coffee. She talks fondly of Amanda (she seems to be the only person who doesn’t find her intimidating) and is very warm and welcoming to us.
Jacquie Hobson taught a geology class in college that Fen Chao took. They filmed something together that didn’t make it onto the YouTube channel…an encounter with the supernatural: a massive city with tall buildings that they took footage of but when the looked at it, they only saw a serene light and their voices were far away.
In the car ride Jaquie and Fen sit up front talking about Jaquie’s twin children who just said their first word “papa” despite Jaquie’s attempts to teach them mama. Jason turned to Dash “I think my first word was Banana”.
As we get deeper in the hills Jaquie has to focus more on the drive. Dash thinks of the cursed artifact and how it’s taken away the memories of faces. Jason, when he first sees the mountains, feels it see him as well.
Action Scene
Out of nowhere the sounds of nature silence and an unnatural earthquake strikes . The road gives way and our truck goes tumbling down into the rivers below, chased by falling rocks.
Jason Even’s the Odd and uses the Club from Jaquie’s car to force open a door so everyone can exit the car. He calls on the power of his mother heart chakra artifact to calm everyone’s heartbeats so we can work together. [Full success result]. [The situation de-escalates, for now and Stand steady and protect who matters most, gain one Bond with them – Janine Wilder] Jason opened a briefcase with modified drones in it. They fired hooks into the truck and held it temporarily in place on the bank. Meanwhile Jason and Janine had an intimate moment
Fen Forges a Path and throws and instantly inflating raft into the water and we all follow after, but creatures with strange iridescent scales begin to pull us other [Crisis]. She remembers her father teaching her about materials that expand in water [Flashback to improve results to partial success]. From underwater she sees the large eye of a creature beneath the water, a reptilian creature following us. [Discover a secret passage to somewhere unexpected, gain one Lore. Following the river and find a place where the river splits into a small rivulet that the creature cannot follow.] Lore: there is an old story about a giant white eel with green stone eyes and an appetite for children who are weak swimmers…said to have dug out a path through the mountain that we have found.
Making our way through the narrow underground river where we’ve lost our way. Dash asks his intuition prompt “What vestiges of power does the soul artifact sense here?”
Connecting to the book, Dash gets the sense that the cave is breathing. Thoughts and ideas come unbidden to Dash’s mind that he knows is not his own. There’s the sense that everywhere throughout the mountain there is breath moving back and forth. The Breath of Ikurangi is amiss here. It is pulling us to the village but something is disrupting it’s flow.
Following the source of the breath, Dash tries to follow the breath [invoking a custom move]:
When you travel across Tane-Nui-Tiwhatiwha, say where you are hoping the mountain will welcome you.
- If one of the Tohunga guides you, they reveal the path Tane-Nui-Tiwhatiwha offers, be it trial or haven.
- If you travel unguided, Tane-Nui-Tiwhatiwha’s anger manifests as rumbling earth and dangerous paths, prepare for the worst.
Though the artifact guided Dash, it was not the Tohunga welcoming us…so we prepared for the worst.
Dash Forges a Path to follow the breath the the city, aided by a compass created by the tome and found within it’s pages (cut away to make space for it). [Mixed success. Slow down and lose precious time to gain one Truth] Dash felt himself entering a trance and when his eyes closed and opened again.
It is an age before time, a fierce storm throws around a large twin hulled ocean ship as if it were a toy. Ikurangi stands at the prow, cursing Tāwhirimātea, god of wind and storms. The Tohunga looks around and can no longer see the Taniwha, the reptilian guardian of the sea, that had guided the ship from the island left behind. People cling to the vessel as waves crash against it. Ikurangi’s eyes close, as ancestors are channeled. The tohunga chants an invocation of Tangaroa, the god of the sea, calling for peace and guidance. Beyond what anyone in the ship can see, the sun breaks through the clouds and shines upon a new land for these people, Aotearoa.
When Ikurangi left the great boat and reached the land, there was a moment when Ikurangi touched their forehead to another Tohungha and the shared breath with each other [Truth]
When we came out of this side of the mountain it was the same as the people discovering it for the first time. We felt like it was only a short time in the river, but it was hours later by the time we got out. Even our equipment had strange time skips. We arrived at Materua and and Jaquie introduced us to her concerned husband Constable John Hobson.
Previously, John Hobson had arrested Dash. Dash was trespassing and climbing the Chrysler Building (for thrills).
John was full of smiles when he saw us, up until he saw Dash! Most of the constable’s times are spent rounding up chickens rather than criminals. Jason asked him to show them around the tiny town.
Jason Explores the small town and learns the way to the research facility [1 Map] but they run into Aroha Tuku and Jon De Wit. Jason Price’s II former head of security.
Jon De Wit once saved Jason Price II (Jason’s dad) by killing everyone else in the room they were hermetically sealed in to make sure there was enough air for them to live…but nobody else.
[Intuition prompt: What lessons of my legacy will give me the upper hand? Referencing my father]
Jason tells Jon De Wit who he is and that there’s no reason to give the constable trouble. De Wit immediately warms to Jason, thinking that he just like his father and shares an evil smile while he pats Price on on the back. Jason plays the part (it’s well rehearsed) and De Wit buys it but Aroha, just like the mountain, can see Jason is faking it, which unsettles him deeply. De Wit is Jason’s ally…but only because he believes he is exacting his father’s will.
Campfire Phase Setup
Immediate impression is that even though Hobson is the constable, Aroha is the one in charge. She’s the one responsible for the community.
We head to the Hobson’s home to stay with them and notice just how sleep a town this is. There are a lot of old residents and signs that there used to be be more young people here, but they have all moved to the city. Jaquie tells us that everyone who is here either are too poor to move or stay here because they have a deep connection to the land. Aroha (at age 30) is one of the younger people here. She checks on people in the village as she takes us to the Hobson’s.
While John is still a bit of an outside, the kids are very loved by the community. They presumably have names but their parents just call them Demon One and Demon Two.
What about the Hobson place that feels comfortable? Creature comforts: Rocky Road ice cream in the freezer.
What does Dash do to setup for the evening? Getting all the cameras setup to get a timelapse recording of the sky to use as a transition clip between days.
End of Session
We all marked self discovery and then team advacement.
The Racing Heart: We see De Wit walking through the mountain and the native forests to get to the geological outpost. When he gets there, for a moment we see high above him what looks like a giant eagle. It’s wingspan is three meters long. From the shadows of the trees an older man with grey hair steps out and points to the bird “that thing has been pestering us for too long. Keep it alive but I want to add it to my biological artifact collection. Don’t hurt it…too much.”
