GM: Rae Nedjadi
Players: Josh Hittie, Sherri Stewart, Sean Nittner
System: Tomb Raider
Recap of last session
We arrived at the geological outpost the Pledge had set up. It seemed like Koro wanted us to come here. Tom De Wit was outside shooting at, and missing, the Pouākai (giant bird) flying above.
Koro slipped in, with Dash behind him. They found the exhumed heads of the Tohunga and met Andreas Prendergast, who was delighted to have his favorite Biological Artifact (Koro) return.
Fen, Aroha, and the Pouākai
Fen observed the situation outside. The big bird was circling, it should fly away because of the gunshots, but it wasn’t. It seemed to be looking for something. Aroha is looking at the entrance to the compound. Unsure if she should go after Koro or stay.
Fen sent up a drone to see what’s going on and what the bird was looking for. [She asked her intuition question “What is everyone else missing?”]. The drone followed the Pouākai flight path and Fen determined from the angles that it was trying to get inside the outpost! She uses the drones to find a way to get it in, but there is extra security forming around the compound even as they approached The keypad to the door recedes, the base itself seems to be shifting. [Fen was Forging a Path. She spend a bond with Jason who is distracting Tom De Wit. Result: 6. Golden opportunity for the bird, it can find what it’s looking for. They disappeared off the security footage. Leave no trace behind, you cannot be followed]. The Drone found a path to the concealed helicopter landing pad. As they moved to the entrance it seemed that Aroha and the Pouākai knew where each other were, and what was needed to work together. The jumped into the helicopter landing dock (conspicuously missing a helicopter) just as the giant doors closed above it.
Inside it was much bigger than on the surface. It goes deep! The can hear footfalls of the security team coming from the distance. The entered a maze of corridors and the guards lost track of them. It was a very “Huh, what was that noise?” moment. The Pouākai couldn’t fully fly in the constrained space, but it skiped and jumped ahead quickly. The arrived at a part of the outpost that melts into the mountain. Polished straight lines gave way to the raw mountainside. Lots of loose stones and rock, but also many bodies. Some of them fresh, soldiers from the pledge, some of them very old, skeletons from ages ago.
They saw an old chest the Pouākai landed next to. Aroha gasped. “This is supposed to house the life force, the essence of the Tohunga when they pass on. It’s empty. Whatever was in here, has been taken!” She’s filled with rage at how they’ve pillaged the sacred remains.
Fen reassured her “They are a bunch of sickos. I’ll help you however I can!”
From within the depts of the mountainside there was another cry of a Pouākai further inside. It was trapped in the outpost and didn’t know how to get out. There was evidence of other animals caged that had left as well. Fen turned to Aroha “I’m not sure what to do. What do you need?”
Aroha was torn, she wanted to go in further, but she wants to make sure Koro was safe.
“Koro and Dash are working this out!”
Jason and Tom De Wit
Outside Jason got out of the jeep and raised his hands to show he was not a threat. The hard lines on his face faded as he reached out to Tom. “Man, I used to think you were so cool. With all your guns and tricks and superspy knowledge. Remember that comic book I was always drawing bout John DeVitt, action hero? That was you! I thought you saved my life. I thought you saved my dad’s life. But you just wanted to kill those people. What do you need to feel right in the world?”
Tom closed off on him, hunting rifle still in hand “I’m not interested in being the father figure you’re looking for.” He lunged forward and they fought with words and fists. A rifle butt the the gut. A head slammed into the jeep’s hood. Breaking off the rear view mirror, kicking, grappling, twists and throws. Amid the scuffle
Jason tried to get through to him “I’m not like my father. I never wanted to be like my father. The way he used you was wrong.” More punches, a slam to the ground “I thought you were my friend Tom, not because you were a tough mercenary, but because of the silly games we played together. Making up stories.” Drop kick to the chest.
Tom deflected “You’re always going to be answering to someone else. This is how I take control of my own life.” Throat gouge. In the scuffle there was some silence and something in him softened as well. Finally he said that for every time he murdered someone, there was a part of him that he killed instead. The broke apart and he got the rifle back in his hands. He shot at Jason but missed (on purpose). Jason looked over his shoulder and saw the bullet had opened a secret entrance to the base. When he looked back Tom was stumbling and fell of the mountainside. “Noooooooooo!”
[Face an Enemy. 6 Result. Choices: There is no holding back, they mark as many Conditions as you’re willing to mark in turn. 2 conditions. [Wounded, Angry] and Get through to them for a moment, they’ll choose to be merciful or reveal a weakness]
Dash and Koro
Inside the compound. When they entered Dash had seen a vision of Tane-Nui-Tiwhatiwha in despair and the Tohunga trying to calm it. Even now Koro was trying to calm it as well. Andreas was delighted to find them, eager to recollect Koro. But Koro was not that gentle old man. His shoulders were pulled back, he stood up straight, and watched Andreas carefully.
Dash leaped to the wall panel to set off the fire controls. With help from the Soul Artifact (the pages open up and text guides his hand) he triggered the Stat-X® Aerosol Suppression System. In between pages Dash finds an all black key card that allows him to trigger the enhanced foam deployment systems. Andreas touched one of the heads and it’s eyes being to glow, but then he’s cut off as the foam beings filling up the room. He looks unphased despite the calamity.
[Even the Odds – Triumph! You and one other flee to safety (Koro and Dash get out). Reveal a detail-declare something that is now true about the situation] The emergency systems lock the heads behind a wall, cutting them off from Andreas!
The soul artifact speaks not through words but by sharing knowledge into Dash’s mind. There are people, Like Andreas, that believes if you procure the body parts of people who are deemed holy, it is a way to take divinity into yourself [+1 Lore].
Koro was ready to face Andreas, but once Dash touches him, he softens, remembers what’s going on, takes Dash’s hand and runs out with him. Very well behaved (unlike he’s been up till now)! Andreas watched as the two of them get free outside to re-unite with the very beat up Jason.
From behind Andreas Prendergast, we saw Zahara behind him, helping him out. “What took you so long?” We see a bullet wound in the side of her head with purplessent ooze coming from it. “I got held up. It won’t happen again.”
Going deeper
Fen and Aroha heard the emergency systems going off. Fen turned to Aroha “I want to help the bird, but I don’t know how to. I want to fix this, but I don’t know how. Tell me what you need me to do.” She pushes Aroha in the position of making a decision herself or this incompetent person is going decide. It invokes a sense of duty in her that she has to do this. She can’t ask strangers to take control. She took Fen’s hand and once again it seemed like the Aroha and the Pouākai moved together in-step deeper into the mountain.
Investigation Phase
Koro, Dash, and Jason were reunited outside. Dash was going to make a quip, but Jason was so beat up, he held off.
Jason Seeks Allies. He sent a signal form his bike to the one Janine took with his position. It takes some time, but Koro reassures him that she’s come… and eventually the dot starts getting closer.
The bike arrives with Zahara and Omar on it! Omar leaps off, making a grand entrance to his own soundtrack. Jason wearily raised his fists, ready (not ready) for another fight).
But before his eyes the face of Zahara slipped away into goo and revealed Janine’s face. Jason looked in horror and surprise but she reassured him it was her “I think I might have gotten in over my head, but now I have access to the Pledge. This thing, whatever it is happens is part of how Emily and Zahara are connected.”
Jason asked “Are you okay?” and then collapsed into Janine’s arms. [Triumph: 1 Bond with Janine, 1 Aid from Omar who is connected to Jason’s legacy, 1 Aid from the Pledge via Janine].
Dash Researches the Artifact by talking to Koro and remembering a dance he was showing him (fighting the soul artifacts selfish influence).
Dash danced with Koro, and at some point Koro stepped out of the dance and a great-great grandmother Dash only knows from pictures and stories steps in to dance with him. [Triumph Result: Truth: A glimpse of a long deceased family member, they linger only in the corner of the eye, dancing alongside Dash]. The last Dash had heard of them was when she mysteriously disappeared in Aotearoa. It’s hard to look at her directly, always in the corner of her eye. [Lore: Dancing with someone is the best way to open your heart to someone. Lore (from the soul artifact): The colonizers had tried to take control of the Tohunga. Their dance, rhythm, chants. Each time they tried to directly take control of it resulted in disaster.]
The rhythm of the dance and vibrations move through the mountain and shifts into the wing beats of the Pouākai.
Fen Seeks the Tomb. [Truth: An old photograph of tattooed mummified heads, placed in the shelves of a lavish study. One of the heads has facial tattoos that looks exactly like Koro’s. Facet: Breath of Ikurangi. Questions: How does the Truth reveal what was once lost?]
As they stepped through the caverns, they found a big vent in the volcano. Looking up Fen saw the designs of the tattoos from the photographs. She could almost see the faces behind the designs. The air is moving in and out through them. The volcano breathes as the Tohungu do. The marking is part of the explosion and the destructions and the loneliness, and being stuck here. There’s a feeling of being lost.
Breath of Ikurangi – into the side of the mountain are the faces of the tohunga carved into the mountain, the volcano breathes through its tohunga and vice versa. These taken heads have disrupted the breath. What was lost was the strength of the connection between the Tohunga and Tane-Nui-Tiwhatiwha.
The bird followed the “breath” coming trough the vents…
End of Session
Andreas is infuriated that he’s been cut off from the heads. He’s standing in the outpost surrounded by white walls. What was once a pristine collection, is covered in foam and smoke. His cops are there, making a mess. He’s staring at where the heads were, not betraying any emotion. A figure steps up behind him and he greets the newcomer without turning “Mr. De Witt that had better be you.”
A soft female voice says “No Mr. Prendergast, but I’ll be more useful than he ever was.” She puts a head into his hand. He tells her it was one of the artifacts that wasn’t powerful enough, but then the mouth opens and starts to whisper how to get into the mountain and how to avoid all the traps. He smiles and says “Send out the orders, we’ll get there before nightfall.”
