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game_systems:game_systems:traveller:worlds:twilights_peak

Outer Base — Upper Level

The outer base is functional and is currently set to allow anyone within access to basic systems such as food and sanitation. Doors will open automatically unless there is a good reason not to, such as a fire raging on the other side.

1. Entry Point

Reception Chamber. This chamber exists for the sole purpose of receiving honored guests or overlords to the facility. It is richly decorated with statues in two groups, some facing the new arrival in awed greeting and others facing the interior of the inner base. Their posture is for the most part one of supplication and veneration.

2. Guard Chamber

This chamber is almost entirely featureless. Its bare, flat floor has two raised areas at each end, like an extended speakers’ dais or pulpit, or a weirdly curved shop counter. These are hard cover for guards protecting the entrance and resilient as a structural wall. A control on the inside of each activates a defensive system. The floor turns orange as long as the control is held and emits a weak disintegrator field.

3. Working Chamber

The original function of this chamber was a workplace where small, technical items were put together, repaired or modified. What appears to be a featureless counter runs around the walls everywhere there is not a door, with a raised dais in the center.

An active workstation shows holographic images of various objects and devices, which can be manipulated by moving hands or other appendages in the hologram. Fine work is accomplished by expanding the image, effectively zooming in on a desired area.

4. Living Chamber

Six living chambers, each with six sleeping pods, provided accommodation for the base’s servitor staff in ages past.

5. First Chamber of Distant Access

This large chamber has three broad discs of pure silver marked on the floor, and several devices stood neatly in recesses on the walls. The devices have two handles at the top of an impossibly fragile looking – but very strong – frame which ends in a short projection. Gripping the handles activates a grav support field and causes the base plate to extend to any distance up to 3.6 meters. These are, essentially, gravitic wheelbarrow/forklifts. The base plate will raise and lower once the controls are figured out, enabling heavy objects to be carried with relative ease.

On the opposite wall is a set of recesses which once contained life support suits. Now only one remains. It is proportioned for a Droyne rather than a human. The main components could be jury-rigged into a human suit.

According to Ama-Gi, the three discs are teleporters, leading to stowage areas located somewhere else. Two are powered down now and currently non-functional. Whether this means the destination no longer exists or no longer has the ability to receive is an open question.

6. Second Chamber of Distant Access

This chamber is similar to the first one but has only two teleporters. One is powered down but the other glows faintly.

7. Chamber of Unknown Purpose

An oval chamber with exits in its long faces, this chamber has depressions in the floor at each end. Anyone doing so will begin to slowly sink through the metal as if in quicksand.

8. Machinery Space

This chamber has no furnishings but is filled with neatly stacked machinery and components which have been moved from somewhere else. It is stored in a lightweight framework of tubes and rods resembling a modular shelving system. Most of the machinery is large and bulky, and its function is not obvious.

Most of this equipment is bulky and at least partially dismantled but there are a few items you could perhaps make use of or otherwise come into contact with. The first is a six-legged drone about half a meter long, resembling a metallic spider. Those in the machinery space are stored in a powered-down state but maybe could be reactivated at need.

Most of the other equipment is of unknown function but there is a set of what appears to be metal cylinders a few centimeters in diameter and about 32 cm long. One end is the usual silvery grey and flattened off but the other is a bright golden yellow and ends in a spike.

Among the neatly ordered crates are some of the items Mercedes and her crew stockpiled, still waiting for use. Based on your conversation with her you have some idea of what these are. The crew grabbed all the antimatter batteries they could take but one remains. There are also cylinders of gel which give up oxygen when fitted into a vacc suit. Each cylinder is good for 30+ hours of normal activity but is only 22 cm long and 9 cm wide. Among the loose items is an improvised survival helmet, with three air cylinders attached to a cape-like rectangle of cloth which may once have been part of someone’s clothing.

9. Chamber of Mundane Purposes

This chamber was essential to the functioning of the base but at the same time extremely mundane. According to Ama-Gi its machinery dispensed clothing and similar items to base personnel. It is still functioning and will automatically adjust to the measurements and general body form of any user. The standard garment is either a loose robe or a jumpsuit, with belts and sashes containing many pockets as an accessory.

10. Chamber of Technical Purposes

This chamber looks like other working areas but appears to have been used for heavier tasks such as maintenance of drones. Two transport drones are powered-down in recesses, with much of the rest of the chamber taken up with what appear to be cradles designed to support machinery or drones during maintenance.

11/12. Working Chamber

Two near-identical chambers were once used by the base staff to carry out their tasks. These appear to have been lighter tasks such as administration, communications or fabrication of minor technical items. The chamber is now empty and sterile.

13. Globe Chamber

This chamber is entirely empty other than a plinth in the center. When anyone approaches, a holographic display of Lydia appears, rotating slowly against a starry backdrop in real time. Simple interactions with the globe are accomplished by touching it, moving a hand within the hologram, or by patterns of movement. It is possible to zoom in on any part of the planet, even deep within the crust. The only area blocked out is the mountain; that requires some kind of access privileges.

The globe will also display other star systems, although without context it is not easy to figure out what is there and there is little detail beyond geographical features. The data is old and has not been updated since the era of the Ancients. So, looking at Earth shows the land as it was 300,000 years ago, with some extrapolation for elapsed time. Tribes of primitive humans are shown, roving over a landscape that has clearly never seen technology or industry. This is the last known data on Earth and other systems are similarly out of date. Some are unidentifiable, depicting thriving societies which are now long vanished.

14. Chamber of Ascent

This circular chamber contains only a wide grav-lift shaft. It goes up to the Machinery Level (1) above and does not connect to the inner base.

Halfway up is a sudden wider area, enabling you to step off the lift pads. The wider area is walled the same as the rest of the base but the walls slide back to provide access to the rock beyond. There are cracks and fissures, into which some kind of scientific instruments have been inserted. Some can be reached by wriggling into a fissure, others were placed by drones. They monitor the stresses in the rock of the mountain.

15. Chamber of Descent

This circular chamber contains a grav-lift shaft giving access to the level below. Using it is not for the faint-hearted; although it is composed of the same apparently solid white light as other lifts and bridges, stepping out over the shaft is still a frightening experience.

The lift springs into life when someone approaches, taking the form of a disc of light which takes up about 20% of the shaft. Once someone is on the disc it moves away from the entry point and begins to descend. The next person will be then furnished with a disc. There seems to be no pattern to where the disc positions itself in the shaft and during descent (or ascent) it will also move from side-to-side. This results in ascending and descending discs rushing straight at one another then smoothly sliding past with a minimum of sideways movement.

The chamber leads to the entry to the Outer Base Lower Level (1).

16. Command Antechamber

Ama-Gi notes that with Droyne, most base staff would instead receive their instructions by way of a messenger or telepathic command. This was not used at his facility, as the workers were all humans. Maria feels this particular chamber may well be designed for the proper reception of such commands, with décor and statues designed to focus the mind properly. She can sense the telepathic focus, for lack of a better word.

The first time you enter this chamber you will feel a strange sense of disorientation lasting a few seconds, followed by a feeling that something has changed. You are not able to put your finger on exactly what it is, however.

17. Command Chamber

This large circular chamber has a raised dais in its very center, with a smaller dais above it. Here, the commander of the base would stand above all others, overseeing operations with a ring of sub-commanders or perhaps armed guards on the level below. Statues, mostly of Droyne, are scattered about the chamber, with a shelf-like structure around the outside. This is in fact a set of command stations controlling essential functions such as life support and power management.

18. Flying Chamber

This large chamber has a very high ceiling and a deep bowl for a floor, with a central light bridge for anyone who wants to walk across it. Unlike the rest of the base, it has variable gravity and air pressure, and a variety of posts and ledges creating an artificial forest or cliff environment. These can be made more realistic with a holographic representation surrounding each. The chamber could be used by Droyne (or any other creatures) capable of flight, or the gravity can be turned right down to create a low-G exercise area or playground.

Outer Base — Lower Level

This area is accessed from the landing areas or the upper level of the outer base. It contains machinery and equipment that keeps the installation running along with features connected with the experiments and work undertaken here in the distant past.

1. Chamber of Ascent

The lower level is accessed by way of a shaft from the upper level. When you are descending from Outer Base Upper Level (15) you will arrive here. The floor of the shaft is flat and even but slightly lower than the surrounding chamber to enable a seamless step onto a grav platform.

2. Biological Laboratory

The biolab consists of three linked chambers. The outer one is similar to most of the other workshops and control areas, with a central dais and workstations around the walls. Here, most small technical work and analysis was done and most importantly presentations were made to the chamber’s leader before the results were placed before the overall base commander.

The second chamber is subdivided into airlocked experimentation areas and is airlocked again at the entrance. Travellers entering may be doused in decontamination fluid which almost instantly dries into small, almost weightless crystals. These are somehow attracted back into the walls, taking with them any contaminants. Within the area are six experimentation areas, of which three could be said to be in use. The others are spotless and empty.

. The Dead Creature: It is clear this is a body of one of the monsters you faced before. . The Dead Vargr: One of the Vargr corsairs remains are in a stasis unit as if prepped for a study that never happened. These are clawed and chewed up in a manner that is familiar to you from the monster attacks. . The Mess of Tissue: One of the experimentation areas contains an amorphous mass of tissue. It has no discernible limbs but there are vestigial organs within. These are not enough to keep it alive; the machinery in the installation has been doing so ever since the facility was abandoned. Tissue regeneration and advanced machinery have resulted in a near-immortal mass of flesh with no purpose. It has Droyne DNA.

A bank of heavily reinforced cryo-stasis pods dominates the third chamber. There are 18 of them. Five are open and empty; the others are sealed. There are no windows to look in and instruments (if they can be interpreted at all) produce confusing responses. It would seem there is something in each of the 13 remaining pods, alive and in stasis. Beyond that little can be discerned at this time.

3. Gem Workshop

This specialist workshop is used to produce various gem-like objects, each with a specialist purpose.

4. Physical Laboratory

This was at one time a physical sciences laboratory and workshop. It has a central dais for its commander to use, although a much lower one than in the control chamber. It appears the staff were studying the planet they were on, along with the remainder of the system. A number of robotic probes were active in the distant past, orbiting various bodies or crawling across their surfaces; globes are projected above the workstations, allowing you to view the surface and subsurface of these bodies. Probe positions and data are “last-knowns” as most of the probes will have been lost in the past few millennia. However, there is a feed from a surface probe still dragging itself across the surface of an outsystem comet. It has probably been circumnavigating the object over and over since its last commands were received. Another probe appears to be upside-down at the bottom of a body of some liquid. This is probably a liquid pocket on an outsystem moon, deep below the surface in an area warmed by volcanic vents. It still dutifully sends information packets every 29.465 hours.

The laboratory could also have a security role. The same displays showing rock formations and gas composition could be configured to show likely landing spots, ships or other objects detected in orbit and similar information. A wealth of security data on Lydia itself is available, including projections of the effects of various weapons striking different points on the planet.

5/6. Drone Workshops (5) and Teleporter (6)

These chambers were clearly used to build drones as needed by the base. The teleporter is powered down. Ami-Gi proposes it was used to obtain raw materials.

7. Drone Storage

The chambers were used to store completed drones and their accessories. There are racks of them, dozens or perhaps hundreds, all in an inert state.

Robotic Drones

The basic form used by all robots in Twilight’s Peak is the same; a hexagonal body fitted with various appendages. A propulsion unit is attached underneath by placing it adjacent to the body. The two then join seamlessly by unknown means but can be separated by someone who knows how to command the parts to release. An accessory pack fits on top if desired. Arms can also be added, bearing various tools. There is an attachment point in the center of each of the six outer faces, although it is invisible until an arm is brought close by. Components can quickly be swapped around to create drones for whatever purpose may be needed.

• Leg Module The leg module has six articulated legs, enabling the drone to scuttle at a rate of eight meters per round and lock itself into a position of stability. Feet will bond to the metal of the facility, enabling the drone to become essentially a piece of furniture, a barricade in a door or an equipment holder on a wall. • • Grav Module The grav module contains a gravitic generator, enabling the drone to fly at twelve meters per round. • • Arm Module Up to six standard arm modules can be added, each ending in a gripper or an embedded item such as a scientific instrument or construction tool. • • Weapon Module This looks like a gun, but not a type you have ever seen. •

8. Ritual Chamber

This chamber is clearly used for ceremonial purposes. There are numerous statues, all facing the central dais in attitudes of awe and reverence. The walls are decorated in unusually intense patterns.

The imagined-remembered scenes show a history of the installation, starting with a team tunnelling into the mountainside from what is now one of the landing points. The construction of the base continues, with scenes of harmonious work and mutual endeavor under the benevolent eye of the installation’s leaders. All the staff are Droyne. The images from within do not give any hint of an inner base but it may be possible to figure out there are areas which have not yet been discovered.

You are disgusted as you see eventually the workers begin creating what is now known as G482. Some of the results are misshapen monsters but eventually a recognizable creature appears. The perverted casteing ritual used to create the creatures becomes clear, although not the details of how to perform it. Finally, they witness the hurried evacuation of the installation, with left-behind drones continuing to serve their function until they finally shut down.

9. Sleeping Pod Chamber

This small chamber contains six sleeping pods but no sanitary or eating facilities. It looks as if it was installed to facilitate the wake-up of test subjects from the cryo storage area and was never intended as a living space.

10/11. Bulk Cryo Storage

This chamber was obviously recently cut into the rock. Entry is by way of a short corridor that acts as an airlock. It has a floor of the usual outer-wall material but the roof and outer edges are still irregular rock. There are hundreds of cryo-stasis pods here, most of them occupied. The majority of occupants are Droyne (10) but there are quite a few humans and other species (11). The rock around the cavern is not entirely gas-tight, so little effort has been made to maintain air pressure here. A vacc suit is necessary to operate in this area but anyone without one is automatically issued a Goop-Suit (see below) in the usual manner before the airlock opens.

12. The Cavern Chamber

This chamber is highly unusual, in that it does not have a metal shell for much of its length. Entry is by way of an airlock. Proceeding through this door leads into a short length of corridor, with another door behind it. This will not open until the outer one is closed. The cavern beyond is unpressurised and would be lethal to anyone without protection. However, anyone who would be harmed is protected by an automated system; as the pressure in the airlock corridor starts to drop, hidden dispensers spit a gobbet of sticky, transparent goop at each endangered person. This expands almost instantly into what appears to be a soap-bubble covering their clothing with a larger bubble for the head.

The structure of this Goop-Suit will degrade over time, starting after about 30 minutes. It will be compromised after 3D more minutes but during this time will permit anyone to conduct fine work as if with bare hands. The suit’s structure yields oxygen the whole of this time, allowing what is effectively a ‘shirtsleeves’ experience in even hard vacuum.

The outer door opens into a large natural cavern, a little over a kilometer in length and 400 meters at its widest point. The floor is uneven, with occasional sinkholes and hidden dips. There are artificially regular shafts here and there, clearly boreholes used to take samples. It appears the cavern was being studied by the base staff. However, where a human team might drill a narrow shaft, these are over 1 meter in diameter and impossibly regular. Ama-Gi thinks these were disintegrator-dug shafts.

13. Landing Area Access and Guard Chambers

This chamber has a gently bowled floor, with tunnels leading slightly down into its sides. These radiate out in six directions and run to a guard chamber similar to the one at the main entrance. This is an oval chamber with entrances on the long sides, allowing guards to take intruders in a crossfire from positions behind hard cover on the flanks. Another position of cover allows guards to shoot down the tunnel leading to the landing pad. These too have the disintegrator floors.

Beyond the guard room is a short section of straight tunnel whose floor can be set to disintegrate anyone on it and beyond that is a platform containing several one-person and six-person transport devices. There are multiple transport devices at each end. They can be manually controlled by someone who spends some time figuring them out and used to drive around the installation or even out over the planetary surface.

Beyond the guard chamber the tunnel curves away and slightly down to the landing areas. These are identical, domed structures like any other. If the roof doors are shut, the landing bay is virtually invisible from outside.

14. Machinery Chambers

These chambers contain complex and mysterious equipment, some of which seem to be connected with the operation of the base. There are few distinct systems; power, water and air-related equipment is intermixed in the same blocks and compartmentalized to deal with damage or breakdown. Around the walls of the chambers are workstations, which presumably can be used to manually alter conditions in the base.

There are statues, mainly of Droyne but also humans, a Vargr and a bipedal creature of an unknown species, around the chamber. Most appear to be working with controls. Others are involved in fetch-and-carry type tasks or gazing admiringly into the middle distance. All are facing the command chamber on the upper level.

15. Storage Areas

Stockpiles of materials and equipment were routinely stored close to the laboratories and workshops. For the most part, ready items have been cleared out and all that remains are long-term stored components in metallic crates or open frame-shelving units. These items are potentially valuable to scientists or can be sold on the Ancients artefact market, providing they can be proven to be from an Ancients site.

Machinery Level

The primary power and life support machinery of the installation is located away from the main living areas. It is not clear why this was done. Ama-Gi suggests the separation was for safety and security.

1. Chamber of Descent

The Chamber of Descent gives access to the Outer Base Upper Level (14).

2. Machinery Level Command Chamber

The machinery level has a command chamber similar to that in the outer base, although less ostentatious. The usual awe-struck statues surround the dais.

3. Machinery Chambers

Most of this area is taken up with complex, integrated machinery which is apparently geared to powering the base’s heavy systems. There is some life support and technical equipment as a backup but power generation and storage are by far the most important function of this whole section. Much of the machinery appears dedicated to using geothermal energy to create antimatter for storage. There is some that serves an unknown purpose that Maria can sense some psionic energy from.

4. The Rod

In the center of the machinery spaces is a rod, similar to those seen on Calefaction, but much thicker. Lucas assumes it extends deep into the core of the planet and is used to draw geothermal energy up to the machinery chambers.

5. Battery Chamber

The battery chamber contains racks of ovoid objects and oval crystals.

Information on the Outside & Top-Down Map

Outer Base (1)

The outer base is located more or less at the same level as the ground surrounding the mountain. This is the only part of the installation that can be reached from the outside, either by way of the intended entry points or fissures in the mountainside. Six long tunnels radiate out from the outer base, leading to concealed landing areas.

Docking Areas (2)

Six concealed landing areas lie at the end of long tunnels radiating out from the central base. They are sunk into the bedrock and covered by a set of retractable doors which perfectly match the surrounding terrain.

The Crater (3)

A huge impact crater on the dark side of the mountain bears witness to a meteor strike a few tens of thousands of years ago. It has the usual raised central area and an uneven floor, with many smaller craters dotted here and there. The walls of the crater are sharp and jagged but can be transited by a ground vehicle with some care.

Fissures (4)

The meteorite impact caused cracks to open up in the mountainside at various points. Some are superficial or located in areas very difficult to get to. The largest set leads into a series of natural caverns in which the base was constructed.

Since we are moving into a couple to a few days passing, it is assumed you send drones outside to take a look at things. With the transmitter, you are able to open the doors at will.

Crater

At the center of the crater lies the impact point, where a large bolide of nickel-iron smashed down long ago. It was liquified by the impact and partially distributed over the surrounding surface, with a concentration at the impact point. The bolide might be worth extracting and purifying if someone with the right equipment wanted to make the effort. When your drone gets close enough to visually inspect the bolide you find something very strange indeed.

The ground rises towards the impact point, and there appears to be some form of biological life on the mound. It is generating a very small amount of gas, notably carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.

On the mound are several… creatures. They resemble a central mass with large numbers of long and short tentacles, which appear to be dug into the ground. The creatures will be aware of a vehicle within 500 meters and people within 50 meters. They pull some of their tentacles out of the ground and begin waving them lazily back and forth, perhaps tasting or feeling the world’s tiny envelope of atmospheric gas.

The creatures lash out at anyone coming within tentacle reach, which is about 5 meters for the larger ones. They will also begin to retract all their tentacles and lurch towards any source of heat or light they detect – in other words people, a drone or a vehicle. However, it is easily possible to stay ahead of these misshapen lumps of flesh at a steady walk. You do not have to fight the creatures unless you want access to the nickel-iron bolide for some reason, or you want a specimen to study. This is easily acquired, however, by your drones.

The study is horrifying. The DNA is that of Droyne. These were Chirpers who should have casted into Droyne, but instead, were casted into … this.

Their tentacles leach metals from the ground, enabling the creatures to act as organic mining platforms. The process is slow and inefficient but it does work after a fashion.

Exterminating the creatures might be a mercy: There is nothing you can do for these unfortunate might-have-been-Droyne. They will die out here eventually, unwanted and forgotten by their creators. Just like everything else.

The Wreck

The wreck of the corsair that attacked Mercedes and her crew and was downed by the defenses at Twilight’s Peak lies close to the fissures. There is little left of it other than its skeleton. Everything that could be salvaged has been stripped by successive crews of scavengers. David is able to work out the general lines of the ship, which identify it as a Vargr corsair. Much of the aft-port quarter is simply missing, with structural members cut off cleanly by a disintegrator beam.

Inside the ship’s skeleton is a jumble of fragments and components the scavengers decided were not worth removing. The crippling disintegrator hit and subsequent crash onto the planetary surface smashed a lot of the ship and the scavengers threw everything they did not want into a heap in the middle. One of the creatures from the crater has made its way to the wreck and is trying to leach minerals out of it. Like the others it will attack anything that comes near enough.

The Fissures

There are multiple entry points into the mountain, some large enough for a couple of people to walk in side by side. Most are rather small however, requiring someone to crawl or squeeze through a narrow point. This is not easy in a vacc suit, to say the least. Once inside, you find a main group of more or less navigable cracks and natural caverns, with a great many branching shafts which either end within a few meters or are too narrow to enter at all.

The fissures run through a grainy, granite-like rock which has occasional pockets or cracks. Some particles in the walls are highly reflective, creating a glittering visual effect that can make it hard to judge distance. The fissures were opened up by tremors resulting from asteroid impact and have never been smoothed by air or water movement.

game_systems/game_systems/traveller/worlds/twilights_peak.txt · Last modified: by Bryan Stephens