Session 4 - 2/2/03


To survive during this time learning from Nyssa, the group decides the following:
Miranda and Kianna will forage and fish.
John, Malcolm and William will hunt.
Caleb and Wilhelm are handling sanitation, maintenance and cooking.

However, Wilhelm disappears after a few days. John and William decide to hunt ... sorry, I mean go find ... Wilhelm.

Wilhelm eventuates outside the forest, in an arid land. There he discovers a fallen building.

The rest of the group agrees to spend two weeks working together and learning. Once they have learnt about paths and markers, they find the way back to Earth/Hyde Park that Nyssa spoke of. They discover, though, this is a two way track, and only allows travel between the two. They use this to stock up on supplies.

One day, while fishing, Kianna feels a wash of cold ... opening herself to it, she receives a trump call from

On returning from a hunting trip, John finds Argath awaiting him at the camp site. Argath has a Trump card for John ... the trump holds the image of a man. Using the Trump card, John makes contact with the young man who John "Jaggrin". The man says that Argath had told him of Johns desire to make contact. When the man offers John a glass of wine through the trump, John uses the offer to grab the man and haul himself through to where the man is. The rest of the group watch as he disappears.

On the balcony of the an edifice that protrudes from a cliff-face, John apologies to his benefactor. When he tries to touch the man to make amends, a black spark sends them sprawling apart. They are joined by a demon woman. John discovers that this man is "Serenity", introduces the woman as "Kally" ... and claims that he is a distant cousin of Johns. They discuss matters of Family and Deals, and Unicorn Blood. It ends with John hanging over the edge holding onto Serenity's hand ... whereby Serenity makes his point loud and clear that Nyssa is a Unicorn. When John shows skepticism towards Nyssa human form ... Serenity proves to him what shapechanging is using Kally.

Back in the campsite, Kianna convinces Miranda to try and contact John with a Trump card of her own. He shares a little of his conversation with Serenity,

Miranda studies the card John has, which gave him access to Serenity.

Wilhelm continues on his quest.

Late one night ... 3 months into the "learning Camp" experience, Caleb is on watch. A high pitched female scream echo's through the night. Malcolm finds deep red liquid on the ground off in the forest. They realise that Nyssa is missing. Miranda, William and Kianna start following the blood trail.
They find Nyssa slightly wounded ... but in grievous danger of dying regardless of the slight wound. Wilhelm has also turned up ... gun in hand.
Kianna carries Nyssa back to the campsite. They find Argath there.

Both Wilhelm and Kianna feel that Nyssa seems to be missing a major part of her soul, and is dying from this.

John hands Argath the cloth that he has soaked up Nyssa's blood with. Argath swallows it.

Wilhelm shoots Argath in the head. When he explains that someone has wounded Nyssa to get her blood, to feed Argath. Kianna tries to dig the cloth out of Argath's stomach.

Getting Miranda to cover him, Wilhelm lies down, closes his eyes and cups his hand over his chest.

Nyssa stirs in Miranda's arms, and awakens.
Kianna tends to an extremely exhausted Wilhelm.
Miranda and William politely interrogated Nyssa, trying to understand what has happened. They realise that she was grievously harmed by someone 'taking' her blood. They realise that she is a Unicorn, and that her blood is valuable in deals with the demon. Nyssa decides to leave, for she no longer trusts the group. She parts with the wish that we all remain trapped here forever.

A week later, Wilhelm is feeling well enough to move about. He tells them of the building and its cave ... and the teleportation mechanisms there. The group decides to make this their new lair. It takes about 3 weeks to get there.

In the fallen building, in the arid environment, they find the pool of water. In turn, they swim through the U-turn watery tunnels. They notice (and some examine) the bricks that light up as we pass by.

Inside, they find the computers and the podium/lectern.

Malcolm finds a skull in a helmet mostly buried in the sand.

Kianna identifies that the lectern is some kind of Shadow Marker.

Asking for someone to accompany her, and getting Wilhelm's help. She forms an image of a place, and types in a code. The two disappear.

John, using a technological device, is interrupted from his analysis by William smacking him in the back of the head with a piece of timber. William touches a keyboard and projects his thoughts ... and finds himself in a tunnel of light - which claims to be 'the interface'. Speaking with the interface, he learns that Kianna is now on the Starship Saratoga, which is not in orbit. William disconnects from the computer interface.

Due to events, they discover that a steel door in the water tunnel has closed them in ... and there are mechanical Moray Eels on the other side.

On the Starship Saratoga, Kianna and Wilhelm have audience with the Ships Captain ... who orders them under chamber arrest. As they are locked into empty quarters ...

... the others arrive in the teleport room. Their arrival triggers alarms, and armed guards arrive within moments. Once they have been frisked they too are taken to the General. Once they confuse the General, they to are locked in some spare quarters ... but different from where Wilhelm and Kianna are.

When Kianna and Wilhelm, as Sarah and Q, are brought to the others, we all act like morons.

After a while, we hear a metallic kind of ripping sound. Looking out, Caleb sees a flash of light in the corridor as another ripping sound is heard. In a shower of light, a guard dies. More flashes, and more ripping sounds.

Following Wilhem, they make their way up into the air ducts. Through a roof grate, they see military folk running away from something, shooting behind them ... though nothing seems to be following them.

A constant metal scrapping sound behind them results in Caleb crawling backwards. At the end of the air duct, Wilhelm bends open the leaves Iris Valve to get them out. The guys at the back are scared of what's scrapping and following us.

As Wilhelm moves through the valve and off to the left, Caleb and William see a black head with glowing eye's come out of the darkness behind them.

When Caleb screams in pain, Wilhelm rips his way out of the air duct. Finding a gun at his feet, he blasts away at the air duct at the place behind Caleb. A gooey body drops out as the airduct melts. The body falls to the ground, and the acidic body eats it way through the floor. Moments later they are all out, and running down the corridor. Caleb is being carried.

The group need to fight their way to where they are going. Guns and keypads. Through the Cargo Bay. Lizardmen and atmospheric breach.

We finally make our way into the holo room, after rescuing Malcolm from some lizard-aliens. The decision is follow John's instincts to get towards the bottom of the ship.

The sound of water falling calms us all.

We reach an open elevator shaft. The ladder is out and the bottom is filled with water. Once down into the water, we swim. The right hand turn out of the current causes almost everyone to be lost. Eventually, we make out way up through the underwater U-turn and climb up into the room that Miranda, John, William and Caleb arrived in.

In a nearby cabinet they find extra weapons. Then ... on to the end of level scene. In the center of the next room is a dead body, which is a Path Marker. We make our way carefully through the alien eggs. The Shadow Path goes down a ladder below the body ... through a tunnel ... a tunnel that goes much further than would permit by staying in the Starship.

As the Mists set in around us, all we can sense is the ladder and the endless distance.