PWM: Sanguine Dust, Ch. 9
Other Worlds Than These
Shen explored the winding man-made tunnels, searching for signs of his quarry.
Undertake an Expedition
When you…journey over hazardous terrain…envision your approach. If you…move at speed, roll edge.
1d6 + 3 (edge) = 5 vs (2,5)
Weak hit - You reach a waypoint and mark progress, but choose 1:
Make a Suffer(-2) or two Suffer(-1) moves
Face a peril
Notes: I decide to Lose Momentum(-2). Current momentum = +1
The tunnels held many turns and twists, while the walls remained metallic and smooth with little variation.
Shen found himself lost more than once.
Eventually, though, he felt a breath of wind and, following the fresh air, he emerged from the tunnels, coming out from the mesa and in view of a spectacular sight. He was astounded by the breadth and scope of the ancient city before him. He’d never seen anything like it.
Ancient, yet filled with technology he'd never seen before. He passed through man-sized passageways that led through the massive walls, into the streets of the seemingly abandoned city. Far away, in the center of the city, he could see the top of a great black pyramid, tall and foreboding.
Has to be where Tern is going.
He kept alert, making his way towards the center, peeking through windows and doorways and finding nothing but dust and emptiness.
It was so quiet, hushed, like a tomb.
In the sprawl of the city, Shen decided to explore. Perhaps he could find something useful, something that would help him when he faced the ex-overseer.
Explore a Waypoint
When you divert from an expedition to examine a notable location, roll wits.
1d6 + 2 (wits) = 3 vs (4,4)
Miss with a match - On a miss, you encounter an immediate hardship or threat and Pay the Price. On a miss with a match, you may instead Confront Chaos.
Notes: How can I resist doing something that sounds as cool as confronting chaos??
Confront Chaos
When your exploration of a Waypoint uncovers something dreadful, decide the number of aspects, 1, 2 or 3. Then roll or choose that many aspects on the table. For each result, when you first encounter that aspect, you may take 1 tick on your discoveries legacy track.
1d100 = 71: “Site of baffling disappearance”
1d100 = 62: “Powerful distortions of time and space”
1d100 = 35: “Imposters in human form”
Notes: I chose three aspects because that allows me the most experience, and who knows if I’ll get this chance again. Let’s see how these aspects come into play…
Shen passed a large structure, a hundred feet long, steel walls and a metal fence surrounding it. Finding a hole in the fence, he pushed his way through, past multiple signs with strange symbols on them.
He found a door hanging ajar, as though something had burst out from within the structure.
Inside lay a huge empty warehouse. Barren, a large open space, light filtering through the dusty, grime-covered windows.
Strange…
About halfway across the open space, everything changed. One step, everything was as before. The next, something appeared at the far end of the warehouse. It looked like a large hole in the floor.
He stopped.
It had not been there before.
He stepped back and sure enough, the hole disappeared.
There was some invisible wall here, an illusion. Stepping through that, the hole revealed itself.
Shen continued forward, approaching the hole with his right hand on the butt of his holstered handgun.
The hole was twenty paces across.
He expected to see an underground level below the warehouse, but the hole was pure black.
There was nothing below. There was no depth to it.
Shen felt goosebumps along his arms and shivered. Somehow, he knew.
The hole doesn’t go down. It goes…elsewhere.
As he stared at it longer, he started to see…movement within it.
Swirling, coalescing.
It pulled at him.
Something burst from the hole.
Site of baffling disappearance
Notes: I Endure Stress(-1). Current spirit = +1. I get one tick on my discoveries legacy track.
Shen turned and started to run…or tried to. His body didn’t respond and moved, as if in slow motion. He took one step, then another, painfully slow. Behind him, he heard a wet thunk.
Time flashed.
A step and he was thirty feet from where he’d been, halfway towards the door he’d came in. Another step, another flash forward, and he was at the door. He moved in jerky motions, stop, go, stop, go, frozen, unfrozen.
He reached for the doorway.
Another flash.
His hand grabbed at air. He was no longer at the door, it was far in the distance, at the other end of the warehouse.
The hole was right behind him, along with the thing that had come out of it.
Powerful distortions of time and space
Endure Stress
When you face mental strain, shock or despair, suffer -1, -2 or -3 depending on severity. If your spirit is at 0 or you choose to resist, roll spirit or heart, whichever is higher. (I take -1 spirit, leaving me at +0)
1d6 + 1 (heart) = 3 vs (2,5)
Weak hit - You may Lose Momentum(-1) for +1 spirit.
Notes: I choose to Lose Momentum(-1). Current momentum = +0. Current spirit = +1
The thing grabbed him and pulled him into the hole.
For a time, moments, minutes or hours, Shen floated in darkness. All around him, black, depthless. He had no body that he could feel, merely a presence…drifting in a void.
Is this it?
A jolt, the feeling of movement, being pulled, no, yanked.
Visuals came.
Blue swirling clouds.
Infinite worlds of colors.
Stars upon stars upon stars.
Shen was called.
He felt his body, lying on a cold table. He couldn't move though nothing held him. He opened his eyes.
Figures stood around him, half a dozen. They resembled humans, wearing…white lab coats?
Or was this just Shen’s mind, turning unseeable, unknowable, unfathomable beings into something familiar, his recent past at Tranquility?
They moved in odd ways. Too quick, jerk-like motions. Their arms were disproportionately long and uneven. Their faces were blurred. He couldn't make out their features. They spoke but it came out mumbled, garbled, impossible to understand.
One moved closer and reached out, touching Shen's arm. Its appendages felt cold and wet.
Shen shuddered, closing his eyes.
Is this it? Is this how I die? At the hands of otherworldly beings in this impossible place?
Imposters in human form
Endure Stress
When you face mental strain, shock or despair, suffer -1, -2 or -3 depending on severity. If your spirit is at 0 or you choose to resist, roll spirit or heart, whichever is higher. (I take -1 spirit, leaving me at +0)
1d6 + 1 (heart) = 7 vs (1,4)
Strong hit - On a strong hit, choose one:
Shake it off: If you are not shaken, take +1 spirit
Embrace the darkness: Take +1 momentum
Notes: I choose to shake it off. Current spirit = +1
Images flashed through his mind. Leaving the destroyed station. Drifting through space alone, barely managing to get by, from settlement to settlement. Meeting Kwan for the first time, and finally getting control of his life. Taking vows. Helping others. Alone, alive and…with purpose.
This is not how I die. I am alive. Alive and alone.
He’d faced death before and come out of it. He could do so again.
Shen struggled against the invisible bonds that held his body. He screamed. He resisted.
There was a flash of white, blinding.
The bonds were gone. The room was gone. The figures were gone.
Everything was white.
He floated in the whiteness.
For some reason, he reached up and felt an edge above him. He grabbed it and pulled himself up.
He burst from the hole, pushing his way out and rolling away, onto his back, looking up at the ceiling of the warehouse, gasping for breath.
As soon as he could, he rolled over and stood, his body still shaking. He stumbled away from the hole, refusing to look back.
Whatever they did here, they messed with forces beyond their understanding, and ripped open a hole that should not be there. They doomed themselves and their people in their thirst for power. This place…is wrong.
Back in the city, Shen kept moving, putting himself as far away from the warehouse as he could before he collapsed and had to rest.
He checked that his guns were loaded and re-holstered them. He ate a quick meal from his pack and drank water. He stayed alert, throughout, trying not to think.
There was something very wrong on this planet. The dead leaders in the tomb, human sacrifices and experimentation, some powerful Weapon, a hole that led to…the other place.
He hoisted his pack on his back and set out, jogging towards the center of the city, the tall temple-like structure his goal. Somehow, he knew that's where Tern would be heading and that's where the Weapon would be stored.
Undertake an Expedition
When you…journey over hazardous terrain…envision your approach. If you…move at speed, roll edge.
1d6 + 3 (edge) = 9 vs (4,7)
Strong hit - You reach a waypoint and mark progress.
Shen made good time hustling through the city, though reality itself seemed to be fracturing more and more around him, or perhaps it was just in his mind.
He saw ghosts of citizens past running, screaming, then fading.
The environment around him flashed and changed as he moved, visions of his past returning. He found himself running through the Orbital Station he'd grown up on, on that fateful day, as it collapsed, the structural integrity compromised.
Then that shifted, and he was on a frozen world, civilization gone, feet in cold snow, running in the dark night, a bright moon above, chasing someone.
This wasn't a memory, wasn't in the past.
Some possible future? Who am I chasing?
Another shift and he was once again in the ancient city, boots pounding the sandstone streets, getting closer to the pyramid.
Just let me kill Tern before everything falls apart.
Post-Chapter Notes
A pretty wild chapter! Confronting chaos resulted in some very cool and weird things. I’m a fan of Lovecraft so I tried to be a bit Lovecraftian. I admit it took me some time to think over those three aspects and figure out how to use them. I took a break from gaming, and thought about them for a few days before returning to the game.
Sometimes, when solo-gaming, you just need a break to figure out how the story is going to go, what’s the best, most interesting path forward and what are your characters going to do?
After the hole, for the next Waypoint, I rolled on the Chaotic locations oracle table. This table is described as “Reality is corrupted or warped in this place” which made sense to me after everything that happened. I got 91 - “Visions of your past or future.”
I decided why not both?
I can’t recommend Starforged enough for its tables and system that pushes you into wild and fantastic adventures.
As always, share and subscribe if you feel obliged.
And leave a comment with your thoughts and/or questions on the latest chapter or anything else.
Next Chapter → Chapter 10: The End of the Journey