In which our heroes cure a fungal disease (don’t google that).

Previously

A badooks swarm forced the players to enter a giant automaton they managed to summon from the depths of the Rift. Nano died after he activated a time reset cypher.

Complications

I mentioned last time that one of the players missed the first session and that I “left” him in the “village” near the Rift. In the meantime, I got a new player, a Glaive as well, that was supposed to join us in the second session.

I was low on ideas on what to do with two Glaives outside of the adventure.A badooks siege came to mind. Fortunately, Janek gave me an excellent idea: “Just give him a cypher that can teleport them into the Golem.”

Oh, you can bet your shins that such a thing already exists: Teleporter (Mass) Level 3. I loosened up some restrictions on the cypher’s text, and the new player was good to go.

The Prep

The reason why I spoke with Janek was that the interior of the automaton lacked vivid descriptions. I wondered if he used any handouts. He didn’t so I chose to use some of the Deadspace concept art I found appropriate, amazing works by Jason Courtney.

I also decided against adding more rooms to the Automaton, as I didn’t feel it would add any meaningful impact to play.

Descent

The descent was a change of pace, from desperate battle to the careful exploration humdrum.

I opened up the scene with a GMI when the giant moved, and everyone had to roll SPEED to grab onto something (most of them failed). The new Glaive got teleported mid-air and suffered ten points of fall damage.

I wanted to open up with a bang, but the scene also served as a great reminder on why they can’t explore the interior while the giant is on the move.

The Glaive that was missing from the last session didn’t show up for this one either. The new Glaive though “met” him in the village and got briefed on the situation, which gave him enough info for the teleport action.

By the time they landed at the bottom, the party had explored all of the main rooms and had a good grasp on how the Colossus worked.

Fungoids

While this was the part I was most excited for, it turned out to be a challenge, and I am afraid I didn’t do it justice.

Fleeing from the swarm above, players reacted negatively to the appearance of yet another endless procession of alien creatures.

I started with communication attempts, and although the players figured it out - sending emotions back and forth there was no real attempt to further this communication.

The toxic environment outside didn’t help, so they were stuck in the insides of the Golem.

With rising tension and lack of ideas (and air) on how to progress, they finally decided to wake up Roh’dak-tun. Once he was done with his spiel and they learned the history and truth about the Fungoids, the players chose to terminate him straight away, reasoning he might pose a threat to their plans. A fight ensued, and after a couple of rounds, he was dead again.

A new plan was formulated to repair the escape pods, and GTFO.

It was not that simple though, as they had to fight off five waves of Fungi warriors, while freeing the pods. The escape pod working again, they managed to loot the control room for an artifact and launched themselves out of the abyss.

Conclusion

The players were generally satisfied with the experience, though not with the amount of loot they got away with. They spent a significant amount of cyphers and ended up with two artifacts and 2-4 XP each.

I on the other side was left with a bitter taste in my mouth, as I felt I failed to bring the last part of the adventure into play properly. For any future runs, I will need to revise my approach on the emotional communication part.

I will finish this review with words from one of the players: “Although I was aware, it never felt like we were playing through a written module. It felt organic and logical throughout.”

Definitely worth a buy, make sure to grab this gem on DTRPG.