Mothership Gradient Descent Season 2 Episode 2

Content Warning // Contains: scenes of graphic violence, body horror, emotional trauma, psychological distress, obscene language, and harm to android children.

This is Gradient Descent, a megadungeon module for the game Mothership by Tuesday Knight Games.

Here is a quick reminder of our Characters:

Denzel McNelly (he/him): Teamster. Team Lead for the expedition. Traits: Reflective, bone ridge for teeth after a dose of ossifinil had a bad side effect. Stress 3; Bends 8

Terese Montz (she/her): Teamster. Pilot for the salvage scow, Scorpio Rising. Traits: Neglectful, scar on throat and speaks with vocalizer after her grievous injury in the Hodder Forest Reserve. Stress 3; Bends 9

Ollie Kenworth ( he/him): Scientist. Biosphere analysis. Traits: Morbid; Stress 2, Bends 7

ADA (Automated Droid Assistant) (they/them): Android. Assistant to Denzel. Traits: Bitter toward her lack of humanity; Stress 3; Bends 8

In session 1, we travelled from the Gateway station to The Deep and were deposited unceremoniously onto a Loading Dock in the Engineering section of the station. We were able to contact Arkady for pickup, but it was going to be at least 30 minutes before he arrived, so we decided to explore a little. We went through the Control Room and Denzel and Ollie moved on to a breakroom, only to discover they were not alone.

Chaos Factor 6
Mythic Test the scene d10=4 Interrupt Scene
Mythic Random Event d100=10 Ambiguous Event
Mythic Meaning Tables Trap+Obscurity
Fate check, is the android going to try to lead the crew into a trap, very likely? 68 Yes

First off, I want Denzel and Ollie to roll a fear save for running into this security android.

Denzel Fear save = 90 vs 38 Fail. +1 Stress. 4 Stress
Ollie Fear Save = 45 vs 29 Fail. +1 Stress. 3 Stress

Both men give a start at seeing this other figure in the room. The droid looks at them with it’s eyeless gaze, then slowly stands, not making a move to bring its SMG to bear. It still hangs loosely on the attached shoulder strap. It raises one of its hands in a sort of greeting. It then makes a motion with its hand, indicating they should follow it. It turns its body while still looking toward them, motioning once again. Across the room there is an office door marked “Elevator” and another door with the universal symbol for restrooms. The android takes a few steps toward the door marked as the elevator and motions once again for them to follow.

“Hell no, back up.” Denzel hisses to Ollie. Ollie says nothing, just holds his rifle in trembling hands, aiming at the android walking away. “Don’t shoot, Ollie, just back up into the hallway.” He doesn’t look back to see if his orders were followed, but he can hear Ollie shuffling behind him. Denzel keeps his eyes and SMG trained on the android. Who has now stopped inside the room, his motions for them to follow getting more vigorous. Denzel glances behind him to make sure the doorway is clear, then he hustles through it and pulls it shut.

Fate Check, is there a way to lock the door from this side, very unlikely? 33. Yes. Plus we get a random event. 
65 Move Away from a Thread. I only have 3 right now, so I’ll roll a d6=1. 
Meet with Arkady. Ok, so sounds like something will delay Arkady from landing.

I rolled Praise + Elements on the meaning tables. I take that to mean there will be some sort of maintenance occurring on the landing dock by an automated process and Arkady will have to wait.

Denzel fumbles around on the small door handle with his bulky vaccsuit glove, but he is able to turn the simple knob lock so that the door remains locked. It’s a very simple interior door and lock however, and he is under no delusion that it would stop any determined attacker from coming through the door. But maybe it will slow them down.

“Hey Boss, we might have a problem.” He hears Terese shout from the Control Room down the hall. She of course has no idea he already has another problem to deal with. He shakes his head as he backs down the hallway toward the control room, watching the door to the breakroom all the while. He sees the handle rattle as if it is trying to be opened. A hand or something knocks against the door with a loud bang. But then it is silent.

Fate check, Does the android attempt to pursue them? I will say very unlikely because we rolled a “positive encounter” with him. 99 Extreme No. 
AND ANOTHER RANDOM EVENT!! 10 Ambiguous Event. I rolled Betray + Representative on the meaning tables. 

Oh snap, I think this means Monarch is now aware of the crew on the station and reaches out to them in the Control Room.

Ollie and Denzel enter the control room and close the door behind them. A voice over the intercom suddenly crackled to life. It is a warm, precise, gender neutral voice. “Welcome Visitors to Cloudbank Synthetic Production Facility. Here at Cloudbank, we are manufacturing the future. I trust that you will obey all posted signs and warnings, as a production facility can be a dangerous place. Any questions or concerns can be directed to a Cloudbank representative.”

“Uh, Hello?” Denzel says looking around for a camera or something in the room.
“If you are attempting to communicate verbally, I must mention that there are no microphones located in this room. Please make your way to the Visitor’s Center on Floor 1 and a representative will assist you. Thank you, and have a nice stay.”

“How do we get to floor 1 from here?” ADA speaks up. There is no answer. After a short moment, she turns to Denzel. “Apparently, the maintenance drones have been activated and are doing preventative maintenance on the landing dock. Arkady contacted Terese and said it is unsafe to land until they have completed their work.”

Denzel cursed. “That’s just fuckin’ great. We ran into an armed android in a breakroom down the hall. He was trying to get us to follow him, but we obviously didn’t trust it. I was able to lock the door behind us, but it won’t stop anyone determined to come through.”

Hearing that, Terese stands up from where she had been sitting with her feet propped up on the console. She nervously handles the SMG, not quite pointing it at the door. Denzel looked at the camera feed, and indeed could see some human sized repair drones moving around the loading dock. They appeared to be cleaning and doing spot welds on any loose panels. The door adjacent to where the freight androids had emerged is open and the hazard lights flash yellow as the drones move about their work, hovering just above the surface of the dock.

Denzel stands there silently for a moment before making a decision. “Let’s post up on the different entrances to this room and make sure nothing comes in here. Terese, you cover that bulkhead door. Try to jam something into that wheel lock if you can to prevent it from being opened from the other side. ADA, cover this entrance to the hallway Ollie and I just came from. He and I will take a look at this last room, and secure that area as well. We don’t want any surprises until Arkady can get us out of here.”

“The android you encountered did not appear to be hostile? Should we assume hostility against anyone approaching?” ADA said as she checked the status of her SMG, making sure it was prepped. She then retrieved her crowbar from her back holster and handed it to Terese to use on the wheel lock.

“Don’t shoot anything without a warning first. But I don’t want us to get jumped. It wasn’t hostile so to speak, but it certainly was acting strangely. It wanted to escort us somewhere.” Denzel peeked through the last door. It opened into another hallway that went around a 90 degree turn shortly down the hall. A sign on the wall had an arrow pointing that direction that said, “Manual Communications”.

“It looks like there is a communications room down this hall. I think I’ll go check it out. Maybe we glean some information about this place from there.”

Terese was shaking her head no and Ollie had a frown on his face. He spoke up first, “I think we should stay here, Boss. That android was creepy as hell. He might have some friends around.”

“I understand your concerns, and I share them. But we are here to accomplish a task, and cowering in this room won’t get it done. “ Denzel stated matter of factly. Ollie stared at him a moment, then nodded reluctantly.

“I can accompany you, Denzel. Perhaps I can find more information in that room. Ollie can stay here with Terese.” ADA offered. Denzel glanced at her and nodded agreement.

“Good idea, let’s go ADA.” And he slipped out of the door as quietly as he could in his vaccsuit. ADA put her hand on his arm, and motioned silently that she would take the lead, since she was unencumbered by a vaccsuit. He let her slide past him in the hallway and ADA peeked around the corner.

Meanwhile, Terese took ADA’s crowbar and jammed it into the wheel of the bulkhead door. She gave it an experimental turn, and sure enough, the bar kept it from making a full rotation. Ollie watched the camera feed nervously, glancing occasionally at the other door to the breakroom hallway.

Terese’s comms sprang to life and she could here Arkady’s thickly accented voice in her ear. “I wait 10 more meenutes. Den I must get back to Bell, yes? I very busy man.”

“Please, don’t leave us here. We ran into some androids, and they…well…they didn’t attack us but we are worried they might any time!” Terese whined in her mechanical voice.

“You are not android, no? I cannot tell over comms.” Arkady said with his accent.

“No, no, I’m human. We do have an android in our party though. Is that a problem?”

“Not a problem, no. Just maybe not best situation here in The Deep.”

“Is there something I can do from the control room to turn off these maintenance droids? That way you can land?”

“I dink not. They are run my Monarch, yes? It keeps station on tight schedule. I will wait few more meenutes. I nice man.” And with that the comms clicked off.

“Hello, hello?” Terese tapped her helmet, attempting to make sure the signal wasn’t just lost. “Well, he said he would wait a few more minutes, then he wants to leave back to the Bell.”

“Shit. I hope those drones hurry up then.” Ollie said watching the cameras.

Back in the hallway, ADA and Denzel were standing on either side of the doorway into the Manual Comms room. Denzel nods at ADA and she cracked the door to peek within, her SMG at the ready.

Encounter Roll: 87. No encounter

“Clear.” She stated and moved into the room, followed closely by Denzel. Inside, there was a row of leather operator chairs in front of a bank of damaged terminals. One of the terminals appeared to be intact. Along one wall was a bulkhead door labeled Commfeed. Denzel noticed a banging sound, looked up and saw an air vent cover was swinging freely in the ceiling. He peered into it with his flashlight. Without a vaccsuit, someone could definitely traverse that space.

“Why don’t you take a look at that working terminal and see what you can find. I’ll cover you.” Denzel moved to a corner of the room where he could watch the bulkhead door, the vent, and the hallway door all at once. ADA sat down at the terminal and tapped a few keys. A list of contacts popped up on the terminal.

“It appears I can communicate with anyone in this system, Denzel. There is an estimated range to all of the contacts. I can see the Gateway Station, a ship right outside the station, presumably Arkady. And three ships several kilometers away. Probably the blockade.”

“Right. Why don’t you see if you can send a message to Lily and tell her we have arrived safely.”

“I will do that,” and ADA slipped one of the headsets from the desk onto herself. She selected the Gateway station from the list in the communications feed and sent a broadcast. “This is the Hazmos Exploration Team, contacting Gateway of Shadow Nexus. We are reporting we have arrived on site and are proceeding with our mission, over.” As she performed this communication, Monarch secretly scanned ADA’s brain, or in this case neural network, to add to the Brain scan Databank it kept.

ADA Bends increase 1d10= 5. Bends now at 13.

She waited a few moments, and reply a came over the comms acknowledging the broadcast. She took off the headset and placed it back on the desk. “Now what?” she asked.

Denzel looked hesitantly at the bulkhead door, then said, “I guess we should take a look in there.”

“Agreed.” She said and moved to open the wheel lock on the door. After a few turns, she pulled the heavy door open. Inside was a monstrous room filled with cables and racks upon racks of communications equipment. The room was well lit and was very loud with all of the electronic equipment running.

Encounter Check: 33. Encounter 1d10=3. 1d5=3 Forgotten Androids.
Reaction = 08. Even, so a positive reaction. Low roll, so in a very weak position. 

Let’s roll up 3 Forgotten Androids on the provided tables.

Manufacturing defect= 6 Bot rot. Highly infectious fungal condition that grows bizarrely on delicate circuitry. 
Adaptation= Wears a vaccsuit and pretends to be a lost human refusing to take off suit, insisting it has a “disease”. 

What are they doing= Arguing amongst themselves loudly. 
They want= “get out of here.”
Names = Ana Kain ; Laurel Vias ; Gene Lajen
According to the module, Forgotten androids are unaware they are androids. They live in constant fear of Monarch and the security androids.

ADA and Denzel moved deeper into the room, looking for an interface terminal for one or more of these servers. Over the din of the machinery, they could hear people arguing loudly, but they couldn’t make out the words. Denzel motioned for ADA to go around the side of the racks and he would go around the other. She nodded and they moved simultaneously toward the sound of the voices.

Fate check, do they sneak up effectively on the forgotten droids? very likely 08 Extreme Yes.

Denzel rounded the corner of one of the racks at the same time ADA appeared around the other, and there grouped in front of them were three people in vaccsuits. One of them was accessing a terminal in a server rack and the other two were shouting at each other. “Put your hands up where I can see them!” Denzel called to them.

They were completely caught by surprise and one of the women screamed in terror. They were all carrying a tool of some sort for protection, a crowbar and a couple of spanners. One of them had an SMG strapped on his back. They all dropped their weapons seeing Denzel and ADA surrounding them. “You with the gun, slowly slide it to the ground and no one will get hurt.” Denzel ordered. The man complied and gently removed the strap with two fingers and placed it as far away from himself as he could reach. He then put his hands back in the air.

“Please, don’t hurt us!” One of the women pleaded. Despite having breathable air in here, they all had their visors down and their voices were slightly muffled.

“No one will get hurt as long as everyone does what we say. Step away from that terminal and line up there along the wall.” He motioned toward the nearest wall covered in machinery. They complied fearfully, one of the women was weeping openly. “What were you doing on that terminal?” he asked when they were all situated. He still had his weapon pointed in their general direction, but he had it loosely directed to the ground. ADA stood to the side to create a cross fire if necessary.

“We…we are just trying to contact someone to get us off of this cursed place.” The man said. The woman who was not crying shot him an unreadable look.

She then spoke up. “Truth is, we are sick. We caught…something…while diving here. Arkady refused to take us back to the Bell and we were looking for someone else in the comm logs that might pick us up. I’m Ana Kain, and this is Laurel Vias and Gene Lajen. Please, do you have a ship?”

Denzel looked at ADA briefly then answered. “No, we are waiting for Arkady to pick us up. Maybe if you keep those suits on, we can convince him to pick you up. How much air do you have left?”

The woman, Ana, looked at a readout on her arm. “I have about 6 hours and the others probably about the same.”

“Ok, well, he should be landing any moment. We’ll talk to him, but I have to ask that you 3 stay off to the side. We don’t want any trouble.”

Ana let out a sob. “Oh light, thank you, thank you. We are desperate, but we don’t want to hurt anyone either.” The other two nodded in agreement.

“ADA, check out that terminal and see what you can find.” Denzel finally lowered his weapon, though he still was antsy around these strangers. “You can put your hands down, but don’t make any sudden moves.”

The woman Ana embraced the weeping woman and said something to the effect that they will finally get out of here. ADA moved over to the terminal and began to type on the keyboard. After a few minutes she spoke up. “Apparently the station is constantly broadcasting information to multiple sources. Most of it looks like gibberish. But it also sends threats consistently to the ships in the blockade. And Navigational data to The Bell. I believe that is what Arkady mentioned to Terese as the Divers base of operations.” Suddenly, she gasped, which was unusual for her normal stoic behavior. She saw in the logs her name and status in what was labeled as a brain scan report being sent to some unknown location.

ADA Sanity save 68 vs 21. Fail. +1 Stress. 4 Stress

Denzel heard the gasp from ADA, such an unusual sound for her. “What is it?”

She hesitated for a moment before answering. “At some point, the station or Monarch performed a brain scan of me. My entire neural profile has been broadcast to some location.”

“What the hell?!” Denzel growled. He turned to the others. “Have you seen or heard anything like that?”

Ana looked fearfully between her two captors. “Nnno…I mean…yes we saw other brain scan logs in the comm feed. But we don’t know anything about them either.”

“What is going on here?” Denzel wondered aloud to no one in particular. “We had better get back to the control room, you three, go ahead before me. ADA, grab that SMG.” She stood staring at the logs continually streaming across the terminal. “ADA!” he shouts to be heard over the noise.

“Oh, yes, of course Denzel.” ADA was completely out of sorts and unlike her normal stoic self. She walked over and scooped up the extra SMG, throwing the strap over her opposite shoulder of her own weapon.

How many shots are in the magazine? D5=1

They walked back through the hallway in single file and crowded into the control room. Ollie and Terese were of course surprised, and Denzel filled them in on the situation.

Fate check, has enough time for the drones to finish and Arkady to land? Nearly Certain. 74 Yes.

Denzel looked up at the camera feed and he could see Arkady’s ship coming in for a landing on the landing dock. Terese was hailed on her comms.

“I landed. You come on board and we go to Bell, yes?” Arkady said to her.

“Arkady says he is ready for us to board.” Terese told Denzel.

“Ok, everyone get your things together. I’ll go talk to Arkady to see what we can do about you folks. Just stay put ok?” They nodded somewhat fearfully.

The rest of the crew filed out of the airlock, placing their suits back into function. They hurried to the shuttle, with a placard reading The Acheron along the side. They get on board, and Arkady turned from the cockpit, also wearing his vaccsuit. “Welcome aboard. We are ready to depart, yes?”

“Not yet.” Denzel said, holding up a hand. “We found some other divers in there that say they need to come back to the Bell. They said they are sick, but that they will keep their vaccsuits on until they can find a ride off the station.”

“You are certain they are human, then yes?” Arkady asked with an eyebrow raised. “There many androids here in Deep that pretend human. We call Infiltrators. They pets of Monarch. If you get scanned, leave and never come back. Or you may find yourself in Deep.” ADA glanced at Denzel with obvious terror in her eyes.

ADA Fear save 77 vs 81. Critical Success. -1 Stress. Down to 3 Stress.

Denzel made a placating gesture with his hands, and she visibly calmed herself. Arkady took note of this interaction. “Too late some of you, yes?

Denzel doesn’t answer the question. Instead he asked, “Do you know all the Divers that come here to the Deep?”

“Impossible know if they do not come to Bell. I do not know you, no? Maybe you all androids?” Terese and Ollie both look at ADA at that statement. Arkady also looked at ADA as well. “Ah well, some of you obvious android. Easy tell then at least.”

Denzel interrupted. “Their names are Ana Kain, Gene Lajen, and …what was the other woman’s name?”

“Laurel Vias” ADA answered for him.

“I have not heard those names before on Bell. Maybe they come straight to Deep like you? I do not trust them. They cannot come to Bell. End of Story. We go without them or you stay here. Simple.” Arkady began prepping the shuttle for launch and looked back at Denzel with a questioning look.

“Fine,” Denzel growled. “I’ll be right back, don’t leave.” And he started walking back toward the station.

“You have few meenutes. Then we go.” Arkady closed the gangway hatch after Denzel departed. Denzel looked over his shoulder at the shuttle before hustling back to the airlock for the control room. He cycled the air and finally entered the room with the others.

It has been several minutes; I’ll do another Encounter check 95. None.

“Well?” Ana asked hopefully as Denzel came into the room.

“I’m sorry, we could not convince him.” Denzel responded sadly. The other woman, Laurel began weeping again. Gene put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Then we are dead.” Ana said dejectedly.

“Maybe not,” Denzel said, getting an idea. He walked over to the terminal and brought up the display for the Auto Tug. The UI showed that it was fully fueled and functional. “There is an auto-tug there on the loading dock. It shows to have enough fuel to travel for 1 week. That should be a long enough burn to get you to Gateway station at least. Though maybe at a slower rate than nominal. Do you have any food and water?”

Ana nodded, “Yes, we have some supplies back in the comms room.”

Denzel looked relieved. “I can help get it prepped, do any of you know how to fly?” Gene raised his hand tentatively. “Ok, good. Let’s get you folks out of here.” Denzel smiled at the 3 obviously relieved people. Completely unaware that they were androids. He punched in some commands on the terminal and they saw the craft light up on the loading dock. He gave the 3 some last minute tips and then headed back out to the Acheron. He waved to the others as they filed into the other craft. Ana gives one last wave as they walk on board.

Arkady opened the shuttle back up and Denzel walked on board. The hatch closes back up with a hiss. Arkady opens the visor of his vaccsuit. “Well? You allow them to leave then? They stopped by Troubleshooters. Maybe killed.”

Denzel didn’t even consider the blockade, but there was nothing he could do about that. Hopefully, they made it out alive. “Let’s go to this Bell,” he said finally and Arkady nodded. The shuttle lifted from the dock and zoomed into space. There in the viewport the Bell could be seen floating in darkness in the shadow of the Deep. It looked like a large thruster nozzle…because that is what it was.

End of Scene

Wow, I really enjoyed that interaction with the forgotten androids. I like that every encounter does not have to be violent. I hope those three crazy kids make it somewhere safe.

Fate check, do they pass the blockade, very unlikely? 37 No, sadly.

I won’t assume they were killed though and will add them to our character list. Who knows, we might run into them somehow in the future. I’ll also remove the thread for meeting Arkady and add a thread for exploring the Bell.

I will see you all next time!