LogOnyx Reach-Jason-3

Game log for the 2026/06/28 session of Starforged - The Onyx Reach, as taken by Jason

The floating settlement on New Hades is run by Zhang Wujhi. New Hades has an 85 degree axial inclination, and the station is currently located in a roughly autumnal climate. The oceans cover most of the planet. Most of the life that lives in them metabolizes methane, and is absurdly toxic. Only a handful of creatures native to the planet are remotely consumable by humans. However, human-introduced plankton is toxic to the native life, and causes big problems whereever it's introduced. Overseer Zhang thanks the crew profusely. He's delighted to uphold his end of the oath and repair the Terminus Clipper. Since the Coalition of Peace rejects violence, they had no way of defending themselves. Rook assigns responsibility for repair and resupply to JP. JP isn't feeling well, so it's good to give him work that can be done from near the head. We decide to sojourn on the station.

Johannes and Leehau go out to explore. Leehau meets a woman named Amanda Parthos, an oceanographer. Her research has become her home, and she's probably on the spectrum somewhere. Her husband Bart Parthos is a marine biologist, and his project is wrapping up. She doesn't want to leave, so he's looking for a new project or some way to continue his research. They invite the twosome to dinner. One of the edible local organisms is a sort of sargasm, and it's like a cross between a green salad and pasta. It's actually quite good. Baxton really wants to do something to help with the research, and it happens that the Red Corsairs might have heard rumours of "the formation." She shows them a hologram of deep sea vent activity. Some of the organisms are changing the landscape, but near one of these vents, there are four obelisks, sitting upright on the ocean floor. They have no samples of the structure; it's very deep, and something in the area disrupts telemetry. Leehau starts talking molecular biology with Bart and before anyone else knows what happened, two hours of jibber-jabber have gone by, and Baxton has their data to analyze. He runs permutations through the computers in the ship's lab and as near as possible to proves that no process of native life could have created any such thing. He also notices that the obelisks resonate oddly when pinged with sonar, which makes any scans unreliable.

Meanwhile, Dex wants to visit the Crimson Seers. He doesn't really even get a chance to go looking for them. He's wandering the station and suddenly some 7' tall dude is walking next to him, with a red priest's collar. This guy, Talmadge, wants to know why Dex is looking for them. Dex explains that he has a book that might help him understand the Forge, but he needs help decoding it. Talmadge asks whether he has the book right now. Dex is smart enough not to carry it around unprotected. The seer tells him to bring it to pod six on sub-level C. Dex decides to interrupt Rook's recreational arm wrestling to request his personal security services. Dex tries to pack a pistol for the meeting as well, but he just absolutely cannot manage to conceal it, and has to leave it behind.

They go to the pod, and when they ask for Talmadge, they're invited to enter. Talmadge has been working an armillary sphere, and there's another guy going to town on an abacus. The seer asks who recommended them to Dex, and correctly guess it was Diana Cantwell. As they talk and move around the space, Rook notices that the seer makes no sound when he moves. Talmadge looks at the book and reports that it's encoded with a catalog cipher. Decoding it would take a lot of Talmadge's time. He would need to be properly motivated, and it would take 10-15 days to complete the work. Talmadge, for his part, is looking for a guy in the Cygnus Deep. This guy goes by several names, but will for gaming purposes be known as Big Jim Slade, and Talmadge wants the guy brought to him for interrogation.

When the crew are all together again, Baxton goes into raptures about how he wants to explore the Formation. Rook offers to let him use his armor, which is sealed and ought to be able to take the pressure. Dex and Geneva tweak the armor to make sure it's not going to have any trouble with salt water, and they fly Leehau over to where the Formation is. Bernie recommends adding emergency flotation, and Johannes suggests putting it on a deadman switch. Amanda and Bart also come along.

Johannes hovers over the right spot to drop Baxton, and they lower him into the sea. It takes about an hour to get down to the ocean floor. Once he's down there, he has to try to work his way overland through the silt. He asks JP to help move him around, but the line twists, the line flexes, the currents move, and poor ol' Leehau bounces off a rock. Also, something is moving in the silt. The something then stops moving, and Baxton continues under he sees an obelisk at the end of his vision. The sensors chirp. He eventually gets close enough to touch an obelisk (with the suit hand). It's a hexagonal prism, maybe 30m tall, and smooth. It's maybe a meter on a side. The texture looks crystalline. It ripples when he touches it. He taps it with his knuckles twice, and it ripples twice. He begins to feel a low reverberation in the water. He tries talking on the external speakers, and he's not sure if there's any change to the sound, but the current seems to have changed, like something pushed him back. He drops instruments and then walks along the perimeter to another obelisk. The wind on the surface begins to pick up. When he touches this one, it ripples, and then Amanda says, "do that again." The first obelisk is rippling in sync. This time he taps it with both hands, and the other obelisk mirrors that as well. He steps inside the perimeter to cross diagonally to a third obelisk, and the current pushes him back. Then, suddenly, there's an explosion of silt from inside the perimiter, and he can't see jack. Leehau calls for evacuation, in case this is bad news for him.

The winch begins to pull him up and back, and as he rises, he gets above the silt cloud, and he sees something moving in the perimeter. It's paralleling him. Even as the silt clears, it's hard to perceive what it is. Light from the suit seems to be getting refracted oddly. Once he's above the oblelisks, the wubwub vibration he started earlier resolves into sound, distinct notes. He asks the Parthoses to analyze the signal and hears that they didn't pick up anything at all.

Halfway up, the suit springs a leak in the back of the right knee. Since the suit can't pump water out, Baxton asks Johannes to increase the ship's altitude. When he gooses the ship's thrusters, the line snaps. Baxton immediately triggers the emergency flotation system. The rate of ascent is slightly diminished by the suit filling with water. Rook commands him to bend his knee to slow the water flow. It's filling up fast and Leehau is beginning to come unglued. Rook sends the remote damage control engage code to seal the suit above the leak. The seal severs Baxton's right leg above the knee. He pops to the surface, alive and whimpering. Johannes manages to make retrieval even despite the howling winds. They rush Baxton to the med bay as the Clipper climbs above the storm. Geneva is able to treat the wound caused by the suit's damage control seal, but as she's trying to reattach the legs, she discovers the leg is already infected by something in the water. The leg is rotting as she watches. She takes an extra inch off the leg to make sure Baxton doesn't go septic.

As he comes out of the anasthetic, Baxon hears the tones from the obelisk. He hums them back. Geneva tries to bond with him in his pain. Knowing that he's on all the painkillers, she mutters about how she never took the class on limb reattachment before the left school... but Braxton picks up on it. She knows he knows.

Johannes returns the ship to the station. The station completes repairs. Amanda and Bart return to their studies, with extra data and samples. The station doctors take a look at Baxton's leg and make sure his system is clear of local flesh eating critters.