Session Report: Gradient Descent 0

Another in a quick session report, we got together, explained Mothership, talked about the themes of Gradient Descent, made characters, and got a little bit of play in.

Roster

• Caius Lovelace – Computer Scientist and Great Great Great … Great Grandson of Ada Lovelace
• Jedidiah Bidwell – A Wanna-Be Prospector, Teamster, Rigger, and Pilot
• Miotaurex-001 – Android and Hacker
• Darius Beck – Gritty Marine who has turned to Relic-Hunting
• Ex Mortis – A Marine “Of Death,” ready to deal doom and die

Quick Event Log

• The party, arriving on their raider ship of the Thylacine pay off a group of blockade marines to enter into the “orbit” of the Deep – the old Cloudbank Synthetic Facilities, now taken over by Monarch – a rogue AI who is producing a bevy of androids, artifacts, and much worse
• They encounter Arkady of the nearby “Bell” – a detached fuel cell that operates as a base of operations within the blockade, as well as a rest site and trade hub
• After discussing a little bit of the state of the Deep, they convince Arkady to show them an alternate entry – into a disguised missile bay
• Flying their shuttle, they encounter some debris and an unusual cryopod housing a deceased android with “tape” spilling out of it
• They enter into the Deep’s third floor, a maintenance and quality assurance facility, which is lit and hosts breathable atmosphere, but no gravity
• Investigating a hanger with over a dozen of microcrafts, they encounter a Ghost in the Machine – a ghostly hologram of a mechanic that they accuse of not being human – which enrages the entity, screaming and attacking them, costing sanity and stress
• Caius figures out how to calm the being – asking about its work and offering to help
• After aiding the Ghost in “fixing” some of the crafts in the hangar, the Ghost decides to take a rest break and dissipates through a nearby wall
• Searching through the massive facility, the find an overhang watch office with computers that show CCTV footage of the hangar, from locations that impossibly do not seem to contain cameras. They also discover a plastic bag full of a writhing bag of tongues, which Minotaurex-001 discards in the gargantuan hangar
• Proceeding to a nearby door, Jedidiah pilots a drown into the adjacent facility, housing many nude humanoid figures resembling a variety of people that the party recognizes from history or modern society
• They encounter a new android model who, through boredom, takes a liking to the party and gives them details about the third floor, on a promise that they will give him some pre-Monarch-coup Cloudbank memorabilia that they come across
• After figuring out the layout of this quality assurance facility, the team makes a plan to head towards a wardrobe fabrication lab to hopefully get some “disguises” printed, and we call it for the night

Summary

Overall, a fun night. Most of the players have WAY more experience with fantasy games, so I think there was just a tiny bit of mismatch in the shorthand way I describe space scenes, as sometimes the players were confused if they could leave their shuttle or if they would be in the vacuum of space or not. I will take note to elaborate in greater detail until we settle on a common abstraction-layer to communicate orientation in space and zero G.