Session V: Stars in my pocket like grains of sand
This is the campaign diary for the fifth session of my Warp Shell-campaign Stars in my pocket like grains of sand . If you want to meet the crew, head over here: MEET THE CREW.
There’s coffee brewing in the background, I am listening to some Bloodywood, life’s good. Let’s dig in!
Into the Wild
Remember last time? Our heroes found a big kidney-shaped cocoon, some Yog crystals and a lever which they pulled. Gilbert who has been daydreaming falls into a hole that has opened up under him. The rest of the group hears him yell and decide to move towards him. Greg helps Gilbert to climb out of the hole. Gilbert who sees the alluring shine of the crystals decides that he wants some. He disappears in front of the group and re-appears besides the crystals. Eliott still feels uneasy and wants everybody to move on. Gilbert disappears and re-appears in front of Greg. The xenomorph has already climbed down the hole and into the tunnel. Suddenly our heroes hear a screeching sound and the crystal spider appears. All of them except Greg and Gilbert hurry into the hole in the ground. As the spider approaches Greg throws a boulder at it and Gilbert fires off a warning shot. Before Gilbert can climb down the hole Greg tackles him and both of them fall to safety. They hear the skittering sound of many feet above and then: silence.
The tunnel is dimly lit by halogen lamps and gives off a prismatic shimmer. At the end of the tunnel is a big metallic double door. The xenomorph has already scouted ahead. The rest of the group with Eliott and Axis in the lead follow shortly.
Underground Research Facility
As Eliott walks through the door she finds herself in a narrow hallway, overgrown with thick moss and coral-like plants that shimmer ever so slightly when she turns her head. The middle of the hallway draws her attention though: humanoid-looking plants connect with the moss-grown concrete ground. Their limbs branches, twisted as if frozen in time. Flower buds grow along the shapes. She scans the plants and gets a confusing reading. The DNA is humanoid, but it’s not. It’s plant-like, but it’s not. The reading fluctuates before it stops. No, this is plant-like organic matter. Axis who has been watching Eliott behind her back is deeply fascinated by the scanner reading.
Greg enters the hallway and turns to his left where he can see a moss-covered window. He taps on the window and hears human screams and cries for help. Instinctively he smashes the window and sees some sort of animal. It looks like a rhinoceros but it’s overgrown with fungi and moss and coral-like shimmering plants. Half of its face is rotted away and Greg can clearly see the skull. As the rhino opens its mouth, he hears the screams again.
Meanwhile the xenomorph has scouted ahead and found the supply closet. In the supply closet there are two chests which they bring back to the group.
Gilbert who has also entered the room and Greg approach the rhino, which does not seem disturbed by them. Sporadically the see it open its mouth but instead of animal noises they hear human cries and screams. Gilbert tries to carefully approach the rhino to heal it. As he lays his hand on the rhino it wheezes and breathes deeply. It moves two steps away from Gilbert gasps and collapses. Gilbert stands there aghast that he could not heal the rhino.
Greg decides to search the adjacent room and finds some documents (mostly salary accounts). He brings them back into the conference room and asks the geno man Arion if he can help him sort through them.
Nekure meets the xenomorph in the hallway and helps them transport the chests into the conference room.
We take a short break as I write down what they find (I had the xenomorph roll d4 per chest to determine the number of loot and then have them roll d100 accordingly. The player rolled a 3 and a 4 so they got seven pieces of loot!):
68: Utlity Arm
9: Imperium Power Armor
39: Plasma Mortar
54: Iron Palm
30: Nitro Putty
78: Collapse-Pole
98: Dominate Machine
The group splits the loot and the xenomorph explores some of the rooms. In the restrooms they hear two thuds and two blobs drop from the ceiling and coagulate into myconoid form. The xenomorph runs away and tries to get back to the others. Meanwhile Greg, Gilbert and Eliott explore the adjacent upper room. Eliott finds a retractable umbrella and a letter opener. Greg and Gilbert look at the ceiling and see two slime mould-like blobs detaching from the ceiling. They coagulate into three myconoids and attack!
There were some fluctuations in pace but I wanted to end the session on a cliffhanger. The next session is this Saturday and I plan to spawn a hell lot more of those slimy little fungi. The way out will also be blocked by 
of coral-like plant growth and I will have the moss growth and maybe even the scary human looking plants lash out at our intrepid heroes. Let’s see if their overpowered loot will save them. 
As always: take a hero coin for your patience and to replenish your stamina.
My VTT-setup stays the same, the assets are by Runehammer Games and 2-Minute-Tabletop. I curated the music for this scene carefully and played parts of the Annihilation-soundtrack in the background.
Feedback as always is appreciated. Take care, all!
