Second report on my Mothership module playtest. The crew:
@Volkovy, playing "Dog" Fairbanks, an ex-construction teamster.
@Burrbank playing Lana Zephyr, Marine. Top of their class but new to field work.
@Face_Fisted playing Dent, a vat-grown droid with strange eyes like Riddick. Sadly could not be present at this game so I played Dent as an NPC.
We start back up with Dog, Lana and Dent hiding out in Security, scanning nightmarish security footage of the Resort’s android staff hunting down strange blob-creatures. Lana notices that when the cam isn’t actually focused on a blob, though, they seem to look a lot more human-like, and in fact one of them in the resort lobby looks a lot like one of the gangsters they’re here to rescue.
Heading out to go find their target, the crew carefully creep down a hallway out of the Staffing building. Along the way they notice a nearby commotion- an android, who looks more like an ordinary person than the other ones, attacking a group of android staff. Although they’re curious about what’s going on, they all decide to take advantage of the distraction to cover their escape. After leaving quietly, they decide to return to their ship and have the autopilot fly it to the Guest Landing pad to wait for them, since that’s closer to their target and they don’t want to backtrack.
They’ll have to cross the pool area to get into the lobby, and to even get there, they’ll have to reckon with a locked gate. Luckily, a trellis along the wall and palm trees providing cover allow the group to sneak in safely. The pool area has lots of suspicious bloodstains on the ground and weirdly bubbly pools- but there’s also a pool bar, to our heroes’ delight.
Dog peeks inside the little thatch-roof stall, sees some very fancy alcohol and exotic fruits, and jumps over the bar to start making himself a delicious drink. Unfortunately, when he leaps in, he lands right on top of a corpse (presumably that of the bartender) with its eyes torn out. Eeewwww. Not to be deterred, he mixes an extremely fancy piña colada.Downing it relieves some of the Stress he’s been racking up but also gets him a bit tipsier than he’d expected.
Lana decides to scavenge for materials with which to create molotov cocktails, but in doing so, knocks a bottle off the shelf- which smashes right on top of the corpse. Which groans, gets up, and begins clawing at Dog. Whoops.
After a brief scuffle in the cramped stall, Dog makes a plan. He and Lana run outside, Dent grabs a fancy fruit (gotta have some snacks for the road!), and before the shambling corpse can follow them, Dog fires a flare right into the bar. The alcohol ignites just as planned, engulfing the bar in flames.
 |
| https://uncannyspheres.blogspot.com/ |
As the bar explodes, the flaming corpse comes stumbling out and lunges towards the crew… before flopping harmlessly onto the ground, burnt to a crisp. However, the explosion caught the attention of the security androids (which Lana confirms with a quick check of their HUD), so the crew figure they’d better hide for a bit until they can safely make it across the pool area and reach the main Resort lobby.
Looking around, they see a bandstand that could offer them some cover. They can hear low sobbing and the sound of jazz music from within, but lacking better options, they decide to make a break for it. Running at top speed, Dog slips and falls into one of the pools, finding it to be boiling hot, but luckily Lana hauls him out before he gets hurt too badly. The crew arrive at the bandstand just as androids begin to close in around them. Flipping through the security cameras, Lana realizes that the security androids see themself and Dog as weird blobby creatures as well (Dent just looks normal).
Diving into the dark, shadowy bandshell, the crew discover the source of the music- an awful jumbled mass of limbs, faces, and musical instruments, playing some lovely bossa nova. It doesn’t seem to care that they’ve entered the bandshell, but the security androids give the place a wide berth, apparently unwilling to approach. Dog tosses his flashlight into the blob’s saxophone, making it look as though the crew are still moving around in there with the light, and the crew escape through the back.
An android lies face-down on the ground behind the bandshell, its memory cores apparently removed. The crew decide to ignore it and just get out of here, and they sneak into the lobby safely thanks to their effective decoy.
Once there, they’re greeted by a grisly scene. With Lana guarding their hiding spot behind a spiral staircase, Dog climbs up to get a better vantage point. The place is swarming with more shambling, grotesque people, the target is nowhere to be found and the lobby looks like the scene of a fight, with sprays of blood along the walls leading to the Moonwalk Cocktail Bar (where the crew previously saw the corpses of a few of the Syndicate bosses).
Carefully making their way into the bar, the crew find the corpses they expected, but also a few more people. The bartender (who, upon closer examination, is definitely also a dead guy) is just standing behind the bar while an injured young man sits at the bar, drunkenly sobbing. Dog decides to sit down with the young man and see what his deal is. He decides to get another drink to avoid raising suspicion and orders the most touristy-looking drink available, a bright-green martini, but the bartender makes a gin fizz with blue curacao instead. It’s tasty and makes him feel at ease, which is good because Dog had been racking up the Stress lately.
Meanwhile, Lana scans the security cameras and manages to spot their target again. Now they’re fleeing down the hallway of the 2nd floor of the Resort’s rooms. Striking up a conversation with the young man, Dog realizes that he’s another Syndicate-affiliated target of theirs; however, the man refuses to come along with the crew, insistent that he’ll be killed once the Syndicate finds out what he’s done (the exact nature of his transgression is not apparent). Dog reassures him that they’ll bring him somewhere safe while making a ‘we’re getting paid’ gesture towards Lana behind his back. So with the young man in tow, the crew prepare to rescue their next target from horrors unknown….
