Plot started on 10/24/2018.
Plot summary: Kyizl and friends go to explore a world known as 'Experiment 8507B'. The greetings sent before we landed indicated they would welcome visitors, though did not indicate what was on their world.
10/24/2018 Session:
- Arrived on the planetoid, and discovered it was basically a desert.
- Found these signs:
- YOU ARE ENTERING AN EXPERIMENTAL AREA. PLEASE CHECK IN WITH THE MAIN OFFICE BEFORE MOVING ABOUT.
- Another sign, again in seven languages, directs visitors to the 'main office' just up ahead. Built into the rock face of a cliff, the office looks long abandoned. The front is composed of a thick metal screwed into the rock face, pitted and rusted from sand over the years. The windows looking out at the desert are badly cracked, slightly broken. The metal door itself has what looks like a simple lock; it doesn't open.
- The 'main office' was locked and clearly long abandoned. Maynard was able to pick the lock and get us in.
- Inside, the group confirms the office is indeed long abandoned, though all the equipment is still there and operational.
- Gwen and Nicholas found a server room in the back, with cabling that goes right into the cave rock.
- Amy used her powers to determine the cabling goes deep underground and forks off repeatedly. She also detected what suggested an open area in the cave, not too far from the office. There must be a way inside.
- Looking around the office, the group notes the high fidelity headphones in every cubical (Designed for a slightly different species but will work for us) and high fidelity speakers at several listening areas. This suggests the experiment is sound related.
- Looking around, papers are found in cabinets in a language none of us know, but have lots of text, tables, charts, but also sketches of audio waveforms and what could be a map with waveforms attached to certain locations. There are also maps with a 'heatmap' overlaid over it to indicate some sort of activity.
- Maynard was able to use his abilities to hack one of the desktop computers and get access to the data.
- Others discovered stacks of metal cartridges in the cabinets, and note they look like they'd fit in what could be some sort of player in a listening area. No recording devices were found.
- Some of the audio played includes (RP logs):
- ( The cartridge begins to play through the ultra-high-fidelity speakers, a little rotating icon on the display to indicate speed, with changing glyphs that are probably numbers. It's not hard to see those big knobs are positioned just right to constantly adjust them during playback... the sound that comes out is both alien yet familiar. Strange breathing, rising and lowering tones, irregular chitters, clicks and hisses, even stuff that almost sounds like music. )
- ( The audio stops, as does the display. End of recording? When it was playing, ti sounded -really- good, like whatever it was is literally right in front of you. )
- ( More sounds emerge. This one suggests insects or similar, though the sounds suggest an actual language, or some sort of communication besides 'I'm here!' )
- ( You may find that 'oscilloscope' may closely resemble some of the waveforms on the papers. )
- ( Also, those of you with sensitive hearing will detect the recording has high frequency chirps beyond the range of (human) hearing. There's a lot of layered sound to each 'conversation'. )
- Nicholas, after listening to the audio for a bit, realized he could understand it due to a quirk in his character's past: "I think...they were talking about agriculture."
- Kyizl searched the front desk and found:
- ( The trinket is a thin metal wafer with a complex pattern engraved into it. The pattern is a darker color from the shinier metal of the trinket. )
- Also found a small, black, rectangular object: ( Crimson finds it has a single silver push button on the otherwise black metal surface. One side has a series of slits, like you might expect for a small speaker. )
- The rectangular object turns out to be a translator for the audio. When they held it near one of the cartridges while it played:
- ( The cartridge is reinserted, and replayed. The first section doesn't seem to translate very well (the ones with all the really strange noises). The second section translates perfectly. As Nicholas suggested, it is about food and agriculture. The voice in the little handheld translator has a strange accent, and is a neutral gender. Whoever it is is having a discussion about the timing for harvesting plants near the 'water area'. "We should harvest in 10 drips." "That should be the right time. They smell almost ready." )
- ( "When are the fish due to return?" "3 drips. We have more than enough food stores. It is not a concern even if they are late." )
- ( The recording ends. )
- NEXT TIME: Finish searching the office, then figure out their next move. Perhaps there is something to those caves Amy can sense.