Episode description[edit | edit source]
In the wake of Gumption's death, and with the killer at large, the Divine Fleet dispatches a group to prepare the planet of Quire for refugees. The living vessel named Myriad carries six (including herself) individuals to a clearing south of the Painted Plateaux*. Included on the crew are the ship's mind herself, a diplomat authorized to negotiate with the civilizations of Quire, a bio-mechanical cyborg with extensive military experience (Andrew Lee Swan), a martial artist with a commuted prison sentence (Sylvi Clare), an artist, engineer, and designer of mechs (Art Martinez-Tebbel), and a broadcaster who is designated to report on the operation (Keith J. Carberry). Their first task: Establish an uplink to the Twilight Mirage's network by-way-of a two-ton communications node, which must be installed hundreds of miles north of the ship’s landing point.
To take a step, your foot must first be on the ground.
This week on Friends at the Table: The Planet of Quire
The Remaining Records of Curiosity // Reference Code: P-Qu75-42-PP
The Painted Plateaux
A range of desert tablelands with colors drifting from pink to orange. The sand, whisked by hard, high winds. A dark movement. A bird.
Contents[edit | edit source]
Opening[edit | edit source]
“
[Satellite] Report 80α
So, um… How you holding up, Primary? It's been, I guess about a month, since Gumption died? And Empyrean and ⸢Blooming⸣, they've been watching the people and the fleet mourn the death of yet another Divine. And I've been watching them.
By definition, faith's supposed to be invisible. But the hope of the Fleet has always been just really material. It's been right there, in their parades and their songs and their tears and sweat, and their fists all clenched up after a wound. But with Gumption and ⸢Covenant⸣ gone, if their hope yet lived, I registered no material evidence. That's why they finally acted, Primary.
For a long time, Empyrean has held one law to be true above all others. You know this. "Steal no one's perch." While the other Divines of the Fleet had pursued and pretty much failed at colonization efforts, Empyrean and the people of Seance hadn't. Their domain was the sky, not the land. They were Empyrean, right? "The highest of highs, the most heavenly of heavens, dreamt first by the Divines themselves," quote unquote. But now the people needed a sign, they needed an investment in hope. And so suddenly, they started looking for a perch.
I watched them scour the records of the Memorious library, I watched them find a new home. Or what looked like one, anyway. A world of singing storms and howling seas, deserts and mountains, lakes and forests and swamps and ice, a planet with as much diversity as the citizens of the fleet. And I observed relief in ⸢Blooming⸣'s eyes when she found the loophole. Records indicated that on multiple occasions over the last 800 years, people had fled the Fleet and wound up on that planet.
"Perhaps," I overheard her telling Empyrean, "This wasn't someone else's perch at all." Before they vanished, the Divine Curiosity named that planet. 'Quire.' Do you know the word, Primary? Q-U-I-R-E. Definition 1: A collection of twenty-four or sometimes twenty-five sheets of paper of the same size and quality. Sometimes twenty-five. It's so very Curiosity, isn't it? Definition 2 (archaic): An organized group of church singers. Definition 3: A division of angels.”
Plot[edit | edit source]
Setup[edit | edit source]
In the first half of the episode the cast introduce the four player characters for this arc Gig Kephart, Echo Reverie, Grand Magnificent, and Even Gardner. They run through their playbooks and related game mechanics.
The team has three main tasks as part of their mission: install nodes that will establish an uplink to the Twilight Mirage and expand the mesh on Quire; begin diplomatic negotiations with existing civilizations to secure a future for the Divine Fleet; investigate the rumours that the last remaining Divine exists somewhere on the planet.
Story[edit | edit source]
The group come down to the planet Quire via Myriad and land near a set of canyons named the Painted Plateaux. Alekhine remains on Myriad, while the group travel on foot with a node through the Plateaux for several days, stopping every so often to allow the node to drill down into the ground and help build the link to Myriad where she is now waiting at a landing point hundreds of miles away to the north.[1]
The group reach a fork in the path and have to decide whether to take the node over the top of the Plateaux or take it down into a cave system. They decide to split up to explore each option. Echo and Gig go up, Even checks the caves, and Grand stays behind to guard the node.[2]
Echo free climbs up the cliff and leaves Gig behind. Although Echo reaches the top quickly, they get turned around and become lost, losing radio contact with the others. Meanwhile, Gig goes the long way around, and briefly taps into an existing communication frequency in the area with his cybernetics and receives the lead "The Old Church is an amenable host".[3]
Even travels into the cave system and discovers that there is a unique breed of algae growing on the walls, as well as a soft blue glow of phosphorescent light coming from deeper within. By following the glow Even finds a hole in the ground that reveals an old abandoned city covered in the algae three or four storeys below. Even can't see any people in the city and receives no response when he yells down. Even decides to head back to the entrance of the cave to regroup with the others.[4]
Gig makes it to the top of the Plateaux and can see glimmers of light way off to both the west and east. There is also a campfire to the north on the Plateaux a few hours away where "odd silhouettes" can be seen. Gig takes out his floating, cybernetic eye to go find Echo. Echo has found a high point on the rocks to wait which means Gig is able to find them and use his cybernetic eye to lead Echo back to the others. On the way down, Gig notices that there is a safer route to get the node up onto the Plateaux out of sight of the campfire he saw. He gets the impression that the group at the campfire might cause violence due to the flares of plasma energy and the revving of engines he can detect.[5]
Meanwhile, Grand has been entertaining himself by designing things by the node. As sunset hits, Grand notices a shadow on the wall nearby is moving and goes to investigate. The moving shadow takes him down a crack in the side of the canyon and he sees two shadows on the wall that look like two humanoid figures, one of which is dribbling a ball. As he approaches both figures turn to face him, and it looks like the ground itself starts to move out of the canyon wall. The sun drops, and the shadows recede.[6]
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Austin Walker (GM)
- Keith J Carberry (Gig Kep-hart)
- Sylvia Clare (Echo Reverie)
- Art Martinez-Tebbel (Grand Magnificent)
- Andrew Lee Swan (Even Gardner)
Other Characters[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Twilight Mirage 03 [00:48:00]
- ↑ Twilight Mirage 03 [00:57:00]
- ↑ Twilight Mirage 03 [01:01:00]
- ↑ Twilight Mirage 03 [01:10:00]
- ↑ Twilight Mirage 03 [01:17:00]
- ↑ Twilight Mirage 03 [01:29:00]