Move 3 (Chapter 1.3)

[yhlee]

Time: 361 (high calendar)
Place: out-rift near Station Moongray

[Edited to add: NOTE: I'm flying back home tomorrow but will be keeping an eye on this move or any questions you might have. I should be able to resume normal GMing activities starting Wednesday. Sorry about that!--YHL]

[GM's note: feel free to continue to wrap up any last business in Move 2.]

Whoever is monitoring the Wasp notes that there are no major issues emerging from the rift into the target place and time. The visuals show strange energies crackling around the moth as it passes back into normal space-time. For days afterward, the energies' patterns haunt your dreams, as though conveying a coded message in a language you knew before your birth.

It doesn't take long for someone to notice your arrival. A transmission arrives from the direction of Station Moongray. The Wasp's mothgrid asks for your attention, and plays it. The message is given first in the high language, then repeated several times in other "low" languages: "Greetings, travelers. This is Station Moongray of the heptarchate, under the command of Administrator Nirai Paerani. Do you require an escort to the station?" It is accompanied by a local starmap giving coordinates to the station and the identifying information of a proposed escort, a non-combat research moth called the Butterfly Lens that has been patrolling the rift. The transmission goes on to offer succor in exchange for information about the other side of the rift.

[Players should feel free to discuss their response then, possibly, open communications with the station. The administrator will repeat the greeting message until someone responds or the Wasp attempts to approach the station.

Yehan will notice that someone has taken the task of translation very seriously--the heptarchate doesn't have the greatest track record in this area, but the low language translations are extremely competent, fairly polite, and convey a sense of eagerness for contact with people who can bring the station information about other times and places.

The Wasp's more advanced scan functions can verify the presence of the Butterfly Lens about a half day away and whoever queries scan will be almost certain that it only has the kind of light armaments that you'd use to defend against local debris.]

Comments

Re: Ashari's plans [paging Sasha, Kaliyan, Yehan, & the Rest of the Team]

[slybrarian]

"Requesting an escort could be a chance to make ourselves seem more helpless than we really are," Alaric suggests, looking at the people more experienced with Heptarchate officialdom to see if that's a reasonable reaction to expect. "Oh dear me my engines were damaged, we might need a tow?"

Re: Ashari's plans [paging Sasha, Kaliyan, Yehan, & the Rest of the Team]

[lleullawgyffes]

“I would tend to agree, although we probably don’t need to justify it beyond being caught out of time,” Virmad says. “Especially to Nirai — I’d worry about lying about our technical situation lest their scanners catch us out in the lie.” He pauses. “It would be a lie, right?”

[Mothra drive status]

[yhlee]

[Anyone who checks the Wasp's mothdrive status will note that some of the upper harmonics looked slightly wonky exiting the rift. It's probably nothing, but a conscientious mechanic would want it checked out.]

Re: Ashari's plans [paging Sasha, Kaliyan, Yehan, & the Rest of the Team]

[zuhrovet]

[I thought they hadn't invented the mothdrive yet, in the time we're visiting? If so, we DEFINITELY don't want anyone looking too closely.]

[modern mothdrive not yet extant]

[yhlee]

[That's correct--the modern mothdrive does not yet exist. I've been careless about terminology and I do apologize.]

Re: Ashari's plans [paging Sasha, Kaliyan, Yehan, & the Rest of the Team]

[slybrarian]

"Some subtle rejiggering of the maneuvering thrusters would look like the plausible result of a close encounter with a hole in space-time," Alaric explains, "without being so bad our own crew couldn't plausibly handle it. Meanwhile, since the mothdrive doesn't rely on thrusters, they won't realize that we've still got full drive capabilities."