Rifts Mindscape – Session 3: Eyes of Crystal Blue

Ruination Comes for Comfort

March 11, 109 P.A.

Deep in the Magic Zone, life is difficult for the small villages across Rifts Earth. Communities like Comfort are born and die in obscurity, invisible even to their closest neighbors. No one even knew their name. The savage wilderness claims all but the most fortunate of survivors.

Though the sun still shines in the sky, darkness descends upon Comfort. Shambling corpses emerge from the surrounding forests. Alden Greenleaf raises the alarm, “To the dome! Flee to the dome!” The attack came with no warning.

• Raesha conjured an energy field surrounding a group of undead to take them out of the fight while the rest of the party scattered.
• Chayton Willow Blackwood moved to warn civilians. He urged them to follow Alden’s instructions to take refuge in the ruined dome.
• Kres’Kreen rushed to the closest dinosaur pen which held three dinos, including a single raptor. She telepathically connected with the raptor and urged it to join her in battle against the undead.
• Fido summoned his psi-sword and charged into the undead swinging.
• Nicholas Bordeleau took to the air where he could safely bombard the undead with grenades outside the reach of the undead.
• The group realized the shambling dead were common zombies, but some of them were something more dangerous. The PC’s mega-damage attacks barely scratched the tougher undead and the creatures could inflict mega-damage with their unarmed strikes, claws, and bites.
• The tougher undead began to speak, mostly taunts to unnerve the PCs. “Give yourselves over to Nxla. Feel her immortal embrace.” Their words revealed they were Soulless Xombies, mortals transformed via eldritch rituals into vessels for Nxla’s power.
• Waves of zombies rolled into the town. The PCs struggled to destroy the lesser undead while holding off the more dangerous ones and creating paths in the chaos for civilians to flee to safety in the dome.
• Nick thinned the zombie horde with a constant barrage of grenades. The others focused on the more powerful Xombies while Raesha heroically sacrificed himself, sealing himself in a second energy field with one of the Xombies. Kres and her new raptor friend raced around the battlefield shredding zombies. Chayton and Fido quickly learned the Xombies were vulnerable to psionic energy (Fido) and the power of Chayton’s divine staff.
• This advantage turned the tide and they systematically tore through the Xombies while Raesha struggled to hold off the final Xombie. It pummeled him, destroying his armor. Fortunately, he was a mega-damage creature and was able to hold on until the other PCs could aid him.
• A quiet settled over Comfort. Alden worked quickly to assess the situation. Close to twenty civilians were killed during the attack, many were injured, and seven were bitten. Those last ones were already showing signs of infection as the zombie virus coursed through their bodies.
• Chayton used the powers of his staff to cleanse four of the infected individuals. Raesha used his healing magic and helped even more, but one could not be cured. Alden took the last infected victim and opened a storage room in the dome. The door was electronic and still functioned.
• Finally, Fido stepped in to help. Although he felt he was inexperienced with his psionic abilities, he diagnosed the problem. He discovered the infection was a disease but it was powered by a powerful alien intelligence. Summoning his psionic strength he expelled the infection from the victim’s body. Someone hugged Fido. It made him uncomfortable, but it was nice to feel thanked.
• Nick took up a position at the entrance to the dome. While he stood guard, he noticed Talia milling through the crowd asking about someone named Zil. The others showed her disdain and cursed at the mention of Zil’s name. Talia insisted her sister had been tricked by the necromancers. Nick kept that info to himself for now.
• Kres searched the village to see if any zombies lingered. She found one trapped in a closet and another pair that had fallen into a pit. These were the weaker variety so she destroyed them quickly.
• Chayton returned to Mirabel’s home to see if she was okay. Her home was empty but he picked up her scent heading towards the dome. He suspected she was safe.
• The lights in the dome began to flicker off and on. The PCs asked Alden if they could do something about that. The elder told them they had never been able to find a power source in the structure. Parts of it worked intermittently.
• Raesha noted writing on the walls and was surprised he couldn’t read it. As a type of dragon, he was able to speak all languages so this conundrum concerned him.
• Fido decided to psychically read the dome to see if he could learn more about it. He was immediately assaulted by a psychic torrent of pain and suffering. Visions appeared to him of a starship appearing in orbit above Rifts Earth. The defensive satellites around the planet activated and disabled the vessel causing it to crash into the planet. Most of the wreckage of the ship burrowed into the ground. Every living soul onboard was killed. Time passed and more of the vessel was buried by nature until only the ruined dome remained above ground. The word “Trajan” echoed through his mind. He revealed his vision to the party.
• Raesha reached out to the ship to see if any P.P.E. could be found there and he was suddenly supercharged with energy, almost as if he had been on a ley line.
• While discussing the ship below them, Raesha mentioned his brother. Alden noted his scouts had reported seeing another dragon wolf recently in the company of Coalition Gamma Division forces. Raesha revealed his twin brother had been taken by Coalition forces twenty-five years before and he had been searching for him ever since.
• The PCs helped Alden clean up the town and perform rights over the civilians who had been lost.
• The group went to Talia and bought some replacement armor and weapons. Fido was accidentally clued into the situation with Talia’s sister, Zil, and promised to try to free her from the necromancer’s influence.
• The group was torn. They needed to search for the necromancer threat, they wanted to explore the starship, and Raesha wanted to depart immediately to search for his brother. They debated for quite some time. In the end, Alden asked Raesha to help with the necromancers and then he would commit his scouts to taking the dragon wolf to where the other one had been seen. Raesha agreed and the group decided to handle the necromancers first.
• Chayton wondered about the level of violence they had been engaging in. The trend concerned him and he confronted the group. Ultimately, everyone felt their actions had been necessary but he disagreed. The matter remained unresolved as the group settled in to rest for the night.

END OF SESSION