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This section covers the second story arc in our Trinity campaign (sessions 7+).

Trinity Summary – June 10.

Having previously opened the door to peaceful relations with the planet’s natives by discovering that their taint energy could be dispersed into the biosphere rather than into humans, the team was given general leave to do more or less as they wished for about two months.

In this period of time, the team members mostly worked in an advisory fashion, consulting as necessary to provide assistance in matters of alien psychology, translation, and the experience of having an alien taint crystal lodged in one’s brain. Otherwise, Celeste, Shaw, and McFarlin were free to do as they liked.

While the team took its well-deserved time off, a number of events occurred. The most important is the deteriorating relations with the natives. Initially, improving relations with the natives had cheered most of the El Mara task force. Commander Villares had even calmed relaxed his belligerent stance. The key breakthrough seems to have been that, prior to being able to release large quantities of taint, the natives had something of a psychotic disorder that prevented them from thinking of humans as truly sapient creatures. After about two months, however, diplomacy took a turn for the worse, apparently without cause.

Taking it upon themselves, the team decided to evaluate the effects of the taint-dispersion plan. Two important details were discovered: The taint output of the natives was on the rise and there are at least six sites on the planet which are strong taint-loci.

A detailed examination revealed that three of these taint-zones, including the one closest to New Houston, were emitting a great deal of radio traffic. Assuming that these were likely native settlements, the team proceeded to more carefully survey a radio-dead zone.

This zone was one of the four on the colonial continent but the only without radio emissions. Exploration of the site revealed inexplicable stone ruins. The site, no larger than several hundred meters across, seemed to have been a work-in-progress; no larger buildings were finished. Bizarrely, the center of the site featured the corpses of eight humans who were discovered to be soldiers from the United States, a nation which broke in the Aberrant war, being reformed as the Federated States in 2060. Shells were found at the scene, but bullet wounds were not the apparent cause of death. In fact, the bodies were strangely well-preserved, only having deteriorated from weathering; they had not rotted. They seemed to have likewise been stripped of important objects, left only with now-tattered clothing.

After examining the bodies, the team turned its attention to the central ruins, a series of irregular megalith stones arranged in concentric circles. The central stone radiated powerful taint as well as complex radio signals, too tightly focused to have been detected on the initial surveys. Study indicated that the radio signals seemed to be a more complex version of the natives’ own radio speech.

McFarlin’s physical examination of the central stone led to his teleportation to another taint site on the planet, this time located in the largest and most northern continent. Telepathic communication functioned as though McFarlin were still present despite his distance, indicating that the central stone acted as a relay for the messages. McFarlin was recovered and the team returned to the El Mara.

Bullet Event Summary

• Shaw programs alien language into radio vocoders, allowing anyone to communicate with the creatures.
• McFarlin has much of the alien crystal removed from his brain.
• L2 reconstruction progressing well. Team assistance is useful.
• Alien diplomacy turns worse.
• Taint levels revealed to be rising in the biosphere, though not to dangerous levels.
• Six taint-zones known to exist, including one previously-known spot. This last spot’s taint output has greatly increased.
• Three of the taint-zones emit native radio; all six other three emit focused radio conversation which works through the planet’s magnetic field.
• Ruins exist in at least 2 taint zones. At least one of these seems to teleport creatures; the same one had dead U.S. military soldiers.

Loose Threads

• Cause of increasing taint at the first-known native settlement.
• Reason for increasing alien hostility.
• Origin of ruins and teleporting stone(s).
• Identity/identities of those who telepathically manipulated the del la Garzas.