Scene 4 - Graveyard of the Methhead

You manage to scrape together an assortment of Ruk bits, and pay Hoosan. She crams you into the craft, and you find a few uncomfortable places to stand. She comes around and lowers some jump seats from the sides of the vehicle. You sit, and it seems all better, comfortable in the oddly decorated craft.

With a few subvocalized barks, the ship slips free of its moorings as she slides into the navigation chair. Facing backwards toward you as the ship drifts away from the dock, she says, "So, Dran? That's kind of fucked up. Why in the shoals would you want to go there? You don't have to tell me, of course, but spit it out already!"

Hoosan rolls her eyes, and turns back to the windscreen. "Lame. Did you pick up her dry cleaning too?"

The pilot just says, "Ages" over her shoulder as she focusses on flying the craft.

After leaving the city space, you travel for two hours above a strange, fractured landscape. Rifts and chasms break up the land, giving it the impression of being shattered or coming apart. Forests of alien trees and fungii cover the land, but you are too high up to see anything smaller. The occasional glint tells you of metal or glass, but you see no towns.

Later, without warning, she comes in down low to the ground, and then the craft hovers into a large rift. Here, the bedrock has been deliberately carved and smoothed, and you land in a huge hangar underground. A number of refugees hover near the edge of the hangar, dirty and bloody, and one of their number tentatively walks toward the Rift Runner, 'hat in hand' so to speak.

Hoosan practically shoos you off her vehicle, saying, "Welcome to Dran, no off you go. I'm sure you can find your own way back. I got to get scarce before I'm swarmed by more people than a train from Calcutta."

They are definitely refugees, wounded and with little worldly goods. What they are fleeing isn't obvious.

The man, Rukish with several bio-implanted tubes attached to his throat, looks hopefully at you. "The collapses. Half the city is buried. Some of us tried to stay, they told us the worst was over, but damn them all another section of ground fell in. Hundreds more killed, others cut off. We had to dig out way out," he waves to encompass the group. "So many lost."

You have seen Culkin in Ruk, he lead the first translation here to show you the way.

Would you care to make an investigation roll? Or assist another in hunting him down? An assist eases the task one step.

You're standing in front of a gate, dark energy flickering around the outside.

It was an odd after noon, serendipitous even. "I thought I saw him in Holstov" or "Do you need a ride to Holstov" followed by a "Sure, I'll let you view my security feed" and a "For a song, I'll let you through." Serendipitous.

You're standing in front of a gate.