After Dark [LE8]

[The Shadout Mapes]

Mapes was waiting in one of the thopters in the frigate's cargo hold...

[Bomilcar Thorvald]

Bomilcar moved to the thopter in the cloak he had worn previously to blend, the fremkit covered by it and the hood hiding his face.

"Shadout," he said as he took a seat.

[Dorian Drake]

After spending some time going over the various auditors' reports and the records the Londine man was able to secure from the Harkonnens, Edwell was curious to start connecting the dots.

He joined the expedition to contact the Fremen, hoping their hidden perspective might provide some insight.

OOC: No threat thread for Edwell, Day 8.

[Cuyler Gray]

Cuyler felt some uncertainty as she boarded. Thopter rides had not been her best experiences so far.

[Bomilcar Thorvald]

Bom nods to the others as they board. Sensing a bit of hesitation from Cuyler, he invites her to sit right next to him. "Not like last time. Next to you."

He hoped it would help.

[Cuyler Gray]

She smiled. "Thank you."

[The Shadout Mapes]

Mapes frowned at the sudden crowd. Were they all meant to be decoys?

"Who is the pilot?" She assumed one of them had to be. At least two of them had good stillsuits. And the last one looked like Liet's daughter, so maybe it was an omen.

[Claudius Reins]

Addison arrives in her still suit, "I think that would be me"

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(free Addison for the day)

[The Shadout Mapes]

That wasn't exactly the stealth squad Mapes had imagined, but she'd make do. At least perhaps the Harkonnen would hesitate to take out half of the audit in one go... nah, she didn't believe in that.

It was what it was. She said a prayer to the Maker under her breath.

[Kannon]

[Getting out of the Harkonnen security perimeter is an extended task. You need to gather 15 successes between the four of you. Addison makes Move tests for piloting, the rest can do Battle (dodging the security measures), Understand (the circumstances/environment) or Discipline (the senses) tests to reflect their insights/advice on how best to do it. For every 2 Threat spent on the rolls it is spent back by raising the requirement by 1. Assumption is they go dark, but if they are more conspicuous in whatever way, the number of successes needed is increased by 5 momentarily. If they manage to gather all needed successes in first round, they go out unnoticed. Every next round means they'll have a tail and determines how large and how fast.

Special rule: for every concurrent LE thread of the other auditors meant at distracting the Wind Pass personnel the requirement falls by 1, plus 1 for a successful Communicate 3 roll meant to manipulate their attention made in that thread. The Threat rule above applies to those rolls as well.

Complications at 18 for all.]

[Cuyler Gray]

Cuyler was doing her best to watch for anyone who might notice them.

- - -
After Dark [LE8], Discipline (8)/Duty (7), Observe, Constantly Watching: 2#1d20 15 11

[Dorian Drake]

While they loaded onto the thopter and prepared for their journey, Edwell considered what he knew of the Harkonnens and their methods, apprising the others of possible obstacles to be avoided.
-----
LE8, The Hidden, Understand 7 + Truth 7, Focus data analysis, TN 14, +1 threat for 1d20: 3#1d20 3 7 8
5 successes

Running Successes: 7

[Bomilcar Thorvald]

Bomilcar kept eyes open alongside Cuyler, watching for any signs of danger to make Addison aware of.

----

D8 LE, Discipline + Justice, Focus: Observe, TN 13, Crit 7: 2#1d20 7 12
3 Successes

[Kannon]

Between Edwell, who'd mentated out the position of Harkonnen searchlights and automated systems to the point they could be avoided, and Bom and Cuyler who'd verified this by practical pointers on how to navigate the latitude and area, they stood a chance to escape undetected, or at least their escape being detected much later. All now depended on the distraction of on-site personnel the others could provide, and on Allison's piloting skills...

[10 Successes secured.]

[Claudius Reins]

Addison Piloting /faith 11/6: 2#1d20 7 4

(3 Successes)

Addison does her best to fly lights out and sensors off, using her senses and faith to guide her hands.

[Kannon]

[13 from on-board team, at least 2 from distracters, makes 15. Extended task completed in 1 round!]

Perhaps it was wise to rely on faith, for it was nothing short of divine providence that they had done everything right and had synced their efforts so perfectly. God willed their escape from Harkonnen grasp, it seemed. Maybe Mapes' prayer had made them come to God's attention?

Either way, they were out. It would be some time before the Harkonnen would notice their disappearance.

Part of the strategy was to escape west, where the Harkonnen least expected them to go, but now that they were flying over the Wind Pass proper (the geographical featured) they had to make a turnaround to come back to the False Wall West. Would they do so toward the Great Flat, the open desert of endless dunes, or toward the Sink on the Pole?

[Make a call, the decision will have consequences.]

[Bomilcar Thorvald]

Bomilcar pulled out the paracompass from his fremkit, tried to take the direction of their heading and figure out the direction that the military thopters had come from and left during their ordeal at the depression.

Once he gets bearings straight after the complex escape flight, he suggests they go over the dunes with a gesture.

[Cuyler Gray]

Cuyler nodded. "That seems like the wisest course."

[Dorian Drake]

Edwell nodded in agreement. It was probably safer to avoid the chance of running into the regular lanes of traffic between the populated areas and go over the dunes.

[Kannon]

As they turned leftward, toward the heart of the planet, the howling of the winds swivelling around the articulated wings started setting the music for their journey. Mapes seemed silent, but elated, watching through the transparent plas as the great sea of sand unfolded before them. Cuyler had been here, a very approximate here, before, with Aneirin, and also found strangely calm to experience this clean slate of the world once again. It was doing something to the mind...



[Each character may make Understand 2 roll to let me guide their introspection. Whatever drive/statement and focus you will select, it will direct/limit the scope of introspection. You may also make suggestion where your mind can go, but calibrate it with ramifications of the roll. You may want to resist the urge to use rationality and logic in how you frame your roll and instead open up for a spiritual experience.]

[Dorian Drake]

As they flew over the dunes, Edwell's mind went to where it had been the past few days, since his encounter with the Fremen outside the Shield Wall. He delved further into the Zensunni philosophies to gain understanding of the Fremen people and how they had survived and prospered on such a desolate world. By all accounts, they should have perished here millennia ago.
-----
LE8, Zensunni Implications, Understand 7 + Truth 7, Focus deductive reasoning, TN 14: 2#1d20 18 4
Passed 2 successes vs 2 difficulty

[Bomilcar Thorvald]

Bomilcar looked to Mapes and wondered what it was that she felt in that moment. He looks out over the dunes, over Dune. He wondered...

D8 LE, Understand + Faith, TN 12, Difficulty 2: 2#1d20 1 1
4 successes, momentum to improve understanding of Fremen mindset as well

[Cuyler Gray]

Cuyler went silent as she took it all in, lost to the sands.

- - -
After Dark [LE8], Understand (6)/Truth (8), Deductive Reasoning, “What one wishes were true is seldom so.”: 2#1d20 20 20

Wow....

[Kannon]

As they flew over the dunes, Edwell's mind went to where it had been the past few days, since his encounter with the Fremen outside the Shield Wall. He delved further into the Zensunni philosophies to gain understanding of the Fremen people and how they had survived and prospered on such a desolate world. By all accounts, they should have perished here millennia ago.
-----
LE8, Zensunni Implications, Understand 7 + Truth 7, Focus deductive reasoning, TN 14: 2#1d20 18 4
Passed 2 successes vs 2 difficulty

Whenever Edwell tried to make a cohesive grasp of the Zensunni philosophies, he was meeting insoluble roadblocks. He had got it right though, after he let his thoughts wander he realised it: their existence here was paradoxical. He was never an expert on religion or philosophy, that was the domain of Bene Gesserit, but he could deduce that their culture must have been embracing the paradox of such existence, and build on it.

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

Who could have said that? Edwell didn't recall. But the thought was violating his mental security in ways he couldn't fully grasp. Was there something the Fremen understood and the rest of the Imperium largely didn't about the universe? Were mentats helpless in understanding those people? But among the paradoxes that he could find some definition in, he encountered one in a long-forgotten language that hadn't survived except for some disconnected words and phrases.

Spannungsbogen. The span of of the bow. The self-imposed delay between desiring something and taking action to acquire it. Building tension and withstanding it until it could finally unfold. That must have been an aspect of their morality: the paradox between deeply desiring a thing and patiently waiting for it. Living suspended between want and denial. They must be having some overarching dream, some long-term goal that was spanning generations that justified the deprivations of today.

[Kannon]

Cuyler went silent as she took it all in, lost to the sands.

- - -
After Dark [LE8], Understand (6)/Truth (8), Deductive Reasoning, “What one wishes were true is seldom so.”: 2#1d20 20 20

Wow....

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

Did Edwell actually whisper that and her sensitive hearing picked it up, or he merely thought that and she somehow peered into his thoughts? His disquiet, mental struggle was contagious. The longer she stared into the endless expanse, the more her mind revolted against the confines her prior life had imposed on her. And then, the floodgates broke, and she could no longer control it. She was now open to chaos of events and identities interwoven in incomprehensible complexity, ever moving. Causality was nothing more than a wishful, petulant thought.

By your belief in singularities, in granular absolutes, you deny movement, even the movement of evolution! While you cause a granular universe to persist in your awareness, you are blind to movement. When things change, your absolute universe vanishes, no longer accessible to your self-limiting perceptions. The universe has moved beyond you.

Who was speaking to her?! Was it the spice that had finally caught up with her, ensnaring her mind in its clutches?

At the quantum level our universe can be seen as an indeterminate place, predictable in a statistical way only when you employ large enough numbers. Between that universe and a relatively predictable one where the passage of a single planet can be timed to a picosecond, other forces come into play. For the in-between universe where we find our daily lives, that which you believe is a dominant force. Your beliefs order the unfolding of daily events. If enough of us believe, a new thing can be made to exist. Belief structure creates a filter through which chaos is sifted into order.

She couldn't even fight it. It struck at the core of her belief: what one wishes were true is seldom so. The deterministic universe was a lie.

This is the awe-inspiring universe of magic: There are no atoms, only waves and motions all around. Here, you discard all belief in barriers to understanding. You put aside understanding itself. This universe cannot be seen, cannot be heard, cannot be detected in any way by fixed perceptions. It is the ultimate void where no preordained screens occur upon which forms may be projected. You have only one awareness here—the screen of the magi: Imagination! Here, you learn what it is to be human. You are a creator of order, of beautiful shapes and system, an organizer of chaos.

[Level 2 Complication: Cuyler's belief in a logical universe collapses. Until this complication is removed [4 Threat] she cannot use her Analyst Trait or Deductive Reasoning focus, but instead temporarily acquires Mysticism focus.]