Chiron's Doom: Starforged Precursor facility
Chiron’s Doom, by Nick Bate, is a storytelling game for 1–3 players that uses a standard deck of playing cards to provide prompts as a team explores a mysterious monument. As described on the Itch store page:
There is a monument at the edge of civilisation, an enigmatic object known as Chiron’s Doom. Nobody knows what it does, or who made it, or why. It has defied all previous attempts at understanding. Countless expeditions have torn themselves apart trying to learn its secrets.
There’s no reason to think your expedition will be any different, but here you are. Three more explorers standing before the monument, driven to try where all others have failed. How much are you willing to sacrifice to solve the mystery of Chiron’s Doom?
The game is not intended to go easy on the explorers and in fact even in the best possible case a successful expedition will involve the death of a minimum of one of the characters. I guess I’d better not get too attached. I will definitely get too attached.
As the game is relatively open in terms of the setting, I thought it might be fun to mix in a part of the setting from another game and have a team of brave and/or foolhardy people exploring a planetside Precursor facility from Starforged by Shawn Tomkin. I have a house rule that I’ll explain when it comes up, but overall I’m going to play the game as written.
The monument
The first step is to establish some properties of the monument that are apparent when the explorers first set eyes on it. The game provides a table of descriptors and you can either draw cards or choose them yourself. I decided to choose them myself as I already had a feel for how the facility would appear.
The descriptors I went with were damaged, concealed, and sleek. These are partly inspired by a piece of Starforged artwork by Joshua Meehan, which I’ll include below.
I like the vertical sections and the majority of the facility being deep in the fog and/or jungle. My vision of the facility doesn’t include the hovering central part though—it’s all strictly on or in the ground.
As for the descriptors… The damaged descriptor is fairly obvious—it’s an ancient facility and while it has stood surprisingly well there are limits even for the materials and construction techniques used by the Precursors. I went with concealed because I like the idea of it being embedded in somewhat of a jungle and perhaps some of the facility is underground. The dense fog in Joshua’s artwork also helps. And finally sleek seemed like a natural choice given the inspiration art and also futuristic tech in the media in general. The smooth lines and curves make a nice aesthetic difference to the typically grungier visuals of the rest of the Starforged setting.
The explorers
The next task is to generate three explorers. This is done by shuffling the diamonds, drawing three, and looking them up on a table. There is a lot of variety in the 13 options available, including scientists, priests, traders, and veterans. My own three draws were:
- 3: The eternal wanderer.
- 9: A trader in relics and obscurities.
- 2: An inseparable duo.
The inkling of a setup came through immediately: the trader wants to explore the facility to see what valuable things can be “salvaged”. Perhaps they trade not only in artifacts but information. Exploring the facility seems dangerous to do alone, so they hire someone who has a history of existing on the edge of society and travelling to strange places. As for the duo, they required a bit more thought. The obvious route is that it’s just two people on the expedition. Interpreting the concept potentially gives you all sort of options though. Perhaps the second of the pair is an object of sentimental value rather than a person. In the end I stuck with two people, but decided that one of them will guard the group’s way out of the facility. It makes sense for them to ensure that their way out is secure and it keeps the exploring members to the group of three that the game is based around. Plus, just because person four isn’t actively exploring doesn’t mean they’re immune to consequences…
Filling out each character a bit resulted in…
- The trader: Landry (he/him). The nominal leader of the expedition. Wears comfortable padded clothes in deep colours.
- The wanderer: Corai (they/them). Is familiar with exploring abandoned places and has knowledge of Precursor architecture. Wears layers of loose-fitting clothing in mainly browns.
- The duo. A pair of “freelance protection specialists” that always work together. The muscle of the expedition. They both wear body armour and carry various weapons and supplies appropriate for their contracts.
- Saria (she/her). Will act as a bodyguard for Landry and advise on potential threats.
- Bennett (he/him). Will secure the entry/exit point for the group.
Everyone is assumed to carry a backpack of some type with supplies such as water, food, and gear for setting up temporary camps and traversing possible damaged sections of the facility. Their aptitude with the equipment may vary.
The images below roughly capture how the group look. Everyone is, again, from Joshua Meehan’s Starforged art as I just like it so much. From left to right they are Landry, Corai, Bennett, and Saria, though the latter two won’t be wearing space suits.
Each explorer must answer one question from a list given in the rules. My choices and answers were:
- Landry: Why is the monument hard to reach? It’s in a system surrounded by energy storms, which makes the trip dangerous. It’s difficult to find people willing to travel there. Information about the system, and especially the facility, is incomplete.
- Corai: How are you connected to Chiron’s Doom? Corai has spent time exploring other Precursor facilities, both planetside and orbital. They are drawn to them and want to understand the secrets of the Precursors.
- Saria/Bennett: Choose another explorer. Why do you distrust them? They’re wary about Corai who they feel has spent too long exploring places other people don’t tend to go, especially Precursor facilities.
Deck setup
I start the game by shuffling together six Diamond cards along with the 2 card of each other suit. This is my expedition deck. I also shuffle four cards of each other suit to make disaster decks, one deck per suit. Each turn I draw a card from the expedition deck. If I draw all the Diamonds then the goal is reached. If I draw a 2 then I shuffle the disaster deck of that suit into my expedition deck and the goal becomes harder to reach. Other than the 2s the only fixed cards in each deck are the Kings, which are always present.
The game rules specify that the time scale is one day per card. In this game I’m going to treat it as more like 15 minutes per card, as that feels more realistic for the scenario. That’s not a fixed value though and I’ll move us through time as appropriate for the fiction. Honestly, I’m probably not going to be explicit about time anyway.
Arrival
We first meet the group as they fly down to the planet’s surface in Landry’s small craft.
"I'm putting us down about a 15 minute hike away from the eastern-most spire of the facility," Landry calls back to the rest of the group. "There's a clearing there and the structural damage on that side is probably going to give us our easiest way in."
Corai nods but otherwise stays silent. Saria and Bennett have their equipment spread out, doing some final checks. Saria calls back, "I know we're not expecting any large wildlife in the area, but stay alert while we're out there ok? We'll have your back, but complacency aways ends in trouble."
"Don't worry," replies Landry with a chuckle, "if we don't even make it to the facility then this expedition has gone far worse than we could have ever planned for."
The group land, secure the ship, and make the short and uneventful hike to the facility.
We rejoin the group after they have set up camp within the facility in a room with access, light, and fresh air conveniently provided by a large rupture in the outer wall. What caused the damage is impossible to tell. A corridor terminates at the room, providing them with access deeper into the facility
"Is there anything we should be immediately aware of, Corai?" asks Landry.
"Not in this part of the facility. My experience is that the areas close to outside walls are usually quite safe. The Precursors didn't generally seem to use them for anything important enough to put a lot of effort into protecting. Once we get further in we'll probably meet the remains of whatever security they used to have in place."
Saria shakes her head slightly. "The Precursors might be gone but anything could be in here, even these outer areas. We don't know what this place was used for back then, plus it's open to the outside. We can't afford to be caught off-guard."
"Caution would be advisable," Corai concedes.
Landry and Corai turn on their flashlights and follow Saria into the coridoor.
The shaft
I turn over my first card… the 10 of Diamonds.
You take a risk and it pays off. What was the risk? Did it pay off in the way you expected?
Ok, that’s a good card, a promising start to the expedition. I think the group travel as far as they can using their coridoor and it terminates at what appears to be an elevator shaft, though whatever car used to run inside it isn’t immediately visible.
"Is it safe?" asks Landry, "We don't want any nasty suprises this early into things. Maybe we should look for another route? Maybe some stairs. We've passed some doors we could try."
"That could be a lot of time wasted if we don't find another way, and there's no guarantee it'll be safe either. Taking a rope down the shaft shouldn't be a problem. You've both done this before, right?"
"On occasion, recreationally."
"I'm proficient at rope descent," replies Corai.
"It's your decision, Landry, but this is my recommendation."
Landry sighs and nods. "Let's do it this way then. I'll probably be a bit slower getting down than you two."
"Not a problem, boss, I'll make sure you get down there safely."
Everything goes to plan. They descend for a while until they find a door out of the shaft that they can open. They don’t know this, but as an outside observer we can see that there was an alternate route that led down several levels. However at some point a coridoor on that route collapsed and is now completely blocked by rubble. This would have forced them to backtrack quite a distance to find a way around and thus wasted their time. Saria’s concerns are vindicated.
Progress towards the goal: 1/6
Cards in exploration deck: 5D, 1H, 1C, 1S
Bad vibes
Feeling optimistic I turn over my next card, and am immediately brought back to reality by the King of Diamonds. It’s a Diamond card, so it counts towards the goal, but the Kings are special. When you draw one someone dies.
You die in an accident, or one of the other explorers does. What secret does the death reveal?
This is much too soon for deaths; we’re not even really attached to the explorers yet. Well, I am, but I sat there and gave them backstories and names and chose visuals for them. You, the reader, have only just met them. I was prepared for this though after reading a play report where the King of Diamonds was the first card someone drew. In preparation for this I have an alternate way of handling the death cards that adds a little bit of suspense.
In brief, I place the card aside and after each time I resolve a card from the expedition deck I will roll a dice. If I roll less than the number of cards resolved since revealing the King of Diamonds then I have to resolve it. It’s going to sit there hanging over the group and I won’t know exactly when it’s going to trigger.
"I wonder if the degradation will get better or worse deeper into the facility," muses Landry out loud.
"In my experience it will become less frequent but it will be worse where it has happened," replies Corai.
Progress towards the goal: 2/6
Cards in exploration deck: 4D, 1H, 1C, 1S
Purpose
Knowing that there are no more Kings in the deck, for now, I turn the next card over and reveal the 9 of Diamonds.
You find a clue to the monument’s makers. Who are (or were) they?
Interesting. We already know who built it in the general sense: the Precursors. That’s like saying it was built by Humans though. This card is probably looking for something more specific. Who among them built it, and for what purpose?
"Any idea what this facility was used for yet?"
"Not... exactly. I need to see more. We already know it wasn't military, or at least what we understand to be the Precursor military. Seeing them as a homogenous group probably hinders our understanding, but that's not a discussion for right now. Judging by what I've seen so far of the layout and contents of this place, combined with our initial scans, I'd say it was used for research, something important. They weren't looking into the deep secrets of the universe, but it would have been something that they saw as very useful to their civilisation. Novel power generation, advanced AI, genetic manipulation, that type of thing."
Saria nudges Landry. "Sounds like your payday might be coming." She looks to Corai. "How far do you think we need to go to find the good stuff?"
"These outer areas will all be habitation and support for the people that lived and worked here. There will be a more secure area further in where the... "good stuff" is. Maybe another half an hour to an hour of walking judging by the exterior dimensions of the facility. There's always the chance it extends deep underground though."
Saria stows her water flask and starts toward the door they entered from. "I'll keep an eye outside, don't be too long."
They hear her checking in with Bennett as she walks out.
We’re doing really well on Diamonds so far, but it’s very unlikely we’ll avoid the disaster decks completely.
The death card can’t trigger this turn because I’ve so far drawn one more card and can’t roll less than 1 on a D6.
Progress towards the goal: 3/6
Cards in exploration deck: 3D, 1H, 1C, 1S
Unexpected findings
At this point my chance of drawing a 2 of Hearts, Clubs, or Spades rather than another Diamond is 50/50. Turning the next card over I find… the 5 of Diamonds. Suspiciously lucky at this point. We’re two-thirds of the way to the goal and the odds of drawing a 2 of some other suit are starting to stack up.
You uncover a hidden inscription on the monument. What does it say?
Saria, trying each door they pass, pushes on one, finds it unlocked, and takes a look inside. "Hold on, folks," she says to the others, "this one's a little different."
The other members of the group cautiously file in to the room, their torches lighting it up. There is a large table in the center of the room.
"A meeting room?" asks Landry.
"Maybe," replies Saria, "and look there." She points to a triangular strip running along the walls near the ceiling and another near the floor. "Probably just decoration, but I don't remember seeing that in any of the other rooms. I'll see if there's anything else different in here." Crouching to look under the table she sees a thin rectangular object, similar in shape and size to a tablet. She leans forward and picks it up and then immediately drops it as it dimly lights up, seemingly displaying an interface though with no obvious differentiation between case and screen. "Uh... I have something here."
Corai looks at the device. It appears to be having trouble maintaining the interface, with the light flickering and varying in brightness though always remaining quite dim. "Interesting, I think I recognise a few of these symbols. I wonder if..." She reaches down and touches a symbol on the device.
Immediately holographic screens appear on the walls all around them, startling in their sudden brightness.
Saria instantly brings up her pistol. Her attention snaps to the door and then she scans the room. "Everyone good?"
"We're fine," replies Landry, "but... Corai please warn us before you do something like that."
"Apologies. I believed the facility to be dead as they almost universally are and the device to be running on the last of its internal power source. I didn't realise that it would activate these screens. Still... this presents a great learning opportunity."
"Or a great opportunity to accidentally activate some defenses," Saria objects.
Landry looks around at the strange diagrams and symbols covering the screens. "Is there anything valuable here, Corai?"
"Almost certainly. Whether we can understand it is another matter. I know some of their common symbols, some basics of their written language, but I'm certain that whatever they were doing here is beyond my level. Nevertheless, even if I can't understand the text, perhaps the diagrams will provide some insight."
Saria heads to the door. "You know the drill—I'll keep watch outside, shout if anything happens in here." She pauses for a moment and looks to Corai. "And try not to push too many other buttons, even if you think you know what they do."
At this point we fast-forward time a bit and I summarise by saying that Corai determines that the screens are outlining some kind of AI research. The details are, of course, far beyond what they are able to decipher, but the higher-level diagrams contain enough hints. Landry and Corai take photos and make notes for later reference.
This turn I need to roll a 2 or higher to avoid triggering the death card and I roll a 2. Too close for comfort, but the team is safe for a little longer.
Progress towards the goal: 4/6
Cards in exploration deck: 2D, 1H, 1C, 1S
Blocked
This time I draw the 2 of Clubs.
The monument begins to resist your attempts to understand it. What is the physical manifestation of this resistance? Shuffle the clubs disaster deck into the expedition deck.
This means that the Clubs disaster deck (“The Monument Resists”) will be shuffled into my expedition deck. Things just got a little bit harder. It does fit well with the fiction though, with the team having just discovered that the facility isn’t as dead as they thought. In the movie version of the story this is exactly the point where things would start to ramp up.
I think the answer to this prompt follows directly on from the previous one.
Saria steps halfway into the room, still watching outside. "All the nearby door locks just engaged. What did you do?"
"Nothing that I'm aware of," Corai replies, "we were just studying the screens. They flashed a symbol and then turned off. The symbol was similar to warning symbols that I'm familiar with though I don't recall seeing that precise one before." Corai looks to where the tablet has been placed on the large table in the center of the room. They walk over to it and tap it a few times to no effect. "It looks like this has deactivated as well. I can't tell if the power finally ran out or if it was remotely deactivated."
"Well it seems there's nothing more we can do here. Bring the tablet if you want to, but I suggest we start moving. Something knows we're here."
This time the death card will be triggered if I roll less than a 3. The die comes up with a 5 so the group remains safe for now.
Progress towards the goal: 4/6
Cards in exploration deck: 2D, 1H, 4C, 1S
Creatures, mishaps, and contracts
I draw the 4 of Diamonds. At this point I am one card away from completing the expedition. This feels much too easy, and I know I’m going to regret saying that.
You find a clue left behind by a previous expedition. What is it? What does it reveal? What happened to the previous expedition?
Saria looks to Landry and Corai. "No large animals around here?"
Landry shakes his head. "Existing information was sparse to say the least, but it didn't mention any. Our own scans on the way down didn't show anything significant either."
"That's negative on large animals, what's up?" Saria replies into the radio.
"I was just doing some scouting around the outer wall of the facility and came across what looks like remains of a group of people. Human... I think. Just skeletons at this point. Decay, predation, or both, I don't know. It feels like the work of something large. They took a beating and there are gouges in the wall. Actual gouges. I don't want to meet whatever did this. There was a device near one of them - I'll bring it back to the camp."
"Thanks for the update, take care out there. Don't take any risks until we're back, ok?"
"You got it, boss." Saria can almost hear the grin in his voice.
I now need to roll a 4 or higher to avoid triggering the death card. It’s a 1. This is the end of the road for one of our explorers. I was working up some foreshadowing here, but it feels too soon to just immediately take out Bennett. As a reminder the prompt was:
You die in an accident, or one of the other explorers does. What secret does the death reveal?
I actually had a rough order of deaths worked out in my head for when the inevitable happened, but right now that order doesn’t make much sense. Pre-planning kind of feels like cheating a bit as well. I realise what needs to happen…
Landry shines his flashlight down the shaft. "Well I guess we're heading down again. We'll be out of rope pretty quickly if there's more of these."
Saria starts to pull some rope out of her pack. "We'll figure it out. We've come all this way, we're not going to let a small thing like rope supplies stop us."
Landry turns to face them. "Where should we attach the rope? It probably makes sense somewhere arou-."
There's a sudden noise somewhere between a metallic shriek and a snap and the floor beneath Landry's feet gives way. Before anyone is able to react he disappears down the shaft. There is a long moment of stunned silence as Corai and Saria absorb what just happened and then the sound of a body hitting a hard surface. Saria cautiously crawls to the edge, drops a glow stick down the shaft, and then fetches a scope out of one of her pouches and uses it to look down.
"Any chance he survived?" asks Corai.
"I don't think so," replies Saria, "It's pretty far down and... well, he doesn't look in good shape."
Saria opens comms to Bennett. "I have bad news. The floor gave way under Landry and he took a long fall. I'm going to try to confirm his status but it doesn't look promising. This job might be over sooner than we thought."
Corai jumps in, speaking quickly. "I'll take over the contract."
"I'm sorry, what did you say?"
There's an urgent look in Corai's eyes that Saria hasn't seen before.
"I'll take over the contract."
Saria attaches her rope to the floor slightly away from the shaft and feeds it down as she speaks. "Are you..." Saria sighs. "The leader of this expedition probably just died and you want us to keep going?"
"This facility is still active! Do you know how rare a find like this is? It could be once-in-a-lifetime for me. I can match whatever Landry was paying you. I need to find out what's here. I need..." She takes a deep breath and sighs. "I need to know."
Saria starts to descend "We're not cheap."
"I can pay you. This is worth more to me than money."
"I'll check Landry and then I guess we need to talk."
I’m going to handwave how they get Landry out of the place. I’m definitely not going to just leave his body there, but going into detail about people retracing steps or Bennett coming to collect him doesn’t add much to the story. Let’s just assume it gets done.
In terms of the secret that the death reveals, the unsafe flooring was foreshadowed in direct response to originally drawing this card, so that might count. I also think we’ve learned a couple of things about one of the explorers. We’ve found out that Corai has enough wealth to seriously consider taking over Saria and Bennett’s contract. This isn’t an obvious thing as they don’t wear or carry anything that is showy or obviously expensive and their recent history is largely one of solo exploration combined with doing occasional jobs such as acting as a guide. We’ve also learned that they may have somewhat more than an academic interest in the Precursors, possibly something personal.
Progress towards the goal: 5/6
Cards in exploration deck: 1D, 1H, 4C, 1S
Think fast
Hoping for the final Diamond, though I know that would be a little anticlimactic right now, I draw the… 8 of Clubs.
You trigger a countdown. What drastic action do you take to avert catastrophe?
"A time delay before the other door unlocks?" asks Corai.
"Or a countdown to some kind of sterilisation routine. Or this is one of their lines of defense and we're about to die, who knows. I'm not hanging around to find out." Saria drops her backpack to the floor, grabs a small device from it, and shoulders it again in a smooth practiced motion. "Get to the other end and cover your ears as best you can."
Corai moves quickly to the entry door and puts their hands firmly over their ears while Saria attaches the device to the exit door. Saria moves over to join Corai, pulls out a remote trigger, shouts "fire in the hole", and presses a button. There is a percussive noise, seeming impossibly loud in the enclosed space, and a force that momentarily attempts to crush them. The device, a breaching charge, blows a large ragged hole in the door. To Corai everything is noise, smoke, and confusion as Saria half guides and half drags them through the now-ruined door.
"Are you good?" shouts Saria.
"I think so, I need a minute," Corai shouts back over the ringing in their ears.
The section of coridoor they just left fills with a faint green light for a moment, before it flickers off and on a few times, then suddenly comes back much brighter and then shuts off completely. Patches of the floor and walls are blackened and smoking. An unfamiliar and quite unpleasant smell wafts through the air.
"Whatever it was meant to do, I don't think it would have gone well for us," says Saria as she slumps against a wall. "Let's take a short rest."
Progress towards the goal: 5/6
Cards in exploration deck: 1D, 1H, 3C, 1S
Tension mounting
Hoping to catch a break I draw a card. The King of Clubs. Great, we only just resolved the previous King.
The monument takes you, or one of the other explorers. What happened?
Another death is coming up unless the expedition somehow finishes before I trigger it. I feel like I used up all my Diamond-drawing luck at the start of this play and things are not looking great right now. On the other hand, it’d be a shame to waste some foreshadowing…
"Well you're going to have to fill me in on what happened, but things are looking fine out here for now. Could have sworn I heard something big pacing outside but nothing there when I checked. I'm a little nervous not knowing what I might be dealing with but hey, it's what we do."
She can almost hear his shrug at the end of the sentence.
"Well be careful, okay? The risk calculation on this job is starting to look real bad."
I prepare a die and move to the next turn.
Progress towards the goal: 5/6
Cards in exploration deck: 1D, 1H, 2C, 1S
Unexpected company
My next card is a 2 of Spades.
The outside world of people, politics, money, and power intrudes. What form does the intrusion take? Shuffle the spades disaster deck into the expedition deck.
The Spades deck is an interesting one because I hadn’t really considered external interference in the expedition until I pulled this card and was forced to. Perhaps there’s some kind of pirate group operating off of this planet. I bet the jungle provides enough food, especially if you’re willing to supplement it with a bit of farming, and the remote location and surrounding energy storms mean there won’t be anyone just passing by. We’ll gloss over the remote location meaning they have to travel further to do the pirating. I’m sure there’s a justification that I don’t need to come up with right now.
"Did our mystery animals turn up?" Saria asks.
"Not yet. Turns out there's pirates here."
"Pirates? What do they want with this place?"
"Not here at the facility, just here in the area. They have some sort of base nearby and they're not happy about us poking around. They sent someone over to chat with me. Lots of talk of spirits, the facility being aware of people's presence, that sort of thing. Normally I'd write it off as superstition, but given what we know about the place now..."
"Yeah. Sounds like things are about as safe outside as they are in here. Did they make any demands?"
"They want us out basically, gave us until the end of the day. I reckon their fear of the facility is the only reason they're not already trying to flush us out themselves."
"Noted." Saria looks at Corai, walking a few paces ahead of her, and quietly sighs. "One way or the other we shouldn't be here much longer. Keep me posted and be ready to pack up."
The death card can’t trigger this turn because I’ve so far drawn one more card and can’t roll less than 1 on a D6.
Progress towards the goal: 5/6
Cards in exploration deck: 1D, 1H, 2C, 4S
Contact
My next card turns out to be the Ace of Spades.
You play for the high one, dance with the devil, go with the flow. In what way is it all a game to you?
Wait… that might be the wrong Ace of Spades.
Help arrives from an unexpected place. How does it make things easier?
There we go, that sounds more like it.
Again, this Spades deck. I wasn’t prepared for it at all. With the others I’m making up the story within the bounds of the situation I’ve set up, but the Spades are making me come up with interactions with entirely different factions on the fly. I really should have prepped some basic concepts before I started but as it stands I’m flying this fiction by the seat of my pants.
So, let’s see. We already have the pirates making demands that they may or may not be willing to follow through on. It feels a bit cheap to have some kind of space cops arrive and deal with the pirates. Our team gets to this apparently abandoned planet and suddenly it’s a hive of activity? It has to be something local. Here’s an idea…
Saria curses. "Do you need backup?"
"I hate to say it, but I think so. I have a decently defensible position, but I'm just one man."
Saria turns to Corai. "We need to cut this short, there's trouble at the entrance and if we lose that then we might not make it out of here ourselves."
Corai glances ahead down the coridoor and back to her. "But we could be so close, if we turn back now-"
"This isn't a discussion, we're leaving. If you took over the contract then you are bound by its terms and when we're under threat I'm in charge."
Saria turns to retrace their path and jogs back down the coridoor without allowing any further argument. At that moment, deeper in the facility they hear something like a horn sounding for a second, and then again. Saria slows down for a moment and raises her weapon.
"Stay alert, we have no idea what that means."
Bennett has stacked some small crates as makeshift cover and is watching the tree line, waiting for the first pirate to break cover. A glint of light reflects off a weapon and suddenly an energy blast zips past inches from his head and hits the ground harmlessly behind him. He drops completely behind the crates before someone lines up a better shot.
"They're not playing," he says into the radio.
"We'll be there asap but it's quite a trek, think you can hold out?"
"I don't have a choice."
"Right. Oh, and we heard something down here, two short tones. Could be anything, hopefully it's nothing."
A burst of gunfire, physical rounds, slam into the crates, threatening to knock them down. He pulls out a grenade and prepares to make the pirates' lives more difficult when suddenly he hears an unexpected noise from the trees. Animalistic, snarling. "Oh great, they have pets too," he mutters to himself before he hears a scream and puts two and two together. Risking a glance out around the crates he sees something like a tiger, but all black and larger, clamping its huge jaws on a pirate and dashing them against a tree. It immediately lunges at another nearby pirate as Bennett ducks back behind the crates, hoping not to draw attention.
"Saria!" he urgently whispers into the radio, "it's the creature I mentioned, it's there just... destroying the pirates. I don't know where it came from. I don't know if it'll come for me next."
"Stay down! Don't draw attention. We have a long way to come back, we're not going to be there for how this plays out."
"I'm going to try to withdraw further inside and hope everyone's distracted enough to ignore me. You may not like this but honestly it might be best for you to press on forward. You can't change the outcome here and I don't want you rushing straight into another ambush."
"Bennett..."
"I'm good, complete the contract."
Saria pauses before replying.
"Be safe. Please."
In the movie of this playthrough the camera goes back to Saria and we see her standing in the coridoor facing the camera, silhouetted against Corai’s torch behind her.
"Let's see what's so damn important down here."
Ok, so it might be a bit against the spirit of the Spades deck for it not to be outside interference as such, but you can’t deny that a mysterious creature taking out the pirates was an unexpected source of help.
With Bennett narrowly saved, for now I roll to trigger the death card, needing a 2 or higher to avoid it. I roll… a 2. Much too close, but it’ll do for now. In a way it makes sense that I only narrowly succeeded on that roll given how risky Bennett’s situation is.
Progress towards the goal: 5/6
Cards in exploration deck: 1D, 1H, 2C, 3S
Escalation
With a 1 in 7 chance of pulling the last Diamond, my next card turns out to be the 4 of Clubs.
The region around the monument becomes unsafe. What happened?
This feels like a natural escalation from the previous card. With the pirates and at least one mystery creature both trying to claim the territory as their own I definitely wouldn’t want to be walking into the middle of it unprepared.
"This is definitely the right way?" Saria asks as they turn another seemingly identical corner.
"Based on my knowledge of these structures and the markings I've seen so far, I believe so. I don't know what we will find, if anything, but we will be leaving soon one way or the other."
Saria taps her earpiece. "How are you holding up, Bennett?"
"I'm good for now, but it sounds like a mess out there. I think more pirates showed up and took out that creature but it sounds like there's more than one of them now. I don't even know. I'm not sticking my head out there to find out."
"Stay down and hopefully by the time we make it back to you they'll have worn themselves out on each other."
"Fingers crossed. A three-way fight will make extraction complicated. We'd better hope the ship hasn't been compromised."
"Who knows, maybe we'll find a Precursor weapon down here to clear the area. Maybe we'll be able to control those creatures. Keep me updated."
"Will do."
It sounds like leaving soon without some way of getting out safely will be a bad idea.
I now need to roll a 3 or higher to avoid triggering the death card. I roll a 3! Once again escaping by the narrowest of margins. Stray gunfire threads the needle into the room Bennett is holed up in but doesn’t do anything major.
Progress towards the goal: 5/6
Cards in exploration deck: 1D, 1H, 1C, 3S
Resolution
At this point I’m hoping I can find the last Diamond. Half the deck is Spades, though, and I still have the 2 of Hearts lurking ready to make me add the final disaster deck (“Tensions Rise”). Taking a deep breath, I pull a card and it’s… the Queen of Diamonds!
It’s done! We made it! Somehow we got to the end of the expedition with most of the team intact. I honestly wasn’t expecting this. Let’s get the card resolved!
You learn how to safely touch the monument. What are the necessary conditions?
Perfect. I was actually worried that I wouldn’t be able to come up with a good ending for this expedition if it was completed instead of abandoned, but then I happened to see another solo journalling game and gears started turning in my head. There may be a sequel coming soon, but for now we have this…
"This is it," says Corai as they come to a stop.
"You're sure?" asks Saria, "I know it wasn't easy getting here, but for it to just be here feels too simple."
"I'm sure. This door is conspicuous, which makes sense they didn't need to disguise it. Reaching this location in a fully staffed and operational facility in the time of the Precursors would have been significantly more difficult than the trials we faced. I don't know the best way to enter though. Those breaching charges are effective, but I'm worried about activating defenses or damaging whatever is on the other side."
They reach out to trace some of the symbols around the door, hoping for a flash of inspiration. As they do so the light above the door suddenly changes to green and the door starts to slowly slide open, retracting into the wall. Saria immediately brings her gun up and pulls Corai behind her as she moves to the side, pressing against the coridoor wall next to the doorway. She gestures for Corai to stay still and be quiet, pulls out a camera ball, and reaches across to roll it through the doorway, giving her a 360° view of the room as it comes to a stop. She shows Corai the camera feed on her tablet.
"There's nothing obviously hostile in there," she says, keeping her voice down, "It's a reasonably large room. I see racks of equipment against the walls, lots of cabling, and some kind of structure towards the back, floor to ceiling. Like a pillar, but wide and with some surface detail. Possibly a control console in front of it. Sound about right?"
"I have little to go on, but it seems plausible."
Saria taps her earpiece. "Bennett, we've found what we're here for. Status update?"
"Still holed up waiting. Things are a bit quieter out there now. Both sides have withdrawn to lick their wounds I think. Maybe they'll stay away."
"Great, shouldn't be long now." She turns to Corai. "I'll go first. Stay behind me and don't touch anything until we're sure it's safe in there. Are we heading to the console?"
Corai nods and the two of them carefully make their way in. Saria leads Corai around the right-hand wall towards the back of the room. When they're about halfway along the wall the door starts to close again. Saria curses under her breath but continues walking, continually scanning the room with her weapon.
As they reach the console it faintly comes to life. Multicoloured light plays across the surface, forming shapes and symbols, before settling on a single bright blue circle. Corai reaches for it.
"Corai!" hisses Saria "Be careful!"
Corai's hand freezes for a moment, hanging in the air, and then she finishes the movement and presses a finger firmly against the lit shape. The whole console briefly pulses with blue light and then goes dark. A section on the structure in front of them opens up to reveal a small metal disc, like a thumb-size button, surrounded by symbols and pulsing lights. Saria steps towards it and the whirring sound of motors echos around the room as two devices clearly identifiable as turrets reveal themselves from the corners of the ceiling at the front of the room and quickly center their aim on her. She drops to the floor behind the console and tries to pull Corai down with her.
"No," states Corai calmly as they step away from Saria's grasp. They look almost entranced and cock their head to the side, staring at the console and then the apparent button. "It's for me... not you."
"Corai! You need to get down!"
Saria starts to stand up to grab Corai and one of the turrets fires a single energy blast. It slams into her shoulder, knocking her back to the floor and completely numbing her arm. She uses her other hand to tap her earpiece.
"Bennett!" In place of a response there's silence on the channel. She curses and shouts to the room. "Fine, I get the message!" before lowering her voice a little to talk to Corai. "You better know what you're doing."
Corai steps forward as if on autopilot. The expedition has already yielded far more than they ever expected and they couldn't stop now even if they wanted to. They reach out and press their thumb against the disc. There's a short sharp hissing noise and their face cycles through startled, then confused, then inquisitive. They step away from the structure and mutter "what..." under their breath before dropping to the floor, unconscious. The turrets immediately retract and the door opens.
"Oh, yeah, great, thank you," growls Saria. She tries her earpiece again, "Bennett?"
"Still here," he replies.
Saria takes a relieved breath. "Things... happened." She moves to Corai and checks their breathing and pulse. "Corai is unconscious but alive. I'll... explain later, if I can. I'm going to be dragging them out unless they recover soon though, so it'll take a bit longer than we intended."
"No problem, it's still quiet out here. Should I come to you?"
"No, I think it's better to have some eyes on our exit still."
"Agreed. Be careful."
Saria can't help a laugh escaping her. "Yeah. Good advice."
As the expedition is complete I don’t need to roll to trigger that death card that was hanging over us for a few turns. Just out of morbid curiosity I do it anyway to see what would have happened. I need a 4+ and roll a… 4. That die is starting to look really suspicious, rolling a 2, 3, and 4 in that order, like it’s deliberately trying to keep the tension up. Either way, no more deaths! Based on this roll I think they make it out, but only just. Pirates, what’s left of them, notice the group leaving and are probably hot on their tail but our team pull some fancy manoeuvres and evade them.
Progress towards the goal: 6/6
Cards in exploration deck: 0D, 1H, 1C, 3S
Expedition successfully completed!
Conclusion
Wow, that was tense! Right until I pulled that final card I wasn’t sure how things were going to play out. I had some great luck at the start with pulling four Diamonds in a row (even if one of them was the King) but after that things started to go south. I could easily have pulled the King of Spades which, using my death card house rule with a card already in play, would have caused an explorer to immediately die and the counter to start on another death. Bennett would have been the obvious one to go, if the reader would allow me to split up Saria and Bennett who are technically a single explorer, but I don’t know what would have happened after that. Would Saria have continued on or cut her losses? If Saria left or died would Corai’s drive for knowledge have made her continue alone into the unknown? Interesting questions that will, for now, remain unanswered.
If I were to choose the disaster decks that got added into the expedition deck then I think I would have chosen Hearts over Spades as interpersonal conflict seemed a more natural fit to the scenario than outside interference. However, fate didn’t go in that direction and ultimately I feel like the Spades deck forced me to add some flavour to the local area and actually do something with Bennett other than just have him being a voice on the other end of the radio. Sometimes it’s good for a story to be pushed in directions you hadn’t previously thought about, which I guess is really one of the cool things about journalling games like Chiron’s Doom.
Speaking of interpersonal conflict, I didn’t do as much of that as I’d expected to do. Or any really if I read back through what I wrote. I set up one hook for it with Saria and Bennett’s initial question revealing that they don’t entirely trust Corai. Nothing explicitly happened with that though, other than Saria being dismissive or vaguely cold to Corai on occasion, but that wasn’t exactly at the forefront of the fiction. My in-universe excuse is that Saria’s professionalism overrode the mistrust, but in reality I just wasn’t mentally in a place to enjoy writing people being mean or fighting with each other. So I didn’t.
Overall Chiron’s Doom was a fun experience. If you like journalling games, or like the idea of them, and are willing not to get too attached to your characters then I’d definitely recommend checking it out. You can find the game on Itch.io and the creator over on Twitter.