Saturday04

Glaurung and the dragons have forgotten their original purpose: to lure the Destroyer away from Earth.

Why has Glaurung come so close to Sol these past few hundred years? Could he be flirting with disaster? Is he yearning for the lost paradise? Or is he just losing it?

Everyone has six days of downtime. (Wolf & Lalande are only 4 LY apart; the Fearful system is closer to Wolf than Lalande; returning to Wolf directly will hopefully avoid the Destroyer.)

Dragonstar returns to the Terran systems, but not to Sol. He refuses to go that close to Earth – part of him remembers that much, at least. Instead, Glaurung drops them off in the Wolf 359 system. Lupus tries to communicate with the planet, but again there is no response. Since Lupus was preparing for war, they have a stockpile of antimatter missiles.

The PCs are beamed down with the ancient teleportation device. But the planet needs time to thaw before the device can be used – another 12 hours. Once the device is used, it is detected by the Lupus military, and they view the beam as a hostile action, given what they know from last time.

It is possible the PCs can stop the hostilities from escalating, somehow. But it depends on the details:

Who founded Lupus? Who is in charge?

Why were they preparing for war?

What is society on Lupus like?

How can the PCs find out what to do quickly enough to prevent calamity?

What happens if they fail? Are they destroyed, or can they port away?

If the PCs fail: Lupus tries to fire at Dragonstar, but Glaurung’s protection turns the missiles back upon their wielders. Lupus suffers heavy damage as the city is largely destroyed in a huge antimatter explosion.

If the PCs succeed: Glaurung prepares to leave, with no harm coming to Lupus.

However, the growing fear on Lupus during the 12 hours of Dragonstar’s thaw pulls the Destroyer more quickly, and it arrives just as Glaurung has re-iced the planet and is about to leave (either way). The psychic screams begin to echo, but the Destroyer does not take Lupus – after all, it has not yet awakened psionically. Instead, it goes for Glaurung, and Dragonstar barely escapes in time. The gravitic wake disrupts Lupus’s satellite system.

Either way, the PCs have some down time back on Earth/Luna (actually useful this time). Rae is probably pretty open to anything. Matt wants to speak with his mother. Vadril might want to return home and speak to the Caretaker. Max wants to find the holder of the Mercury O.L. fragment (everyone will hear the news about Mercury being plunged into the Sun). Zee is still in a coma – whatever happened to him must have been really bad. And many of them probably want to find Harry Bryant.

Next time Rae sleeps, she has a nightmare about being chased, as usual, but this time it’s Glaurung chasing her, not the Beast… or maybe Glaurung ‘‘is’’ the Beast. Zee appears in her dream, all creepy-like, and whispers, "You foolish child. You

What has Bryant been up to these past few days? He got the Hand.

What does Lin Huntington have planned for the PCs?

Did Moss get the body?

What is Magitech’s take on all this?

The party will probably seek out Magitech – specifically Zuul, who will bring in Adana Cassenti. They try to recruit the party to their side, explaining how the Caretaker has become "compromised," and that Moss continues to serve it irrationally.