Watcher of Shalaran

Hub is Elizabeth Bartley's campaign set in the universe of James H. Schmitz's Hub stories. Players for the session included:

1. Joshua Kronengold -- Jealousy Jones, psi resistant detective

2. Lisa Padol -- Marius Lecks, empathic doctor

Jealousy and Marius had been asked to disappear for a time so that aliens hostile to the Federation would look for them. They had a one-man back up team, in case the aliens found them before the Federation found the aliens. Their back up was Gerint, an alien shapeshifter.

Marius talked with him and, with his permission, read him empathically. Marius learned that Gerint had no idea of what his true form was or where his people had come from originally. There were few survivors of whatever shipwreck had left them in Federation space. If this seems like a lot of detail to pick up in an empathic scan, it is. Marius discovered that he is a xeno-telepath, though I'm not quite clear on the definition of the term as used in the campaign.

He also learned that Gerint would turn into a mass of protoplasm if badly wounded.

Marius: What is the proper course of treatment?

Gerint: Throw proteins and sugars at me. And run.

Another ally was Jealousy's ship, Monarch, which had a sentient AI. Gerint did not make contact again, but Monarch was both transportation and companion to Marius and Jealousy, addressing Jealousy as "Mom". This, not coincidentally, let Beth have a character on the scene.

Jealousy suggested they go treasure hunting. Marius agreed, and he caught up on his backlog of medical journals as they traveled for about six months to a planet called Shalaran. It had some land, but was mostly ocean. Jealousy sent down several Monarch-controlled probes, recording submerged buildings and various flora and fauna. These proceeded to take apart anything Jealousy sent down and didn't keep moving, making piles of all the gold, all the silver, all the iron, and so on. Marius found that the critters breaking stuff down were being telepathically directed to do so by other critters. He managed to reach the mind behind the critters.

This mind was what we dubbed the Watcher, though I believe it was actually made up of all of the minds from the now abandoned cities on Shalaran. It also included the minds Marius had touched, as well as the rest of the minds on the planet. It now tried to incorporate Marius' mind as well.

Marius was able to resist the urge to join the planet sized mind, explaining that it wouldn't be good for him. The Watcher disagreed, but respected his decision. I forget whether it contacted Jealousy at the same time, or if she tried to initiate contact some other way. Regardless, the Watcher overcame her natural resistance to probes, and she was unable to break away. Monarch used a waldo to inject Jealousy with a heavy dose of adrenaline. This worked.

Marius was able to communicate with the Watcher, even if Jealousy and Monarch weren't. The visitors agreed to respect the Watcher's limits on what they could examine. Jealousy decided that Marius needed a pet, and asked the Watcher to give him a specimen to treat as such. For herself, she asked for a psychic focus. The Watcher granted both requests, giving Marius a genetically neuter bird that was a telepathic receptor. I think Jealousy had to return to collect the focus at a later time. Psychology agreed that she could have it, but stressed that she must make sure that it never fell into the wrong hands.