Amidst the vast plains of craters and destruction we have observed on [planet], a subterranean scan has revealed something remarkable. It appears that what was once a low valley with a cluster of high-rise buildings was either blasted over with earth or has accumulated it in the time since this world’s apocalypse. The scan shows a great deal of coagulated slag, rock, and mortar surrounding what seems to be an incredibly tall building which by good fortune remains mostly intact. Further scans indicate most of the interior might be somewhat preserved as well, but getting in and learning its secrets will require time and delicate care. However, in the absence of any other substantial remains, relics, or even corpses beyond splintered and fragmented bones anywhere else on the blasted landscape, this might be our only chance to learn more about these people’s culture.
Stage 1: Anyone thirsty?
Slowly but sure we’ve cleared away our initial excavation site and base camp with the roof of the building occupying the center. Every step and grab has to be very carefully measured to avoid collapse and injury as we go further. As it stands, we can see a landing pad for a small transport and a shack which seemed to serve as a waiting area or pilot lounge. And importantly we’ve discovered our first artifact. A snack and drinks vending machine may not seem like much, but one so perfectly preserved and gently extracted such as we have found has sparked the public’s imagination over what could be further down and has given us an idea of the general diet of the people that occupied it. More importantly it has drawn media attention to what was initially considered a dead and boring wreck of a world.
Reward: +1 minor relic, [scientist] gets 300xp.
Stage 2: What a view!
We’ve worked out way downwards through the rooftop stair access—which we found to be remarkably clear of major debris—to what seems most likely to be a sky lounge. Rotted, but discernible furniture is scattered around, as well as the mummified remains of various individuals, many clustered around the building’s elevator bank apparently finding themselves unable to descend. We’ve even found unopened bottles of various libations almost immaculately preserved. It would appear the windows of this building were able to handle the combined force of an incredible amount of soil directed towards its windows from the surrounding explosive blasts, because the glass (if it could be called that) is without a single crack. In one area, the melted hulk of what we think is a vehicle is pressed up against the large window, but has caused only exterior scratching. Some crews have been sent away from the site to try and obtain samples of this material to determine composition, but so far it seems to be unique to the tower. The next step will be to see if the elevator shaft is usable as a platform for fighting our way further downward as the internal concrete staircase seems too heavily decayed at this time for further safe traversal.
Reward: +3 minor relics
Failure: While parts of the outside of the structure seem to be built of something incredibly durable, the same cannot be said for all of the interior elements. Age has decayed the concrete and we’ve lost an entire away team and the vast majority of the stairwell in a collapse to say nothing of the incredibly strong doors to the rest of the building on each floor from the stairwell. We’re currently looking at drilling through the roof to attempt a descent. [-3 clues].
Stage 3: Trapped
The elevator shafts have proven just as durable as the exterior load-bearing structure. The doors the sky lounge inhabitants couldn’t get open only gave way after several hours of battering with our best cutting lasers and the other floors are similarly tight-bolted. and we’ve now cataloged several distinct artifacts and species’ remains from the next 30 floors down or so over the last few weeks. In the case of the remains, most are usually clustered around the elevators but some have been found at their desks or in break rooms with evidence of suicide or violence as their cause of death; and we’ve also noticed several apparent incidents of cannibalism. Once we get past the elevator doors, the interior walls of any given floor often still prove somewhat more delicate in some cases, but almost perfectly preserved in others. Upon arriving at the first sky-lobby we have run into two intriguing realities. One, the elevators are still here and locked to the floor below the sky-lobby, preventing us from spelunking any further. Two, there seems to be some kind of shield extended over what’s left of the staircases, including the emergency exit staircase. Two, well below the elevators and towards the basement levels…we have started to pick up power signatures. The next step will be getting below these elevators.
Reward: +3 minor artifacts, +150 society research
Failure: None
Stage 4 (Final): An ill-planned party
After a lengthy discussion and debate, it was decided that the best way to get past the elevators was to use brute force. Special neutron demolitions were placed on the brakes and the cables and then the building was completely cleared of all personnel. We hit the detonator and aside from some minor creaking, our learned assumptions about the building’s incredible structural soundness and strength proved well-founded. The cars smashed into the bottoms of their shafts leading us on a clear path down to the basements. Upon arriving we spent a full week cutting holes through both the outer blast doors and the only-slightly-less strong interior doors. What we’ve found is nothing short of amazing: an almost perfectly preserved bunker with nuclear generators in standby mode. Careful activation of these allowed us to check the rather primitive computers to confirm our initial suspicions about this place: the entire building was originally constructed as a fortress for this society’s wealthy and powerful elites. Furthermore it was constructed with the goal in mind that the workers on floors above would not know that is what it was for, indeed the blast door was hidden behind a large mural adjacent to the basement's lounge/lobby. It was also their intention that the whole building be used as a command and control center once the dust had settled, but this obviously did not come to pass. The corpses we have found down here have dated somewhat past the ones on upper floors indicating that they were able to survive for a time until they ran out of food supplies at which point the suffered a similar fate to their supposed inferiors above. We can only guess that the apocalypse this planet suffered was so utterly complete and unexpected that the outside environment’s toxicity and burial of this central business district were not factored into their long-term plans. As it stands, these people built themselves a slow-brew and very luxurious tomb.
Reward: +20 minor artifacts, +200 consumer goods, +300 society research, +600 engineering research, [Scientist] gets +1000xp
Unusually Sturdy
Note: Starts on tomb world
Amidst the vast plains of craters and destruction we have observed on [planet], a subterranean scan has revealed something remarkable. It appears that what was once a low valley with a cluster of high-rise buildings was either blasted over with earth or has accumulated it in the time since this world’s apocalypse. The scan shows a great deal of coagulated slag, rock, and mortar surrounding what seems to be an incredibly tall building which by good fortune remains mostly intact. Further scans indicate most of the interior might be somewhat preserved as well, but getting in and learning its secrets will require time and delicate care. However, in the absence of any other substantial remains, relics, or even corpses beyond splintered and fragmented bones anywhere else on the blasted landscape, this might be our only chance to learn more about these people’s culture.
Stage 1: Anyone thirsty?
Slowly but sure we’ve cleared away our initial excavation site and base camp with the roof of the building occupying the center. Every step and grab has to be very carefully measured to avoid collapse and injury as we go further. As it stands, we can see a landing pad for a small transport and a shack which seemed to serve as a waiting area or pilot lounge. And importantly we’ve discovered our first artifact. A snack and drinks vending machine may not seem like much, but one so perfectly preserved and gently extracted such as we have found has sparked the public’s imagination over what could be further down and has given us an idea of the general diet of the people that occupied it. More importantly it has drawn media attention to what was initially considered a dead and boring wreck of a world.
Reward: +1 minor relic, [scientist] gets 300xp.
Stage 2: What a view!
We’ve worked out way downwards through the rooftop stair access—which we found to be remarkably clear of major debris—to what seems most likely to be a sky lounge. Rotted, but discernible furniture is scattered around, as well as the mummified remains of various individuals, many clustered around the building’s elevator bank apparently finding themselves unable to descend. We’ve even found unopened bottles of various libations almost immaculately preserved. It would appear the windows of this building were able to handle the combined force of an incredible amount of soil directed towards its windows from the surrounding explosive blasts, because the glass (if it could be called that) is without a single crack. In one area, the melted hulk of what we think is a vehicle is pressed up against the large window, but has caused only exterior scratching. Some crews have been sent away from the site to try and obtain samples of this material to determine composition, but so far it seems to be unique to the tower. The next step will be to see if the elevator shaft is usable as a platform for fighting our way further downward as the internal concrete staircase seems too heavily decayed at this time for further safe traversal.
Reward: +3 minor relics
Failure: While parts of the outside of the structure seem to be built of something incredibly durable, the same cannot be said for all of the interior elements. Age has decayed the concrete and we’ve lost an entire away team and the vast majority of the stairwell in a collapse to say nothing of the incredibly strong doors to the rest of the building on each floor from the stairwell. We’re currently looking at drilling through the roof to attempt a descent. [-3 clues].
Stage 3: Trapped
The elevator shafts have proven just as durable as the exterior load-bearing structure. The doors the sky lounge inhabitants couldn’t get open only gave way after several hours of battering with our best cutting lasers and the other floors are similarly tight-bolted. and we’ve now cataloged several distinct artifacts and species’ remains from the next 30 floors down or so over the last few weeks. In the case of the remains, most are usually clustered around the elevators but some have been found at their desks or in break rooms with evidence of suicide or violence as their cause of death; and we’ve also noticed several apparent incidents of cannibalism. Once we get past the elevator doors, the interior walls of any given floor often still prove somewhat more delicate in some cases, but almost perfectly preserved in others. Upon arriving at the first sky-lobby we have run into two intriguing realities. One, the elevators are still here and locked to the floor below the sky-lobby, preventing us from spelunking any further. Two, there seems to be some kind of shield extended over what’s left of the staircases, including the emergency exit staircase. Two, well below the elevators and towards the basement levels…we have started to pick up power signatures. The next step will be getting below these elevators.
Reward: +3 minor artifacts, +150 society research
Failure: None
Stage 4 (Final): An ill-planned party
After a lengthy discussion and debate, it was decided that the best way to get past the elevators was to use brute force. Special neutron demolitions were placed on the brakes and the cables and then the building was completely cleared of all personnel. We hit the detonator and aside from some minor creaking, our learned assumptions about the building’s incredible structural soundness and strength proved well-founded. The cars smashed into the bottoms of their shafts leading us on a clear path down to the basements. Upon arriving we spent a full week cutting holes through both the outer blast doors and the only-slightly-less strong interior doors. What we’ve found is nothing short of amazing: an almost perfectly preserved bunker with nuclear generators in standby mode. Careful activation of these allowed us to check the rather primitive computers to confirm our initial suspicions about this place: the entire building was originally constructed as a fortress for this society’s wealthy and powerful elites. Furthermore it was constructed with the goal in mind that the workers on floors above would not know that is what it was for, indeed the blast door was hidden behind a large mural adjacent to the basement's lounge/lobby. It was also their intention that the whole building be used as a command and control center once the dust had settled, but this obviously did not come to pass. The corpses we have found down here have dated somewhat past the ones on upper floors indicating that they were able to survive for a time until they ran out of food supplies at which point the suffered a similar fate to their supposed inferiors above. We can only guess that the apocalypse this planet suffered was so utterly complete and unexpected that the outside environment’s toxicity and burial of this central business district were not factored into their long-term plans. As it stands, these people built themselves a slow-brew and very luxurious tomb.
Reward: +20 minor artifacts, +200 consumer goods, +300 society research, +600 engineering research, [Scientist] gets +1000xp