◈ THE CHRONICLE · SESSION I
The Singing Quarry
Two newly-sung Stoneknights dropped on the Vega-7 quarry, carried in on a living Obsidian dropship like a coral whale, where a rogue Cantor had hijacked a Choir and was broadcasting to the Unsung. They were told three things, in order: stop the broadcast, save the people, save the holy site. They were not told they couldn't have all three.
What follows is what actually happened at the table the first night, beat for beat. Two machines woke up not knowing who they were. By the time the night ran out, mid-fight, one of them had found its voice.
The two who answered
GRANITE · Anchor / Defender
Monolyth
Cantor: James · a washed-out knight
A two-story monolith that does not chase. It is the place the fight has to come to. It carries the memory of an Order and a Haven that were lost, and it will not put them down.
LAPIS · Controller / Commander
Orca · “Randal”
Cantor: Liam · a fallen noble of a drowned kingdom
Tall, slender, a voice that leads — it tunes by speaking for others, not by striking. Its Fracture is Deception: pushed too far, its word stops carrying and the frame throws a metallic screech.
How the night unfolded
The Drop
They came down on the top rim, the worker barracks and the Keystones at their backs, the pit falling away below them toward the thing in the air. From the first second the geometry was a trap: everything they wanted was downhill, away from the people they were there to protect.◈ THE SINGING QUARRY — TACTICALoval pit · 3 terracesTier 1 · rimTier 2Tier 3 · floorN ↑ (barracks)W · dead end⟵ ROAD OUT · ES · CLIFF — dead end (forced-move off = lethal)⌂ BARRACKS · KeystonesMONOLYTHORCA☠HOLLOWMONOLYTH / ORCA your two mechs — drop NE rim◆ Singing Stone ×3 (Tier 2)☠ Hollow boss — center, floating◆ Drone Chorister (husk grunt)● Sundered — released from center· hover any marker for detailMonolyth · top rimOrca · top rimKeystones: behind the line
James draws the room
Monolyth dropped a terrace into the bowl and did the most Granite thing imaginable: it made itself the only thing worth hitting. James called the aggro and rolled it clean, and both Drone Choristers — the half-machine, half-corpse husks singing in unison — locked onto the monolith. A snap shot from the Quarry Breakerwent wide, but the kill was never the point; the line was. The Choristers closed to within a stride and couldn't quite reach. And as they came, James felt something surface in the frame: a weakness, waiting.Granite +1 (drew aggro)Both Choristers locked onQuarry Breaker — miss
Orca blocks the path — and shoots the sky
Orca read the board like a kaiju movie: get a body between the threat and the people. It slid into the lane between the Choristers and the worker barracks, then leveled the Resonant Lancerat the right-hand husk and threw the campaign's first critical miss. The shot went so wide the table rolled to see what it hit; the dice said empty air, the bolt screaming off into the dark between the boss and its choir. Orca shook it off, Commanded Monolyth a step deeper toward the nearest Stone, and planted itself in front of the workers. Both moves fed the Lapis band: a commander tunes by leading and by shielding, not by landing shots.Lapis Resonance climbsCRITICAL MISS — into empty airCommand moves MonolythOrca shields the workers
The Hollow answers — it lets the people go
Then the thing in the air did the cruelest possible thing: it let the workers go. Enthralled civilians in stripped exo-frames poured out of the pit and shambled forward in a slow, pleading wave — “I'm sorry… I can't help” — turning priority two into a moving wall of people you cannot shoot. And the Hollow peeled its head back and sang, the Drowning Song reaching for the loudest voice on the field: Orca. It cost the commander an action and pressed a point of Stress into the frame. The pressure only wound the Lapis band tighter.Boss releases the workersDrowning Song → Orca (1 Stress, −1 quick)Lapis nearing the cap
Beat 5 · The Bond Move · Confess
“I hope I don't betray you.”
— Orca, to Monolyth
Round two. Monolyth's maul had just cracked a Chorister back a step (even its misses bite — the hammer is Reliable), and the choir had surged onto the monolith in answer, its armor eating the worst of it. Then Orca, jammed and bleeding Stress, reached three Resonance and chose the hard thing: it turned Randal's voice to the granite titan beside it and said the truth its Cantor had carried since his kingdom fell.
The frame answered back: “I will not betray you.”And for the first time the Drowning Song broke — the Hollow's broadcast stuttered, the Colossus voice cutting clean through it. Orca's Resonance fell to zero, a Bond token in hand, the jam and the Fracture gone, the TruthOath lit: its allies struck a little truer and the enemy's lies cracked against it. The boss made it pay — a hollow note shrieked back and put Orca to half HP — but the note never touched James. The commander had bought the moment.
The first Stone falls — and we ran out of night
Round three, and Monolyth went to work. The maul came down on the battered Chorister and ended it — one husk down, one left — and the next swing caught the nearest Singing Stone and shattered it. The Hollow screamed, and two enthralled workers dropped and woke in the rubble — “my god, what are we doing” — the first proof that breaking the Stones frees the people. A fresh barrier went up, the last Chorister bore down on the monolith, and Orca began to line up a shot with that Bond token still in hand… and the night ran out. Liam was out of time. We paused there, mid-turn, the dice in the air.A Chorister fallsFirst Stone shattered · 2 leftTwo workers wakePaused mid-Round 3
◈ Where we stopped
The held breath.
One Stone down, two still ringing the pit. One Chorister left, a wave of enthralled workers closing — and two of them awake now, because the Stones are the leash. The Hollow has been knocked off its song once, but the broadcast is still live and objective one is not met. Monolyth stands healthy behind its walls; Orca is at half HP, Resonance spent, a Bond token held, lit with the Truth Oath. Orca's turn resumes first.
We pick it up next session — Tuesday, 7pm.
Session I · by the numbers
1
Bond Move landed
Truth
Oath earned
1 / 3
Singing Stones down
1 / 2
Choristers down
2
Workers freed
½
Orca's HP at the pause
1
Bond token held
R3
Paused mid-round
Session I · the board when we stopped
Recorded from the table recap (paused mid-R3); reconciles with the transcript when it lands.