Telepathy and the Colossus (Part 5 Spoilers)

[Sound of Azure]

Hi folks,

My players have just returned to Flint after their extended assault upon the bleak gate faciliity in Act 3 of Cauldron Born. They're a little mad at Asrabey for running out in the middle of the climactic battle, and really mad at Alexander Grappa for getting himself killed by Leone Quital and sending the Colossus on a rampage.
They saw how he was able to talk to the Borne prototypes and now want to chat with the Colossus and get it to calm down. They've essentially rejected the Delft/Aodhan plan for the time being ("it has a child's mind", "they want to shoot at it? idiots!", "banish it to the dreaming? no way!"), and seek to use either their spirit medium's telepathy, or get Ambassador Brakken to calm it down and communicate with it.

While I'm inclined to have this not work, I'm unsure whether the telepathy could be a viable thing in the short term. My players try a lot of unconventional things, and I hate shutting them down. It's sad seeing several cool situations get skipped past, though. They've already "wasted" a bit of time heading back up toward the bleak gate facility to try and "wake up" the "sleeping" Borne Prototypes, so I've been letting the panic in Flint get worse so far.

Any other suggestions, or advice on dealing with the telepathy + colossus thing? Thanks in advance!

 

[gideonpepys]

Two things: first of all, it's pretty funny that you're thoughtful enough to warn of spoilers in a thread you've titled 'Telepathy and the Colossus (Part 5 Spoilers)' which kind of gives away the big reveal of the adventure don't you think?

Secondly, let your players have a go, fail, and then have rank pulled on them by Delft and/or the King. They are servants of the crown after all. My players tried to blow the Colossus up with the eschatologists' bomb, which served only to enrage it further. Maybe their attempts to communicate telepathically will have a similar effect? (Or maybe the Ob have had the presence of mind to prevent third parties from communicating with their creation?)

 

[RangerWickett]

I'd say two options:

1. If you want to let your players have a plan work (and it's fine if the colossus wanders in the real world as opposed to the Dreaming), then sure, have Brakken mind-meld with the party's Spirit Medium, who can then tap the gestalt psyche of Flint itself to speak to the colossus - one gigantic thing to another. It will get the creature out of the city, put Brakken into a coma for a month, and make the city eerily friendly to the PC -- opening doors for him, having shops on his street offer sales and free samples, continually getting attractive and single members of the opposite sex visiting his favorite coffee shop.

2. If you want to be a little mean to your players, have them get back from the Cauldron Hill facility and find out that the king wasn't going to wait and watch his city be tromped just because some mid-ranked constables didn't agree with his plan. Half the local fleet is sunk, and the colossus is already gone. They get reprimanded for disobeying their king. A week later, they get an invite to maybe work for the Ob.

 

[Isklexi]

I say go with RangerWickett's first option. You don't even have to change the mechanics of the encounter. You could say the range of Brakken's telepathy is short enough that you have to get out in the bay on ships to be in range. Then the other ships could be there to distract the Colossus so it doesn't pick up the Coaltongue like a toy.