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I'm prepping for a game and I have a city that is in the Nevada desert. It is built on a lake that is fed by a rift(located on a nexus) that is constantly gushing water and has been open for over a century. It is called Gush Lake and the city is simply Gush Lake City. Unbeknownst to most is that a Supernatural AI is on the other side of the rift and is keeping it open so it can study Rifts Earth.

The AI lives in a world that is nothing but water. No land. No creatures. Nothing but it and water. It's first contact with other life forms was when students studying the rift entered it and saw the massive AI. Needless to say, they retreated back to Earth and refused to even let anyone else go through the rift. That was a hundred years. The AI was so fascinated by these creatures that it created an essence fragment in the same form as the students and sent it to our side of the rift.

It was fascinated by everything: dirt, mud, trees, moss, fish, etc. Etc. But what really got its attention was sentient life. There were so many kinds and individuals. This occupied it for decades and it's experiences has kept it entertained...but in the last three decades it has decided it wants to experiment with life on its side and for that it doesn't need Rifts Earth any more. It knows that if it closes the rift, the Lake will (eventually) dry up and with it the town will go too. So it has decided that it wants something in exchange.

The King has been secretly supplying whatever it is that it wants, once every year. But a problem has come up...someone poisoned the King and he died without telling anyone what the thing is that it wants and the yearly anniversary is coming up in just a couple of months. If it doesn't get what it wants, that'll be it for the Lake and the kingdom.

Now, the kingdom is not without resources and has purchased resurrection scrolls to try to bring him back...but the poison that was inflicted on him is so virulent that it is completely resistant to both magical and technological cures and immediately kills him again upon resurrection (which is an incredible waste of resources). Now, they have heard of something called the mystical White Rose. Supposedly, a full bloom of the plant can cure anything and even resurrect the dead! The kingdom has hinged its hopes on acquiring one such bloom. Such a thing is supposed to be ridiculously rare though and most people have never heard of it. They have already tried Arzno, Merctown and Dweomer with no results.

But there is one market where anything and everything is supposed to be available. That is the market of Splynn in Atlantis. So heroes of great renown, the PCs, have been recruited to go there and buy one (taking the entire treasury with them.) And they only have two months to get it done.

Anyway, I'm having trouble coming up with whatever it is that the AI requires once a year. Anyone have any ideas?

This seems to go from "find what's missing" that mollifies a space octopus to a globe trotting shopping spree pretty quick! Personally, I'd play it as a local challenge trying to figure out what the king was handing over rather than focusing on bringing the king back. To solve the puzzle, exploring the context of the city's relationship to the AI might be all that's needed. Let's start with a few questions about context:

• What alignment is the AI? If good or even slightly selfish, the AI might not want to turn off the taps, so to speak, and may be open to dialogue or negotiation. If evil, why has it kept its side of the bargain so long? Why hasn't it broken the deal already?
• The premise that no one can ask the AI what the AI wants and, if they did, the AI would cancel the deal if asked is a bit of a stretch. Why this prohibition? The motivations of the AI is too unclear and the premise seems to be designed to have the PCs run around from place to place like couriers to fix a potential red herring (resurrecting the king) using a predefined solution, rather than tackle the more interesting problem at hand - namely figuring out what does the AI want through clues, engagement, and using their brains?
• 100 years is a blip in the lifespan of an AI, so why are they bored already?
• What does the essence fragment think of the arrangement? What role to do they have to play? They seemed to disappear a bit quickly after being introduced.
• How big is the city? What gives them the resources to afford high level scrolls?
• How would they know about Splynn, let alone the other places, when they are in the middle of effectively nowhere?
• What is the king able to give without anyone else involved who could leak the secret? Remember, every royal possession is likely accounted for to protect against theft, so for the king to provide a material thing, they must have a collaborator.
• If it is something that's not an object, like PPE or even physical vitality/bodily fluids (perhaps the AI appreciates biological colloidal suspensions), does it have to be from the king specifically?

Anyway, just some contextual things to think about that could frame up the original question of what was the king secretly supplying?

Additional Questions;
So how hard was it for the King to get the item in question? It must not have been hard given they where able to do it for several decades annually.

Does it even have to be the same thing exactly or is there variation allowed (collecting a NG Samson Power Armor vs general Power Armor as an example)?

What does the AI do with the offering? Consume it in some manner? Admire it? Works out to being a years supply of Toilet Paper (okay this might be absurd on the face of it but could it also be doing something absurd?)

Who assassinated the king and why? This could shed some light on what this mysterious offering really is if they are connected (I'm not saying they are or they have to be just that its an option).

A "prophet" appears... a witch or shifter who has contacted the alien intelligence. But they are less congenial than the king, so their interpretation of the AI's wants are much more extreme. Add a time pressure as the prophet decides that the AI really wants to see fire, and to see it consume living things.

Part of defeating the prophet might be convincing the AI that burning things to death is Bad. That death is permanent.

In a world of water, what does an Ai Want?

I assume the Ai has a drive to fulfill its primary programming.
-Solve a problem on the water world/dimension side.

If sentient the Ai may have a drive to survive.
-Spare parts to replace its own.
-Maintenance
-A robot assistane droid

Then their is good old fashioned self-serviving curiosity.
-Bring it human sacrifices (Test subjects to the Ai)
-Samples (both live and dead) of sea life on Rifts Earth.
-It would want to send a drone into the oceans of Rifts Earth to survey them.
-Recreate itself on the Rifts Earth Side so that it can continue the "work" it was made for

This could go a lot of different ways.
It depends on what the Ai's programming was and how far it has left it behind.

Does it want to help (govern) sentient life?

Maybe its creators destroyed themselves or each in a war or disease so it no longer has any "users" to engage with.

-Maybe it wiped its users out and needs more to wipe out.

-Dislikes a "disorderly" world so it wants to wipe out all intelligent life.

-Maybe it wants to be Free or Human or something so it creates a city of robots in the image of humans or its creators (like an ant colony) and runs it like an experiment watching for the day they become sentient. It might even do things in an attempt to create a water-shed event where their sentience is caused or created and the Ai wants to know what that is and how to reproduce it.

Thank you everyone for your input! To answer your questions:

What alignment is the AI? If good or even slightly selfish, the AI might not want to turn off the taps, so to speak, and may be open to dialogue or negotiation. If evil, why has it kept its side of the bargain so long? Why hasn't it broken the deal already?

It is Unprincipled with Anarchist leanings.

The premise that no one can ask the AI what the AI wants and, if they did, the AI would cancel the deal if asked is a bit of a stretch. Why this prohibition? The motivations of the AI is too unclear and the premise seems to be designed to have the PCs run around from place to place like couriers to fix a potential red herring (resurrecting the king) using a predefined solution, rather than tackle the more interesting problem at hand - namely figuring out what does the AI want through clues, engagement, and using their brains?

For the last thirty years she (the student from the university investigating the rift who's body she copied for the essence was female) has only appeared on the same date once a year and then only to the King. Where she disappears to she hasn't revealed. She may be adventuring or back in her own dimension.

Some additional background on her: Two generations of kings ago, she was found sitting on top of a pile of dead brodkil during a battle with the giants (Gush Lake City and the surrounding communities has a history of wars with brodkil). Except for having light blue skin, she appeared to look like the daughter of the king (who happened to be the student she copied). The king, who had lost his daughter to the brodkil that same year, took her in and treated her like his own child, albeit a powerful one. (They eventually figured out that she had single-handedly dispatched all the brodkil in the pile.)

People of the kingdom showered her with love and affection. As far as they new, she was just an incredibly naive and innocent d-bee. She loved the attention and affection she received. So when it seemed to taper off, she was mildly resentful.

During the reign of the second king (the one previous to the current one) she started disappearing for increasingly longer periods. Reportedly going on adventures throughout Nevada, Arizona and Colorado. She returned for a substantial period when the current king took the throne. Afterwards began the yearly visits.

As far as the PCs being set up to act as couriers....so? Traveling thousands of miles on Rifts Earth is no easy feat and will certainly entail many adventures all by itself. Then they're going to have to figure out how to get in and out of Splynn without being killed or enslaved themselves. Sounds like fun to me!

100 years is a blip in the lifespan of an AI, so why are they bored already?

This Alien Intelligence is extremely young, barely even an infant for these creatures and essentially lived in a sensory deprivation tank prior to its encounter with the rift. So she doesn't have the experience to draw upon that other AIs have. It's Essence Fragment is the first one it has ever made. Plus she has figured out that there are a limitless number of other dimensions out there that have yet to be explored at all.


What does the essence fragment think of the arrangement? What role to do they have to play? They seemed to disappear a bit quickly after being introduced.

I'm thinking now that she fell in love with the current king but he was already married and due to political reasons (or just plain loyalty) he could not leave his wife for the AI. So she demanded from him one night of passion every year. Being around him for the rest of the year was just too hurtful so she leaves in the interim.


How big is the city? What gives them the resources to afford high level scrolls?

It's population is around one hundred thousand. It has a thriving agricultural presence and it supplies opals, turquoise and garnets to Arzno and the Colorado Baronies and produces enough silver to almost compete with Silvereno. (And in my version of Rifts Earth, silver is worth far more than gold.) As mentioned before, it also has a university that includes magic as one of its studies. Taxes on all of this has been necessary in order to pay for arms and armor to fight the brodkil but in the last couple of decades the brodkil haven't returned and a surplus of funds has built up.

How would they know about Splynn, let alone the other places, when they are in the middle of effectively nowhere?

As mentioned, they have a University who be knowin' thangs, lol

What is the king able to give without anyone else involved who could leak the secret? Remember, every royal possession is likely accounted for to protect against theft, so for the king to provide a material thing, they must have a collaborator.

Since I've decided she fell in love with him...One night of passion every year.

If it is something that's not an object, like PPE or even physical vitality/bodily fluids (perhaps the AI appreciates biological colloidal suspensions), does it have to be from the king specifically?

No. I suppose she could be in love with someone else and require it of them.


So how hard was it for the King to get the item in question? It must not have been hard given they where able to do it for several decades annually.

I think its safe to say that he carries it on him at all times. Lol

Does it even have to be the same thing exactly or is there variation allowed (collecting a NG Samson Power Armor vs general Power Armor as an example)?

I suppose it does have to be the same thing.

What does the AI do with the offering? Consume it in some manner? Admire it? Works out to being a years supply of Toilet Paper (okay this might be absurd on the face of it but could it also be doing something absurd?)

Consume it sounds good.

Who assassinated the king and why? This could shed some light on what this mysterious offering really is if they are connected (I'm not saying they are or they have to be just that its an option).

Still working this out. I'm toying with making it a suicide. Perhaps after his wife dieing he was consumed with guilt for “betraying” her all those years and just wanted to be re-united with her. As far as abandoning the fate of the kingdom upon his death goes, he has always known he wouldn't live forever so has developed a contingency. He's been secretly funding research for some Techno-Wizards to develop a machine that, upon being installed on a nexus, will open a rift to the plane of water and use pumps to pump the water into the lake (since, unlike the gushing rift, most rifts don't allow air or water to come through). They have instructions to reveal the research and install the device upon his death. But they don't know that he is dead yet because an imposter (an Auto-G, Chiang-Ku, twin brother, whatever) has been temporarily and secretly installed on the throne.

Darthauthor, I apologize! By AI I meant Alien Intelligence. Not Artificial Intelligence.

I hope this answers everything

Sounds like you got want you needed. Have fun.

Just a couple things to consider...

Rifter11 wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2024 10:23 pmAs far as the PCs being set up to act as couriers....Sounds like fun to me!

Good for you. It's just a personal preference of mine to be more about puzzles than travel. Have at it.

Rifter11 wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2024 10:23 pmIt's population is around one hundred thousand.

Everyone's version of Rifts is different and there's nothing wrong with that. WB14 lists Nevada as having only 150K people, so you may want to consider what impact that may have on outer communities, banditry, the attention of other power blocs, etc. Could spice up the region a bit.

Rifter11 wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2024 10:23 pmI think its safe to say that he carries it on him at all times. Lol

There is that old riddle of what his wife keeps in her purse...

Rifter11 wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2024 10:23 pmDarthauthor, I apologize! By AI I meant Alien Intelligence. Not Artificial Intelligence.

Actually it really got me thinking what if the alien intelligence was actually an alien super computer stashed in a pocket dimension for cooling, but abandoned and became self-aware over time... a happy accident of misinterpretation. The dimensional portal could be super science a la Transdimensional TMNT... which might confuse the heck out of mages and psychics when they don't sense any magicks re the AI... a potentially significant plot twist!

instead of consuming.. perhaps the Alien intelligence is trying to terraform part of it's native realm to include stuff it perceives through the rift?
or perhaps it's just doing like ariel in the little mermaid, and collecting neat stuff that can tell it about the world beyond its own.

the former would make the item to be obtained trickier (since it would probably be something like "two thousand live fish" or the like), but could make for an interesting story. the latter would be a lot easier in terms of moving the item, but would require more thought about what it is. but also means you could pick some stuff no one would predict.

I would say that the alien AI would want a body to experience life on Earth. Think movies like Starman (1984) or 2001 a space odyssey. Or it could be like the monster movie "Virus" (1999) where an electric intelligence takes over a Russian ship and murders the crew to build a cyborg body.......