Where to from here?

The players are on Drinax, taking a well earned rest and preparing to travel to Noricum where the  hope to discover the secret of the Message Globe.

• Captain Slaid is overseeing the repairs to the Frontier Trader. These take a week at which point the ship is ready to fly. 

• Lady Nitrane checks with Scholar Voha about getting some help in repairing one of the laboratory spaces on the lab ship. The idea being that a general purpose lab might be attractive to the scientist haut-Belzoni and persuade him to accompany the party.

• Sparrow is seen spending time with  his Aslan friend Kasiyl. He is finding out more about why Kasiyl left ASlan space.

• Silent Unter carouses with Chieftain Galx of the Vespexers. She is keen for some of her people to be included on the party ships, to demonstrate that the whole of Drinax supports the re-establishment of the empire.

After the Frontier Trader is repaired and a laboratory space established on the lab ship, Lady Nitrane approaches Scholar Voha to see if he knows where haut-Belzoni can be found. Voha admits that he has not seen the Imperium scientist for a few days and gives some suggestions as to where he might be.

Lady Nitrane spends time looking for him and asking around, eventually finding word that he was seen at the starport. When she reaches there it is found that he left three days earlier on a scout ship called the Confidence.

Deciding that it might be a good idea to find out a little more, she uncovers after careful investigation that haut-Belzoni was seen talking to, and being wined and dined by, the individual called Feihlokh who attended the banquet. It later transpires that Faihlokh himself left on his scout ship two days later.

At this point the weapon for the Harrier is a day or two away, and the other ships will return from their trading mission a few days after that. It is decided that rather than speed after haut-Belzoni that the party prepare and plan carefully what they might do.

The Harrier is returned to full weapons complement, and the trading ships report a good profit, so the signs are all positive as the party decide where to go.

DECISION TIME:

The proposed approach is as follows:

Harrier and Frontier Trader to travel to Torpol, then Oghma, then Noricum. The hope is that this is the route taken by the archaeologist and that he is taking his time (the scout is rumoured to be a little tight fisted so might want to refuel at gas giants which takes time).

The Far Trader to be set up to trade between Drinx and Torpol, using Rachando as broker on Drinax, and Vii Lon as broker on Torpol

The Far Scout, Lab Ship and Salvager will head to Palindrome, via Torpol, Borite and the refuelling station. At Palindrome the lab ship will be dropped off for Lady Yemar's future healing. The Salvager and Far Scout will head to Theev where the salvager will be returnef to Admiral Darokyn. While on Theev the Far Scout will be equipped with weapons and afterward will travel to Noricum to meet with the party.

It is decided that Krrsh will captain the ships heading to Palindrome and Theev. He has the codes and has been there before. The crew of the Far Trader is yet to be determined.

EQUIPMENT:

Captain Slaid has purchased Scout Battle Dress, and Silent Unter has purchased Command Battle Dress. Lady Nitrane has declined to purchase any at this time.

High Society (Part 2)

The room in which the globe will be opened is a sealed chamber, utilising the best anti-bugging technology available at TL15. Present are King Oleb, Princess Rao, haut-Belzoni, Ambassador Poloc, Scholar Voha, and the party.

[Background known to the players]
The glorious Empire of Sindal endured for hundreds of years, and ruled over much of the Trojan Reach. The old Emperors of Sindal were proud and generous; their descendants were proud and cruel, and kept order through orbital bombardment and biological weapons. Subject worlds that refused to pay the ruinous taxes demanded by the Star Dragons were blasted into oblivion from high orbit. In time, the Sindalian provinces rose up en masse, supported by rebels within the Star Guard, and the empire tore itself apart in civil war. Old Noricum, the former seat of the Emperor, was destroyed. Parts of the empire survived – worlds like Albe or Drinax had the strength and technology to hold onto some territory – but for the rest of the sector, the fall of Sindal brought an end to interstellar rule of law.

Timeline:-2000: Rise of the Empire of Sindal
-1600: Sindalian revolts begin.
-1400: Fall of Noricum and collapse of the Empire. The duke of the regional capital of Drinax claims the imperial title.
-1000: Aslan first cross the Great Rift to the Trojan Reach
500: Aslan expand into Tliowaha Subsector. Trade between Imperium and Aslan grows.
700: King Glaxo bombs rebel worlds.
884: King Oleb XIV establishes the Drinax tax.
885: Fall of Drinax.The Aslan, led by the Ahroay’if clan, bomb Drinax.
1085: Reconquest of Asim.
1105: Current year. 

It was a cruel irony that perhaps the finest and bravest officer to ever wear the crest of the Star Guard came into her own in that last war. Admiral Gani Peras was a brilliant naval officer, beloved by her crew and feared by her enemies. Both loyalists and rebels courted Peras; her sense of duty demanded that she stay loyal to her oath to the Emperor, but her sense of honour forced her to acknowledge the wholly justified grievances of the provinces. She led the defence of the spinward fleets, slowing the advance of the rebels and ensuring that the war impacted on the civilian population as little as possible. She avoided direct engagements where possible, preferring to use smaller lighter ships to attack enemy supply lines and fuel dumps. Whenever a rebel commander used ortillery on civilian targets, though, Peras showed no mercy. The rings of debris that still orbit Homestead and Vume are testament to the wrath of Gani Peras.

Not even a commander of her calibre, though, could stop the civil war. Around the year -1400, her squadron of five surviving ships jumped into the Noricum system – the besieged seat of the emperor. What happened next is a matter of conjecture, but most historians agree that Peras somehow convinced the emperor to hand over the contents of the Imperial Treasury. Some believe Peras hid the treasury somewhere on Noricum; others claim she intended to use the treasury as a bribe to convince the advancing rebels to negotiate. Others believe the Last Loyal Admiral betrayed her oath at the last, and stole the treasury for herself.

Peras returned to her squadron and they jumped out – out of the system, and out of the history books. There were never any confirmed sightings of them again. Peras became another legend of the Reach, gone for two thousand years.
[End of Background]

In the sealed room, haut-Belzoni explains that twenty years ago he obtained a curiosity – a message globe. These devices are common across Charted Space. Each globe contains a secure message and can only be opened with the proper authorisation (or enough hacking skillz). Open the globe without the right key and its contents are instantly erased. This particular globe bore the emblem of the Empire of Sindal and came from the world of Albe (Sindal/0601), one of the most important worlds in the old Empire and now an imperial protectorate. This globe was a message intended for the Duke of Albe, and required Ducal-level clearance to open. Even more astoundingly, the datestamp on the globe showed that it was sent only a few days before the fall of Noricum. Presumably, similar message-globes were dispatched to the other key systems of Sindal, like Drinax but never arrived, lost in the chaos of civil war.

Haut-Belzoni knew the tale of Gani Perot and the treasure of Sindal, and realised the message globe could be the key to that mystery. All he had to do was open it and the one world where the old Ducal-level clearance codes might still exist was Drinax. So, haut-Belzoni took a leave of absence from the university, and here he is.

At this, Scholar Voha produces another relic from the archives of  Drinax – a second message globe. This one, he explains, was also sent by Gani Peras’ fleet to the Ducal Seat at Drinax at the same time as the message went to Albe. The globe was opened at some point in the intervening centuries but all it contained was a string of numbers and letters. Perhaps these numbers are a code; but not one any cryptographer in all those years managed to break. This second globe from Albe may contain the key to the code.

With great ceremony, Voha accesses the computer archives, and King Oleb gives his authorisation. Computer systems built during the days of the Sindalian Empire flicker into life as Oleb enters the codes passed down to him from the dukes of Drinax. The message sphere pops open, and haut-Belzoni examines the contents.

CONTENTS OF IMPERIAL VAULT TRANSFERRED TO ADMIRAL PERAS’ FLAGSHIP.
ADMIRAL PERAS ORDERED TO SET COURSE SPINWARD ALONG MAIN TO REFUGE.
IMPERIAL FAMILY AND RETAINERS WILL FOLLOW IF DEFENSIVE LINES AT SALIF FAIL.
KEY DISPATCHED TO THE DUKES OF ALBE, DRINAX, DPRES AND YGGDRASIL.
SIGNED BY HIS HAND, FELIX STAR DRAGON, EMPEROR OF SINDAL.

Following that message is a page of closely printed letters and numbers, similar but not identical to the message sent to Drinax, followed by the word ACE.

Haut-Belzoni points out a string of co-ordinates printed at the bottom of the message, and explains they are a date, time, location and verification stamp. It is a genuine message, sent only a few weeks before the fall of Sindal. The location is on Noricum, the old Imperial throne world, but it was not at the Imperial palace. The location is not one he recognises – and he has made a study of Noricum. It must be a previously undiscovered secret base!

The Imperial family died on Noricum; they never followed Peras to the refuge, perhaps because the rebels broke through the lines at Salif (Sindal/0206) quicker than expected. That might also explain why no message-globes are known to have reached Dpres or Yggdrasil - the rebels swept in from the spinward side and may have intercepted the couriers, probably in the Thebus system. The battle of Magg’s Moon was one of the last decisive encounters of the war. It might be worth looking for wreckage in that system, or questioning salvage crews and junk dealers on the markets to see if a sealed message globe was ever found.

King Oleb however appears to be a little uninterested. Perhaps there is something in all this, but it's been over two thousand years so there's very little to be gained by all this. He dismisses haut-Belzoni and the ambassador and says he'll think over it.

As soon as they leave he rounds on the party and excitedly exclaims "You must find this!" in his most enthusiastic voice. He will provide the characters the Ducal codes that may prove useful for opening things, and tells them that they must ensure that if there's anything relating to the Sindalian Empire to be found, it must be returned to him to strengthen his claims. He cares not for gold or treasures that are not directly related to the empire, so there's a good chance, if any of this is true, for the party to fund more piracy and mayhem in the Trojen Reach.

It is the Princess who suggests that it might be useful to escort the scientist, so that they can not only take advantage of his knowledge, but also keep an eye on him. She is not sure how many other people he has told of the message globe but it's a good bet that there will be others interested in the treasures of an empire.

End of Part 2.

High Society (Part 1)

The characters are still on Drinax.

Arriving at the starport on the floating palace the party are informed that none of the royal family are currently available, but that Princess Rao wants to see them as soon as she can get free of her current engagements.

While they wait, the Captain sends the NPC crew to the Frontier Trader to wake it from its mothballed slumber. They arrive and start work, but it will take some time. He then goes with the party to see Rachando, who is just finishing up with a guest and will see him shortly.

When Rachando's guest emerges Sparrow is surprised to see that it is his good friend Kaisyl of the Ahroay'if, an Aslan noble. While Slaid visits with Rachando Sparrow accompanies his furry friend to speak with him.

After the small talk is out of the way, Slaid asks if Rachando can obtain a particle weapon to match that which is in the Harrier already. Rachando thinks that is possible, but will take a couple of weeks as the weapon will be sourced from the nearest Aslan world.

Sparrow finds out that his friend is here without any fanfare. Kaisyl is not in hiding as such, but his ship is hidden in the outer system and he is not insisting on any diplomatic or other rights that might usually be extended to him.

When Princess Rao is available, they meet with her in one of her private rooms. She is pleased that the pirate that menaced Torpol and Clarks has been brought to justice, and more so that those planets are now much more favourably inclined toward Drinax. She insists that while King Oleb is going to want to hear tales of daring and piracy in high space to disrupt trade, she considers diplomatic effort to be much more likely to succeed. The approach therefore is to be in parts piracy, trade and diplomacy.

Princess Rao also informs the party that they are all invited to a banquet to be held that evening, which means getting out the ball gowns, dress uniforms and evening wear once again. Lady Nitrane heads off to visit with Lady Hill, the most influential courtier in the palace, and an old dear friend. When Lady Hill sees Nitrane's Theev dresses she agrees that they are entirely fashionable, and they set to work to prepare for that evening.

Sparrow dusts off his old diplomatic attire, and Unter his tuxedo. Slaid polishes the trinkets and baubles on his admiral dress uniform.

Before the banquet drinks and nibbles are served while the guests mingle and talk. All are introduced to the King (who upon seeing the party mugs and hams it up terribly, winking and exaggerating to make it known that they are not at all doing something for him - with some eyebrow raising from the Imperial ambassador) and to the guest of honour, an Imperium scientist called Yutal Mirobar haut-Belzoni (who appears to be tolerating the backwater hicks to whom he is being introduced, and occasionally cleaning his hands).

Unter meets up with Chieftain Galx, the representative from the Vespexer tribes (those who live on the surface of the planet). She and Unter are very good friends, and she and her muscled companions chat with him while waiting for the banquet to start.

Chieftain Galx

Sparrow notices Kaisyl is there looking slightly frantic. He clearly does not want to make conversation with anyone so is either in motion or hiding behind a pillar until Sparrow catches up with him and Kaisyl relaxes.

Lady Nitrane does the rounds, in her regal manner, passing Lady Hill who murmers approvingly at her dress. Nitrane's ex-husband, Lord Wrax of the Star Guard, appears to be avoiding her however as he is always at some distance chatting to various people who at times turn to look at her.

Slaid notices Rachando in conversation with a number of people who look like merchants. Looking around, Slaid sees a few other people who are unknown to him. One, someone he finds out is called Faihlokh, gives the impression of being rather more than the humble merchant he is dressed as. This Faihlokh at one time is seen with Lord Wrax. Faihlokh looks over at Lady Nitrane, then at Slaid, before returning to conversation with Wrax.

When the gongs are sounded for the meal to commence, the party are split up. Unter and Slaid are with guests of no particular importance, and their meals pass uneventfully. Lady Nitrane finds herself next to Scholar Voha, chief scientists in the Scholars Tower. He is aware of their mission and while some innocuous chitchat indicates that the mission is well, they agree to talk later in more privacy.

Sparrow is seated next to the scientist haut-Belzoni who, it becomes painfully apparent, is a rather boring individual. It's possible that from others historical naval technology, and in particular Vilani logistics during the Fifth Interstellar War, could be very interesting. But not from haut-Belzoni. His droning voice and mannerisms that suggest he's explaining something interesting to a backwoods ape are too much, so it takes a good 10 drinks for Sparrow to be numb enough to nod in a friendly manner and not feel any more pain.

The only vaguely interesting piece of information that comes out of haut-Belzoni's lips is that he's found a message globe from the old Sindalian empire and he intends to open in the next morning in the presence of the King and Scholar Voha. Sparrow nods (at times alarmingly and exaggeratedly) and eventually haut-Belzoni shuts up.

After toasts are completed and the banquet guests start to leave or continue mingling Lady Nitrane, interested to hear what the scientist had to say, catches up with Sparrow and, noticing he is quite drunk, instantly sobers him with a medpack. It is then that Sparrow notices Princess Rao catch his eye, hold for a second, and then continue talking to her companion. The message is somehow clear. He is to come over and talk to her. When he does, she turns to him, as if to just wish him a good evening, and says that he and the party will attend the opening of the globe the next morning. She instantly turns to another guest - the conversation with Sparrow taking no more than two or three seconds.

After alerting the rest of the party, Sparrow heads off to spend an evening talking with Kaisyl while Nitrane, Slaid and Unter return to their lodgings for the evening. Sparrow learns more about why the Aslan noble is on Drinax. He's not very talkative - wanting to keep things even from his close friend - but some things do come out. Kaisyl is here because of something called Ihatei - an assemblage of unattached males who gather to make war. There is a gathering near to the Aslan border and somehow Kaisyl is involved.

The next morning the party are escorted to the Scholar's Tower where the globe will be opened.

Continued in Part 2.

CHARACTER UPDATE: Moving to Second Edition Mongoose Traveller

As we have reached a point in the game where the various party ships are being assessed and possibly upgraded, I have decided to upgrade the game system to Second Edition,

Differences: very few, and they are outlined below.

TLDR: I'll update your character sheets and ship stats and present on Friday. There will be some decisions to make at that time, but only really very minor ones.

Characteristics

No change. The six characteristics, their value ranges, their bonuses, and how you get them are all unchanged

Careers

Minor changes that have no impact on your characters. The careers are more or less identical, as are survival rolls, advancement rolls, etc.

Skills

The actual skills in game are for the most part unchanged. There is some rationalisation of some skills, and some more subtypes for others. I think it's an improvement overall.

• Unchanged: Admin, Advocate, Astrogation, Broker, Carouse, Deception, Diplomat, Explosives, Gamber, Gunner, Investigate, Jack of All Trades, Language, Leadership, Mechanic, Medic, Melee, Navigation, Persuade, Pilot, Recon, Seafarer, Stealth, Steward, Streetwise, Survival, Tactics, Vacc Suit.
• Changes to subskills: Animals (Riding and Farming replaced by Handling), Athletics (Flying removed), Art (Acting and Dance merged into Performer), Drive (Hovercraft and Walker added), Engineer (Electronics removed), Flyer (Airship and Ornithopter added), Gun Combat (now only Archaic, Energy and Slug are the three types), Heavy Weapons (now Artillery, Man Portable and Vehicle), Trade (renamed Profession and adding Belter to the list of examples).
• Significant Changes: Electronics added, which merges in as subskills Comms, Computers, Remote Ops and Sensors. Sciences now replaces Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Space Sciences. Electronics is no longer a subskill of Science, and Astronomy and Cosmology have been added.
• Removed: Battle Dress is removed, and the armour requires only Vacc Suit skill to use. Zero-G is removed and instead you use Athletics (Dexterity) to move around in zero-g environments.

Skills Limits

There are some skill limits in place, which we'll either ignore for current characters (i.e. max level of 4 for a skill) or are not relevant as we are nowhere near the limits (max number of skill levels known is nowhere near impacting anyone).

Training Skills

Great improvement!
In order to train up an existing skill or learn a new skill the character needs to commit to one or more Study Periods. A Study Period is equal to 8 weeks of study and practice. The 8 weeks of a Study Periods need not be consecutive, but each week needs to be a full 5 days of 8 hours a day learning and practising. NOTE: Usually this is only possible when Jumping, so I'll count jump weeks only.

• NEW SKILLS: Once 8 weeks of training is complete a Study Period is complete. At this point you need to make an Average (8+) EDU check. Success means you've learned a new skill at level 0.
• EXISTING SKILLS: If you are improving an existing skill above 0 the number of successful Study Periods required is the skill level you want to get. So learning Vacc Suit-1 means one Study Period, and Broker-3 means three successful Study Periods.
• FAILING: If you fail a Study Period check you have to commit to a new Study Period, but you gain a cumulative +1 DM for success checks for that skill.
• Note: Learning or improving Athletics uses the appropriate characteristic (STR, DEX or END) in place of EDU.
• Note: Jack of All Trades cannot be learned or improved, but having Jack of All Trades adds the JoT level to success checks. Your innate ability to pick things up is to your advantage. (This means Lady Nitrane gets +3 DM on Study Period checks).
• Library: the Harrier has a Library which means that every week of learning and practice counts as two weeks towards a Study Period.

Failure doesn't necessarily indicate that you don't understand it. You might be distracted, or the captain is having you do extra chores.

Combat

No changes here.

Equipment

No real changes here.

SpaceCraft

Big changes to how drives work. This is in fact the stimulus for me converting to the new system.
No longer are there "Type A" and "Type D" drives. The drives now take up a percentage of the hull depending on the rating you want. Manoeuvre and Jump drives use Power Points, which unsurprisingly are produced by the Power Plant.

What does it all mean? I'll convert over the Harrier, Far Scout and Frontier Trader and see,

Space Combat

Improved and slightly simplified. Rather than a Hull Value and a Structure Value which are reduced slowly by weapons fire only if those areas are hit, there is a Hull Value that works more like hitpoints. These are removed by damage from weapons and reduced to 0 means 'ship dead'. If the attack has an effect of 6+ (ie you roll 6 more than you needed, after all mods are taken into account) then you get a critical hit, which is the traditional 'you hit a drive' or 'you hit the fuel tanks' that are more common in the first edition and classic editions.

Weapons are now handled slightly differently - the values for damage are about the same as now but stacking is different (i.e. more than one in a turret) and the modifiers are different (e.g. pulse lasers get a +2 to attack, beam a +4 even though they do less damage).

What effect this will have in combat I'm not sure - I expect that you'll breach the hull and take the ship out a lot quicker most of the time. I'm sure an opportunity to try it will arise.

Trade

The extreme ends of the purchase and sell modifiers are less extreme. No more "you get 400% of the base value" as it maxes out at 160% but other than that it's more or less the same. We'll be using the online tool anyway.

Planets and Systems

No change to planet stats, although it's a little clearer in the book what happens with law levels and you lot ignoring them

That's about it.

Home Sweet Home

This episode starts on Clarke and then progresses by way of Torpol back to Drinax, where it all began.

Finally getting the reward money from the authorities on Clarke, and noting that Vii Lon is now up to full health, the party decide that it is best to do one more run to Torpol to drop her off. To that end they get cargo and head back.

The trip is uneventful, and the cargo sells for a good amount. The available cargo however is not particularly worthwhile so the party decide that heading straight to Drinax is better than waiting for more cargo to become available.

Rather than head to Drinax with the entire fleet, it is decided that the Harrier will head to Drinax with sufficient extra crew to man the Frontier Trader which is hoped can be repaired enough to make the trip to Pourne. The other ships are heading directly to Pourne under the command of Krrsh and will meed the party there.

On arrival there are no members of the royal family to greet them, so the party wait. While this is happening the additional crew head to the mothballed ship to start getting her back online.

To be continued.

The long and winding road

The story continues in the Thebus system before heading through Oghma and Torpol to Clarke.

Nitrane and Unter continue to investigate the lab ship. They find another air/raft bay (empty) and what appears to be another engine room (door blocked) and then a secondary bridge.

At this point however they hear Sparrow say "Uh, guys!" and then the link goes dead. An alarm in the vacc suit systems alerts them to the fact that Sparrow's suit is suddenly very low on air. They decide to push ahead as it would be the quickest way to where Sparrow was guarding the lab ship crewmember.

Passing a row of stateroom doors they come across one that is open and a figure lurches out at them. A fight ensues in which damage is taken by the party thanks to a giant metal club that the inhumanly strong crewman is wielding. They are forced to kill him.

In the meantime Slaid had reached Sparrow's body, out cold from nasty blunt force trauma to the head. The visor on the vacc suit helmet badly cracked. Slaid tapes up the helmet and then shares air with Sparrow, meaning both now have only a little air left.

Deciding to rendezvous at the lift up to the docking ring, and appraising the ships waiting nearby that they have encountered some problems, Nitrane and Unter come across another lab ship crewman coming out of the kitchen locker that held corpses. This person is wielding a frozen human leg as a weapon.

This person, the one they captured originally, is inhumanly strong as well but is eventually killed.

Going up the left the party find that they have next to no air left. Sharing the air keeps two alive for a bit longer, but means everyone is now in a precarious situation. Luckily Ben Parr and Adro Venniser arrive with spare air bottles and some quick changing brings everyone's air levels up.

Krssh arrives in an air raft and makes it easier to bring across the still comatose body of Sparrow into the Harrier, where the best medical bay is waiting for him. Extreme quarantine and bio-hazard procedures are in place just in case he's infected, or able to infect others. Sparrow is stabilised and brought around. The head wound is treated.

Professor Jim Cheese has been looking through the data brought back hours earlier. With some clever insights he has determined that the danger is passed. The research in the lab ship related to combat drugs. An explosion, the cause of which is unknown, caused multiple experimental drugs to be released in to the air vents simultaneously. These killed 80% of the crew and researchers instantly. The remaining crew were affected in different ways but with a common theme of periods of lucidity, periods of inhuman strength (and inhuman behaviours) and then periods of exhaustion.

Any active reagents have long ago dissipated, been scrubbed by the air system, or are in other ways totally inert. This reassures the party and work is put in motion to clear out the lab ship for sure (the shipboard marines take this task), the engines are checked and maintenance performed, the fuel tanks are resealed and pressure checked, and the hull repaired. That last required some planetside work so a course is set to Thebus.

Thebus is a safari tourist world. There are plenty of spaces in which to land that are well away from prying eyes and the work is done.

Jumping to the Oghma system there is hope that the ships crews (all of which are at absolute minimum levels) can be bolstered by new additions. Also this is a good place to pick up more cargo to sell on Torpol to pay for improvements to the ships in general.

Oghma is a warlike space-faring planet. The inhabitants are renowned for their slaving, raiding and pillaging, and indeed a good number of crew are hired here. A number of suitable cargoes are found and the jump is made to Torpol.

Arriving in Torpol Captain Slaid advises Provost Falx that they have returned. When they reach his office he is there, drink in hand and dressed in his bright orange robes (with tony golden fez with scale model of the starport on top). He welcomes them profusely, offers drinks, and is then wowed by Captain Slaid's amazing presentation of the proof that the mission has been completed. A round of applause is followed by Falx asking two colleagues (each with their own tiny structures on their heads) to also see the presentation. They are likewise amazed and the reward money duly handed over.

The matter of Vii Lon is also raised. Unfortunately she almost died when the low berth was opened (she had been in there for 20 weeks, way beyond the normal expectancy). As luck would have it she was roused in an advanced (even for TL15) medical bay. It turns out that she was indeed an official representative of Torpol, with a very senior position (if her health insurance cover is any guide). With her needing expert medical care (and the planet only being TL8) the party are asked to look after her a little while longer.

The cargo from Oghma is sold for a tidy profit, and with making the jump to Clarke with empty holds something to be avoided, more cargo is found and loaded into the ships.

The jump to Clarke is uneventful. Arriving, it is still a dark, depressing place. Keeper Malos is less impressed by the presentation by Captain Slaid and he moodily takes the proof to show his colleagues. The cargo is sold for more profit, and the party wait.

To be continued...

The Continuing Saga

The party starts on Palindrome, and make their way through the deep space fuel depot and Noricum to Thebus.

On Palindrome the party decide to get the far trader (formerly belonging to Ferrik Redthane) fixed. This takes 9 days or so, and that means shore leave for the crews, and plenty of time to buy cargo and find new crew.

When fleet leaves it consists of the Harrier (The Phoenix), the salvager, the far trader and the far scout. The crew on board is at minimal levels, and there is an assortment of cargo that can hopefully be sold for a tidy profit.

Arriving at the fuel dump in empty space, the ships refuel and realise that the resources here are limited. Perhaps in future they should bring some fuel? The refuelling is not without incident, but very little can go wrong if they take things slowly.

The next jump is to Borite. There they manage to sell all the cargo at the starport above this primitive planet and make a tidy profit. No crew can be found to hire, nor any useful cargo to buy, so they jump to Thebus after refuelling.

In the Thebus system the lab ship is known to be in orbit around an uninteresting distant rocky planet. Arriving in system near this planet the lab ship is found (eventually) and then before exploring it the party make the decision to refuel in case they need to make a run for it, which means a few days travelling to the nearest gas giant, refuelling, and returning.

Back at the lab ship the party scan for signs of life, which requires that the ship be very close. Numerous life signs are detected but the resolution is not fine enough for more details. A visual scan of the ship is made which detects three possible entry points; the two air lock hangar doors or the pinnace docking ring. The latter is selected.

Slaid attempts to open the door which takes 40 minutes, needing to use computers to break in. There they find an elevator shaft which leads from the zero-G pinnace ring down to the normal gravity of the ring.

Emerging into a partly lit reception area the party ask for signs of life and are told that there appears to be something 15 metres away, but that scanning is difficult.The party also quickly realise that the circular nature of the vessel makes it difficult to see more than 10 metres in either direction. The furthest that can be seen - if they lie flat on the floor and look up - is less than 15 metres.

Moving through the ship the first section consists mostly of staterooms. Some have had their lights destroyed and others are intact. Some have bedding removed, and even mattresses. In one a dead body is found in the cupboard.

Other rooms are found, including mess hall, private lounges, a scientist library (the contents of which made their way back to the party ship thanks to Sparrow taking them there), and a galley with a freezer full of dead crew.

In the middle of that a small herd of escaped lab animals are encountered. Some are stunned, but the effects wear off quickly enough that conventional weapons are used to dispatch them.

Exploring further the party find the bridge and the first drive bay. In the bridge Slaid breaks into the computer and is able to unlock the iris doors throughout the ship. He gets to work on more information about the ship. Unter and Nitrane explore the drive bay, and in the upper deck they find a living crew member.

The figure is crouched over and appears to be paying no attention to the players. Nitrane tries to get his attention by hitting the wall, but while the figure appears to have heard the noise it does not look up.

After some closing of airlocks and moving around the figure sees the party and freaks out. He starts shouting but because they are wearing vacc suit helmets they can't make out what he is saying. Nitrane grabs him in a bear hug while Unter departs to find something to bind their captive.

While this is going on Slaid is assaulted in the bridge. Minding his own business he is hit by another wandering crew member. Not one to put up with that kind of rubbish he shoots a her, killing her.

Sparrow, who left earlier, returns with an improvised speaker to allow the party to communicate with the captive. He understands what is being said but unfortunately the party still will not open their helmets to hear what he is saying. They eventually bind him in a stateroom and Sparrow stands guard.

Unter and Nitrane continue exploring the ship. They find an air/raft dock, cargo bay and the main laboratory. At the far end of the lab is a mound of tables, chairs, mattresses and anything else not bolted down. This appears to be a lair for one of the unfortunates on board. Breaking into it the party find a hatch cut into the floor that leads into one of the fuel tanks.

Breaking it open reveals nothing else of interest so they continue. A second lab is found and in the corner of this, another assemblage of furniture makes another lair. It seems that the people affected by whatever happened on board have some animalistic urge to create protected homes.

To be continued...