Chapter Two
Campaign: Have Starship Will Travel
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(Into theme song: Purple Sun, Cannons)
Hide-And-Seek
... with the elusive and inexplicable forces which control the universe.
Characters
Rikard Hightower, captain of the C.E.V. Sherwood Forest
Theme song: Skating Away On the Thin Ice of the New Day, Jethro Tull
Sherwood, geist of the CEV Sherwood Forest
Theme song: Rainbow Fields (Upbeat Instrumental), Robbins Island Music Group
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Game Sessions
2022-06-20
The crew of the CEV Sherwood Forest* had been sent by Fred to Wendwood to meet with Professor Irulan M'Lori, an Illurian who is studying Precursor artifacts in the Donato Nebula. Fred believes the scanner Professor M'Lori has devised might be able to detect the exotic particles emitted by Old Commonwealth hyperwave transmitters, such as the one he has, as well as the one Sherwood has (which was found at a long-abandoned Old Commonwealth facility).
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They find Professor M'Lori on Wendwood in the Assiniboia system. She had been attacked just a few days before their arrival. The thieves took a small statue, along with the notes pertaining to that statue. Thanks to the initiative of Dr. Stratis "Rocky" Crystallo Sedimeti Enomorph, the crew made a good impression on Professor M'Lori, and she says that she and her team, led by her assistant, Doctor Jaris T'Kette, would be happy to collaborate with the Encyclopedia Galactica.
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The crew manages to avoid being entangled in a criminal investigation, and prepares to depart Wendwood for the Donato Nebula. Suddenly, a large, angular starship moves above them, blocking their departure. A broadcast announces that the HDSS Alahir** is under the command of Divine Inquisitor Gand, and he is here to apprehend and interrogate the crew of the Sherwood Forest.
They escape.
On the way to the Donato Nebula, the Sherwood Forest stops to investigate a location which Fred says was supposed to be used for Commonwealth Fleet Repair Dock Facility 013. However, it is quite near "the corridor" (as the most common routes of travel through the galaxy are called), so it seems unlikely to have been undiscovered for 140 years. When the ship drops into the system, they see a space station, but it is dark...
As the ship keeps a cautious distance from the station, the station lights up, and the ship receives a transmission. They are invited to dock and enjoy "Mega Pleasurestar 10000", and all of its delights. Dozens of cinemas, hundreds of restaurants, amusement parks, adult recreation zones, and so much more!
Sherwood scans Mega Pleasurestar 10000, but a strange EM burst fries the ship's sensors. The recorded messages continue.
Sherwood and the crew decide to investigate this place later, and begin maneuvering to leave the system. Dozens of small utility drones swarm from behind Mega Pleasurestar 10000, and the Sherwood Forest departs the system in haste.
The crew heads to Donato Nebula. They meet Doctor Jaris T'Kette and her grad students, exchange some notes, and head back toward FRD-01. Along the way, they stop at a small starport, where they meet representatives of Trans-Galactic Extreme Shipping. With a handshake and a wink, they get a new (first) transponder for Sherwood Forest.
Just as they are leaving, they receive a message from Doctor T'Kette. She asks them to return as soon as possible. Behind her stands an unsmiling man.
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* C.E.V. = Commonwealth Exploration Vessel
** H.D.S.S. = His Divine Shadow's Ship
2022-06-27
The crew of the CEV Sherwood Forest* heads to the Donato Nebula, approaching cautiously from behind Professor M'Lori sensor array, on the far side of the nebula from the research platform. They confirm that there is a small ship they do not recognize docked to the research platform. They assault the research platform and make quick work of the three thugs holding Doctor T'Kette and her team hostage.
Thinking that Professor M'Lori may be in danger, they head back to Wendwood. They brief Professor M'Lori on what happened at the research platform, and find out that Verdant Green, a collector of Precursor artifacts and some kind of crime boss, was behind the attacks. Professor M'Lori has the protection of the Public Order Department, so the crew decide they can head out.
By performing an analysis on the communications of the unsmiling man, they find out that he did contact Verdant Green, but there was one location where he made outgoing calls, but did not receive any calls from Verdant Green. It is a location near Wendwood: a storage facility for empty cargo containers.
The corporate megafreighters that make the lonely trek across corridor carry their cargoes in gigantic shipping containers. The smaller freighters and tramp ships that convey this cargo on from Assiniboia to the frontier worlds cannot handle these huge containers; much of the work done at the Assiniboia Highport involves breaking the cargo down into smaller loads. Ideally, empty containers are filled with goods for export back to the core worlds, but there is not always sufficient cargo to justify sending a fully loaded megafreighter back again. A percentage of cargo containers are left behind at Assiniboia. These unused bulk containers are towed to a holding depot at a Lagrangian point between the moon and the gas giant. Due to the gravitational intricacies of the Assiniboia system, the point is only semi-stable, but anything left there should remain in place for several years, waiting for the day it is needed once again. Some empty containers have been waiting for centuries.
Few ships ever visit here, except for the tugs and shepherds that keep the containers in position and the scavengers hoping to find some abandoned cargo or scrap metal. The whole zone is considered hazardous, due to the sheer number of containers and other debris floating in space.
As they get closer, they see a constellation of metallic objects glittering in the sunlight: cargo containers, thousands of them. Most are docked into long lines and cubes but a few are drifting free and untethered. It's a big space of empty metal boxes and you pick up signals from automated warning buoys informing that it's a navigational hazard and that you are not to enter the yard without permission.
2022-07-18
The crew of the Sherwood Forest find the secret headquarters of Verdant Grey among the empty cargo containers. After a brief skirmish with the station's weapons, the crew penetrates he headquarters. The only current occupant is a Slash named Oscillating Bisector.
Oscillating Bisector is reluctant to talk until the crew threatens them with death, at which point they become a font of information. They work for verdant Grey, whom they believe to be the same person as Dane Marsh, a reclusive collector of Precursor artifacts.
Oscillating Bisector also shares that the unsmiling man who held Doctor T'Kette and her team captive was named Harlen -- Harlen Delta, specifically. Harlen Beta left a few hours ago for Brin's World, where they intend to meet Harlen Gamma and Harlen Eta at the funeral of Dane Marsh, a reclusive collector of Precursor artifacts.
The crew downloads everything in Oscillating Bisector's archives, and they allow the Slash to escape before informing the Public Order Division on Wendwood of the location of Verdant Grey's secret headquarters.
Having done everything they wanted to do, the Sherwood Forest heads back to Fred.
Along the way, they meet the Melnorme Trader. The Sherwood Forest trades scans of the Donato Nebula and the haunted space station (Mega Pleasurestar 10000) in exchange for Fred's wish list and the location of some (Old) Commonwealth vessels.
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2022-07-25
Fred is beyond overjoyed with the results of the crew's exchange with the Melnorme Trader. Not only can he now fabricate starship power cores, he can even generate new synthetic intelligences to serve as geists of the ships.
However, the crew points out that the current situation in the wider galaxy makes it dangerous for AIs. Creating more of them would be unwise. Fred is forced to agree.
While Fred builds a bulk cargo hauler to retrieve the larger Melnorme-provided materials (currently stashed at an Old Commonwealth maintenance facility a few days away), the crew heads into the wild space that used to belong to the Bha'atar Empire, to find the coordinates given to them by the Melnorme Trader.
They find a barren sulfur planet orbiting an aging main sequence star. In orbit around the planet is Galactic Parking Authority Long Term Impound Lot 3,225,118. A cautious series of scans reveals that 3,724 ships are secured here, all from before the Fall. Most of the starships were brought here because they were non-functional, with the remainder being brought here after being towed from an unauthorized location.
Four of the ships are of particular interest:
- CEV Blue Heaven, an Old Commonwealth Luxury Yacht
- Length: 75 m
- Crew: 20 + Geist (2 + Geist)
- CEV Herko Barruth, an Old Commonwealth Diplomatic Heavy Cruiser
- Length: 225 m
- Crew: 56 + Geist (16 + Geist)
- CEV Madison Nebula, an Old Commonwealth Strike Wing Heavy Escort (damaged)
- Length: 150 m
- Crew: 28 + Geist (8 + Geist)
- CEV MambaX, an Old Commonwealth Speed Boat
- Length: 21 m
- Crew: 1 + Geist (1 + Geist)
The strike wing heavy escort has suffered extensive damage, but the other three vessels appear to be pristine.
Before the crew of the Sherwood Forest can investigate any further, a ship warps into the system: the BEW Eviscerator, a Bha'atar patrol ship.
- BEW Eviscerator, a Bha'atar Patrol Ship
- Length: 90 m
- Crew: 16
Captain Moloch of the Eviscerator contacts the Sherwood Forest and offers them the chance to surrender, if they share their secret for getting the Old Commonwealth ship to fly. Captain Moloch appears to believe that the Sherwood Forest was one of the ships left in the impound lot.
The crew of the Sherwood Forest decide to flee, and manage to do so.
Back at Fred, they formulate a plan to investigate the very beginning of the Fall, when the AI community became the Instrumentality (theme song: Dr. Feelgood (Instrumental), Mötley Crüe), and turned on organic life. They will look through persistent-storage financial records from the final months of the Old Commonwealth. Finding such records will be the hard part. They decide to head back to Propaideia, better known to the galaxy as Encyclopedia Galactica Planet.
CEV Blue Heaven, Old Commonwealth Luxury Yacht
CEV Herko Barruth, Old Commonwealth Diplomatic Heavy Cruiser
CEV Madison Nebula, Old Commonwealth Strike Wing Heavy Escort (damaged)
CEV MambaX, Old Commonwealth Speed Boat
BEW Eviscerator, Bha'atar Patrol Ship
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