Session 10: Voyage to Runespace Report

General Summary

Departure from Port Shurius

Just before the party departs Port Shurius, Keriacus comes to talk to Windy, to respond to his questions about clockwork men. Keriacus admits that he has never met a clockwork man before, but doing "a bit of research" in the Royal Library in Castle Skyview (King Bruin's palace on Thesalys), there is one potential connection he came across. Space mariners have stories of Clockwork Horrors, metallic arcane apparatus resembling spiders. These Clockwork Horrors travel in fleets of stolen Neogi ships (some legends claim that the horrors destroyed the Neogi homeworld, which is why the Neogi roam the void now), destroying entire worlds by strip mining all precious metal to forge new Horrors, which then go on to destroy more worlds. According to these stories, the first Clockwork Horror was built by an ancient humanoid race, known only as the "Lost Ones". One of their most brilliant artificers built a magnificent adamantite machine with workings so advanced that none but he could fathom its operation. In addition, he wove powerful spells about the contraption, bestowing on it intelligence and mystical abilities. In gratitude for its creation, the adamantite machine destroyed him. Keriacus says that, while he doesn't know the truth of these stories, some of the drawings and descriptions he found in the ancient tomes seem remarkably similar to Windy (though arachnid, rather than humanoid, obviously). Keriacus theorizes that perhaps some artificer captured one of these metallic arachnid horrors, reverse engineered its secrets, and used them to build a clockwork man. But, that is just a theory... Having dropped this information on Windy and the rest of the party, Keriacus departs, wishing them all a safe voyage. Having wrapped up their preparations, and prepared their human, kzinti and goblin crew, the newly-christened Surprise lifts off for their voyage. Heading out to the outskirts of the system, the ship encounters a few merchants en route, along with various spacefaring wildlife. The ship takes a wide arc above the Aegis asteroids, adding a few days to their journey but reducing the chance of encountering any pirates. In an excess of paranoia, the crew decides to head outsystem to detect one of the naturally-occurring portals to the Phlogiston, rather than risk the perilous pirated persistent portal to Pirtelspace. 33 days out of Port Shurius, the Surprise has crossed well beyond the orbit of Boran (the outermost planet of Greatspace). The crew has starts to use the Portal Locator aboard the ship, while Windellian sniffs the void for traces of Phlogiston. With luck, they will find a portal that will allow the ship to jump to the Phlogiston, where they will attempt to follow the navigational notes left by Captain Hobart to travel to Runespace and pursue the Hive.

Into the Phlogiston

The portal locator shows a portal about 15 days travel away, but Windellian's sensitive sniffer detects another, only 8 days away. The Surprise travels there, and find the shimmer, star-like object floating in wildspace, marking a portal to the Flow. The crew prepares their ship, dousing all open flames (because of the flammable nature of the Phlogiston), and girding their loins (since for many, this is their first jump to the Flow), and enters the portal. After a moment of wrenching, twisting sensation, the ship finds itself in the glowing clouds and flowing, colorful tendrils of the Phlogiston, the vast wall of the crystal sphere of Greatspace now visible behind them, the glowing portal they just exited visible in its surface. Zayre and Windellian take careful observations, and plot a course along the sphere, in search of the purple-green river in the flow that will (according to Hobart's charts) lead them to Runespace. Within a few hours, they come across a Neogi deathspider--the dreadnoughts of the Neogi, heavily-armed and massing over a 100 tons. After a brief moment of terror, they realize the deathspider is drifting, heavily damaged, and missing most of its masts, landing gear and grappling ram. Apparently an explosion ripped through the "head" of the ship. The retractable canopy over the upper, "battle" deck is open, and a reconnaissance pass reveals several dead bodies, and no apparent activity.

Jessa (who has the conn) decides to send over a boarding party, consisting of the Kzinti, BN Sue, Windy Clockitude and Prax. There, they find that there was a tremendous amount of bloodshed, in which the crew and slaves, including Neogi, their Umber Hulk bodyguards, and human slaves fought each other. There are also a handful of dead gnomes (presumably, this is one of the ships that visited the Scro base in Greatspace to get slaves, and these are gnomes from the Whizbang Starwonder). More mysteriously, there are a large number of dead, unknown creatures--human-sized, but resembling salamanders or worms with arms. As the boarding party makes their way towards the head of the ship, they are attacked by half a dozen of the salamander creatures, who scream at them that they will not be slaves again!

After a brief battle (in which the creatures utterly fail to harm the boarding party), they parley with their attackers, and learn that these creature (and their dead brethren) were captured by the Neogi from "the lava world" where they had made a home. (This presumably is Longpoint in Greatspace). They are called the "Syllix", and are unfamiliar to the crew. The Syllix rebelled against the Neogi slavers. In the battle, one of them tried to douse the helm with oil as a threat, but apparently the "oil" was some magical substance, since it violent exploded on contact--destroying or blowing the helm into space, badly damaging the ship, and killing everyone in that section. Ultimately, the Syllix agree to help the boarding party in exchange for passage aboard the Surprise, where they will work as crew. The Syllix help the boarding party gather the most valuable (and portable) loot they can find, and then the boarding party signals the Surprise to approach (by doing a Kitty Haka). The crew also gets some supplies (boarding weapons, timber, a disassembled ballista). They also take all the charts and log books they can find, to attempt to decipher them during the travels. Jessa attempts to rig an explosion to destroy the Deathspider, using some black powder barrels they find in the cargo hold, but the attempt fails. Jessa decides it is too dangerous to try again, and the Surprise departs, with the Syllix finding a room to make their cabin.

To Runespace

The ship continues, and soon finds what appears to be the purple-green river they are seeking. Zayre and Windellian take more measurements, and plot a course. Between the excellent navigation, and the diligent efforts of the crew (led by Windy Clockitude) to capture every bit of the Flow they can with the sails, the ship makes a remarkably fast passage. En route, Jessa spends some time examining Windy in an attempt to help him understand his capabilities, and BN Sue attempts to train the Syllix to be better combatants (with some success, as the Syllix regain their strength after their slavery). Jessa also spends some time crafting, and Prax does his best to get to know the new Syllix crewmen, as well as generally keeping morale up. Zayre and Windellian spend time deciphering the Neogi charts, while Windy C starts to study navigation with them. A mere 28 days later, the outline of another sphere looms into view in the Flow--presumably Runespace. Once again, Windellian's probing proboscis discovers a nearby portal. Seven days later, the Surprise approaches the glowing portal in the Runespace sphere, and plunges in .