Session 12: Encounters In Runespace Report

General Summary

Previously

Almost 3 months after leaving Port Shurius, including about a month for a relatively quick transit through the Phlogiston, the Surprise has arrived at a crystal sphere that must be Runespace according to Hobart's charts.
The transition to wildspace inside the system is unusually rough and eventful, preceded by the crystal sphere seeming to fade momentarily as they enter. Zayer, on the helm, barely maintains control. The planetary locator starts pinging, with what the party eventually figures out is a distress signal.
Disturbingly, neither the portal locator nor Windellian's innate ability can detect any sign of a portal back into the Phlogiston.
Most shockingly, a sailor known as Old Man Withers goes through a painful transformation (when the transition to wildspace apparently disrupts the magical disguise he's had for months), revealing that he is actually Hobart the Beholder. After Hobart teleports away, Prax eventually finds him in the lower hold.
After a parley, Prax leaves a pair of Kzinti marines to watch the beholder, while he confers with the rest of the crew. They quickly come to the decision that their is no way they can trust Hobart, or allow him to get the Queen's Eyes from the Hive, and return down to the lower hold with the intent of killing the monster. Unfortunately, when they arrive, the beholder is gone, one Kzinti has been petrified into a statue, and the other is cowering in the hold, apparently terrified.
Another search ensues, with no success--until Prax notices an odd pile of dust outside the door to the hold. They confront the second Kzinti, flanked by the remaining Kzinti marines--and the creature returns to its Beholder form. The party squares off with the Beholder, combat imminent.

Beholder Battle

As the party closes, Hobart blusters, and says that they may be able to overcome him, but he will do great damage to their ship, and kill many of their crew, before they can. He offers again to make a deal with them, as long as they take him to the Hive. (Secretly, Hobart is attempting to stall, to give himself time to recover the power points he burned with his teleportation, polymorph, and--as the party is about to find out--charm spells). BN Sue violently responds, and battle is joined.

Zayer casts Armor upon the Owners, Lenny, and the Kzin.
However, two of the flanking Kzin, charmed by Hobart while he was in Kzin form, attack the party, while Lenny, a golem once and apparently still subject to Hobart's commands, also attacks the party, wailing apologetically.
While the battle is fierce, the tide quickly turns once the non-affected Kzin grapple their brethren, and Prax distracts Lenny in the traditional manner ("Hello, Handsome!")

The party overcomes the Beholder without any significant injury, and BN finishes the creature off by pummeling him into a pulp, his bloodthirsty nature given full sway.

The Ghost Ship Resolution

The party recovers from the battle, and rests. The ship continues on its course in system, towards the distress signal (which will take about a week to reach). Zayer ponders the strange situation in this system, wondering if there is some sort of magical interference or some strange planar interface that is causing spelljamming (and occasionally, other magic) to be uncertain. After a bit, Zayer (after warning the rest of the Owners) decides to try to cast Divination to learn more. At first, nothing appears to happen, but then Windy (who has the Conn) summons Zayer (and the rest of the Owners) to the top forward weapons port. Beyond, they can see a glimmering, ghostly space ship keeping station off their bow (despite the fact that they are still at Spelljamming speed). The ship is nothing like anything they've seen before, glowing lights, graceful curves, and fully enclosed. They watch in surprise as the ghostly image of a console emerges from the deck, an array of inert lights and buttons splayed out across its surface, surrounding a blinking green button. Zayer hesitates, asking the opinion of the only other priest on the ship, the goblin shaman Zreestrarm. The wizened old goblin sagely says, "We're fucked anyway. What the hell." When Zayer presses the button, a plane of light appears above the console, displaying what appears to the bridge of a ship of high technology. The crew is all wearing military uniforms, and all appear translucent and ghostly. The figure on the image introduces himself as Capt. Gregory Mathis, of the Paraxin Naval Ship Resolution.

The crew of the Surprise responds, and talk with the Captain. He seems a bit confused as to how they got here, only saying they received a signal. He is also quite confused by the Surprise, asking questions about how a wooden-framed, ceramic-wrapped ship with large sails and big openings in the hull travels safely through space. He ultimately accepts the answer of, "It's magic." Talking with Captain Mathis, the party learns that this system was once home to a star-spanning civilization, centered on the planet here in the system with the strange energy signature, Paraxis. Both science and magic flourished here, and were the twin pillars that propelled this grand civilization to the heights of culture and accomplishment. Approximately a thousand years ago, the Incident occurred. The Resolution had just arrived back in system, and within moments the home world was decimated, along with countless stations, outposts and colonies across the system. Since then, the Resolution has patrolled (haunted?) this system, dodging the Runestorms (great sheets of energy that coalesce and disappear apparently at random--the odd shimmers the party saw on the Planetary Locator). These Runestorms appear at time to be windows or portals into other realms. Mathis is aware of the new planet that arrived a few years ago (Chandos), but says the Resolution was unable to approach it. When asked, he has no knowledge of the distress signal the party is heading towards (which makes Jessa speculate that perhaps the distress signal is from their own destroyed ship, their own dead bodies). Prax speculates that perhaps they are stuck in limbo, until summoned (as by Zayer's spell). Mathis, in response to questions, says that science and magic were in balance in their civilization, and most of the Emperor's subjects believed in that balance. There were always those, on both sides, that sought to increase their power at the expense of others. Just before the Incident, there were rumors of some great scientific breakthrough that might tip the balance--and rumors of wizards and priests who sought to negate it. Jessa invites the ship to follow them, but the spell ends, and the Resolution fades away. Zayer attempts to cast the spell again over the next couple of days, but unsuccessfully so far. He plans to ask if the ship has its own spellcasters, that could perhaps work in concert with Zayer to maintain contact.

Runestorm Visons

After a few days of uneventful travel (except for an occasional hiccup in the Helm) towards the distress signal, the Surprise drops to tactical speed when it suddenly encounters a debris field. Windy observes that the debris is made of highly refined metal, similar in appearance to the Resolution. However, it is impossible to tell if it the same ship, or merely from a similar technical origin. Ahead, a huge, shimmering wave of sheet lightning manifests, waving and cascading with countless colors. Zayer, on the helm, carefully steers the ship in a parallel path, so the party can get a good look. They can make out what appears to be a reflection of their own ship--but then, after another shimmer, the image suddenly clears. Beyond the barrier, they see a ship with smoking stacks, and many weapons of various sizes.

The other ship maintains a parallel course on its side of the barrier, and the two ships attempt (unsuccessfully) to communicate via semaphore. Then, the barrier suddenly flares and flashes again, blinding the crew for a moment.

Campaign

Vagabonds of Greatspace

Protagonists