Session 5: Dinner with the Admiral Report

General Summary

Carousing in Clekmore

The Navy is quite grateful to the party for delivering the Reliant, and arranges to provide a full resupply of the Skyrunner. The party spends the next couple of days on personal errands, and allow the crew shore leave to rest and recover. During this time:

Zayre learns that Athena is the patron goddess of the human settlements on Hecht, credited with inspiring them with her valor and wisdom to defeat the previous wave of human colonists, centuries ago. He casts Divination in the temple of Athena, and a messenger of Athena named Lianna appears. Lianna tells Zayre that she was once an adventurer, and now serves Athena on Olympus. She (as with Morty) tells him that the gods are quiet on the subject of why they cannot manifest in the Phlogiston, and again mentions the wizard Zolnar as the only one she knows of that was able to create a miniature crystal sphere in the Phlogiston, allowing planar access.
Jessa consults with the local contact from "The Firm", a.k.a., the Trading Company, a half-elven woman named Mirraine Inaceran. Mirraine is newly-arrived, so can tell her little about the local situation, but knows that the pirate squidship FrostFire has been harassing merchant shipping heading in system from the portal to Fairiespace, and is rumored to have its base near the ice planet Boran.
Hunter spends his time carousing with his Kzinti kin, his pussy cat posse, his kitty cat cabal, but fails to find any Vodoni here. While the Kzinti Karaoke drives off most of the humans in the bar, it does attract a handful more kzinti, who find themselves in port. Hunter convinces them to join their crew.
BN Sue and Prax party with some of the crew as well, and unfortunately BN gets far too drunk, picks a fight with the wrong half-ogre, and ends up being carried home. Windellian is present at the same tavern, and has an excellent evening.
Windy meanwhile attempts to drown his sorrows in some WD 40, gets drunk, and hits on a mannequin.
The party also learns what they can about the pirates. Most interestingly, they learn that the Pirates of the Grey Sword are the descendants of the first human colonists of Hecht, who were driven off by subsequent waves of colonization. The Grey Sword now lives "off the grid" in the asteroid belt. This makes Jessa question whether they are truly "pirates", or really a displaced people. The party also speculates that perhaps the goblin pirates fought and defeated the Grey Sword, and that is why they looked bedraggled and weak.

Dinner with Admiral McClintock

Finally, the evening comes for their dinner with Admiral Montgomery McClintock, admiral of the 4th Fleet and local representative of the Greatspace military, who wishes to meet and thank them personally. The Admiral's home is an aging mansion not too far from the Naval HQ (which looks like a converted merchant offices and warehouse near the docks). The Admiral's home is clean and well maintained, but not particularly luxurious. They are greeted by a beefy butler who looks like a former bosun, hand over any weapons they carry for safekeeping, and led into the dining room. The admiral gruffly greets them, and introduces his secretary (a young ensign named Daniel Miles). McClintock thanks the party again. The dinner itself is fairly simple but high quality fare, a welcome change after a month aboard ship. After a pleasant dinner, over desert and drinks, the Admiral confides in the party that the addition of the Reliant will be welcome, assuming the central brass let's him keep it here at Hecht. Hightlights of the conversation:

The Admiral feels exposed here in the outer system, and feels the central gov't doesn't understand their needs, but he knows they are stretched thin. He worries about outside influences in the system (from both the Imperial Elven Navy and the Vodoni).
When Hunter questions him about the Vodoni, he says that they tend to avoid Hecht (and the elven navy), and spend more of their time at Thesalys, or Port Shurius on Myle. The Vodoni helped the system greatly after T'Laan was driven off, supplying ships and loans to pay for them, but the Admiral is concerned about their long term goals. He believes they ultimately wish to add Greatspace to their empire, but they seem more intent for now on absorbing Darkspace. He has heard rumors that they are scouring the ruins there for something, but what, he does not know. He believes King Bruin would like to learn more about the systems of the Vodoni empire, and so if the party is looking for work, volunteering for a trade mission to the Vodoni empire could be lucrative.
He is cynical about his title, Admiral of the 4th Fleet. (What fleet, he asks?) and the surrounding pomp. General Gracas Orzon, overall commander of the military, insisted he be made an admiral, so that he would be of equivalent rank to the elven Admiral Starrunner.
He both appreciates and is wary of the Imperial Elven Navy. There primary goal is to protect and provide connection between the elven civilizations across the spheres. They seem to have no desire to rule humans, or anyone else, but prefer to keep humans, and others, "in their place." He mentions the "Protocols of Darnnanon, which is an ancient agreement that the Elven Navy has imposed on many human worlds, and severely regulates and restricts their spelljamming capability. For now, however, the elves seem focused on trying to find a way to stop the "Witchlight Marauder", a superweapon created (or controlled) by the Scro.
He tells the party that the reward for the Reliant and its helm is up to the brass at Port Shurius, but he will send his recommendation to be as generous as possible. They should expect something in the range 10 to 20K GP. He provides them a copy of his recommendation
He also warns the party that he is getting some reports of ships carrying undead sailors, ghosts, etc. Believes it might be something left over from T'Laan's time, that the darkening of the sun might have reawoken and drawn these creatures in from the farther depths of the outer system.

Regarding the Letters of Marque and pirates, the Admiral reviews the party's list, and shares the latest information he has (including what the Elven Navy has shared with him).

The Grey Sword is a minor nuisance in his mind.
Far more dangerous is the goblin pirate Bonebreaker, who sails the triop the Elf's Blood. The admiral believes there are more scro or goblin ship in system, but the Elf's Blood is the only one currently known to be active.
Tal Gilgalad and the Barracuda are a major embarrassment to the elves. Gilgalad's family was slaughtered by Drow and Bionoids during the recent battles on Hecht, and Gilgalad seems to be intent on taking his anger out on any ship that gets in his way--elven, human, or whatever.
He says (after pulling up a map of the system), "If I were to go after pirates, or try to set a trap, I'd probably travel between Hecht and the area of the portal to Pirtelspace. Best chance to get the goblins or Tal Gilgalad. The Frostfire has been attacking shipping arriving from Fairiespace, and heading in system. With the current alignment of planets, I suspect they have a base near Boran.
He is unfamiliar with the Raven or the Nex.

When the conversation turns to the evidence they found regarding Belalspace, the Admiral becomes quite somber. It is critical, he says, to know whether there are any survivors there, sent by T'Laan, and why they were sent. He asked the elves what they know about the sphere, and has been told that the sphere holds a planet, Falx, ruled by Illithids, and the sun has been darkened there (and is the last system whose sun was darkened by the Drow/Illithid alliance, and the only system whose sun is still dark that the elves know about). He has been told that anyone taken there is almost surely dead, or a mind-wiped slave of the illithids. He hesitates to suggest it, but asks the party whether they would be willing to travel to Belalspace to scout it. The party says they will consider it in the future, but not now.

Pirate Hunting

After leaving the admiral's home, the party spends a couple more days preparing for their journey, and learning what they can.

They decide that they will travel between Hecht and the portal to Pirtelspace, posing as a merchantman, in the hopes of luring pirates to attack.
They hear rumors that the Nex, from their letters of marque, is supposedly a ship crewed by undead, and their captain, Manara, is some sort of necromancer.

The journey to the portal will be about 20 days, in the dark and cold outskirts of the Greatspace system. For the first 15 days, the journey is uneventful, but suddenly the ship lurches out of spelljamming into a debris field not marked on the maps. They spy a triop, presumably the Elf's Blood. The group debates how to respond for a few minutes as the ship closes, and then decides to make a half-hearted attempt to defend themselves, in the hopes of having the ship close and board. Hunter (along with Kzinti boarders) and BN are eager to fight the goblins hand to hand.