Session 7: Voyage to Port Shurius Report

General Summary

From Last session

After capturing the goblin pirate triop, they learn from interviewing the (now very helpful, in the hopes of staying alive) goblin captain Bonebreaker, that there is an base in the asteroids (roughly in the area Captain Greelon of the Grey Sword told them) that the Elf's Blood and a few other scro/goblin ships use (apparently there are 3 other scro/goblin ships regularly in system, including a scro mantis). Crew and passengers from their targets that survive are taken there, where they are sold to Neogi slavers.
The group decides to take all this information back to Port Shurius with them, and hand off Bonebreaker and the goblins to the POTS for the bounty, sell or trade the damaged Skyrunner and its helm back to the Arcane Merquat to hopefully clear, or at least greatly reduce, their debt (after moving the Planetary Locator to the Triop), collect their reward for discovering the Reliant from the Admiralty, get the triop repaired, and then take the triop as their new ship.
Their intention is to hire what new crew they need to, and then use the map and information that Hobart left aboard the Skyrunner to pursue the mysterious Hive in a distant sphere.The voyage in to Thesalys/Myle would normally take about a month, including a few extra days to swing well above the asteroid belt to hopefully avoid any unpleasant encounters. With their two helmsman split between the two ships, it will take twice a long. After splitting the party and crew between the two ships (with Zayre on the triop's helm, and Windellian on the Skyrunner), the ships settle in for the long voyage back to Port Shurius.

Events on the voyage
En route, the goblins seem quite subdued, shocked at their sudden reversal and their captain's cowardice at the end of the battle. Windellian makes sure the goblins are treated reasonably, but kept securely. The party debates whether to turn the goblins over to the elves, or the Greatspace Navy. Bonebreaker promises to be very cooperative--and keeps asking for his ship back. Reviewing Hobart's research Since the party intends to pursue the Hive in the triop. Windellian spends much of the voyage reviewing Hobart's research (following up on the work Zayre did), and searching his workshop, to make sure they haven't missed anything. Skeleton Attack As they swing well "above" the asteroid belt, the ship drops to tactical speed, and the ships find themselves in a debris field of white rocks. The rocks start to drift down onto the deck. As they impact, the rocks unfurl into skeletons which immediately attack the party. Fortunately, the skeletons, while terrifying, are not that dangerous, and the crews are able to quickly defeat them.

Zayre on the helm of the triop, spins the ship to knock some away, as they land on the hull.
Windellian, on the Skyrunner, asks Lenny to smash, as the crew supports him. Lenny smashes real good, smashes many different skeletons, eventually playing handball with them.
Jessa, on the Elf's blood, blasting the skeletons with rainbow bursts as they are flung off the hull.
Windy, to everyone's surprise, activates his deathblossom effect.
They carefully mark on the charts where this happened, so that they can report the area to the Greatspace Navy.

Why do the goblins want Windy Clockitude? Windy wants to know why the goblin sailors said, "The clockwork man! General Gorgash will reward us!".

The captured goblins eye Windy strangely, with a mix of fear, fascination and greed.
When Windy questions Bonebreaker, he learn that General Gorgash (who captains the Scro Mantis, and commands the forces here in Greatspace overall) told the crews that "some crazy priests" have put out a bounty for the capture of "a clockwork man", undamaged, and that Gorgash would reward the ship that found him. When pressed, he says that he heard that the priests think that "only the gods can create life, and this creature is a blasphemy".
When Windy and Zayre later question the goblin shaman about, he says that he thinks one of the priests was a follower of Ptah. This seems strange, since Ptah is the god of travelers and artisans, and revered across the spheres. Why would a priest of Ptah call Windy a blasphemy, and put a bounty out for him?

The Shaman and the Shrine In the (empty) slave pen area, Zayre finds a shrine to the goblin god Khurgorbaeyag. Fascinated by all the gods, Zayre asks the goblin shaman, who tells him of the glory of Khurgorbaeyeg, a cruel taskmaster whose malevolence and aggression is tempered by a rigid sense of order. He practically exemplifies the goblin race's desire to take slaves, and is delighted when they are used to complete menial, undesirable tasks so that his goblins can focus more on war and committing atrocities. (Zayre questions the shaman extensively, and learns much about the goblin god's worshipers and history. See Goblin Deity: Khurgorbaeyag. Zayre (with Windy standing nearby, in case he needs help) casts Divination in the shrine. The form of a large, imposing goblin, black skinned with fiery eyes, appears, looking angry. Zayre wants to learn more about why the goblins are attacking the spheres, and more tales of the gods. The goblinoid creature, who may or may not have been an avatar of Khurgorbaeyag, is not cooperative, promises revenge upon the crew for defeating the goblins, and eventually disappears. Zayre spends a good amount of time on the voyage talking to the shaman, understanding more of goblin religious lore, and patiently explaining at length why all gods should be revered, as opposed to only the goblin gods. Treasure aboard ship In addition to the ship and two helms, the group finds about 2500 GP in treasure in hidden chest. Also, in the same chest, they find a dozen "Crystals of Wondrous Power". Jessa immediately recognizes them as the crystals tinker gnomes use to power their magic items. They are only found beneath Mount Nevermind on Krynn, where the largest enclave of tinker gnomes can be found. Jessa is elated to find these, and intends to spend much of their voyages tinkering to create magic items to benefit the crew. When the party wonders where the crystals came from and question Bonebreaker, he tells them that the ship recently destroyed a gnomish sidewheeler, the Whizbang Starwonder, and deposited the tinker gnomes at the asteroid base as slaves. (This conversations elicits a rant from Jessa about the use of giant space hamsters to propel some gnomish ships). The party will report this information (about the slaves, not the hamsters) to the GSN. Jessa is fascinated to find that the crystals resonate when around Windy Clockitude--perhaps indicating he is gnomish-made, or at least made from gnomish technologies. The pair spend some time discussing what sort of "add ons" Jessa might build for him. Interludes The group has two months aboard ship, in which to learn more about each other and the crew.

They learn that Zayre has never been to Sigil, but was born on this plane, at the Rock of Bral (which features portal to many other locations, including the Bazaar on Deva). He started traveling to explore, and met an avatar of Celestian, the Star Wanderer. This inspired him to travel more, and learn about the many gods in the universe.
Jessa shares that at Mount Nevermind, she was working on earbuds that would use sound to protect the wearer from psionic attacks. Despite many months of effort, they didn't work. She shared the design with her best friend on Krynn, who promptly made the design work. In a fit of jealousy, Jessa stole the only working pair, left Krynn, and is a on personal mission to figure out how her friend did it, and what Jessa missed.
Windy shares more of his story. While his memories are fragmented, he knows that he loved his former master and creator, who was rich and powerful. Windy was his bodyguard, but after some sort of attack on their ship, Windy was found floating in the Phlogiston, with vague memories of his master being killed. The wizard on the ship that found him was able to patch him up a bit, help him piece together what happened. Windy is intent on finding out who killed his former master, and recovering his memories.
Windellian spends his time on the helm exploring his ability to see what is around the ship, and to sharpen that skill as much as possible. He also tries to apply his Astrogation knowledge, to improve his navigation as he flies the ship. He relates that he is working on his ability to sniff out portals to the Phologiston, and is fascinated by the matter of Phlogiston--what it is, why it cannot be brought into a system, etc. Zayre and Windellian spend many hours chatting and speculating about the nature of the Flow.

Overall, the two months otherwise uneventfully, with occasional encounters with merchant ships as they get closer to Thesalys, some spacefaring wildlife, etc. Inspired by the skeleton fight, Windellian tries to teach Lenny a basic sport on which they can wager. The goblins soon adjust to their new situation, and seem to begin to identify with and sympathize with the party and human crewmen who treat them quite fairly. They begin to volunteer information on how to operate the ship optimally, etc. The two ships eventually arrive at Port Shurius, with a happy rainbow flag flying over the triop (to avoid any misunderstandings).

Campaign

Vagabonds of Greatspace

Protagonists