Session 8: Interlude at Port Shurius Report

General Summary

Previously:

After capturing the goblin pirate triop, the group learns from the goblin captain Bonebreaker that there are more scro/goblin ships in the system, using a base in the asteroids to resupply and trade captured crews to the Neogi as slaves. This apparently includes the crew of a gnomish sidewheeler, the Whizbang Starwonder. The group decides to take all this information back to Port Shurius with them, and hand off Bonebreaker to the POTS for the bounty, sell or trade the damaged Skyrunner and its helm back to the Arcane Merquat to hopefully clear their debt, 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. Windellian spends much of the voyage (when he's not on the helm) reviewing Hobart's research (following up on the work Zayre did). He finds the name "Runespace" in Hobart's notes (as the sphere the Hive is currently in). The system is unknown to the group, but they plan to investigate further in Port Shurius. Windy questions Bonebreaker, learns 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. Zayre finds a shrine to the goblin god Khurgorbaeyag. Zayre casts Divination in the shrine to try to learn more about the goblin and scro plans, but the large, imposing goblin, black skinned with fiery eyes, who appears, (and may or may not have been an avatar of Khurgorbaeyag), is not cooperative, and promises revenge upon the crew for defeating the goblins, and eventually disappears. Jessa spends her time crafting some items, using the gnomish "Crystals of Wondrous Power" the group found about the triop. She crafts two weapons/tools, which give the bearer the powers of deflection and environmental protection. She plans to keep one for the use of the crew, and sell the 2nd one to get enough special materials to create more. 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 (with a 21 as a Persuasion check). Overall, the two months otherwise uneventfully, with occasional encounters with merchant ships as they get closer to Thesalys, some spacefaring wildlife, etc.

Session Notes

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 treatment of the crew, and Zayre's extended conversations with the shaman, apparently have an impact. Shortly before arriving at Port Shurius, a delegation of goblins lead by the shaman (Zreestrarm) asks to address the party. The goblins ask to remain aboard the ship as crew, arguing that they know the ship well, the humans have treated them better than the scro ever did, that they are happy to be crew on a ship leaving the system entirely, and all that waits them at Port Shurius is either death, imprisonment, or eventual trade back to the scro where they will be punished for losing the ship. Zayre offers to vouch for the goblins, and to continue to work on converting them to "our way of thinking". The party discusses extensively, but eventually agrees, after warning the goblins that the slightest sign of a doublecross will be dealt with severely. The goblins also agree to hang back and crew the ship, rather than board and fight other goblins hand to hand (which they'd really prefer not to), and that they would first attempt to persuade the other goblins to join them instead. As a side conversation, Hunter makes it clear that he is willing to go along with this, despite his natural bloodthirsty nature, but wants to be able to kill things more frequently, and asks the party to not be quite so quick to offer quarter. Discussion ensues, with no clear resolution.

Arrival

The two ships eventually arrive at Port Shurius, with a happy rainbow flag flying over the triop (to avoid any misunderstandings). It has been about 3 1/2 months since the group left. The crew is happy to be back in (what for many of them is) their home port. Despite this, Prax is quite persuasive, and between his eloquence the fact of a well-paid, well-fed, relatively uneventful tour, many of the crew sign back up for their next mission. The party decides to keep the goblin crew out of sight (though word will undoubtedly leak out). When the port official arrive on the two ships, the party explains who they are, and that they have brought the pirate captain Bonebreaker to justice. With that, they are escorted to the chapter house of the Pragmatic Order of Thought, where Niles and Frazier are pleased to see them. Bonebreaker, as well as half a dozen goblins who refused to leave his side, are handed over, Frazier gives them the 10,000 GP bounty (as a letter of credit to the local bank). The party declines any further missions for now (including the attack on the asteroid base, which will no doubt be planned soon). With this money, the party can pay off the crew (roughly 7500 GP for the voyage), and resupply the ship. The crew now consists of

the 7 party members
the 4 original (former animal) crew (Ralgir, Skraal, Gulug, and Baragor)
Lenny
14 crewman staying on, including 4 Kzinti. One of the Kzinti, Vantale, has been studying with Windellian, and is now ready to start sharing the helm duties.
14 goblins, including the shaman, who will also be able to share helm duties.

Total of 40 people, which is plenty to man the ship. The party spends the next few days being debriefed by the navy and the Pragmatic Order of Thought, giving all the details they've learned about the goblin pirate, and what they were told at Hecht. As at Hecht, they decide to leave out their encounter with the Gray Sword pirates. During this time, Zayre, Windy and Hunter visit the Arcane Merquat, who is quite happy to take the damaged Skyrunner back. After some negotiations, Merquat agrees to cancel the debt on the Skyrunner, while allowing the party to retain the portal locator, the planetary locator and the life boat, and throws in the repair (of 1 Wound) on the triop. The party only says that they are taking a job out of system, but are happy to hear of any opportunities that the Arcane might have for them. Jessa visits the Trading Company, where she sells one of the devices she made, in return for 5,000 GP worth of materials, enough to make perhaps 5 more. She also licenses plans for improvements she made to the ballistas en route. (As part of this conversation, we agree wealth, in general, should be handled abstractly). The party is invited to dinner with Governor Grane, who wants to meet them personally. When they arrive at the spartan house of the Governor, they meet the gruff, taciturn leader, and the sage Keriacus (both of who were childhood mentors for the young prince Bruin, and who helped him regain the throne. They also, reputedly, became vampires under T'Laan's control, until the Knights of the Reluctant Circle asked Hades himself to restore them). The dinner is pleasant, though Grane is clearly haunted by past events and has no desire to discuss them. He does thank the party, and says that based on Adm. McClintock's recommendation, they will receive 20,000 GP as prize money for returning the Reliant. Zayre asks the sage Keriacus about the phlogiston, and why the gods cannot enter. Keriacus relates some of the theories that Zayre has already heard, but then adds a new one: The gods CAN enter the Phlogiston, but don't, based on an ancient agreement called the Pact Primeval (though that name is used for other legends as well, including the legendary agreement between the gods of Law and Asmodeus). When Zayre expresses skepticism ancient hat all gods would respect this, Keriacus shrugs. He does eventually agree to suggest someone who might know more, someone who might specialize in the nature of the Phlogiston. Windy asks Keriacus what he knows about the origins of clockwork men, and why there seems to be some people interested in him. Keriacus says that isn't his area of expertise, but will find out what he can while the party is in port. Since Keriacus is known to be an expert on different systems, Hunter asks him about the name "Runespace", though the party is evasive on why. Keriacus tells them that he has read the name before. An old log found on an empty ship, 100 years ago, in the Flow outside Greatspace. The ship, the Captain's Folly, left Greatspace in early days of exploration beyond the sphere, before much contact with other systems. Only one body found aboard the ship, Erasmus Foley, the helmsman. Unusual, and almost deadly to the ship that found them, the ship had no atmosphere (not a poisonous one. None at all). The log reported that the ship wandered in the Flow, following a distinct purple and green river in the hopes of finding a new system (this matches the description in Hobart's notes). Apparently, they found a system that appeared to be uninhabited, with multiple planets, with lightning storms that appeared to affect the function of the helm at times, causing the ship to behave erratically. The log also reported the remains of an ancient spacefaring civilization, with large metal, enclosed structures floating in space, marked with strange runes (which led the captain to call this Runespace). The ship gathered some artifacts, logged some observations about the system, and then headed out of the inner system, intending to return to Greatspace. There were no log entries after that, and none of the artifacts were found aboard (at least, that is what the finding ship reported). The ship seemed to have burst from the inside, based on the damage it had. When they ask Keriacus about the ship having no air at all, he says that it is much like what supposedly happens if you go too far out in a system, beyond twice the orbit of the farthest planet. There, supposedly, magic and gravity fails, and your ship loses its air. But, it is supposed to be impossible to enter the phlogiston that far out, so that doesn't make sense here. Might mean there is something fundamentally different about that system. The party is intrigued and disturbed by this info, discussing it as they leave dinner and head back to their ship.

Campaign

Vagabonds of Greatspace

Protagonists