Distress Signal, Part 1
General Summary
Stardate 4.1495.2
Realmspace
The spacefarers, who were aboard the galleon Baatorius, were on their way to the planet Garden when they received a distress signal.
The spelljamming ship was contracted by the Pragmatic Order of Thought, who had paid good gold in advance for the captain's services.
The ship was captained by Gustaf Stellern, nicknamed Falcon the Hunter. The ship's First Mate was named Pell, a young man who was not 18 winters old yet. Falcon said he and Pell were from Toril. Falcon had owned a hunting lodge in the southern part of the Neverwinter Woods. Pell, who couldn't speak, was Falcon's ward. The captain said he had found Pell wandering in the woods alone when he was only 9 winters old. The young boy was half-starved when Falcon found him. When Falcon retraced the boy's steps, he found a campsite completely destroyed. Blood was everywhere, but there was no trace of Pell's parents or whoever had brought him to a forest too dangerous for any young boy to be in. Falcon offered Pell a place at his hunting lodge where he would be safe.
That was 8 winters ago. Falcon had become a second father to Pell since then.
Porter, who was seated on the helm at the time, was the one who had picked up the distress signal. The voice he heard resonating in his head was feminine, gnomish by the voice's subtle accent.
Everyone agreed to respond to the distress signal even though it would delay their journey to Garden.
The first pirate on their bounty list was Tal Gilgalad, a young elf who wouldn't go out of his way to kill anyone who stood between him and their spoils but would spare anyone who surrendered to him all their valuables. His hammerhead ship, The Barracuda, was crewed by people devoted to Tal Gilgalad.
N'imoy had learned that The Barracuda had last been seen near the planet Garden in Realmspace. Garden was not much of a planet, but rather a cluster of asteroids floating close enough to one another to allow sight between them. There were rumored to be several pirate dens within the asteroid cluster.
Garden lay about 1,400 million miles from Bral. Falcon calculated it would take the Baatorius about 10-14 days to reach it.
With some effort, Porter precisely pinpointed where the distress signal was coming from.
It took several hours to reach it.
When they arrived, they spotted a ship that looked like a giant dung beetle. Its surface was made of an iridescent blue metal, which partly reflected its surrounding. The ship seemed to have crashed head-first against a gigantic asteroid. A large gaping hole appeared on the ship's stern, perhaps caused by the crash. Nevertheless, it was the way into the beetle ship.
The spacefarers left the Baatorius, which docked not far from where the crashed ship lay.
Once inside, the spacefarers found themselves inside a large cargo hold. The floor was littered with an unusual amount of grain. Broken crates and barrels were scattered everywhere.
A large set of wooden doors hanging on rollers led out of the cargo hold and farther into the ship.
The doors led to a ten-foot-wide corridor. Tall ladders led to trapdoors in the high ceiling overhead while another set of doors led to what everyone thought might be another cargo hold.
They opened the doors to the other cargo hold.
The hold contained many cages. Some were small, while some were large enough to accommodate creatures the size of horses. Most were broken. The exotic animals, the likes of which the spacefarers had never seen, lay dead inside their cages, possibly killed when the ship crashed into the asteroid.
A sudden movement caught the group's attention.
On the ceiling, suspended upside down, was a large caterpillar-like creature. Its head was ringed with long tentacles. It had a mouth full of sharp-looking teeth.
The spacefarers fought the creature and killed it. Only Geoffrey was hurt when one of the creature's tentacles slashed him across his arm. It stung like a jellyfish sting and made his skin numb. But the effect soon wore off.
N'imoy healed his wounded arm as well.
After quickly harvesting parts they thought were valuable from the various creatures in the hold, the spacefarers left the hold to explore the rest of the ship.
Rewards Granted
Harvested creature parts.
Milestone level
Report Date
14 Oct 2022
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