Session 12: Rising from the Graveyard Report

General Summary

The Crew began several days into their stay on the Graveyard. They observed the 5 day process of Funerals for the Scavvers killed by Dash during the raid. Mad Al continued his work on the ship’s system while Slade and his team painted the Intrepid Explorer’s exterior. Kyra processed the information given by Auntie, Jason helped the Shieldbrovs carry out one of the 3 bodies with no “truebrovs” to bury them in space, and Li continued his seduction of Taylor. Dash kept his head down during that time, with the exception of going to the Longseer information broker he spoke with last time. He had noticed the odd ritual of some scavvers pricking their fingers and marking their forearms with eight drops of blood facing him or the Intrepid Explorer. At the Longseer, he was freely told by the information broker that the angry faction known as the Blood of the Eight had sent the Hollow Man after him. Li tried casually bringing the name up around the Tempest Hornet Pod but it wasn’t acknowledged.   They were approached on the last day by Lady Ash and her companions. She admitted that the Court, namely Harbro, refused her attempt to remand their blood debt unto herself. He only would allow it if they completed the mission to obtain the Sprin within 2 months time. She took the contracts for 2 Favors each signed in blood from Dash and Jason preemptively with the assurance that their deals would be upheld.   They were then debriefed by Mad Al as the ship finished. He explained that no kill switch was installed but, after some rambling, revealed that Companion was locked out of all major systems. He also installed a Nebula Generator to allow them to negate the energy drain of the Hesperus Nebula (to ensure his “child” returns safely). He gave Li a code that allows the “captain/pilot” to unlock these barriers granting Companion full access to various ship systems. Kyra and Anna delivered their promised cheese boards having prepared them by searching the markets, and Kyra withdrew on her investments to pay the extra 1000 she promised.   They left and were accompanied/seen off by the Tempest Hornet Pod. They successfully, and far easier, navigated the Nebula out into the darkness of the Void. Anna switched from their Nebula Drive to their standard drive without issue, and they plotted the long jump (85LY) to Xanti.   They, having gotten to know and renamed their AI to Alexa at this point, learned that she could provide a Teamwork Bonus to Maneuver and Plotting. Concerned about the airlock controls, Anna installed a secretive secondary system to require physical access to the airlock panel in addition to triggering the dock/airlock release via the ship’s console. Jason spent some time training with Chiara to help move past their feeling of awkwardness after the expression of kinship. Li spend some time learning to cooperate and getting to know Alexa, and while initial fumbles were made with reading Varsian poetry that detailed the evils of technology, he eventually won her over by installing a High Five button in the pilot console to compliment her on work well done.   Towards the end of their first jump, they experienced a moment of terror as they encountered something else in Z-Space. They found the SinCom Truth, a legendary derelict ship trapped in the depths of space. There were scorch marks along the side, giant tears in the hull, and a single blue energy light in the Bridge. They made the call to pull out of hyperspace early to attempt to catch it out of ZSpace but ended up trapped in a thin dimensional membrane between ZSpace and normal Space with a current sucking them towards something. They eventually worked out, through feats of piloting, plotting, and sciencific marvels, a way to punch through the membrane at a weakened point to get back to normal space. They succeeded and spun to a halt just outside of the Nibian system.   The oddities continued as their console lit up with the blinking of a message picked up from the Nibian relay coded for Guru Kevin. They quickly learned it was from the legendary Ursus who claimed to be interested in the Golden City and Kevin’s teaching even to the point of paying for him to come to a rendezvous point. They plotted and jumped, having lost an additional week of time in the few moments trapped in the dimensional membrane.   They arrived in Xanti, navigated the Hunter’s Belt cautiously, and headed down to the planet itself. They scanned and found a massive ice storm raging on the planet below. They wisely waited and drifted down hours later. During their wait, Alexa alerted them to the fact that the signal that was being broadcast from the ship since she awoke had stopped and she couldn’t reactivate it. They were able to identify that it was coming from the exterior of the ship but decided not to spacewalk out to it. They decoded the final detectable remnant of the broadcast and found it was Krasian encryption identifying Jason as a target to be recovered with utmost priority. They couldn’t dig further in without powering it back on.   They ended up heading to the ice planet and finding their way to the Flow outpost. They claimed to be there to set a Bounty as a client and landed above the flow. They were met by a Hunter who took them down rappel lines to the battlecruiser that had been split in half and sunk halfway down the iceflow. Jason lowered Li and Dash without issues, but the ice cracked under his feet as he attempted Anna. She almost plummeted to her death below until Li and Dash jumped out to grab her and save her with the dangling rappel lines. Chiara climbed down and made it, before Jason gracefully rappelled down using his military experience. They were met by Bounty Hunters cracking up at their foibles getting to the flow, highly entertained by the show. Kyra and Warren remained with Alexa on the ship.

Rewards Granted

Significant Milestone