yeehaw-in-magic-space

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 15 Recap: Part 7/7

Blackjack, Poly, and Isabel woke up for the final watch. Isabel began patrolling, while Poly got to work on restoring power to the section of the ship they were in. Blackjack decided to approach Poly and offer his assistance. The two of them began to work in sync quickly. They’d been working near each other on the Orbit-Hopper for a couple weeks, so it wasn’t hard for Blackjack to get into the rhythm of how Poly liked to operate. 

Conversation sparked up as they worked. Poly expressed his relief seeing that he wasn’t the only old-timer working this job. Blackjack jovially, but mildly defensively, pointed out that he was still at least a decade younger than Poly. The cyclops laughed, and explained that he was just happy to see someone else looking after a group of crazy kids running head first into death traps. 

Blackjack began to have a small crisis about his age as he realized that Poly had a point. He wasn’t the one choosing the missions or leaping headfirst into danger anymore. He’d hopped onto this gig as a favor for an old friend and found himself trying to get them to make safer choices at every turn. 

Blackjack admitted that Poly had a point, and talked a little about his old gang during the war. He didn’t say much, just that he’d worked a lot of rough gigs and had his share of brutal life lessons. He’d learned the hard way how dangerous it was to be an adventurous youth with stars in his eyes. Poly nodded along with his story, sharing that same painful familiarity.

When they stopped for a break, Poly offered Blackjack a cigarette and a flask. The two of them began exchanging stories over a smoke and a drink. 

Poly told Blackjack about his life: He’d become a pirate during the Long War and served with the same crew for decades. They’d grown successful enough to buy a second ship and expand their ranks. Poly became the head engineer of the second ship as a reward for all the shit he’d gotten up to for the “commodore” he served.

He was content doing the dirty work, but he was actually happy as an engineer. He didn’t care who they were fighting for the most part: Galactic Navy, Bandit Kings, local militias. They were all the same to him. His only issue was when they attacked other pirates. He didn’t like attacking people down in the shit with them. But now he rarely knew who they were fighting, and could just focus on working the ship.

It became harder to ignore, of course, when they started taking prisoners. It became increasingly clear that they were fighting other salvage ships, and that they were doing it intentionally. This wasn’t just disagreements between crews finding the same jobs, this was hunting.

Poly did some digging and found out they’d been hired by a Bandit King. They were clamping down on salvaging in the area and only working gigs that he’d approved of. They’d started capturing and killing other pirates, including the majority of a young crew led by Simon and Isabel. Poly became fed up and staged a small rebellion. He and those loyal to him freed Simon, Isabel, and their surviving crew members, stole a ship, and fled to the prairie worlds. Poly had been looking after them ever since. They were the closest to kids he ever expected to have, and it was odd having that kind of relationship with his crew. 

Blackjack thought about his own old crew, and how odd it was to be without them for all this time. He certainly didn’t feel much for this crew yet, but he knew he had to look after them… at least until the money stopped coming. 

Poly began wrapping up the work and sent Blackjack to clear barricades with Isabel so they’d have an easy path forward. Blackjack worked with Isabel in comfortable silence until the lights came on. Poly proudly announced that he’d done it, and walked into the center of the room to show off how pretty it was with the lights on. His only complaint was that the massive chandelier in the center of the room hadn’t lit up. 

Blackjack began taking mental inventory of everything in the room, but realized too late that there hadn’t been a chandelier when he'd gone to bed. The massive mimic descended from its wires and wrapped itself around Poly.

Blackjack ran forward with his oversized Blunderbuss, but it misfired. He prepared another shot, desperate to save Poly, but that would have to wait, because that’s where the session ended.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 15 Recap: Part 6/7

Charles woke Prometheus for their watch. He wasn’t gentle in his efforts, but Prometheus was a hard man to wake. Prometheus approached Isabel and attempted to wake her as well, but she sleepily informed him that she was taking the last watch, reminding him that he’d said Charles wouldn’t be a problem. Prometheus tried to explain that he’d meant he wanted help because Charles couldn’t be relied upon, but he couldn’t find the words before Isabel had returned to sleep. 

The two sat off to the side of the group and avoided eye contact for a while. Prometheus had not been subtle in sharing his distaste for Charles, which didn’t exactly make it easy to start a conversation. Eventually, however, Prometheus did ask Charles what exactly he was doing with this group. 

Charles did not hesitate to remind Prometheus of the details he’d shared in the monologue he’d delivered the first day they’d met: his supervisor was a cruel man. He had often berated him and looked for excuses to pilfer his paycheck. This was his revenge. 

Prometheus poked at that statement, pointing out that revenge against Western Comet was unlikely to affect his supervisor. Charles deflected, asking Prometheus what *he* was doing out here, as he didn’t even have revenge as a motive. 

Prometheus deflected Charles’s deflection, digging into the factory manager’s lack of practical skills, disdain for any meaningful contributions, and active hostility towards the pirates and members of Prometheus’s crew. 

Charles defended himself, reminding Prometheus that he had a key from Western Comet that allowed him to enter the ship and the lab. He insisted that they wouldn’t have made it into the ship without him at all, but as he said it he realized that wasn’t a great sales pitch. He returned to his previous question, demanding to know how a man like Prometheus had ended up in this situation. He wasn’t exactly a hardened veteran, and he used his own group like a human phalanx. 

Prometheus lied, explaining that he’d been hired on to keep records and handle contracts. According to his story, he had a certain legal expertise that made him useful to a company that specialized in covert transportation and protection.

Charles took this well, proudly announcing that he had suspected as much. He knew that the two of them were the same. Prometheus protested the idea that they were similar, but Charles insisted. They were both deprived of what they deserved, they were both forced to get their hands dirtier than they would like, and they were both strangers in a group like this, forced to grovel before bounty hunters for protection because they’d been dragged into hell. 

Prometheus didn’t respond, he just let Charles keep talking in the hopes of gathering information about him… and because the idea that he and Charles were similar in any way hurt his feelings. For one, he was nobility. Not only that, but he was carrying arcane secrets the likes of which Charles couldn’t even comprehend. He knew that he was better than him, though his stomach turned as if a part of him had doubts. 

Charles took his silence as agreement, and suggested that he involve Prometheus in an idea he’d apparently been cooking up to make real money on this job. Prometheus perked up at that, and expressed as much interest as he could without seeming suspicious.

He got Charles to admit that he intended to sell the pirates out to Western Comet. He then planned to leverage what knowledge he had of the dump site to get himself a promotion. From there, he hoped to establish a network of blackmail against the company. Ideally, he hoped to get a serious promotion from this. If he had enough information, they could never get rid of him without killing him. And that’s why he intended to hire out muscle to protect him and kill off his enemies. 

Prometheus reminded him that he wasn’t any good as muscle, and Charles agreed fast enough to hurt Prometheus’s feelings again. Prometheus had seen Charles approach Blackjack earlier that day, and asked if that was what they’d talked about. Charles confirmed his suspicions, and explained that although Blackjack had turned him down, he was confident that he’d change his mind if he heard the full offer. After all, the best a bounty hunter could hope for in this life was steady work, or so Charles insisted. 

Prometheus lied and said the plan was brilliant. He pretended not to be concerned about selling out the pirates potentially getting him and his friends killed, or the fact that the company would almost certainly find a way to silence him even if they had to blow up an entire factory. He kept Charles talking so that he could gather as many details of the plan as possible. 

Charles reasoned that if they could flip Blackjack, they would have enough manpower to betray the pirates at exactly the right moment and reach Western Comet before anyone could do a thing to stop them. After that, he would want Prometheus to use his legal knowledge in combination with his ability to slip in and out of spaces miraculously quietly to help Charles establish his network of blackmail. 

Prometheus made a false promise to help Charles in any way he could, assuming that Charles could guarantee his safety. Charles seemed convinced that Prometheus was being genuine, and said they should get something in writing.

Charles reached into his pocket and pulled out a full contract and non-disclosure agreement as if that were something one casually carried on them. Prometheus read it over and observed that it was genuinely legally binding and could end with a bounty on his head. Charles had thought this out shockingly well for how stupid his plan was. Prometheus signed the agreement with a pen he’d designed that used ink that would flake off after a day or two and went into a false partnership with Charles. Prometheus suggested that they continue to act like they hate each other so that no one suspected anything. Charles agreed, which Prometheus took as permission to ignore him for the rest of the night.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 15 Recap: Part 5/7

Simon and Geraldine took the second watch. They decided to patrol together, walking as if they were taking a stroll in the park—only occasionally stopping to shove a bayonet into a chair to make sure it didn’t bleed. 

Simon asked Geraldine how she got into the business. He said he didn’t want to judge based on appearances, but her clothes were nicer than any salvage worker or bounty hunter he’d ever met. He was impressed by the confidence and competence she'd shown in combat, but was always surprised to see someone so fancy getting her hands so gleefully dirty. He also admitted that he didn’t think there was anyone out there who would choose a life like his.  

Geraldine explained that her life had been rather ordinary before this: she’d lived a dull life working behind a desk waiting for a suitor to sweep her off her feet. She had felt unfulfilled and underappreciated in her career and unpursued in her romantic life, so she’d taken up reading. Her love of reading led her to discovering scandalous romance novels, adventure stories about the frontier, and then finally, a combination of the two. She told Simon about The Adventures of Michael Hawk, the ranch hand turned vigilante who always found himself in exciting and raunchy scenarios. 

Geraldine explained how she’d wanted to live a life like his, and that nothing she did at home could possibly compare. Hell, the things she did at home barely seemed to improve the bottom line for her family. She taught herself to shoot and to ride, and then ran off into the great unknown, chasing her adventure.

Simon stared at her in baffled silence. Although Geraldine had described her life as ordinary and exactly what one might expect, it was about as far from his experience as anyone could possibly describe. He tried to explain to her that he couldn’t imagine that being considered normal, but she insisted that was the life most people would expect, though of course she was sympathetic to the notion of the war robbing so many people of normal.

Simon was unable to get through to her, and instead just decided to focus on how impressed he was that she showed that kind of initiative in pursuing the life she wanted—even if that life was one he desperately wanted to escape from. 

Geraldine asked Simon about himself, and he explained that he’d begun salvaging at a young age. It was an easy way to make money during the war and even made some people rich if they picked through the right battles. He dragged Isabel into the business, and the two of them started assembling a crew. Business had been good for a while, but as things got more stable in the center of the galaxy, the universe became a lot less friendly to pirates. 

A lot of their crew got killed when someone betrayed them to the navy, but Simon and Isabel pulled through and assembled a second crew from the ashes of the first. This one had some more experienced sailors in it and they were willing to take bolder jobs.

That crew had its highs and lows: a handful of deaths, a merger with a larger crew, and being on the wrong side of every form of law enforcement imaginable. They did what they could to stay alive until the crew got tired of them.

They were faced with mutiny, their ship was stolen, and Simon, Isabel, Poly, and Hugh were left stranded. Simon never heard about what happened to his old crewmates, but he’d always imagined they sold the ship for some lucrative scheme that didn’t pan out. That was what a lot of them had wanted. 

Simon had been betrayed over and over and been pushed out of every stable place he’d ever tried to settle himself and his crew. That was why he had finally started pursuing the jobs he’d dreamed of as a kid. The one in a million get rich quick jobs that would get him and his friends away from danger for good.

Geraldine apologized to Simon for all he’d been through and promised that, even though it didn’t seem like they’d get rich off of this job, she would make sure everyone who'd made it this far reached home safe and sound.

Simon thanked Geraldine once again. He promised to look after her people if she’d look after his. They shook on it, and spent the rest of their watch in comfortable silence walking side by side. Geraldine took inventory of the space as they moved through it. She couldn’t say with one hundred percent certainty, but it seemed like everything was as normal as it could be. 

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 15 Recap: Part 4/7

Dolly asked Brynhild to watch with her so that she could conduct the interview she'd promised. Poly said that he was an early riser and would happily take the final watch, which Blackjack agreed to join him on. Prometheus pointed out that the numbers were uneven, to which Isabel replied that it was his call whether he wanted to watch with her, Charles, or both. Prometheus remarked that he didn’t think Charles would be able to do much in a tough situation, which Isabel agreed with, but mistook as Prometheus saying he wasn’t afraid of Charles and would keep an eye on him (because that was what I, the DM thought, and then Prometheus’s player was a good sport and said that was funny and we should integrate it into the story)

Dolly and Brynhild took the first watch. Dolly did everything she could to make Brynhild comfortable. She moved them a safe distance away from the rest of the group—but not so far she couldn’t keep an eye on them—and lowered her voice as she asked once again where the bounty hunter had learned how to fight. 

Brynhild, jumping the gun slightly, told Dolly the story of her people. She explained that they’d once been wandering voyagers who scavenged from abandoned worlds and vulnerable fleets of ships as they moved aimlessly across the galaxy.

Eventually, they’d settled down in a solar system that was populated by terrifying leviathans that dominated the planets. They were so dangerous that The Galactic Kingdom hadn’t tried to settle the system, but her people were bold, careful, and had wings, so they decided to try their luck and make homes in the mountains and in the treetops of towering forests. 

They began to study the creatures and created hunting groups to track down leviathan corpses and trail wounded beasts to finish them off. Eventually, they got good enough to start outright killing the creatures when they had to—though they focused primarily on feeding themselves and protecting their new homes. 

They thrived for a century as hunters, scavengers, and explorers in this unclaimed system. At some point, Brynhild herself was born and trained for most of her life to become a member of the most elite order of scavengers her world had to offer. Her people practiced ancient fighting traditions that she had to master before ever going on a mission, which was where she’d learned to fight. 

Dolly pressed for more information about the hunts she’d been on, but Brynhild admitted she didn’t have many stories to tell. She had only recently finished her training when The Long War ended. After that, The Galactic Kingdom had begun to notice how prosperous their solar system had become. Each planet in the system had a kingdom or two, and although tensions sometimes ran hot, there had never been an outright war. The Galactic Kingdom changed that. They funded one particular kingdom, promising to help them create an empire that would control the entire solar system. 

Of course, once the war had been won, The Galactic Kingdom turned on them and staked their claim over the system. Every kingdom in Brynhild’s home system had been matriarchal, but The Kingdom appointed a man who had controlled a band of scavengers as their new Duke, and other male generals as counts and barons. None of the new leaders were experienced rulers, which made it easy for The Kingdom to control the newly established order. 

Some of Brynhild’s people began plotting rebellion, but many who disagreed with the new order dug up the old colony ships instead and flew off into the stars looking for a new homeworld.

Brynhild abandoned them all. She claimed to know better. There was nowhere to run, and there was no new home to find. All that one could do to survive was grab whatever scraps were made available to them. Bounty hunting was her attempt to pick up some scraps and make her way through the universe. 

Dolly sympathized with her. Although she’d never experienced such a dramatic loss of identity, she knew what it was like to be living a poor imitation of her old life reaching for scraps. She told Brynhild as much, and the bounty hunter gave her a knowing nod. She explained that Dolly’s history was part of the reason she’d liked reading her work. 

Brynhild began running through the questions Dolly typically asked. Oversharing details about her favorite things, her sex life, and biological details of her species. Although Dolly didn’t mind the oversharing, she was careful about what notes she took. Brynhild was giving details that Choice Information would use to make a spectacle of her, but Dolly wouldn’t let them. As the discussion wound down, Brynhild began to sober up to just how much she’d been oversharing. Without another word she separated from Dolly and began patrolling the room silently without looking back a single time.  

Dolly studied the piles of furniture and debris to make sure that everything looked exactly how she remembered it, and sure enough, nothing seemed to change during her watch.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 15 Recap: Part 3/7

As the party continued forward, Charles approached Blackjack. He asked him how much the party paid for his services. Blackjack refused to answer. Charles pressed, so Blackjack told him that the job was a favor for a friend, which made it worth more than just the pay. Charles insisted he could beat the price PLUS a friendship fee, which only made Blackjack more hostile. In an effort to get away from him, Blackjack cut ahead to the front of the group. He led them to a set of metal doors similar to the ones from the lab, which everyone seemed to agree was a good sign that they’d found Western Comet’s staging ground. 

Blackjack put his ear up to the door to determine whether there were mimics moving around inside the room ahead, but all he could hear was a pulsing noise... like the door had a heartbeat. Of course, he tried to pull away the moment he heard the sound, but the adhesive quality of the door mimic made that a difficult task. The second Blackjack managed to pry himself free, every single person carrying a gun unloaded onto the door. 

Once they had passed through the mimic, Blackjack began to weld its flesh together as he would a regular door.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party investigated the area Western Comet Forge had made camp. It was a ball room with a stage, a dance floor, a dining space, and fancy dangling electric lights (though they weren’t on since this section of the ship lacked stable power). Western Comet had left behind crates of rations and ammunition. They’d also barricaded the other doors with furniture from the dining space. 

Dolly immediately got to work poking crates and chairs with her rapier. She tried to memorize the exact contents of the room, taking note of every single object in case something else tried to slip in while they were investigating. Simon, Isabel, Poly, and Brynhild followed in her example and began poking at anything she hadn’t touched yet. 

Prometheus and Geraldine saw Charles eyeing the stage and decided to investigate. Sure enough, there was a makeshift lab set up behind the curtains. They rushed to get to the notes before Charles could, and Geraldine read them out for everyone to hear. 

The notes told the story of the scientist who had developed the mimics. He’d been hired by Western Comet Forge to compete with other scientists to create a method of destroying garbage more efficiently. While running tests, the scientist observed parasites that were eating their way through Western Comet’s dump sites. At first, he thought they just ate bugs and rodents, but through further study he determined that they were also eating wood and metal—and not only were they eating it, but they were incorporating it into their bodies to defend from predators. 

This scientist was skilled in brewing mutagens, and decided his contribution to the competition would be a mutated variant of this parasite that could consume garbage on a much larger scale. He created massive versions of the alien creatures with acidic blood that could melt their bodies when they weren’t useful anymore. He trained them to eat metal, wood, and food waste, and forced them to eat and expand until they were out of food, then watched them melt away into nothing. 

He presented his findings to Western Comet, and they seemed disappointed that he was changing their focus from eating meat. He assured them that they would still eat meat, and performed some disturbing animal tests to prove it. Ultimately, he won the contract and was told about the true nature of the project.

The company wasn't interested in eliminating waste, they were interested in killing scavengers. Even when Western Comet wasn’t using their equipment anymore, they didn’t want it to fall into the wrong hands. In an effort to eliminate theft, they wanted to create dump sites that would serve as death traps for salvage crews and pirates looking for a big payday. 

They sent the scientist, his assistants, and a crew of heavily armed sailors and bounty hunters into the dump site with a fully stocked ship to manufacture rumors about experiments going on in the area. The scientist continued to refine the mimics while waiting for scavengers to test them on.

He began fusing their DNA with that of a stealth predator from his home world, which was what encouraged them to prioritize ambushes and use their ability to take on the traits of objects they consumed to become those objects. 

The scientist continued to work until some of the mimics escaped, at which point he called for help. He knew that his assistants and the bounty hunters would be left to die, but assumed that he was more important than that. A courier stopped by at some point to collect a copy of his research notes and a sample of the mimic mutagen, but ultimately left him behind. The scientist was left to rot in the death trap he’d created, and whatever he wrote after that was not in the journal Geraldine was reading from. 

With that grim story recounted, the party had a shitty dinner of stale rations gathered from the abandoned supplies. Then Simon suggested that they stay here for the night. Geraldine not so subtly agreed, and recommended that they split off into pairs based on who they wanted to get to know better. Simon volunteered to watch with Geraldine, which didn’t make their plan any more subtle, but it did force everyone else to start looking around to decide who they would watch with.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 15 Recap: Part 2/7

Dolly asked Brynhild to help her in the next room, which confused the bounty hunter, but she agreed. Once they were alone, Dolly expressed interest in following up on the deal Brynhild had offered her to trade information on where they’d received their weapons and training. Dolly confessed that her rapier was a gift from a Bandit King. 

Brynhild’s brow (or the space where it would be, since she’s a hyena-vulture-lady) raised at this. She asked Dolly if she had once worked for a Bandit King, which Dolly quickly denied. Although she attempted to downplay the importance of her interactions with any high profile crime lords, it became clear to Dolly that Brynhild was starting to recognize her. Much to Dolly’s surprise, however, Brynhild got excited when she realized who she was talking to. She revealed that she was a fan of Dolly’s column on bounty hunters, and had hoped to cross paths with her one day for a career saving interview. 

Dolly began to shed tears hearing that she had an actual, genuine fan somewhere out there in the galaxy, which only made Brynhild more embarrassed. Dolly promised her the interview, and assured her the next time they had a moment alone she would get her full story. Brynhild agreed, and quietly began breaking down furniture. 

Isabel and Poly went off into another room, which left Blackjack and Prometheus to work with Charles. The two elected to ignore the overbearing factory floor manager as they got to work welding vents shut. Charles followed them, but lingered a few steps behind to avoid doing any actual work. 

Hoping that he was out of earshot, Prometheus began to grumble about Charles. Blackjack agreed, and the two bonded over talking shit about their annoying companion. They complained that he clearly didn’t want to be here and refused to do anything useful, yet was the first one to reach for prizes or share an opinion about what they should do next. Blackjack admitted that he’d hoped something would grab Charles from the shadows and drag him away, or that he’d been the one to fall in the pit so they could “fail” to save him. Prometheus laughed, saying that he’d thought something similar. 

As they finished their work, Charles reminded him that they still had a room to inspect. He opened the door, and a creature mimicking a desk immediately lunged towards him. Charles slammed the door shut and demanded that the others do something about the creature. Prometheus pointed out that he hadn’t done anything so far, to which Charles reminded him that he was only here to open locks, and that Prometheus hadn’t done much more than hold a piece of metal in place. 

Prometheus decided to put his money where his mouth was. He thrust open the door to face down the creature. The mimic slipped through the opening before Prometheus had any time to react. He attempted to launch an energy blast into the creature, but the shot went wild. The mimic slammed into Prometheus, sticking him to its faux wooden surface and dragging him halfway down the hall. 

Blackjack rushed to his aid, but stopped to stare as Prometheus fired another energy blast. Although the shot appeared to be launching from Prometheus’s revolver, Blackjack had never seen such a high-tech bullet before. He also remembered that when he and Prometheus had gone to the ammunition depot Prometheus hadn’t purchased anything. He may have been suspicious, but he wasn't about to let Prometheus die. Blackjack rushed forward and dug his mining pick into the creature’s flesh. He sent arcane flame through the pick and it spiraled into the mimic, causing it to scream as its flesh boiled.  

Alarm bells went off in Prometheus’s head at the sight of Blackjack's flames. He’d been around enough priests to recognize the stench of celestial magic. Prometheus reasoned that Blackjack must have had some connection to the Celestial Church, or at the very least channeled the abilities of The Celestine. He could think of no better explanation for his command of fire and ability to recover from injuries so quickly.

The two of them made quick work of the mimic. It managed to bite Prometheus only once, and he immediately hit it with a retaliatory wave of energy that sent it flying back into the wall. Though this wave was invisible, so it appeared that the creature had simply leapt away from Prometheus before dying of its wounds.  

Once the mimic was dead, Blackjack told Prometheus that he would be VERY eager to know where he had gotten his bullets. Prometheus shuddered, but said that he might tell him later. He explained didn’t know him well enough yet to divulge his suppliers. Blackjack seemed to accept this answer with only a moderate amount of suspicion. 

Blackjack asked Prometheus to present the arm that had been bitten. Prometheus complied, and Blackjack pumped the wound full of radiant energy. His arm grew warm and the wounds began to close as if they were being gently burned until they closed. Prometheus thanked him, and Blackjack nodded.

The healing had worked, so if nothing else, Blackjack had at least proved to himself that Prometheus wasn’t a walking corpse. Still, he would have to keep a closer eye on the Dragon-Oil Salesman to determine how exactly he’d put on that light show.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 15 Recap: Part 1/7

Blackjack’s grappling hook reached Dolly just a few feet before the bottom of the pit. She caught it and pulled herself halfway up to the edge where Blackjack was waiting to receive her. Before she made her final escape, however, she turned her gaze to the pit. She could only just make out a figure that must have been Prometheus below her.

Prometheus, with his uncanny ability to see in the dark, got a perfect view of everything in the pit. The first things he noticed were the holes in the wall. He approached one and saw several tiny, vein-y creatures wriggling around inside. They were eating their way through the walls, floors, and ceiling. Apparently, the mimics had begun breeding outside of the lab and depositing their larvae in the walls so that they could gorge themselves on steel, wood, and wires. One of the creatures looked out at Prometheus with a singular bulging eye and let out an ear-splitting shriek. 

Prometheus could feel the space shifting as creatures began to move towards him from every corner. Their flesh was transparent and paper thin, which allowed for Prometheus to see every detail of their innards. Based on the chunks of organ missing, he gathered that the larvae must be constructed by removing pieces of the stomach and intestines and finding a way to keep them feeding and growing on their own. Of course, he didn’t have time to do a scientific study, as these creatures seemed rather keen on killing him. 

Dolly shot a few rounds towards the writhing shapes in the dark and urged Prometheus to climb his way to safety. She dropped the end of the grappling hook below her, and Prometheus leapt towards it. He caught it, barely, and began worming his way towards safety,

Blackjack and Geraldine provided covering fire as their comrades climbed out of the pit. They returned to the surface without issue, but were forced to awkwardly explain what had happened to the pirates and mercenaries they were traveling with. Simon urged his own group to stay closer to the party. The party elected to take the lead moving forward to avoid falling (in every sense of the word) behind.  

Unfortunately, that put Dolly in danger again rather immediately. Whatever had been stalking them from within the air vents ambushed her as she moved ahead to scout the next room. Its tendrils wrapped around her legs and began dragging her into the air vent. Blackjack once again rushed to her aid, using his mining pick to dig into one of the creature's limbs, giving her the space to pry herself free. 

The party began to investigate the area. They’d entered a section of the ship that must have been living quarters once. The vents were much larger here and someone had clearly put great effort into making sure that the system reached every room. Inside the rooms were decadent beds, desks, and chairs made of fine wood—with the exception of one room that was apparently being used for storage and contained mostly scrap metal. 

Blackjack proposed a plot to deal with the creature that was hunting them: he suggested that they break down the furniture and light it on fire next to the air vents. They could seal the entrances and exits to this section of the ship's ventilation, smoke the creature out, and then finish it off. 

Simon agreed, and suggested they break up into pairs so that no one was trapped alone in a room with if the furniture turned hostile. He invited Geraldine to join him in one room, an offer that she accepted gracefully. The two of them walked into the first room and began hacking away at the furniture to build a fire. 

Simon took the moment alone with Geraldine to thank her for all her efforts in keeping the groups together. He admitted that he suspected the party may have intended to break from the pirates. He had also noticed, however, that she’d been hanging between the groups and engaging them in conversation, making it difficult for anyone to find an opportunity to leave without leaving her as well. 

Geraldine assured him that it was no problem, and that she was confident he would have done the same for her. She would never break a promise, especially a promise made to people as likeable as Simon, Isabel, and Poly.

She was forced to demonstrate this dedication to keeping everyone safe again only moments later when Simon’s axe got stuck in the bed, which roared with discontent and attempted to attack him. Geraldine unloaded several rounds into it, allowing Simon to slice one of its limbs off, which then gave Geraldine the perfect window to finish it off. 

After catching his breath, Simon suggested a way to keep the groups together long term. He recommended that they try to find a place to rest soon, and that when they did, the watch groups should be made up of combinations of different teams. That way no group could volunteer to watch in the middle of the night and run away. He tried to assure Geraldine that he was mostly worried about Charles, but she agreed to the plan before he could finish making excuses. She promised to advocate for the idea within her own party, which put Simon’s mind at ease.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 14 Recap: Part 4/4

As the party delved deeper into the ship, Dolly noticed something strange: up ahead, there were several pieces of what looked like thin silver wires jutting out of the nearest air vent. As they got closer, she realized that they were not metal at all, but sticky flesh disguised to look like it.

She grabbed Brynhild by the shoulder, and when the bounty hunter glared at her, she pointed to the tendrils that she had been inches away from walking into. Brynhild gave Dolly a quick and awkward thanks, then swung her sword down lightning fast into the first of the tendrils. The other bits of stringy flesh receded, while that one split apart and began wriggling helplessly on the floor. They could hear something retreating from within the air duct, but it disappeared before they could attack it.

The further they moved, the worse condition the ship was in. The walls, the floors, and the furniture all had pieces missing. It seemed like without any flesh available, the creatures had begun making a meal of the ship itself. As they passed by one particularly large gash in the wall, Geraldine took a curious glance inside. She saw a sitting room filled with furniture that, upon closer examination, had thick veins. She immediately began to withdraw, but before she could tear herself away the room’s coat rack sent one of its arms lunging through the gash to attempt to grapple her. 

Geraldine avoided the attack, but as the creature withdrew its arm, it took another large section of wall with it. The party was completely exposed. Rather than fight, the injured, exhausted scavengers ran. Blackjack sealed as many doors between them and the monsters as he could, but their priority was putting distance between themselves and any additional threats. 

The party kept moving until they reached a section of the ship where even the emergency lights weren’t on. They moved forward slowly in the dark until they found the source of their problems: one of the monsters had begun eating a nearby wall and severed some of the electrical wiring. The beast had been fried to death, but it had taken this section of the ship’s power with it. 

Blackjack took apart the nearest door, and used one of its wooden panels to push up the wire to allow everyone safe passage into the next room.

This room contained about fifteen feet of walking space before the floor vanished entirely. For thirty feet, the ground was missing, and there was instead a pit that led down about fifty feet to the lower floors of the ship. Only Prometheus, with his perfect vision in darkness, saw the writhing clumps of flesh that lingered at the pit’s center before Blackjack’s lantern sent them fleeing into the shadows. 

Rather than risking a jump across, even with light gravity, Blackjack proposed they send one person with a rope across the gap so the rest of the group could simply climb/tightrope walk over. He volunteered to carry the rope himself, and leapt up to the protruding air duct above them to climb across. 

As he climbed, Blackjack felt something start to move above him. He reached for his gun with a free hand, but before he could raise it, the creature was already upon him. The same thin metallic tendrils from before burst through the duct and clung to Blackjack. Whatever creature lingered inside the vent attempted to drag Blackjack into the duct, but he resisted. He yanked himself free, and leapt to safety before the creature could attack again. 

With a weapon trained on the vents, Blackjack found something to secure the rope to. He then ushered everyone else forward, warning them about the creature lurking above them. Geraldine volunteered to bring up the rear, and so Dolly and Prometheus waited as well. Brynhild and Charles crossed without issue, then Simon and Isabel, then Poly. 

Next, Dolly and Prometheus began to move across the rope. Dolly was worried about the creature lurking in the vents above them, and spent more time looking up than she did worrying about her own feet. She lost her footing, and fell into the pit below. When she tripped, it threw Prometheus off balance as well and he tumbled down after her. Blackjack and Geraldine moved towards opposite ends of the pit: Geraldine with her rifle, searching through the darkness for threats, and Blackjack with his grappling hook, hoping to pull up whoever he locked eyes on first. But that would have to wait, because that was where the session ended.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 14 Recap: Part 3/4

Blackjack welded the door that they’d used to enter the makeshift lab shut while Prometheus explained to the party why they would be unable to exit the way he and Blackjack had hoped. Using chemicals scavenged from the lab, Blackjack began burning the bodies of the monsters one by one. Simon stopped him before the last one, suggesting that they keep it. When Blackjack asked why, Simon explained that it would be better proof of their story, and that in addition to warning future scavengers, it would fetch a far better price. Blackjack watched in disbelief as the pirates scooped up the body of the creature that had killed Tanner. 

Everyone, including the pirates who had hired them, agreed that their priority had to be escape above all else. When Simon started to discuss strategies for moving forward, however, Blackjack stopped him. He pulled the party aside to have a personal meeting that he said took priority over group discussion. Simon seemed to understand what that meant, but he made no moves to stop them. Instead, he gathered his own crew. Brynhild waited by the door, nursing her wounds, until she was approached by Charles (who had been hiding in one of the room's lockers after verifying that it wasn’t alive). 

Blackjack quietly suggested abandoning the mission. Specifically, he brought up the possibility of leaving Simon, Isabel, Poly, Brynhild, and Charles behind. He pointed out that their agreement had been under the table and that no one knew they were here. There was nothing stopping them from simply reaching the ship first and leaving. 

Geraldine was horrified by this. She pointed out that they’d given their word, and that everyone was looking for the escape pods anyway, so they’d be rushing ahead just to end up in the same place. The idea of leaving them to die made her sick to her stomach, even as Blackjack pointed out all the practicalities of traveling light and getting rid of betrayal risks, Geraldine simply couldn’t agree with his suggestion.

Dolly came to her defense, saying that it only seemed fair to leave together since they had the only working ship in the area. Condemning them to death was a lot more serious than just breaking their agreement. 

Prometheus weighed in, suggesting that they don’t actively split with them, but if any natural separations, fights, or other unfortunate accidents occurred, they simply shouldn’t make an effort to stay with the other group.

Blackjack agreed to this, considering it the most practical compromise. Dolly reluctantly agreed. She didn’t like it, but the thought of a member of her group dying to maintain their agreement was worse than the thought of leaving strangers to die.

Geraldine bit her lip, folded her arms, and began to pout, but she didn’t continue fighting for what she believed was right. She was disappointed in her friends, but she also knew she couldn’t outvote them and that it would be bad to let the argument get loud enough for the others to hear. 

The scattered groups gathered around the central table and began to discuss their escape plan. Simon reinforced that his priority was getting everyone out alive, and that although he wouldn’t stop anyone from scavenging, it would no longer be a focus for him. He allowed Charles to take the floor after that. 

Charles explained that he needed to see schematics of the ship to know exactly what model they were on. That would tell him where the escape pods were. He theorized that the scientists and bounty hunters had likely fled further into the ship to create some kind of defensible staging ground, and that they should look for that next. 

The party agreed to move out in search of this staging ground, and after Blackjack welded every entrance and exit to the lab shut, they began making their way further into the ship.

Brynhild took the lead, with Dolly and Geraldine close behind her. Everyone was keeping a paranoid eye on every piece of furniture they passed. It was one thing to be surrounded by human combatants, but in a scenario where anything they passed could be a monster, tensions were high.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 14 Recap: Part 2/4

Tanner engaged with the creature mimicking a supply crate on the table, but was beaten back as the creature bludgeoned him with one of its twin tongues and began drawing him towards its jaws. Geraldine moved to aid him, taking a carefully placed shot at the creature and grazing its “head”. Prometheus fled from its grasp, choosing to take a more careful approach. He pulled out his empty pistol and fired an energy blast into the creature through it, once again pretending to fire bullets.

Brynhild engaged with the creature mimicking a chain, which had shifted to look like a pair of manacles with fangs inside of the wrist bindings. It lunged towards her and she immediately caught it with her blade, taking two careful slices towards what could be considered its neck. She kept it locked in battle with her so the rest of the group could deal with the others. 

Dolly began moving backwards as a creature that looked like a massive arachnid made of metal, glass, and veiny purple and red flesh began moving towards her. It sunk its massive fangs into her shoulder, leaving an acidic sting as its glass covered tooth scraped its way out of her flesh. Dolly struck back with her rapier, piercing the space between its leg and its make-shift armor as she continued to retreat. 

Blackjack was cut off from the rest of the party by a creature that had been mimicking a locker. It rushed forward, and grabbed Blackjack with the arm of a space suit filled with its own internal organs to add adhesive quality to its strikes. It yanked Blackjack forward, catching him in the flesh of its doors. He responded by pressing his revolver up against the door and unloading two rounds, still burning with the fire he had summoned on the scavenger ship. 

Simon, Isabel, and Poly were forced to snap out of their mourning as gunshots began ringing through the ship. They arrived and were left awestruck by the horrific scene in front of them. After a moment of delay, Poly and Simon began moving to aid Blackjack, while Isabel moved towards the center of the room to evaluate where she was most needed. Ultimately, she decided to aid Geraldine, Prometheus, and Tanner. She fired both of her revolvers into the creature, popping a couple of the many eyes that had sprouted across the creature’s body.

Tanner attempted to free himself from the grasp of the creature, but even with bullets sinking into it, the beast refused to retreat. It held firm, and forced Tanner all the way into its jaws. It clamped down on his head, decapitating him in one swift motion. Geraldine watched in horror as the man fell limp, but his body still stuck to the surface of the monster. She fired on the creature again, moving further away from it to dodge its tongues, which were looking for new prey. 

Prometheus moved in to aid Dolly. The arachnid beast was slamming its thorax down upon her, attempting to force her down to the ground and then get her stuck on its adhesive underbelly. She narrowly dodged as Prometheus began to shoot out a string of his own life force—electricity straight from his own body in a jagged bolt. The bolt failed to make purchase, however, as Prometheus hesitated. Why would he put himself in such explicit danger? He was upset to catch himself caring this much about someone, and in the process he failed to actually make use of the moment. 

Dolly lunged backwards, making ineffectual thrusts with her weapon as she did everything she could just to stay alive. Her odds got better as Isabel dealt a critical blow to the creature on the table, which caught its attention long enough for Geraldine to finish it off with a clean shot that tore out a piece of the creature’s brain and sent it flying in the room’s low gravity. This freed up Geraldine to run to Dolly and put her body between her friend and the creature attempting to eat her.

Poly ran forward to free Blackjack, while Simon crept up behind the creature and sliced his boarding axe down its back. The creature groaned with pain, and Blackjack took the opportunity to fire two precise shots into its mouth, causing its organs to burst into flames. The creature slumped over uselessly as it began to die, and Blackjack began moving towards the exit, insisting that everyone follow him. 

Prometheus moved to comply immediately, but stopped dead in his tracks when he caught a glimpse of the hallway they’d entered through. Previously, it had been completely bare, but now it had a side table, footlockers, and various other pieces of furniture that were glaringly out of place… they were surrounded. Prometheus and Blackjack exchanged a look as the bounty hunter reached Prometheus. They slammed the door shut. 

The arachnid creature descended on Geraldine as she fired a round directly into its face. It sunk its fangs into her collar bone. In retaliation, Dolly stabbed through its skull. Dolly and Geraldine pulled the beast down with a combination of rapier and bayonet. At the same time, Brynhild caved in the head of the creature lunging at her with the pommel of her sword, allowing the fight to come to an end.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 14 Recap: Part 1/4

The pirates, Simon, Isabel, and Poly, moved through the gory scene as if they didn’t notice it—as if their fallen comrade was all that existed in the universe. They surrounded Hugh, and rotated his body around to face them as if there was anything they could do to help. Blackjack went with them. He inspected the wounds and confirmed that a human being couldn't have made them (nor was it likely that any commonly known humanoid alien could have). The wounds were uneven, vicious, and deep, but there were no signs of a weapon being used. Whatever did this used teeth. 

Dolly began investigating the area for traces of the attacker, and found dents and scrapes in the air vents that indicated signs of a struggle. The creature must have attacked Hugh at the grate outside and dragged him through. He fought it as best he could, but eventually, it had struck him down and brought him here to feed. The bodies in this room had clearly been at least partially eaten. Both Blackjack and Dolly noticed a lack of blood and guts coming from any corpse but Hugh's, which indicated that whatever attacked these people had also been feeding on them.

Geraldine excused herself from the room out of shock and disgust. She had gotten her fill of gore for the day. She moved down the hall, where she found Charles and Tanner returning to their efforts to force open the large metal door. Geraldine went to retrieve Prometheus, who had never entered the scene of Hugh’s murder, and the two of them went to confront Charles. 

When they returned to the door, it was already open. Charles had moved into the room and positioned Tanner behind him to block anyone else from approaching. Geraldine didn’t let this stop her: she drifted forward in the low gravity conditions and knocked right into Tanner with her shoulder. She offered a disarming smile and an “oh, I’m so sorry” as she blew past him and grabbed a journal off of the table before Charles could lay hands on it. 

Prometheus slipped in while all eyes were on Geraldine and got his hands on a series of file folders on the corner of the table in the center of the room. The two of them had successfully pried all nearby documents from Charles’s hands, preventing him from gaining any secrets he could keep from the others. 

Blackjack and Dolly entered the room around this time, with Blackjack loudly complaining about the group splitting up. He went dead silent as he began to take in the room, which appeared to be some kind of scientific lab. Dolly moved towards a couple cases that had once been protected by glass (which was shattered on the ground). There were cracked vials and beakers inside that had traces of a sticky purple substance around the rims. Blackjack began rifling through the nearby lockers inspecting the scientific equipment and space suits, quietly taking the gloves so that the suits weren’t able to be used by anyone who might decide to pursue them. 

Charles moved to the other side of the table in a huff, poking at another set of vials inside a small supply crate half opened. The placement of the crate was odd, but everything about this makeshift lab was odd, so no one raised any complaints. Brynhild had also entered the room silently at some point, and was investigating the door on the opposite side of the room. It had been chained shut, likely to prevent anyone from moving deeper into the ship to discover anything more sensitive than what this lab might be hiding. 

Geraldine began to read the lab notes out loud in a gesture of solidarity and sharing information with all parties involved in the salvage mission. They described the discoveries of a scientist who had been developing something at the test site. The scientist boasted that his creations had been growing in size with each new batch, and that they’d achieved the intelligence of an animal in recent tests. He also praised his creations for their ability to camouflage, which became particularly relevant when specimens had started going missing. 

Before she could get to the end. Charles let out a cry of pain. The crate he had been investigating had snapped shut on his fingers. Tanner rushed over and jammed his knife into the hinges to pry the box open, but recoiled when it began to bleed at the touch of his blade. 

All around the room, objects began shifting and rattling as the crate ripped back from Charles (taking two of his fingers with it) and shifted into its true monstrous form. One of the lockers, the chains attached to the door, and a collection of beakers and broken metal revealed themselves as living things, and sprang to life. They began circling the party with violent intent, and a battle began. 

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 13 Recap: Part 6/6

The plan was off to a smooth start. They found a place to stash the ship and floated completely undetected towards a wreckage near their target that they could use to throw their harpoons.

Hugh went across after the harpoons were thrown, and one by one verified that each line was secure. When the line thrown by Geraldine turned out to be a bit loose, he signaled for everyone to hold and moved to re-secure the line. He moved just out of their sight, and the line went tight. The party waited for a moment for his signal, and when they didn’t see it, they started to worry. The party pushes for them to move rather than wait for a signal that didn't seem to be coming.

When they touched down on the outside of the massive freighter, Hugh was nowhere to be found. The pirates spread out to look for their missing man, while Charles ignored their troubles and began moving towards the service entrance to open it. He pulled out a fancy key, which he began twisting to make it form the correct shape to fit the lock. 

Dolly was the one who found signs of Hugh. She found his gun hanging out of a grate on the side of the ship. Inside, she saw what she thought could be floating drops of blood, but it was too dark for her to be sure. She brought the gun back to show everyone just as Charles cracked the door. 

Charles refused to be the first one to enter the space, which made everyone else suspicious, but with little alternative, they pressed forward. They snaked their way through cramped engine corridors, where Blackjack noticed that the engines were completely inactive. For whatever reason, this ship’s main power supply was inactive. This struck him as odd, but he couldn’t exactly communicate his concerns while everyone was in their space suits and there was no confirmation that they had oxygen. 

That confirmation came when Blackjack stumbled into a tripwire. The wire didn't release any kind of harm onto the party. Instead, the trap that had been triggered was a bell. Somewhere deeper in the vessel, they could hearing a warning ringing to the everyone on board that they had arrived. This sent everyone into a panic, and they immediately readied weapons as they began moving forward as quickly as they could while still being stealthy. 

Oddly, they saw no signs of the crew being roused to search for them. They didn’t run into anyone as they crept through the freighter—though they reasoned that this part of the ship may have been abandoned for practical purposes around the same time they cut the power. The lack of opposition might have been a good thing: a sign that Western Comet had only sent a skeleton crew to operate and protect this place. That would mean this job was indeed going to be quick and easy from here on out. 

The party, the pirate crew, and the bounty hunters all began ransacking every supply closet and storage room they came across. They got their hands on new top of the line tools such as welding torches and experimental electric drills, which gave everyone a much needed morale boost. 

Brynhild raised a question about how they were dividing the haul, and Isabel gave her a harsh reminder that they were going to split it up after the job, and not a moment before. Brynhild relented, but warned that if that was the case, they should keep a closer eye on Charles. 

Charles and Tanner had slipped down the hall, where Charles was fiddling with the lock of a large metal door. The party confronted him, and he limply defended himself by pointing out a large cargo hold that they’d been unable to access within the crew’s line of sight. Tanner explained that although he had picked the lock, it was blocked from the inside and he hadn’t been able to force it open. 

Geraldine volunteered to handle that door in an attempt to make peace between everyone. She slammed into the door with her shoulder, blowing past a barricade of empty crates and splintered wooden boxes.

Inside the hold was another display of viscera and brutality. The bodies of scavengers and Western Comet employees drifted helplessly through the space with chunks torn out of them. As the party investigated, they quickly noticed a familiar face in the corner: the body of Hugh was bloody and broken, floating in the upper corner of the room, which is where the session ended.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 13 Recap: Part 5/6

Prometheus began to panic as the Orbit-Hopper’s flight became erratic. He began preparing himself to have to fight Poly, but then Poly pointed out the source of their problem: several naval mines had been scattered around the space. They were tethered to pillars of scrap. Mined pillars lined every visible entrances and exit to the dump.

Poly had to swerve to avoid hitting them, and in the process had crashed into a pile of garbage. A shower of scrap and refuse clattered against the ship, but it was otherwise unharmed. The scavenger ship they had in tow was in much worse shape, and had begun to spin as it crashed into everything around it. 

The rest of the party barely made it off the scavenger ship before it lost itself entirely and began spiraling off course. They detached their harpoons and fled to the orbit hopper, which sped away to safer ground. 

Once they were all together again, Blackjack made the case for a hasty exit. Prometheus grimly informed him about the presence of the mines. The roaming piles of scrap had begun naturally closing in the space they’d entered, dragging explosives with them to create an impossibly dangerous flight path. Poly confirmed Prometheus’s story, assuring them that the best way out was to keep moving through until they found an exit. 

Simon tried to regain group confidence, saying that until they saw proof that whoever—or whatever, had attacked those scavengers was still around, they should continue on their mission. When Blackjack pushed back, he promised that they would set up a voting system where the captain of each group could decide whether or not their group wanted to keep moving forward. 

The party didn’t have time to address the fact that they didn’t have a captain, because Geraldine immediately nominated Dolly to take up the role. No one disagreed, and so it was decided that Simon, Dolly, Charles, and Brynhild would make the final decision on what their course of action was. 

Dolly admitted that she was too curious to leave this alone, but that at the first sign of serious danger she would raise a new vote to abandon the mission and vote in favor of leaving. This seemed good enough for everyone to agree to continue, and Simon began breaking down the plan for the next stage of the mission. He explained that they would secure the Orbit-Hopper somewhere out of sight of the ship so that they wouldn’t be fired upon by Western Comet, and that they would then have to find a scrap ship to harpoon onto the company’s vessel from. This time it was all hands on deck, no one would be staying behind

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 13 Recap: Part 4/6

After weeks, the Orbit-Hopper finally arrived at the Dump Site. It was a labyrinth of scrap metal, broken down ships, and abandoned junk floating countless leagues away from the nearest planet. The ship weaved in between two columns of garbage, and the crew began its search for the rumored ships conducting top-secret research in the area. 

They did eventually come across a ship, but it wasn’t one belonging to Western Comet. This was a scavenger ship, and it appeared to be abandoned. The cargo hold was hanging open and all the lights were out. The presence of an empty ship seemed suspicious, but only Charles said no when Simon proposed that they investigate. He explained that he and his crew would harpoon the ship and board it, letting the Orbit-Hopper drag it along as they continued to move. Charles again insisted that this was a waste of their time, to which Simon gently replied that he wasn’t obligated to come along. 

Dolly and Geraldine volunteered to go with Simon and Isabel to investigate the wreckage. Brynhild also volunteered, reasoning that if they found something good, she wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t hide it to cut her out of the profits. Hugh wanted to go with them, but Isabel reminded him that his task was to secure lines and keep an eye between ships. Hugh glumly agreed to do his part. Simon reassured the young scout that he’d be the first one on board the Western Comet freighter.

 Blackjack was torn on whether or not to go. It was his responsibility to watch over the party, but someone also needed to keep the ship moving and make sure it was safe. Poly volunteered to fly, but also understood when Blackjack was hesitant to abandon the vessel to strangers.  

Prometheus admitted that he had no interest in investigating a bunch of scavengers. He agreed to stay behind to look after the Orbit-Hopper. Blackjack took him aside to show him the locks that he’d constructed so that he could seal the cockpit in case of an emergency. The two of them planned an escape route/quick way for the party to break back into the ship if they needed to. They bonded in some strange way over their shared paranoia, and prepared for the worst as the party split from Prometheus. 

Dolly, Geraldine, Blackjack, Simon, Isabel, and Brynhild slid across harpoon lines and touched down on the scavenger’s vessel. The cargo hold was indeed empty, except for a single corpse tangled in a net on the ceiling. Dolly leapt up towards the body in the low gravity conditions to investigate.

She discovered that the body was missing an arm, and that when it died, it had been cradling a small crate. She brought the crate back down as Isabel closed the cargo hold to allow air to begin filling the ship again. Inside the crate was an emergency radio that had never been assembled.

Brynhild remarked that with finds like that this detour was sure to pay for itself. She moved further into the ship in search of loot, but stopped in her tracks the moment she pushed past the door. Looking over her shoulder, the party could see why: inside the ship was a horrific display of violence.

The crew had been brutally murdered. Many of their bodies had deep enough gashes in their flesh to allow sinew to escape their bodies and float around the ship aimlessly. One of the crew members had died trying to hold in his guts after his space suit had been torn open at the stomach. The ship was a mess of gunpowder and bullet indents, but it didn’t seem like anyone on board had been shot. There were no signs of forced entry, but the escape pods had been jettisoned, so it was likely someone had escaped or otherwise made a hasty exit. 

Blackjack brandished his pistol on instinct, and as he gripped it, the engravings in the metal began to fill with flame. Dolly and Geraldine watched him seemingly conjure fire from thin air and fill his weapon with it, though it seemed to continue to function as normal as he cocked it and prepared for an ambush.

While the pirates investigated the back of the ship, and Brynhild inspected the bodies, the party moved towards the cockpit. The pilot’s station looked like chunks had been ripped from it, and scraps of the arm that had been missing from the first body they’d found were stuck to the window. They found a single lock box underneath a smashed table, which Dolly fished out while Blackjack and Geraldine secured the perimeter. 

Blackjack made Dolly promise to wait until they’d made it safely back to the ship before opening the box. Dolly agreed, but the second her companions had turned their backs to return to the people who had hired them, her curiosity got the better of her.

Inside the box was a journal that had belonged to the ship’s captain. In his writing, the captain described the miracle of finding the dump site and how lucky they’d been to be the first ones to discover its location. There hadn’t been any guards, so they’d pilfered the place for days before beginning to search for an exit. 

As they were leaving, the captain noticed cargo they’d recovered from a wrecked ship had been moved. He seemed to get increasingly paranoid and agitated as he found further evidence of the scrap being tampered with. He seemed to have planned to set up a night guard and hold a meeting about stealing with the rest of the crew, but since there were no further entries in the journal, Dolly reasoned he hadn’t gotten a chance. 

Dolly read the contents of the journal to everyone when they met back up in-between floating corpses. When Blackjack gave her a look, she offered a weak lie about finding the journal on the ground. He didn’t have time to press further, however, as the scavenge ship began to rock and twist, throwing all of them off balance.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 13 Recap: Part 3/6

The journey to the dump site was long and awkward. Charles was prickly towards everyone else on the vessel, Brynhild and Hugh got into arguments regularly over her lack of care beyond the financial aspects of the mission, and Simon, Isabel, and Poly seemed stressed and exhausted. 

Geraldine spent most of the journey trailing Charles. Not because she took any interest in him, but because she liked the look of his bodyguard. He was the image of a strapping bounty hunter, confidently striding around her new home. She watched him as he took every excuse to stoke Charles’ paranoia in the hopes of a better paycheck. He taste tested the factory manager’s food, he watched his room every night, he was sure to put his own body between Charles and any perceived danger. 

It was just like in the stories Geraldine read where the knowledgeable, rough riding cowboys gave the city slickers a hard time. Though unlike in the stories, Tanner kind of had the accent of a city slicker himself, and his clothes and weapons were in pristine condition. She convinced herself that this was a sign of the quality of his work—that he was so good at his job that he didn’t even have to get messy. There was no point in questioning the fantasy. After all, they’d all be going their separate ways in a couple weeks. This job was mostly transportation and a bit of manual labor. What was wrong with having a little fun?

Dolly ran into Brynhild several times in the middle of the night. She was having trouble sleeping in an empty bed after so much time sharing one with Evelyn, so she often wandered into the lounge to get something to eat and drink. While passing through, she kept a close eye on the bounty hunter—more out of curiosity than suspicion. 

One thing Dolly noticed was the competence of her movements. She often saw Brynhild practicing with her sword, and the motions she went through were incredibly practiced and fluid. She’d never met a bounty hunter who had so clearly been through proper weapons training. Most of them were handy with a six gun or a knife, but they’d learned it through experience. She had clearly learned through intense training to give herself the instincts of a fighter, and the experience had come after. 

Dolly approached her once and asked about where she’d learned to fight like that, but Brynhild had been hesitant to answer. It didn’t seem like it was a secret, she just didn’t trust Dolly enough to be vulnerable with her. She deflected, complimenting Dolly’s sword after Dolly complimented hers. She asked where she got it. Dolly promised to tell her, but only if she agreed to say where she'd trained in return. Brynhild let out a hyena chuckle and agreed to consider the offer for a time. 

Prometheus kept an eye on the pirates. He wasn’t sure if he trusted them, and wanted more context for how he should feel about them. He kept his distance, only listening to conversations in passing or keeping an eye on them when they hung out in the lounge. He could tell that they carried a lot of stress on them. He overheard them talking about having lost their own ship after a mutiny, and the string of bounty hunters and sheriffs who had chased them out of every place they’d ever called home. 

It was clear that money was tight, and that this mission was supposed to be their chance to get back into the big time and prove that they could return to stability as scavengers. They’d run to the edges of the prairie worlds, and seemed willing to run as far as they needed to in pursuit of a new life picking apart company ships in the wild frontier. They engaged with both Prometheus’s party, and the mercenaries that they’d brought on board, trying to keep good relations and lift spirits as they got closer to the job site. They seemed to genuinely believe that this job was the miracle they’d been waiting for. 

Simon kept himself steady by managing people. He tried to keep his crew feeling good, and did his best to make peace between Hugh and Brynhild. He failed to warm up to Charles, but he did everything he could to appease him and keep him willing to cooperate. Isabel focused on accomplishing tasks. Prometheus noticed that she always had star charts on her and was always hounding the crew to keep their weapons and equipment in peak condition. Eventually, they gave Poly and Hugh release to keep themselves busy in their own way, which involved approaching Blackjack and asking about helping with the engines. 

Blackjack mostly kept to himself. He had claimed the cramped crew quarters next to the pilot’s station for himself, and had spent his time quietly installing locks around essential parts of the ship to help the crew protect themselves from betrayals and boarding parties. The only time he really interacted with anyone was at meals, or when sharing a cigarette break with Poly after a hard day’s work making the ship run.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 13 Recap: Part 2/6

A few days into the journey, Dolly awoke to a knock on her door. She was the only one in her bed. Before Dolly could wonder where Evelyn had gone, she opened the door to find the Vox Naturae standing on the other side of it. Dolly invited her to lay back down, but then noticed that she had all of her belongings with her. Evelyn sadly informed Dolly that they were passing over Prosperity VI, and that it was time for her and Chuck to leave. 

Dolly turned away from her to conceal her tears. She rooted through her belongings for much longer than she needed to in an effort to dry her eyes, before brandishing the gifts she’d purchased for Evelyn three days prior. Evelyn marveled at the dresses and thanked Dolly, promising that she would wear them often. She asked Dolly to gather the other members of the party, and made her way to the escape pod where Chuck was waiting with his things. 

Dolly, Geraldine, and Prometheus made their way to the second level of their ship. Despite their best efforts, Dolly and Geraldine already had tears in their eyes when they met up with their departing friends. Evelyn stood somberly, but composed. MAC, Chuck’s automaton, was finishing loading up the ship, while Chuck stood sheepishly behind her looking down at the floor.

Evelyn approached Dolly to give her a gentle kiss on the cheek, but Dolly turned her head to allow Evelyn’s lips to make contact with her own so they could share one last proper kiss before going their separate ways. 

The Vox Naturae turned to Geraldine, who had already begun to cry, and tried to reassure her that it would be alright soon enough. Geraldine rushed forward to give Evelyn and Chuck a massive hug, heaving as she told each of them how much she would miss them. Evelyn cupped her face, looked her in the eyes, and told her that she would miss her. She wished her well and asked her to keep the party honest and strong for her. Geraldine blushed, but agreed. She didn’t let her grip on her two former companions loosen until they were standing at the edge of the escape pod. 

Evelyn looked to Prometheus, and told him that one day she intended to find out exactly what the fuck was wrong with him, but wished him well until then. He wished her good luck on prying further into the arcane oddities lingering within him, but also quietly wished her luck in every endeavor she would face going forward.

Evelyn and MAC filed into the escape pod, but Chuck lingered on the edge a while longer. He finally looked up into the eyes of each member of the party, and told them that he would miss them more than he could say. He worried that their adventures would only be a blip in their long lifespans, but wanted them to know that for him, nothing would ever mean as much to him as they had. This was the best adventure of his life, and one that inspired him to finally do something besides wander looking for a place. He would never forget them, and for the rest of his admittedly short life he would look up at the stars and wonder where they were. 

His voice broke, but he was incapable of the tears that his companions shed, as he lacked tear ducts or human eyes.

Chuck entered the escape pod, and due to his height, they lost sight of him the moment it closed. Thankfully, Chuck commanded MAC to lift him up so that he could look out at them through the window. 

As the pod detached, Chuck used his psionic abilities to share a memory with each of the members of the party he was leaving:

To Geraldine, he showed a montage of all his greatest adventures as a bounty hunter. Flashes of battles hard won, and painfully lost. He lingered on the faces of those he’d lost in each memory, flashing through a list of people he would miss dearly. Finally, he lingered on a memory of the party sitting together at the dinner table. He focused on each of their faces, but especially lingered on Geraldine’s own visage to indicate how truly he would miss her. 

To Prometheus, he showed a moment of peace. He offered him what feelings of respite and lonely comfort he could as he projected the image of a campsite he stayed at once. He had drifted to sleep under an aurora brilliantly lighting up a cloudless sky. The last embers of a dying fire brought him warmth, the sky brought him wonder, and sleep brought him peace after a period of sleepless nights and trying days. 

To Dolly, he showed a sight that few non Thri-Kreen had ever seen. He showed her an image of himself as a young child chasing down and slaying a small beast, and then dragging it back to a caravan. At that caravan was Chuck’s family before they were killed by the Rebel Inheritors. He showed her young Thri-Kreen happy and thriving, dancing under the setting sun in their true carapace shade: a pale, semi translucent metallic tone that reflected the light of the sun into the darker parts of the canopy. They danced through the night to a cascade of emotion transmitted between each other.

(huge shout out to my friend playing Chuck/Blackjack for coming up with these, and for transcribing them for me so that I could capture them as accurately a possible)

The party reflected on these images while Chuck and Evelyn disappeared from their sight, rocketing back towards the planet where they’d had their first adventure together. They felt love and understanding from their companion—their friend. Then, they felt nothing, as they moved out of the range of Chuck’s psionic voice. They were unlikely to ever see Chuck again, but the impact he’d left on the crew would always be felt, and his place at the table would always be open.

[yeehaw-in-magic-space]

Session 13 Recap: Part 1/6

The Orbit-Hopper was full of passengers as it departed from the Prosperity System's Information Station. There were four scavengers: Simon and Isabel (the two humans in their mid twenties who hired the party for the job), Poly (a cyclops in his mid forties who trailed behind Simon and Isabel), and Hugh (a human of about nineteen years old who seemed very eager to be on board.) The pirates, as they described themselves, thanked the party for allowing them on board and did their best to settle in without getting in the way. 

The next to arrive was a bounty hunter named Brynhild. She was the one who gave the pirates the tip about Western Comet Forge’s secret dump site. She looked like a humanoid hybrid between a hyena and a vulture, and in addition to a rifle, she carried an ancient looking sword. She made a cold remark about looking forward to collecting her cut of the salvage, and made her way into the lounge to await further instructions. 

The final two to load up onto the ship were Charles and Tanner. Charles was a tall human (even while slouching) in his mid thirties. He was the factory floor manager who apparently had a key that would allow them to access the ship. He was not subtle about the fact that he was not happy to be coming along, and had only shown up because his boss was cruel to him and always looking for excuses to cut his pay.

Tanner was a human in his early thirties. He strolled onto the ship without a care in the world. Apparently, Charles had hired a bodyguard to keep someone between him and dangers (and also seemingly him and the other people working the job). 

Simon facilitated a meeting where everyone introduced themselves and gave a basic rundown of their role. He explained that they were planning to stealthily hop onto two Western Comet freighters in the dump site to investigate whatever they were getting up to in the dump, while also cleaning them out of anything valuable they found along the way. He told them all he hoped everyone would get along, and that this would be a quick in-and-out kind of mission.

With that, he deferred to the party to allow them to show everyone around the ship/to their rooms. The party kept it brief, showing their guests the essential functions that passengers would need to know, and then letting them each pick an unclaimed room. 

Charles complained at the lack of furniture, and had Tanner drag in a comfortable chair from the lounge so that he would have somewhere to sleep. Tanner offered to look after his room during the nights, so long as he agreed to pay the overnight fee. When Charles agreed, he posted up outside the room Charles claimed and settled down for rest with a sly smile.

The pirates picked a room and set up hammocks and bedrolls. The party overheard them discussing taking a night watch just in case of emergency, but they seemed relatively relaxed as they settled in.

Brynhild requested to sleep on another of the comfortable chairs in the lounge, and when the party agreed, she dragged it into the far corner of the communal space. Once she had placed it where she would be able to see every angle of the room, she curled up to sleep.

The party began to settle in themselves. They were curious about their new passengers, and concerned about the uncertainty of the mission ahead, but the journey there would be long. There would be plenty of time for action and weary eyes, for now, they just needed to get moving.