Adventure Log 001: Welcome to Port Verdigris/Mutiny on the Serena Dawn

[Rex]

Kallina

"Thanks Bertie."

[Pulpatoon]

Let's say Bertie can make one healing attempt per injured person for this session. Someone else could also attempt a healing check per person, but remember the risk of exhausting the medkits.

[shaidar]

Bertie sets too with the med-kits:

(with advantage)

Kallina:

Roll: [_2d6]=(2+5)=7, dis/advantage[1d6]=5, so 10

Skur Vonn:

Roll: [_2d6]=(5+5)=10, dis/advantage[1d6]=5, another 10

Goran:

Roll: [_2d6]=(5+5)=10, dis/advantage[1d6]=6, so 11

Bertie:

Roll: [_2d6]=(3+1)=4, dis/advantage[1d6]=2, a 5

[Ythgar]

Goran

“Thanks Bertie,”

“Skurr Vonn, I’ve never piloted before, but I can follow directions if that helps.”

“Interlocutor, is there some other way to protect your research? If more than one person has a copy than it surely would have double the chances of getting where it needs to?”

[cybersavant]

Skur Vonn "Bertie, i need to take 40 winks. Make sure i'm awake again 10 minutes before we reach the planet."

[Pulpatoon]

Bertie moves through the cabin, picking her way between crash chairs, tending her injured comrades. When she gets to herself, however, she finds herself running out of supplies from one of the medkits. She tends her own wounds as best she can, but she doesn’t feel much better. (2 medkits remain)

Skur Vonn makes sure the pod is absolutely clear of the Serena Dawn’s debris, and does some mental math to double check the pod’s estimation of the time it will take to reach the planet. Then he returns to his crash chair and settles in for a nap.

Goran says to Kdantk, “Interlocutor, is there some other way to protect your research? If more than one person has a copy than it surely would have double the chances of getting where it needs to?”

Kdantk’s antennae perk up with interest. “Well, that is a good point! Each copy increases the likelihood of the information surviving to the point of rescue! Tk, tk, tk… I have quite a lot in hardcopy, which will need to be encoded, but, of course, the majority is data-linkable. Would each of you be willing to partition some space in your links to house a copy of my research?”

He pauses for a moment, and then adds, “And will you promise me not to make any unauthorized copies, or to present my findings as your own, especially at any academic conventions or colloquia?”

(Let me know if you are willing to house the data in your links.)

---

:: Current Time: 09:02:00, Serena Dawn Ship Time, March 25 ::
:: Location : Emergency Pod 01 ::
:: Notice: Emergency Pod 01 is under manual control. ::
:: Updated time to reach the planet Volturnus: 00:11:46 ::

PING! PING! PING!
Bertie’s timer goes off and she gently wakes Skur Vonn.

Through the remaining panels of the pod’s holographic skin, you see the frontier planet, Volturnus, before you.

---

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---

Skur Vonn notes that the pod seems to have enough control left to land you in one piece, but he’s not confident that he can do much to guide the ship to a specific destination. He can aim for the coordinates the other pods had designated as their equatorial rendezvous, but a fraction of an angle here of there could still land them hundreds of miles off target. Definitely the same hemisphere, though. He also notes that this could be a very bumpy landing, so they had better secure that loose canister, double check all the other items, and make sure everyone is strapped in tightly before they hit atmosphere.

As Skur Vonn is sharing this with everyone, Kallina notices something catching the light, in apparent orbit around Volturnus. A ship? A satellite?

:: Current Time: 09:13:14, Serena Dawn Ship Time, March 25 ::
:: Location : Emergency Pod 01 ::
:: Notice: Emergency Pod 01 is under manual control. ::
:: Now entering planetary atmosphere. Expect turbulence. Please insure your harness is securely fastened. ::

---

PCs
Kallina: 2 of 5 Hits remaining.
Bertie: 2 of 4 Hits remaining.
Skur Vonn: 3 of 4 Hits remaining.
Goran: 3 of 4 Hits remaining.

NPCs
Jeeves: 0 of 1 Hits. (deactivated)
Hilberth, Fungal Creature: 1 of 1 Hits.
Interlocutor Kdantk (Stripey Vrusk): 1 of 1 Hits.
Kallt'kan & Chrt'kltal (Elderly Vrusk): 1 of 1 Hits. (I’m going to count them as one NPC, for now)

Any last minute preparations before you take the plunge?
Next Update: Friday!

[Rex]

Kallina

Kallina buckles in. I think I saw a ship or maybe a satellite in orbit.

[shaidar]

Bertie

"Maybe that's the survey teams ship. Is there any chance we could dock with it? I guess it's too late for that" she looks over to Skur Vonn.

Bertie is happy to loan some link memory space.

[Rex]

Kallina

Kallina is good loaning some memory too.

[cybersavant]

Skur Vonn "If that is indeed what the light is. It could be a pirate vessel - looking for the fake crew. I can try to alter our trajectory - but eve as it is, with the condition of the pod i can't guarantee a landing spot. We could be on our own either way."

[Pulpatoon]

:: Now entering planetary atmosphere. Atmospheric propulsion is at 30%. Inertial dampening is offline. Expect extreme turbulence. ::

Kallina, Bertie, and Skur Vonn note and briefly consider the possible identity of the orbiting ship, but then the capsule is surrounded by an orange glow as it begins to encounter atmosphere. Soon, the air around them ignites, as they plummet towards the planet’s surface. Skur Vonn holds controls in place while banging commands into the pod’s system, inputing workarounds for the most damaged systems. At one point, he kicks off his footgear and has to use his feet to steady to controls (which quickly reconfigure themselves in response) so that he can use both hands to reroute systems, calling out instructions to Bertie who also pitches in.

The interior of the ship is badly rattled during this descent, a bone-jarring, tooth-loosening, stomach-churning ordeal. Chrt'kltal screams out in pain, and then goes limp.

Finally, the cloak of fire falls away from the pod, and a blue sky streaked with amber-colored clouds opens up around the pod. Below you, landscapes roll past too quickly to be anything more than grey-green streaks.

---

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---

Skur Vonn takes the pod’s atmospheric pods to their limit, backs off them for just a fraction of a second, and then pushes them even further, knowing that this pod will be half-melted slag by the time they land, but also knowing that if he doesn’t break their velocity, there will be nothing left of the party but a miles-long smear. Bertie gets a brainstorm, and dives into the control node for the ship’s containment field. She reshapes the field into a baffled-parachute configuration. The air around the pod briefly ignites again, and everyone very nearly suffers whiplash as the field catches the air. The pod begins to shed speed as it streaks over the planet Volturnus.

The pod begins moving slowly enough that you feel like you can catch your breath a bit and do something other than hang on for dear life. You notice the harsh beauty of the alien planet, and its golden clouds that capture the light so brightly that it almost looks as though they are lit from within. Kallt'kan reaches a shaking hand out to his unmoving wife, and feels several spots on her carapace. “Ltskitotl chg’katak!”, he calls out, before collecting himself enough to say in PanGal, “She has only passed out!”

The pod is now cruising in an almost leisurely fashion through the sky, when it enters a cloud bank, and suddenly chaos erupts again! The pod is battered from all sides by all manner of strange material—leaves, tendrils, fuzzy clumps than look like moss, swarms of quadrilaterally-symmetrical insects and other living things that burst in impact against the hull. It is a nightmare scene of unexpected, discordant violence, as the pod is whipped and splattered with destroyed plant and animal life. Somehow, the cloud is full of flora and fauna!

Skur Vonn loses control again, as sensors tell him that one of the dorsal projectors has been ripped off the pod, and the ship spins out of control for tens of seconds before he can compensate. A giant beast like an over-inflated, eyeless whale that was grazing among the clouds bursts into tattered sheets of tissue and fluid as the pod crashes through it. The ground is approaching quickly now!

---

Pod crashing on volturnus.png (874.8 KiB) Viewed 508 times

---

The is a rush of movement, of sound, and impact, followed by a shocked and painful darkness. For a long time, all you are aware of is pain and a sense of compression, holding you tight. As awareness slowly returns, the pain increases, and your hands scramble at the buckles of the safety harness. Something is dripping nearby. Someone is moaning.

:: Emergency : You have been in a severe crash. You may be suffering from shock and injuries. Please stand by for medical diagnosis. Refrain from moving until the extent of your injuries can be determined. Processing. ::

:: Emergency : This escape pod’s structural integrity has been catastrophically compromised. Please vacate the pod immediately. Do not pause to collect your personal possessions. Do not remain in the vicinity of the pod. Maintain a distance of at least 100 meters until authorities inform you that the danger of explosion has passed. ::

:: Emergency : You have landed on an undeveloped planet. Please access the emergency survival packs located underneath the crash seating of this pod. Activate the pods transponder, and stay close to the pod until help becomes available. ::

:: Medical diagnosis processing. Do not move. ::
:: Vacate the ship immediately. ::
:: Emergency transponder offline. ::

:: Welcome to frontier world GHC-03-UHOD-87204a, designated Volturnus. Would you like me to maintain Ship’s time, or estimate planetary time from local conditions? ::

---

PCs
Kallina: 1 of 5 Hits remaining.
Bertie: 1 of 4 Hits remaining.
Skur Vonn: 2 of 4 Hits remaining.
Goran: 2 of 4 Hits remaining.

NPCs
Jeeves: 0 of 1 Hits. (deactivated)
Hilberth, Fungal Creature: 0 of 1 Hits. (unconscious)
Interlocutor Kdantk (Stripey Vrusk): 0 of 1 Hits. (unconscious)
Kallt'kan & Chrt'kltal (Elderly Vrusk): 0 of 1 Hits. (unconscious)

Actions?
Next Update: Monday!

[Rex]

Kallina

Grabs the emergency survival pack from under her seat. "I will scout outside while everyone prepares to exit, make sure to grab as many survival packs as we can."

[shaidar]

Bertie unbuckles herself

"I need to check the wounded. If you are in pain don't move and I will check you over. Those who feel OK help Kallina with evacuating the pod and I will check on you after."

[cybersavant]

Skur Vonn "It looks like the passengers are out. If you can't rouse them, we may have a problem." Skur Vonn starts to gather survival packs and throw them outside. He'll then either help carry out the unconscious or gather anything else useful from the ship [ like portable transponder, tools, or loose components ].

[Pulpatoon]

The survival packs are located under the crash seats, which have to be folded up to access them. With Bertie, Kallina, and Skur Vonn up and two seats having remained empty, that makes 5 survival packs immediately accessible. There should be 5 more, once Goran gets up and the unconscious passengers are moved.

[Pulpatoon]

Kallina, Bertie, and Skur Vonn crack open the hatch on the escape pod, letting in the air of Volturnus—dusty, dry, slightly spiced, and with a tinge of ozone. In the distance, golden clouds roil in an indigo sky, promising a storm on the horizon.

Kallina hops out and runs a quick perimeter of the crash site. They are in a desert of pale ochres, at the end of a long trough carved through the sand by the pod’s uncontrolled descent. Winds kick up orange blooms of sand, obscuring parts of the landscape, but her initial assessment is that they are alone in a desolate waste.

Skur Vonn pulls up the five uninhabited crash seats, fishing out survival packs, and throwing them out the pod’s hatch. Bertie climbs over the unconscious passengers, checking their vitals and unbuckling their safety harnesses. Then she, Kallina, and Skur Vonn work quickly to haul them out of the pod, and carry them to a safe distance. As they are doing so, something sparks and catches fire in the interior of the pod. Skur Vonn is able to extricate one more survival pack, and Bertie is able to haul out Jeeves before the fire spreads and the interior fills with toxic fumes.

The party drags the unconscious survivors further away from the wreck, to the lee of a sand dune that offers some protection from the elements. There, they can examine the contents of the survival packs. Each of the six packs contains:

• 1 medkit
• 1 stimdose
• 1 antitoxin
• 5 glow rods
• Rations (5 days)
• 1 environmental protection cloak

Additionally, some of the packs have other items:

1. Pop tent
2. Pop tent
3. Nightvision goggles
4. Climbing gear
5. Pop tent
6. Macrobinoculars

With a storm coming, and night fast approaching, the party deploys the pop tents and secures them to the side of the dune. It is crowded, with eight individuals (three of them long-bodied vrusk) in tents meant to house two people each, but no one is worried about comfort, right now. The evening is spent taking care of each other’s injuries and listening to the sand and wind whip against the sides of the tent, lit by the eerie bonfire of the crashed pod.

In the morning, you awake and emerge from the half-buried tents. It is calm and quiet. The sky is empty of clouds, the wreckage is just another lump of sand among the dunes. Nothing moves, anywhere.

Welcome to the planet Volturnus!

CrashOnVolturnus-p08.png (1.36 MiB) Viewed 493 times

This ends Chapter One! Please see the System Updates post in the OOC Channel for feedback and information on Advancement!