For those of you that watch my Traveller game I have to offer an apology as the on-line hangout did not give me the option to record this week. It did its preparation stuff but hung on 99% and never gave me the “Start Recording” button. I was under a time pressure to get the game done so that I could pick up my daughter from her work so I had no time to get it to work.
So I offer you this brief blog to detail what happened. Joining us for the game was +Dave Morris who played his character Grelldek and +Scott Cadoo who reprised his role as the Aslani Seekah. +Dan Hall and +Steve K who played in part 1 were also present.
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| The Belter community that Szzap was raised in |
The party infiltrated the asteroid base that seemed devoid of life via a thermal vent maintenance duct. Anton (Dan Hall’s character) was on fire all night with his rolls and managed to convince the base AI that they were maintenance droids that had detected a sensor anomaly in the ducts. The AI conveniently opened all maintenance ports for the players.
They made their way to an air lock and Anton detected one of the robots that the group had seen at a distance standing guard over the air lock. Again Anton managed to get the airlock opened and then there was a great deal of discussion about what to do with the robot. Szzap (Steve’s character) had been chosen for this mission due to his belter background (he was an asteroid miner) and he talked about the use of a TDX charge.
The TDX charge is an explosive that explodes in a 2 dimensional plane. It is a shaped charge that has width and height but no third dimension and is used to precisely explode asteroids. Szzap advised that he would seek to place a charge under the “chin” of the robot and thus sever its sensors from its body and brain (all determined by Anton).
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| In space no one can smell you burn… |
The plan worked very well. The robot dealt with they found themselves in a corridor. One way led to a T junction with a non-descriptive corridor crossing it whilst the other way showed what appeared to be a large glass wall looking into a research laboratory filled with oversized scientific tools.
A short aside at this point. The players learnt (through Seekah being present) that there was something very weird going on here. The asteroid had been registering some alarming sensory readings that needed investigating. Along with that the systems of this asteroid also seemed to be a mixture of familiar Mechanist technology but also technology that none of the players had ever encountered before. Vastly superior technology in fact inclusive of some of the sensory equipment in the robots.
Of course the players made their way down to the glass wall only to find it was some kind of force wall. They saw moving behind the wall two large (around 2.5 metres tall at the shoulder) anthropomorphic dinosaur creatures. They prepared for a violent encounter with them raising their weapons. Unconcerned, one of them lowered the force wall and asked what they were doing there. It asked if they were there to help them escape.
This caught the players on the back foot and they asked who or what they were. The creature simply stated that it did not have time to explain. It advised that the Mechanist’s had been holding them prisoner here and that they were forcing them to work for them. the Mechanist’s apparently held the remains of their family which was of great concern to the creatures and they needed help to escape and have the remains returned.
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| The odd Vasil system, free to travel but not to stay |
Szzap was very against helping these creatures on faith but Seekah stated that he must get them off the asteroid and into Aslani space as soon as possible to learn what they could. The group agreed (somewhat begrudgingly) and as they turned to leave… I called it a night!
This was the ending point of the game that I had planned. There was a great groan from the players as they realised they will have to wait for another month or so to find out more about these creatures. Though one of them conjectured “Could be the Ancients!” Let us see in a month or so when I run the next game in the Burning Planets campaign. Keep Rolling!