Our local Aquarium held a RPG fundraiser on May 17th. We not only gained admission to the aquarium to explore at our leisure, but we got to create our own tabletop adventure hanging out next to the otter habitat. And about two hours in, the lights all went out so the animals could sleep. We had to finish our session by flashlight and table lamp. It was an amazing experience and we hope to be able to do it again next year.
Recap for Session 24.5: Stuck in Time
Captain's Log:
Ash, Tyrone, Vydrion, and myself found ourselves in the cargo bay of an unknown vessel, not knowing how we got there, what day it was, or anything that had happened since we had entered the Void with the Invictus. Ash tried to gain access to the ship's logs while I tried hailing Vicky. We both failed. Tyrone found some locked military crates with space exploration gear and experimental weaponry, but left them in favor of trying to get out of the cargo bay. He messed with the control panel and triggered the security protocol as a blast shield slammed into place. I decided the best way around that would be to enter our credentials into the system. Unfortunately, experimental military vessels don't always play nice. I unintentionally set off anesthetizing gas. We all held our breath and ran for the shuttle in the middle of the room, though once locked in, I realized my new suit with its rebreather would have protected me. But I couldn't go back out into the bay without compromising the crew, so I had to figure out a way to make the air safe for the others to breath. I successful hacked my way into the room's controls through the shuttles controls. I opened the cargo bay door (bye bye crates full of goodies) and released the gas and everything else not secured out into space.
Once out of the shuttle, Tyrone discovered one crate had been tied down, in it was a bizarre looking weapon. He decided to take a shot at the blast shield. It seemed that the shield took all that energy and threw it back at Tyrone, causing him to fly across the room and come crashing down on the shuttle. He decided to take a less forceful approach and just hotwire the shield to let us out.
We slowly made our way down the hallway. I engaged my invisibility cloak and Ash tried her hand at her stealthy chameleon skill. However, as Ash walked by an entrance to a laboratory the door slid open and a creature emerged. It was unlike anything we had ever seen, and we have seen a lot of things. It had a horn that could emit a deathly ray of energy. Vydrion came down on it with his spear while Ash blasted it with the Angry Cricket. I was absolutely mortified. Ash was down the hall in front of the party, she had to turn around and aim back towards us. If she had missed, she would have taken out Tyrone or Vydrion. I super charged my weapon and took the creature down. As we went to explore the room it had come from, another one appeared in the doorway. Tyrone disabled the door to our backs so we couldn't be taken by surprise as we fought the new opponent. Ash was able to close the door on it, as it struggled to escape it backed into the room. Tyrone punched the control panel ensuring that it would stay in there.
We continued to pass lab after lab full of experimental creatures. We did decide to peak into one room. There was a set of triplets in cryo, but they also came with medical reports that alluded to their high level of threat. We decided to let the sleeping beauties be, but agreed we could come back for them later if needs be. I let the team know that I had actually double majored at University, my mad computer skills actually came about with my work in bioengineering. I really, really wanted to stop and explore each lab and read all the reports, but we still had no idea where in space or time we were. That's when we heard the flapping of wings. A giant, bug-like, flying creature flew over our heads, swooping down to take a closer look at us. The hallways were definitely not safe around here.
We finally decided to enter the medical bay to get possible supplies. We found equipment modifications that looked oddly familiar. Some duct tape here, some found objects there. Could an alternate-reality Benny be aboard this ship? And if so, would he come with us or attack us? Tyrone found a room in the back of the bay that was sealed off. He received a shock as he tried to gain access, someone had rigged the door to either keep things in or out. He and Vydrion were also very lucky as they dodged the barrage of darts that came next, so definitely trying to keep things out. Inside the room was a cryochamber, and in it was a figure that looked awfully familiar. Tyrone left his mech suit so he could greet this version of Benny as himself. I warned everyone to be on their guard because we didn't know how he would react to us, or if he would even know us. I initiated the wake-up protocol to bring him out of stasis. The Benny that emerged was emaciated, overly grumpy, and sporting an extremely long beard.
We were desperate to get knowledge out of him. Vydrion threw him a MRE as we bombarded him with questions. Eventually we learned the following:
Benny called this Scenario Four, the version of reality where only Vydrion, Tyrone, Ash, and myself boarded the ship. And in every Scenario we all die, but him. And he says this is his last. He is not doing this anymore.
We are trapped in a time loop, in-between two moments, less than a second. But Benny has been trapped in that half second for over 7 years.
We are aboard the military vessel that Fake Lilith commandeered us to locate.
Tybar is still alive. The Bleeding Edge Armor formed around him before he suffocated in space.
The Triplets are indeed a high threat. An unintentional result of their experimentation allows them to link together and put anyone into an eternal, blissful, dream state.
The flying creature out in the hall is the Apex Predator. The ultimate science experiment. They were trying to develop creatures that could withstand the Void.
The creature guards the bridge, that's as far as Benny has ever made it before crawling back to the med bay to put himself into cryo.
A drone would now be guarding the cargo bay. And a Fungus creature (long lost cousin of Chanty?) would have picked up Tyrone's dropped weapon in the hall and disappeared with it.
As the others spit-balled solutions to our current predicament, each one shot down by Benny as "we've already tried that", I grabbed his face and planted a big ol' kiss on his lips. Benny spiraled into a monologue about how he is trying to repair things with Pam, that he is flattered, but he just doesn't think about me like that... Eventually I got him to listen to me and asked if I had done that in any other Scenario, which I had not! Giving us all hope that not everything has been tried and we can break the time loop. After a long deliberation, too long, we decided to get a some plasma cutters from the cargo bay and cut our way into the Jeffries tubes and approach the bridge from below. Tyrone, expressed his love to Benny, Ash gave Benny a cookie she just happened to have on her, and then Tyrone pushed Benny into the cryochamber. Benny wouldn't be joining us on this adventure, one more decision made to break the time loop. As we left the medical bay, I was a little sadden that Benny didn't want to date me. I mean, that wasn't my intent when I kissed him, but rejection is still rejection.
I had everyone hang back so I could approach the drone guarding the cargo bay invisible. As long as I moved slowly, I was able to bypass its scanners. Being so small, I was able to crawl right underneath it. However, once inside the bay, I realized I didn't know how to get out with the plasma cutters. The drone would see it. I couldn't attack the drone from behind as it would alert it to my presence and I wouldn't last in a firefight against it. So, I decided to repeat my earlier actions with a slight variation. I climbed into the shuttle and created Ghost Sounds right next to the cargo bay exit. When the Drone went to investigate, I opened the doors and swept it out into space. Along with it came creature after creature as the vacuum I created cleared the halls.
As we regrouped, we decided we should explore more of the ship. We had a plan to get to the Bridge, but we realized we had nothing at our disposal once we got there. We found the main core and figured out the tie ins with Ash's family. This ship was a knock off of the Invictus, Dr. Lull had stolen a lot more information from the Seraphine's than we knew. We also found Planet Killers all armed and ready. To the point none of us wanted to touch them for fear of setting them off and taking all of us with it. Ash found the mess hall and we grabbed cleaning supplies to make mustard gas. Tyrone found the experimental ship weapons wing and downloaded as many schematics as possible. In one room, far separated from the testing labs, we found another cryochamber with a halfling in it. The log for it listed her as part of the Brumble line of genetics and extremely dangerous. As we moved closer and closer to the Bridge, we determined that this creature is probably intelligent. So intelligent that we might be able to communicate with it. Ash want to link with it and share her experiences with being experimented on, maybe gaining its empathy. I asked Ash to give it a cookie, I wanted to see what would happen "If You Give A Monster A Cookie."
We were 100 feet away from the creature and Ash linked with it as planned. Not in the plans was how quickly the creature descended upon us. It looked deep into Ash's eyes as a indistinguishable language poured forth from it in a chant like rhythm. Though we caught the word "Mommy" being utter along with eerie laughter. The creature than stuck Ash in the neck with its stinger. It then paced a few steps away, curled up into a ball, and died. At this point Ash freaked out, but who could blame her? Ash's new condition aside, we were left with a conundrum. We now had access to the Bridge free and clear, but if we broke back into reality we would bring with us the Planet Killer and a bunch of invasive species that could wipe out all other living creatures within our universe. Figuring we had nothing to lose, we went back to the sleeping halfling and woke her up.
Her name is Maisie. And she told us to run. So we offered her a cookie and said she could kill anything outside of this room, but not to harm us. She informed us she used to have a code, but "they" removed it from her. She also recounted how she had fought back and was going to kill them all. In fact, she was the one who had let out all the experiments before they were able to contain her in this cryochamber. They had also implanted metal knives that came out of her hands, she scrapped them against the wall as she left the room to go hunt for remaining threats. We decided while she did that, we could break the time loop by flying the ship away from its current location. We were going to need the help of the other members of the crew.
In doing so, we returned to reality with such force and velocity we sent the Invictus, which had been docked to the battleship, flying off into the distance. Eventually we met up, and Lilith boarded the battleship. She was thrilled that we had actually pulled it off, we had found and secured the lost military battleship. She stopped short when she saw Maisie. In a gesture of deference, Lilith bowed her head to Maisie, held out the Hive Mind Chip, and petitioned her to be their leader. . . dun dun duuun!
Comentários