Thought i would put up this AP on my latest Traveller game, as is does not seem to be done much on this forum. Game is being played over roll20 as the players are from across Europe and the UK (Two players and myself are from the UK, one is living in Stockholm and the other is living in Belgrade. Been gaming with these guys for over a year now having meet them on roll20).
The cast of characters:
Vasily Velez-Engineer (ex cluster navy)
Anton Valere-Pilot (ex scout and ex navy)
Carter Sear (ex cluster navy marine)
Ruse Hompson (Researcher, down on luck drifter)
Basic synopsis-The PCs are part of the crew of a exploration/construction ship (the Star Seeker) from the Cluster, a group of eight worlds located in an area of space that is almost devoid of stars (called rifts in Traveller parlance), building the 'star bridge' (a series of jump stations/refuel points across a void to link to an area rich in stars and potentially habitable worlds). As standard practice half the crew are in low berth when not on duty.
The session begins with the PCs being rapidly awoken from their low berths, and the first thing they hear is a all ship emergency alarm and the repeating order to abandon ship. Vasily checks the nearest consoles and swears when he gets the damage report. He tries to make to engineering but finds the way blocked by a bulkhead door that has been dropped. Anton, following Vasily lead, tries to get to the bridge and also finds that the easiest route has been sealed by bulkheads as well. The PCs realise this is bad, so grab their gear and head to the hanger deck whilst the ship creaks and groans around them, sure signs that the structural integrity of the ship is compromised.
All reach the deck, but then part of the hull gives out and emergency bulkheads slam down, sealing off another part of the ship. The PCs throw their gear onto the first ship they find (a 20ton 'gig'), suit up and then get the hanger door open and launch from the ship. As they race away they see the extent of the damage to the ship, the bridge section has been sheared off, and engineering is breached and fires can be seen burning inside, fuelled by the oxygen rich atmosphere and the fuel leaking into engineering. As they race away from the stricken ship they see they are near a world and make course for the planet. Minutes later the star seeker explodes. The PCs try the comms to see if there are any other escaping ships but cannot make contact with anyone, so wonder if they are the only survivors.
As the approach the planet, their gigs sensors indicate no communications from the world, but do detect a weak power source. The planet certainly appears to be human compatible as seas and green covered land masses can be easily seen.
They fly to the power source and land next to what appears to be a part complete outpost, that appears to be being powered by solar panels and wind turbines. Ruse and Anton note the large, tall alien trees nearby (due to the worlds lower gravity), a number of large flying/gliding creatures and the lack of any obvious land animals. A quick check of the atmosphere reveals it to be heavily tainted with an irritant (pollen) so breather masks are worn to avoid any complications.
The PCs enter the outpost, and soon find the first body, or rather what is left of it as it is mainly a skeleton with no flesh left upon the bones. Other bodies are found in a same state (ten in total). The rest of the outpost has supplies, power and oddly a section that appears to be dedicated to growing native trees and plants, though the purpose of this is a mystery. A few data pads are found, but not much info is gleamed from them other than this outpost was active a few years ago, that there is a larger colony on the planet and the team here originate from another system.
The bodies are examined by both Ruse and Anton, and found to have had the flesh eaten off them. It is not clear whether this was post or pre mortem, as the bones show no obvious signs of trauma from weapons.
At this point the motion scanner carried by one of the PCs starts to activate, detecting something else in the outpost with them. The PCs rush to the location and see emerging from a broken floor grate a mass of eel like creatures, who move as one large squirming form. The PCs open fire with what ever weapons they have and the 'worm boil' (as the PCs call it) reacts to the attack upon it, striking out at the nearest PC with a Psionic attack, which stuns Carter and leaves him unable to act for a few minutes. The combined fire of the other PCs drives off the eel things, and the eels retreat back down the grate, which is sealed a few minutes late by Vasily, who then goes around the outpost sealing any holes or grated he can find. Carter recovers with a stunning headache, and spends the next few hours resting and taking headache pills.
The remains of the eels killed are examined, and their lamprey like mouths indicate that these things are responsible for the state of the corpse found, and the PCs conclude that these eels must stun their prey with their psionic attack then overwhelm the victim and tear them up with their teeth. It is also noted these creatures would probably be able to move through soil much like worms, and only have rudimentary senses, so the PCs speculate that maybe they sense prey by some form of psionic sense as well.
Once the outpost is secure, the PCs decide that they need to check out the mention colony site, and speculate about what they will find there, and why this world has been colonized in the first place with such a dangerous creature present. They hope some answers may be found at the colony, and a way out of the system as they have no jump capable ship.
(Part 2 will be played on Tuesday, and i will put up an AP for that later in the week. And in case it is not obvious this is not the OTU, though uses much the same technology assumptions with some tweaks from me.)
The cast of characters:
Vasily Velez-Engineer (ex cluster navy)
Anton Valere-Pilot (ex scout and ex navy)
Carter Sear (ex cluster navy marine)
Ruse Hompson (Researcher, down on luck drifter)
Basic synopsis-The PCs are part of the crew of a exploration/construction ship (the Star Seeker) from the Cluster, a group of eight worlds located in an area of space that is almost devoid of stars (called rifts in Traveller parlance), building the 'star bridge' (a series of jump stations/refuel points across a void to link to an area rich in stars and potentially habitable worlds). As standard practice half the crew are in low berth when not on duty.
The session begins with the PCs being rapidly awoken from their low berths, and the first thing they hear is a all ship emergency alarm and the repeating order to abandon ship. Vasily checks the nearest consoles and swears when he gets the damage report. He tries to make to engineering but finds the way blocked by a bulkhead door that has been dropped. Anton, following Vasily lead, tries to get to the bridge and also finds that the easiest route has been sealed by bulkheads as well. The PCs realise this is bad, so grab their gear and head to the hanger deck whilst the ship creaks and groans around them, sure signs that the structural integrity of the ship is compromised.
All reach the deck, but then part of the hull gives out and emergency bulkheads slam down, sealing off another part of the ship. The PCs throw their gear onto the first ship they find (a 20ton 'gig'), suit up and then get the hanger door open and launch from the ship. As they race away they see the extent of the damage to the ship, the bridge section has been sheared off, and engineering is breached and fires can be seen burning inside, fuelled by the oxygen rich atmosphere and the fuel leaking into engineering. As they race away from the stricken ship they see they are near a world and make course for the planet. Minutes later the star seeker explodes. The PCs try the comms to see if there are any other escaping ships but cannot make contact with anyone, so wonder if they are the only survivors.
As the approach the planet, their gigs sensors indicate no communications from the world, but do detect a weak power source. The planet certainly appears to be human compatible as seas and green covered land masses can be easily seen.
They fly to the power source and land next to what appears to be a part complete outpost, that appears to be being powered by solar panels and wind turbines. Ruse and Anton note the large, tall alien trees nearby (due to the worlds lower gravity), a number of large flying/gliding creatures and the lack of any obvious land animals. A quick check of the atmosphere reveals it to be heavily tainted with an irritant (pollen) so breather masks are worn to avoid any complications.
The PCs enter the outpost, and soon find the first body, or rather what is left of it as it is mainly a skeleton with no flesh left upon the bones. Other bodies are found in a same state (ten in total). The rest of the outpost has supplies, power and oddly a section that appears to be dedicated to growing native trees and plants, though the purpose of this is a mystery. A few data pads are found, but not much info is gleamed from them other than this outpost was active a few years ago, that there is a larger colony on the planet and the team here originate from another system.
The bodies are examined by both Ruse and Anton, and found to have had the flesh eaten off them. It is not clear whether this was post or pre mortem, as the bones show no obvious signs of trauma from weapons.
At this point the motion scanner carried by one of the PCs starts to activate, detecting something else in the outpost with them. The PCs rush to the location and see emerging from a broken floor grate a mass of eel like creatures, who move as one large squirming form. The PCs open fire with what ever weapons they have and the 'worm boil' (as the PCs call it) reacts to the attack upon it, striking out at the nearest PC with a Psionic attack, which stuns Carter and leaves him unable to act for a few minutes. The combined fire of the other PCs drives off the eel things, and the eels retreat back down the grate, which is sealed a few minutes late by Vasily, who then goes around the outpost sealing any holes or grated he can find. Carter recovers with a stunning headache, and spends the next few hours resting and taking headache pills.
The remains of the eels killed are examined, and their lamprey like mouths indicate that these things are responsible for the state of the corpse found, and the PCs conclude that these eels must stun their prey with their psionic attack then overwhelm the victim and tear them up with their teeth. It is also noted these creatures would probably be able to move through soil much like worms, and only have rudimentary senses, so the PCs speculate that maybe they sense prey by some form of psionic sense as well.
Once the outpost is secure, the PCs decide that they need to check out the mention colony site, and speculate about what they will find there, and why this world has been colonized in the first place with such a dangerous creature present. They hope some answers may be found at the colony, and a way out of the system as they have no jump capable ship.
(Part 2 will be played on Tuesday, and i will put up an AP for that later in the week. And in case it is not obvious this is not the OTU, though uses much the same technology assumptions with some tweaks from me.)