Frydheld Sector 29-9-26
Players
Aarav Bautista/Scout - VinegarSyndrome
Ser Hart Lieber/Scout - Gourd Dwarf
Zoe Santos/Other - Oldskol
Summary
The crew starts on Wippletree with a disheveled, stumpy woman approaching them. Cassandra Yuan offers them a job to hunt down a stolen sailing ship. A playboy came in and borrowed it for a test drive but hasn't returned it for three weeks. She offers 80k but the crew counters with 100k. She accepts.
The crew sets up their medical clinic and treat a group of locals with compromised lungs. During this they learn of a pirate cove off to the east. Yuan gets a crew ready to helm the Fool's Pace. The crew sails south to a commune. The nudists welcome them with conversation and drugs. During the libations, dongs and asses exposed, the commune goers share their limited information. The partyboy came two weeks ago, took some of the more ornery commune goers, and they went off south to an abandoned village.
They go north in search of a pirate cove to find more fighting men to contend with the party boy's crew. Under a clear sea of stars they recruit nine pirates with a swig of rum, 25kcr, and a promise of revenge on the party boy. Zoe hustled the pirates in faro for a tidy 5kcr profit!
South they sailed, with the pirates relaying news about the abandoned zoo to the north being filled with lizards that blend into the shadows with a nasty bite.
Land ho! A large six pointed star continent dotted with ruins. They debated on making land or circumnavigating it. Ultimately they decided to circumnavigate the island. During their scouting they were ambushed by four conical whales with cone jaws that smashed the ship. The animals drove them into the rocks, and though the crew slew them, the ship was reduced to splinters and all the crew but Hart were forced to take a dip into the ammonia-water sea.
Regrouping they struck out to make it to the top of the island. Strange ruins dot the trip. The smell of smoke wafts from a ruined roundhouse in a ring fort up top. Hart scouts forward, sneaking into the roundhouse. Inside a pit set into the center a slow moving rotisserie with seven broken apart humans cooked over massive coals. Hart and Aarav broke into action to put out the fires and rescue the prisoners. Among them was the party boy pleading for his life.
With two prisoners left to save, quick moving, short, long limbed humans attacked Aarav as he dangled over the pit. Hart pulled him to safety. Outside a dark purple star swelled in the night's sky as a supernatural darkness crept in reducing visibility to three feet. The crew settled in for a long night. Lieber collapsed part of the roof to cut off visibility to the six pointed star in the sky. Sensing the pit being reignited Lieber crashed through the viewing windows for the human grill, killing a number of the humanoids. Aarav kicked away a deadly coal that exploded into jets of choking flames.
Capturing one of the attackers, Lieber and crew prepare for the rest of the long night.
Reflections
I had a week to prepare this patron because the last session ended on a patron roll. I usually follow the Classic Traveller Out of the Box method and have it come together at the table. Though this was a welcome change of pace! I feel really content layering more of the sorcery and lost world elements into the campaign. We also got to do a sea crawl in a sci fi game! This session would have been a lot different if the player with the ship showed up.
Traveller can handle very many tones and genres. I wouldn't let any preconceived notions about what's right for it limit the situations you prep for it!
Oh, I also got to test my Extended Tasks system and it worked well! As did the squad rules! Yippee!