AP (ID) - The Vandern Derelict Session 02

Last week, +Adrian Thoen ran another action-packed session for his new, PbtA game, Impulse Drive. Three more players joined in this time for a full party of five. There were spaceship shenanigans, plenty of deceit, hostile pirates, swarming aliens, and a mission complete.

Here's the AP for Session 01 in case you missed it!

Impulse Drive

The Vandern Derelict

The Cast

The Space Master

+Adrian Thoen is our grand Space Master (SM) - the equivalent of an MC or DM.

The PCs

Willem, the Sage (played by +Radioactive Bears), is a tech-savvy human with a heightened, intellectual curiosity and a distaste for med bays. He's the chief, operating technician of the Nothung and has teamed up with Vex out of necessity to better withstand the dangers that most jobs bring - at least the ones that offer decent pay. Still, it's barely enough to cover the costs of maintaining their ship and paying back their loan.

Vex, the Tempest (played by me), is a proud, regal, humanoid lion from the planet Ryal III. He is the last of his kind, as far as he knows, for his pride and kin were destroyed by the Ragi, a strong but inferior race of lizardmen who saw the Ryalians as a threat. Vex has sworn to destroy them at all costs and regain his rightful status. He's distrustful of most beings but has actually found a dependable, if often frustrating, partner in Willem. He might even dare to call him a friend one day!

"Rek" / Tarnar Ekk, the Warhorse (played by +Trenton Kennedy), is a stalwart, human protector whose highest priority is to protect Koe. He's fit and muscular but not overly huge. He usually looks somewhat bored and is a bit reluctant with his actions, but he's not unfriendly and finds some things amusing. He's fairly private, reveres free people, and cannot eat anything organic - plant or animal. Instead, he lives off protein packets that resemble gruel. Lately, he's been getting more impatient with Koe and is sick of traveling so often.

Koe, the Outsider (played by +Deanna Nygren), is a tree-like alien of the Desidua race. She's fairly big and made primarily out of green and dark brown wood with spindly branches for limbs. Like all Desidua, she is gender neutral but can personify herself to fit a certain gender - in Koe's case, she like to sway her hips. While the Desidua tend to spread their roots out to other planets, Koe is counter-culture and doesn't want anything to do with that. She can regrow, tends to speak slowly, and in general can't really communicate too well.

Ismail "Smiley" Akami, the Scoundrel (played by +Johnstone Metzger), is a tall, dark, and handsome, Iranian Han Solo. He's friendly, ostentatious (wears lots of jewelry), tells preposterous stories about himself, and has many secrets. He owes money to the Calidar Syndicate and is obsessed with an ancient, alien civilization, the Zordaxi, that have long passed on and are immune to the parasitic Durak. Smiley has a gold orb/communication device that the Calidar Syndicate stole for him which lets Smiley locate/communicate with the Zordaxi. Smiley also possesses amounts of smuggled, synth coke which he's hidden away aboard the Nothung.

The Ship - The Nothung

Stats

+1 Helm (controls and systems for flight, navigation, and maneuvering)

0 Tactical (control sensors, communications, weapons aside from basic, short-range weapons that deal 1 damage)

+1 Engineering (monitoring ship's vital signs, controlling onboard systems i.e. life support, shipboard communications, rerouting power from one system to another, fuel reserves, and faster than light travel via an Interstellar Drive)

-1 Drive (all basic Drives start at -1 and can be upgraded at a later time)

0 Rep (starts at 0; represents how well known you are and what you're known for)

Interstellar Drive

Simple, sub-space drive

Secondary Systems

• Medbay
• Ram scoop
• Flak mines (proximity mines used for setting traps or behind a fleeing ship to provide cover and avoid pursuit)

Session 02

Part A

Dinner, Durak Infestation, and Deceit

Shortly after renegotiating a deal with Varenia Drake and agreeing to revisit the derelict ship, Willem and Vex decided to expand their crew so that they would stand a better chance against the Durak.

Vex found an old acquaintance of his, Smiley, while Willem recruited Rek and Koe on Vandern IV. Together, they boarded the Nothung and set a course for the derelict ship, where Varenia instructed them to destroy the terminal they got the data files off of and record it as proof. 

A weird smell emanated from the mess hall, where Rek warmed up his protein packets. Willem was highly curious and tried some of the gruel but almost threw up.

"How could you eat this?" Willem asked. 

Rek respected his resilience, and Willem promised to make it better. 

Meanwhile, Vex came in and thawed out some raw, frozen meat which he gorged on, forcing Rek to almost vomit and take the rest of his dinner to his room.

Soon, a warning went off throughout the ship, indicating a drive malfunction. Koe and Rek went to check it out. 

An amber light was flashing from one of the terminals. Koe sprouted her spindly, feely branches to investigate and found that they were extremely hot. A nearby, flat, yellow, rectangular panel with a fire symbol - the equivalent of a fire extinguisher - was available to cool the systems down. Koe grabbed it and felt out the warmth before ripping the panel open. Inside, she and Rek saw frayed and damaged wires with juvenile Durak crawling around them. 

Rek communicated the problem to the rest of the ship and figured out that a certain, chemical compound could be used to eradicate them, but the process would take at least an entire day. Willem rushed in with a ready terrarium, eager to scoop them all up. Vex, who remained at the bridge, blamed Willem for the infestation and told him to destroy them. Willem replied that he would, but it was a crude lie which everyone caught but Vex, though no one told him otherwise.

Koe helped Willem gather them up quickly. The Sage didn't quite know where the best place to store them would be, but Smiley shared his expertise and suggested glass containers would work the best. He then said they should scour the ship for more, but it was really just a cover story to look for more places to hide his smuggled goods without drawing suspicion. 

Vex checked the scanners for more parasites and saw the Durak moving toward the mess hall. He told the crew, but Willem tried to assure him everything was fine and that the scanners weren't working properly. He secretly asked Smiley for his help in securing the Durak, and Smiley publicly offered to check the mess hall anyway. He then successfully changed the sensor systems to fool Vex into not seeing them anymore. Willem again assured Vex that everything was taken care of, but Vex still blamed Willem, although he was utterly confused.

The Vandern Derelict by Adrian Thoen

Part B

Return to the Derelict

The crew was just hours away from reaching the derelict ship, when an ugly, worn, box-like ship came into radar. It was the same, Black Mandible pirate ship that attacked the Nothung after the first expedition to the derelict ship. The only difference was that Maria Velez didn't hail them this time; they were going to the same destination.

Vex scanned the pirate ship and found it's greatest strength was its midrange plasma cannons. The crew of the Nothung had two choices: play it safe and potentially lose the race or take a risk and gun it through the asteroid field. The latter choice was the unanimous decision, and Vex sped on through but not as neatly as he hoped. After squeezing through a narrow opening between two asteroids, the Nothung came out ahead but lost half of its ram scoop in the process.

Once they arrived at the derelict ship, the crew members changed into their vac suits and entered the ship. Vex suggested taking a single flak mine to destroy the terminal after wiping it clean, and Koe was in put in charge of carrying it.

Everyone decided to go in sneakingly toward the console room and were faced with two paths. Vex wanted to take the long and safe route to avoid passing through zero G, but the rest of the crew wanted to take the faster way. 

Smiley set an example by gracefully leaping across the gap without a problem. Koe grew her tree-like body to get across. It wasn't too stressful of a process but certainly not as graceful as Smiley's. Rek leaped forward to grab onto her and felt he was going to crash, but Smiley helped out and kept Rek from making much noise. Instead, Rek slammed into Smiley and knocked the wind out him. Vex originally wanted to take the longer, safer route given his zero G phobia, but Willem tied a rope between them and Vex succumbed. He turned around and unleashed a psychic blast to propel them across. Koe reached out to grab them, but they teetered out before reaching her. Rek stepped in to help Koe reach them, and as he yanked back hard, the sudden shift from zero G to gravity made Vex's stomach churn.

Meanwhile, Smiley went on ahead, and the crew received a signal from the Nothung that the pirates had arrived. 

Willem had a plan to deal with the Durak and stayed back for a moment. He used the industrial drill he got from Varenia Drake to create an intermittent burst of electricity to draw the Durak to one location. Vex yelled at him to hurry up, and the pressure helped Willem speed things up. They heard a cacophony of Durak racing toward the noise, and Koe, Rek, Vex, and Willem quickly ran followed Smiley. 

The console room was almost the exact same as when Willem and Vex left it; the gravity inside was still reversed. 

Smiley ran in, grabbed onto a rung on the floor (which was now the ceiling), hung upside down and dropped down to get to the computer terminal which was shut down. He turned it on and saw the looping video of Varenia Drake and Maria Velez taking a selfie and implying that they may have been romantically involved. Even after everything Willem and Vex uncovered from the data file, they were still unsure whether the women were at odds with each other or working together.

Nevertheless, Smiley began downloading the info onto his data pad without the crew's knowledge. He lied and said he was performing a complete wipe while showing them a fake status bar. He knew the actual deletion process would be super quick, but the download took time.

Echoes of pirates engaging Durak in the distance were growing louder, and the crew knew that trouble would soon find them. 

Rek ran toward the nearest T intersection and took the lead in securing a barricade. Vex joined him and began moving things to help out. 

Smiley's download was at 50%, and Willem heard the sound of his device blowing up.

Rek reminded Koe about the flak mine, and Koe stammered, unable to talk well. 

The download was at 60%.

Willem had a plan in mind using the maintenance conduits and pulled off a panel, but he encountered a Durak crawling inside. It turned to him, and Willem tried to close the panel in time but barely made it. 

Koe saw what Willem was doing and found another maintenance hatch to try the same in an attempt to help. She, too, saw several Durak that advanced on her but managed to slam it shut quickly.

The download was at 80%, and the Durak were trying to bash through the panels.

Willem set the flak mine on a fifteen minute timer, with a remote detonator as well, and quickly opened the maintenance conduit again to set it in place, but the Durak jumped onto his visor before he could close it. A sharp beam of light appeared from the adjacent room, as Smiley shot it dead with his laser pistol. Unfortunately, the Durak already had its claws in Willem and did some damage.

 Back at the T intersection, several human pirates came around the corner along with a tripedal species with strange tentacles. Rek drew his shotgun at them and yelled, "Stay put! Do not come closer!"

Smiley's download was 95% complete.

Vex stood next to Rek and drew in a deep breath before unleashing a tremendous, intimidating roar to scare the pirates off.

As the tentacle creature began running off, Vex noticed it had reptilian features underneath and realized it was a Ragi - his sworn enemy. Without any hesitation, Vex drew his assault rifle and unleashed a torrent of energy lasers at it, killing it while overheating his gun.

One of the other pirates freaked out and lobbed a grenade. Rek threw Vex on the ground and took the grenade himself, using his energy shield to save them both. He stood up and showed off his grenades, and the pirates high tailed it out of there.

Back in the console room, Smiley's download was finally complete, and he quickly deleted all the files before jumping back out of the room slick and gracefully. 

The flak mine wasn't set in the maintenance conduit, but it was still set to detonate and would take out the terminal either way. 

The crew began running back toward their ship with Vex in the lead. Rek stayed behind with his shotgun to ward off the oncoming Durak.

While running, Willem scanned the corridors to find the shortest route, and Vex used his psychic abilities to clear various crates and other debris from their path. The rest of the crew followed. At one point, Rek saw several Durak emerging from a ceiling panel near Koe and shot them clean with his shotgun.

They reached a closed, operable door which was electronically locked and needed to be hacked. Smiley took the lead, and Willem calmly explained to him a series of technician overrides. Together, they opened the door and made it look incredibly easy.

At the same time, the human pirate that lobbed the grenade appeared out of nowhere and rushed past them, through the open door. He was clearly running from something, and as the crew looked back, they stared at a swarm of hundreds of Durak in the distance, covering the walls, floor, and ceiling. The crew was staring into the abyss.

Koe and Willem were shaken. Rek developed a new foible and vowed to destroy the Durak. Smiley also developed a new foible and would always make sure he was better armed. Vex, unfortunately, was already terrified of the Durak and filled with a bitter hatred for them. He broke down and ran away like a scaredy cat, revealing his weakness. Instead of having a phobia of the Durak, his new foible was to turn and run whenever he saw the Durak. In fact, he bolted out of there so fast that he outran the fleeing pirate and was the first to make it onto the Nothung.

Back on the derelict ship, the crew hung back behind the door, as Rek threw two grenades at the swarm to take a whole bunch of them out. Willem hit the latch to close the door shut, and everyone made it onto the Nothung safe and sound with the Black Mandible pirate as their new hostage.

End of Session 02

What fate will befall the pirate hostage?

Will the crew of the Nothung finally get paid for their job?
Will they find out more about Varenia Drake and Maria Velez?

Finally, what future jobs, troubles, and dangers await the crew?

Session 03 is set for today, so we shall play to find out!