Barhopping in Shionthy

The Skylark’s crew went from asteroid to asteroid and station to station in the Shionthy system in hope of hearing rumors of the Annic Nova’s missing crew. They didn’t find what they were looking for, but did find something else: The possibility that the laws of physics as they knew them were wrong.

We used Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other since we are now scattered around the country.

This note is from our Jun 4th, 2017 session and was mostly written by Carl and Kay with additional material provided by myself.

See also: The Kinunir, Part 3.

Date: 010-1107 Imperial

Location: Styx Station in the Shionthy System, Regina Subsector.

Sam decided to stay on Styx and do day trading while the rest of us took shuttles to and fro in-system to visit the hot spots and ask around to see if anyone has met the crew of the Annic Nova.

We all spent 1000 credits each for a 10 day pass from one of the local shuttle companies that would allow us to travel on the scheduled runs between the various rocks and stations of the L4 cluster.

Local law allowed us to take slug throwers, but not energy weapons. We all dressed accordingly, including ballistic cloth underwear in case there was trouble.

Kipenzi checked the naval presence: The Imperial Navy has a presence at the Gas Giant Georgios, there to prevent people from going to the Ancient Site on one of its moons. They also warn people away from the Ragnarok (Hot) Belt where there is a lot of antimatter. Those areas are red zoned. The In-system Navy is more like a Coast Guard.

Our first stop was Odysseus Station, later that afternoon.

Time for a bar stop, that passenger stuff is killer on the thirst. The Luminuous Moon looked like a tough place, if not quite a pure dive. Our server was Zale Avin.

We sat down and ordered. Talking with the server and bartender, and walking around, we heard rumors that the Foxwells are missing.

The Foxwells are a group of about 10 mining and small manufacturing ships, a family operation, it just disappeared from their accustomed area a couple of weeks ago.

They were last "known" in the Shionthy Belt, about 15 degrees spinward from here.

No antimatter or any other explosion, just as if they were picked up or decided to move on. No wreckage of any kind was found.

However, no one is in a big hurry to pick up mining where they left off. Back on the Skylark, Sam checked the news feeds and didn't find any more information - dead end so far.

No one had seen any beings like what we are looking around for.

1107-011
We took a shuttle to the next stop, Volos Station, and went into the first bar we came to: Morkos. Fig was not quite so light on his feet at the bar and stumbled into a patron and caused quite the ruckus. Increasing offers of drinks around didn't do a lot to calm down the patron, who’s name we later found to be Aplaik Edraweus, a local troublemaker.

Some other patrons intervened to calm things down, as Kipenzi and Medicus the brave fled in terror.

“We strategically withdrew in order to bail Fig out of jail later if needed.” - Kipenzi

At least Leon stayed in the bar, if only as an observer, quietly sipping his drink.

Aplaik got escorted out, vowing to never come back. Fig bought two rounds for everyone. Medicus and Kipenzi slunk back into the bar.

No new rumors here, they had heard about the Foxwells, but no news of any other weird stuff, or weird looking people passing through. We got directions to a fleabag motel, and went to check out another bar, hoping for not quite as bad results.

The next bar was “The Metallic Sea”, brightly painted, but kind of run down.

For a wonder, we went to the same bar that Aplaik did. Fig went up and offered a couple rounds and cleaning money for his clothes, and it didn't work...

Medicus, towering over him, and stared him down into sitting at the bar and having a quiet drink.

Seeing that we were from outside the system, some people commented on how Vargr merchants used to pass through a lot but the last couple months haven't been seen.

1107-012
Morning came and we headed off for Perseus Station.

New Alexandria Hotel bar was our first stop, with a nice restaurant nearby too. We decided to do more than just hit two spaceport bars here, for a better societal cross-section. We didn't figure the folks we are seeking would have gone too far from the port, but not just low end bars this time.

If we start a fight, this one will be refereed.

We got into a conversation about a Dr. Kenneth Markelson, a physicist at Rhylanor University. We learned that in 1099 he started getting weird. Colleagues first expressed concern and then dismay as the once fine scholar slowly changed into a wild eyed, disheveled madman. The final straw was, professionally, when he started shouting strange words at his students and scribbling impossible formulas while laughing at the class. One day, before the Dean could ask him to take medical leave, he simply left the university.

He turned up in Shionthy five years later claiming he can build a jump 7 or even 8 ship. He had found some backers, and was thought to have set up a consortium at Achilles Station called the J7 Foundation.

Kipenzi said that it sounded like a scam, since Shionthy didn't have the tech base or engineering capabilities to build something like that.

But rumors of a ship to be launched soon were still circulating.

1107-013
Off to Abdernas Station. Sam learned that the J7 Foundation actually exists, and is really backing research for a Jump 7 Drive.

Dr Markelson checked out also, but no record of his weird behavior. There is a ship, the Kesser, that is supposed to be a proof of concept for the drive.

It was scheduled to be tested in-system in a few days.

We revised our itinerary to make Achilles our next stop.

The Mino bar... sigh. Nothing useful or interesting there, and the drinks were too expensive.

1107-014
Passage to Achilles Station, a little longer trip than we had been doing, but time to catch up on news and miscellaneous reading. We got in about mid afternoon.

Enroute, we heard that the Kesser, the J7 Foundation’s prototype, had been launched earlier today, with the intent of trying out the drive later in the afternoon.

Carousing around in our usual dramatic fashion, we at least managed to avoid starting a fight.

People were more interested in talking about the Kessertest flight than anything else.

The bar, The Crystalline City had streaming video, via telescope, and we watched in eager anticipation. Either a science bonanza, or a documentary show in a year or so.

The ship disappeared from the screen, without an explosion, and a week or so would tell everyone more. If the Kesser shows up anyplace in-system,

It would be a good thing, but time would tell... It always does.

We checked into more information on J7 and found the companies that comprise it. No particular flags one way or the other.

The flow of trade from the Vargr Extents has really dried up over the last couple months, but there are some Vargr residents on Achilles.

1107-015
We stayed on Achilles, to barhop and hope for some more rumors. We also decided to check out places that might supply the travelers we hoped to find.

One Eye's bar. Probably got paint in the other, by the looks of the place.

We met a guy named Jared Breton at One Eye’s He had fallen on hard times and was down to his last credit. He wants to leave his one prized possession with us, his grandfather's violin. He seemed nervous about leaving it but didn't want to take it with him. He didn't seem dishonest to us...

The errand would be an hour and a half or so, and declined any company on the way. We said we would leave it with the bartender if we had to go and the bartender was OK with that.

Kipenzi looked, and it was actually a violin. No stolen violins were on the news feeds. There was a broker in the bar who got a look at it, and said it was a real antique. A 600 year old Astrovarius, worth moocho credits.

The broker offered 50,000 credits for it right there. He was as smooth as you would expect a broker to be (Sam the sleazy is our prototype for that).

Medicus, also a broker, agreed with the pricing. The broker said he was going to get the money.

Jarred came back, saddened that his deal did not go through. We told him that the broker (Garret Watson) was getting 50K credits and would come back.

We pointed out that the violin was probably worth twice that on Regina.

The broker never came back. Oh well...

We headed out for bars yet unexplored.

Kipensi - “We saw a later news report about a local scam artist who used a violin and a fake broker. Ha! I knew it smelled like a scam!”

1107-016
The Living Ocean bar and grill, bass the specialty. Politics was the theme of the day. Constitution discussion was fast and furious.

Some considerable anti-belter sentiment in system, and people want belters to be more politically active.

Opinion there was that the missing belter family just up and left. (That made no sense to us, but we nodded politely.)

1107-017
Off to Acharnes. The New France bar was a hotspot.

Leon got a job offer. The man wanted us to take a painting to the Yebab in Aramis Subsector. Yebab is between Nasemin and Jesedipere, our old stomping grounds.

We got his contact information, to get back to him if we are going thataway... We passed the information on to Sam, and he was OK with it.

We have been sorta trying to get OUT of the subsector, either Spinward or Trailing, for some time. Vilis is looking really good, and Kipenzi had thoughts of a pilgrimage to the Vilani home world, so either direction was sounding better than just hanging about in Aramis.

To Larissa, Hector, Kunshikha. More learned about stationer vs belter rifts, but not a lot else.

1107-021
The Kesser did NOT come out of jump space, or at least not where expected. Jumps are not an exactly timed science, so we hung on for better news in another day.

1107-023
At Pandion Station, we heard Kesser finally did come out of jump. A lot later than we would have expected but it did come out, nine days is almost unheard of from a standard jump drive except for in the case of a bad misjump.

The J7 group contacted Sam. "You come highly recommended, even by the Navy. We have a problem with the Kesser. It is not responding to calls and we need someone to go look at it. We are sending some ships to keep pirates away, but we need knowledgeable people to go look and get it set for recovery."

Ship was about 4 days out from Styx station. Sam negotiated a fee of 800,000 credits to check it out. We command a high price these days. Between the Bloodwell, Annic Nova and now the Kinunir, we had developed quite a reputation.

The money sounded good, but we would also get a chance to look at that drive too. Wahoo!

They will be sending a scientist with us as well. Sam contacted us for getting back and we shuttled back to the good old Skylark, a little more informed than we were but still no news on the Annic Nova nomads.

1107-024
We met with the J7 group at Achilles. Something has gone very wrong on the Kesser. The good news is that the comm antenna locked on, and a brief transmission gave them hope of survivors.

Disturbingly, on the transmission they heard voices screaming and the captain's voice whispering "Dirius Asters", latin for "terrible stars".

They couldn't tell if it was live or a recording that was transmitted, and they couldn't establish contact with the ship's AI either. Telescopes trained on the ship showed the hull pitted, scarred and scored. Looks like it maintained structural integrity though.

No contact since that one transmission.

One external airlock is open. No status of crew (16 crew complement).

This drive had never used before, no one had any idea when happened during the nine days it was gone.

They are happy to have us as part of the rescue team.

Kipenzi wants a cargo container that can sustain life support for 16 crew members in the Skylark's cargo bay. Also an operating theater. Medicus wants an extra auto-doc. The J7 person agrees to provide them. If they can’t find them quickly on the market, they can build them, their consortium has a considerable manufacturing capability between it’s members.

Kip wants Fig to check on our life support pack and make sure we have full stock and a spare before we leave.

Looking at a banner hanging in the J7 office, Kipenzi said, “With a logo like that, they were tempting fate, this will not end well.”

The crew goes down the rabbit hole in: Kesser’s Return

See Also: Dramatis Personæ, Skylark 2, Campaign Starts, The 2nd Adventure, The Chamax Plague, Horde, Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilight's Peak, Prison Planet, Leedor on Aramis, First Call at Zilla, Trade War, The Bloodwell, ANNIC NOVA and The Kinunir.