Mission to Mithril - Part 4

Having rescued the archaeologists, the Crew of the Skylark 2 starts to search for the missing air/raft and its crew.

This note is from our December 16, 2018 session and was written by Carl and Kay with additions by myself.

Since we are now scattered around the country, we used Discord for voice communications and Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other.

Continued from: Mission to Mithril - Part 3.

Imperial Date: 311-1107.

Location: The Planet Mithril in the Sword Worlds Subsector.

We found the Bothildr archaeological family/team, had dinner and were ready to proceed with the rescue of Egil Tedorsson and Katrin Gyrowetz and then head back to the Skylark.

Egil and Katrin had taken off in the ports’s air/raft just after the 'event' at the starport happened and disappeared.

They got an emergency call from the port and were going to race back to help. The family told us that the two men – Eric and Egil had not agreed about going right back. Eric wanted Egil to take the family back with them and they had actually loaded up the air raft with extra food but at the last minute Egil became impatient with the preparations and took off without them. Hence the family’s lack of food when we got there.

We were told that the air/raft had hit a rock outcropping shortly after take off (had to be real soon if the folks had seen it happen). The point of impact was more northerly from the camp than a direct path back to base would have been, so at least a little bit of confusion. Eric insisted the air raft had continued on in a more northerly direction than it should have as if some of the navigation equipment on the air/raft had been damaged.

With the family accompanying us, one more driver and one more sensor person was available, plus two youngsters with good young eyes looking out the windows.

After a good night’s sleep and we were all set to go.

312-1107
We split our drivers into two teams with Eric and Sam on one and Fig and Leon on the other. The kids were loving the adventure, but yammered a little too much about the geology and what they might find. Various fauna interested them too, but none too close to us. We spotted something BIG (think pachyderm) using horns to dig (presumably) for food. The database listed several large predators on planet too, but we weren't sure about spotting any of them yet.

Some few hours out from the Bothildr’s camp another blizzard rolled in on us. Visibility went to &#$(*&%# so we parked and waited it out.

Back at the Skylark 2, Kipenzi and Medicus made a lookalike for the data stick that we found at the port the week before (presumably with the intel our contact had gathered), and put it back in the station. We had talked about making it a bomb, but neither Kipezi nor Medicus had enough skill to have a remote chance to build one without blowing themselves up.

Before morning the blizzard had passed and we proceeded slowly on our path.

313-1107
Just after midnight we realized we had made another navigational error and corrected it. We moved on slowly after that.

During the day we drove over a bumpy area. We had encountered such a bumpiness a couple times on the way out, and Eric told us to NEVER get out of the vehicle in those areas. The bumpiness was from collapsing tunnels that a worm-like creature burrows (a two meter worm). Good to know a little more.

314-1107
About 0130 the ground subsided a little. Another loose spot and we got stuck (again!) Sam was the driver this time.

It took about 4 hours to get unstuck this time, and we went on again. By that time the sun was coming up anyway, and we looked out on the glory that is Mithril.

Shortly after that, Fig got a hit on the radio. A weak transponder signal was coming from mostly north of us. It indicated as a Sword World registry air/raft. Yahoo, but WAY off from where we thought they might have been. The navigational equipment must have taken some shock damage in the outcropping smackdown.

We headed towards the signal. As the morning wore on it was getting significantly warmer, above freezing for a change. Slush became the order of the day. Talking to Skylark we learned that another system was coming down on us. When it hit it was rain and hailstones.

After dark we kept on slowly and (for a nice change) safely. We also kept hoping that the two people were still alive.

315-1107
By dawn we were really close to the air/raft. We tried to make radio contact but could not raise anyone. Eric picked up a signal of sorts.

Several radio calls later, still with no contact, the whole right side of the ATV sank into the ground. No bumps this time, so just another hole to dig out of. However, when Sam looked out, he saw a tunnel, so this might be a worm place, but far larger than any that we had seen so far.

Sam slipped into the tunnel, and he could feel a vibration that seemed to come perpendicular to the tunnel. He moved aside, and a BIG worm thing went through the tunnel, under the ATV and on into the snow. Sam climbed out after it moved on, and reported what happened.

We would now have to back the ATV out of the collapsed area.

By that time Myntelle had raised the air raft on the radio. It was in the mouth of an ice cave. They have been out of food for a couple days, and the air/raft was wrecked and unflyable. Egil Tedorsson was unconscious and had been for the last few days. They had seen glimpses of something moving under the snow but had not been attacked by the worm-thing.

Time to get the ATV backed out of the hole. But first a whole lot of shooting at the worm as it came and went, probably just trying to protect its territory.

We shot it several times and must have hurt it, but it kept on going, diving under the snow. It looked injured, streaming some kind of fluids, and was moving west when last seen. Hopefully we had driven it off for awhile.

Myntelle was able to use the radar to map the tunnels under the snow. We were lucky we had not been stuck sooner. The tunnels were laid out so that we could not get any closer with the ATV without getting stuck again.

We decided to go get the people (and the part we need) and then try to extract the ATV afterwards. Leon got his tools, Fig got the medical kit and supplies, Sam and Eric got weapons. (Fig and Leon got weapons too, planning to use the stretcher from the ATV’s first aid locker as a travois on the way back).

Myntelle stayed at the ATV, on the turret, with the caveat of do not shoot when aimed within 45 degrees of us. She was totally unskilled at using a turret weapon and we didn’t want to get accidentally shot.

We moved as a group, toward and then up the hill leading to the ice cave where the air/raft was.

We found that Egil was hurt and unconscious. Either fractured or bruised ribs causing breathing problems as well as a broken leg. Fig tried to help him some, and succeeded in getting him mostly conscious and ready to be moved.

The air/raft was in a frozen puddle of snow melt. The part we needed was under the ice, so we needed to clear that out to get at the right area of the vehicle.

The Air/Raft in the Ice Cave

Katrin seemed suspicious, since they know something bad happened at the starport, she did not even know as much as we thought we knew. Warm blankets, water and food helped a little in gaining her trust.

Fig stabilized Egil, and got him a little bit more comfortable for the ride back.

We got everyone back to the ATV and inside. Warmed and fed, they were doing better.

Leon found a heat-gun type thing in the ATV’s tool locker that he could use to melt the ice around the air/raft.

Leon, Fig and Eric went back to get the grav lifter component off of the air/raft. Leon got the ice melted and we scooped it off out of the way, and Leon was able to extract the part we need to use to repair the Skylark.

It was getting on with the day by then, nearing dusk, and we went back to the ATV. Still no sign of the worm returning. Now to dig ourselves out of the hole.

Katrin told us that there was a passenger at the port, she thought he was probably an intelligence agent visiting at the spaceport or maybe a courier. He was waiting for a ship and was expecting to get on the ship that the Bothildr family came in on, but it was not going the way he needed. Apparently the ship’s flight plan was altered due to some kind of difficulty with the Empire (read WAR).

We told them our tale - bringing a new snowplow, got EMP'd, found no one alive at the starport and evidence of killing, heard the family distress call and came out. Katrin said they had been waiting for that snowplow for months and were happy to have it now.

By dawn of 315B-1107 (another leap day) we were out of the pit.

Sam, Leon and Eric went back to the air/raft to see if anything usable was still on the air/raft. They rummaged and foraged and found some stuff, falling under the heading of "miscellaneous supplies".

We got everything stowed and were ready to head back to the starport.

Eric said that he wanted to hire us to take the family to Sacnoth. We don’t like the idea of leaving these people here alone for a month or two until the next ship arrives, so if we can repair the Skylark we might take them as far as Biter, a Class B port one 3-jump away for us. They can get further transportation from there, while we head back to the Empire to Adabicci, also a 3-jump. There is also the concern that we have now accounted for all the known people except one. And if he’s not one of the bodies in the refuse pit, then he’s still missing, and it’s unknown if he’s a danger to any of us.

Continued in Mission to Mithril - Part 5.

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, The Kinunir, Kesser's Return and Justice.