Looking for Vlen's Lodge

The crew of the Skylark finally find Vlen Backett’s lodge on Alell, and find far more trouble than they ever expected.

This chapter is based on Carl and Kay's notes from our April 10, 2022 session. Since we are scattered around the country, we use Discord for voice communications and the Roll20 online virtual tabletop to connect with each other.

Continued from: Homecoming.

Location: The Planet Alell in the Regina Subsector

Date: 245-1110 mid-afternoon
We were in a jungle on Alell looking for Uncle Vlen’s lodge.

Our traveling companions were Hans who wants money;  Bard, who wants the ship to help with status climbing; Morgan is a local thug, working for a gang-leader who wants repayment of a “loan” to Vlen; and last but by all means, not least, Arisa is an Imperial Agent, one of the interrogators from Fig's 'hole in the mind' episode.

Kipenzi quietly clued Skylark members in that she suspects that any one of these people may call in their friends with a ship to make off with the loot once we find the lodge. So she has her tranq pistol ready, wearing a hardened vacc suit, and she is bringing up the rear in case of a double-cross. Two front runners she suspects are Arisa for the Alahir and Morgan for the mob boss.
 
We had just found a flat area of ground, suitable for a flier landing. A mostly overgrown path led to a nearby hill, and we found a sealed hatch in the ground.  Internal hinge, and no handle to open.

Kipenzi used her scanner to see if there is a shaft under the hatch. It could be an emergency exit. The shaft went too deep to be able to see any passages underground and she could not see any details within.

We tied a bright swatch of colored handkerchief to mark the hatch, and for visual reference to where we had already looked. Kipenzi used her datapad to get the latitude/longitude of the hatch and we used it as the center point for the search pattern. Going back to the west the way we came, then sweeping 360 degrees around it. Leon cleared off the hatch to be visible and we took pics of the kerchief and hatch.

The path continued beyond the hatch to the east.

Even though the irregular terrain made it difficult, we tried to search systematically. A true spiral was not possible, but we did the best we could. 

Hans, the best trained survivalist with the group, led the way.

In the next 45 minutes, we completed several circles.

1515
After a little time, we hear the crashing of plants to south. Bard says it’s a lambdragon. It hadn’t noticed us yet, as it was eating the top of a tree.

It sort of looked like a small, thick-necked, brontosaurus. It could definitely stomp us. 

Bard wanted to shoot it, but Hans stops him, “Don’t shoot it, it just makes it mad”.

We back off away from it until it passes.

Later in the afternoon, as we kept searching, we decided that WOODS SUCK!!!

1615
Still going. Fig spots something stuffed in a hollow spot in a tree trunk – skeleton wearing the tattered remains of a local encounter suit. There were several bullet holes in the chest of the suit. There was no ID, money, weapons or equipment, at least a decade old. Medicus’ scanner said human male, Solomani/Vilani extraction. The holes were large, probably a .45 slug thrower.

Kip plotted the location on her pad in relation to the hatch.

1715
With only a couple of hours until sunset, we searched more. Sam noticed a building!

It was in a gully at the top of a cliff, covered in vines and overgrown. 

Hans cautiously went onto the porch; Kip and Bard stayed up on a ledge above. Arisa hung back next to Fig.

The building looked like a bunker disguised as a hunting lodge. It was 15 by 12 meters, one story and no windows. There were cameras on the outside, and a quick scan showed the walls were wood over armor plating. It was seriously overgrown, perhaps intentionally.

Uncle Vlen DID value his privacy.

There were no tracks in the dirt on the front porch. 

Hans checked the front door; as expected, it was locked.

There was a doorbell and a handle with a keypad next to it.  Leon rang the doorbell, but it had no effect.

Sam and Morgan went around back and found no back door or windows. There had been some landscaping done at one time, probably when the building was constructed.  It was at least a hundred years old.

Sam climbed up on the roof. There were some vents up there, but no access.

Medicus pulled out his datapad and went to work on the keypad.

Sam yelled down from the roof, “This looks like a military-grade structure”.

Kipenzi opened a comm link to the Vaca Goya weather feed to see if we were being jammed. There was a lot of static from the auroras, but no jamming detected. She left the audio on low, just loud enough to notice if any jamming field started up.

While Medicus was working on the door, Arisa and Fig had a quiet chat off to one side.

Sam climbed down off the roof and with Medicus still trying to figure the keypad out, we decided to spend the night. Camping on top of the building made good sense from our view, and we started to set up.

1730
Fig walked by Medicus; a click and green light on pad indicated the door was unlocked.  It released when Fig got on the porch. Maybe a Biometric scanner?

Medicus opened the door and Fig went in. The first room was 3 meters x 3 meters and looked like an air lock. There were two doors, one to the south and one to the west.

The west door led to a closet, with basic closetty stuff and some survival gear.

The south door went to the main room; it had three doors, two to the south and another to the north on the left.

The room was crammed with all manner of junk. Papers, books, data terminals and scribbled notes covered piles of curios from offworld. In one corner, a packing crate had spilled its contents of shiny nuggets of some exotic ore all over the floor; in another, there was a framed painting that must have been made by a species with greater color sensitivity than humans. Hanging over the fireplace was a collection of weapons that were probably grotesquely illegal.

Looks like Uncle Vlen really had some adventures.

Arisa sighed and sat down, “Vlen told me about this place. I dreamed of it...”

She started flicking through documents, her eyes glimmering with tears. Fig rolled his eyes.

Sam picked up a sample of the ore and recorded video of everything.

One wall contained books and notes on the Ancients, gathered from 100 worlds. As Fig looked through it, he found that there was everything from scholarly dissertations and ponderous tomes on archaeology to secret military reports and lunatic fringe rantings. Professor Ujinka’s previous works on the Ancients had pride of place. One file held a list of Ancient artifacts held in museums and research institutions across the Imperium and beyond - and Vlen had notes on each one of them, including whether or not the artifact was genuine. How Uncle Vlen knew this is unclear.  Some of his notes indicated he worked with a lot of other people and that he worked for someone else; but it was not clear who.

There was a big stack of the print edition of the Journal of the Traveller’s Aid Society. It was no surprise that he was a member.

Medicus sat down at the terminal and started trying to get in.  There MUST be a lot of answers in the files there.

One holophoto depicted a strange, semiabstract statue that resembled a winged pillar. We recognized it as the statue we picked up from Ven Yasha’s station on Regina. According to the metadata on the holophoto, the picture was taken at an auction house on Rhylanor.

Something was wrapped in a tattered blanket; it was a half-meter long and made of a greenish stone that was strangely warm to the touch and was engraved with strange markings reminiscent of Droyne glyphs. It matched the description of the Scepter of Ur, the relic stolen from the Brotherhood of Humaniti on Victoria.

Still outside, Kipenzi noted the location of the house on her datapad, and how it related to the skeleton, and the hatch which was about 2 km away.

Leon walked in and started looking over the room while Hans stayed outside with Kipenzi.

The second door on the north wall led to the kitchen. Sam went in and found some preserved food and some that had once been fresh, now decayed until it was nearly soil.

While everyone else wandered about looking for the will, Sam performed a professional search, looking behind pictures, opening everything he could, etc. He found a cabinet that didn’t contain the will, but something even more interesting.

It contained Uncle Vlen’s identity papers, certificates and other documentation - as well as the documentation for a dozen other identities. All the photographs are of Vlen but according to these documents, he is also a spice miner on Keanu, a bartender on Rhylanor, a diplomat, a mechanic, a minor noble... and he is also Ven Yasha of Regina! The dates on the identity papers were as far back as 600 years... Oh my...

Hans, hearing the commotion inside came in, followed by Kipenzi, who took up a position next to the kitchen door, covering the main room. She checked her comm, noting that the reception of the weather channel was still good.

Sam went through the door on the south wall and found a hallway with three doors. The first door led to a closet containing heating and life support equipment. The second led to a bathroom and the last went to a bedroom.  He ignored the other two and started carefully searching the bedroom.

When Fig finished looking through the Ancient artifact notes, he started going through the stack of TAS magazines. Between two issues he found a copy of Vlen’s will, THE most sought-after document on the planet, and tucked it into his shirt discreetly.

Medicus, at the computer, got logged in. He said that the computer system was surprisingly advanced for a place like this, probably imported.  He found Vlen’s notes on his travel, and started downloading onto his data pad. There was enough info in there that Medicus was asking the rest of us for OUR data pads to download onto.

Vlen had obviously travelled all over the Spinward Marches and beyond. It was not easy to determine exactly what Vlen was doing on his voyages; while there are a few references to trade; the cost of the trips greatly exceeds any profit from speculative trade. Many of the trips showed NO income at all. Despite that, Vlen seems to have had access to virtually unlimited funds. It looked like he had a blank check from somewhere to pay for all of it. On some worlds, he visited scientific institutions or met with political and corporate leaders; on others, he just wandered the countryside, visited museums, prospected in the asteroid belt or did not record his activities.

Medicus opened a file and heard an unimaginable complicated hubbub of recorded voices, as vast amounts of data scrolled across the screen. The computer had a copy of the intercepted data from Regina (Ven Yasha’s hidden space station in Regina intercepted and decrypted even ‘secure’ Imperial transmissions). This was a treasure trove of information. It looked like it was current up to about five years ago.

There was also a live feed of transmissions from Alell starport and it was flashing up a series of intercepted messages.

******************************************************

X-From: Captain Gand Holcess, ISS Alahir
X-To: Alell Starport Control
X-Priority: Gold
X-Encrypt: Meson Secure-8

ASPC: Transferring you to the administrator now, sir. Full encryption activated.

ASPC: This is Alell Actual, go ahead.

ALAHIR: Administrator, this is Captain Gand Holcess of the Alahir. I need to appraise you of an ongoing operation within your airspace.

ASPC: Is this part of the Scout Service, or is it military? We’re reading your identity beacon as a scoutship, but -

ALAHIR: I’m afraid it’s classified, administrator, but yes, we’re armed and there may be weapons fire.

ASPC: Are we under attack?

ALAHIR: No, this is effectively a police action.

ASPC: A police action... with potential naval weapons discharge?

ALAHIR: I’m afraid so.

ASPC: What do you need from us, Captain Holcess?

ALAHIR: We have an agent enroute to you via shuttle. We need you to facilitate her passage through the starport, and provide her with documentation. There’s also a security detachment – they’ll need a briefing on the area around Vaca Goya, and their movements are to be kept off the record.

ASPC: Anything else?

ALAHIR: We may need you to shut down all travel and keep all ships grounded if the targets attempt to escape.

ASPC: I’ll make the arrangements.

ALAHIR: Do you have a ship called Star Hunter berthed at the moment?

ASPC: Checking... no. She’s been here before, and she’s registered to Alell, but she’s not in the port right now. Last docking was... fifteen months ago.

ALAHIR: Never mind. Holcess out.

******************************************************

X-From: Captain Gand Holcess, ISS Alahir
X-To: Alell Starport Security
X-Priority: Gold
X-Encrypt: Meson Secure-8

ALAHIR: Were you able to arrest Penney?

ASSEC: Unfortunately, he left for Vaca Goya before we could arrest him.

ALAHIR: OK, we will pick him up with the others. Status on the Skylark 2?

ASSEC: We have been dissembling her; we have found two Ancient artifacts. One matches the description of the one stolen when Backett was murdered. We also discovered a programmable transponder; they were definitely smuggling.

ALAHIR: We are getting very close to finally unraveling this conspiracy. Holcess out.

******************************************************

X-From: Captain Gand Holcess, ISS Alahir
X-To: Team Rapier
X-Priority: Gold
X-Encrypt: Tightbeam Laser Secure-8

ALAHIR: Rapier, sitrep?

RAPIER: Rapier One, sir. Targets have located a structure. Scanning with d-meters – picking up a large natural cavern directly below, plus a metal object. Big enough to be a ship.

ALAHIR: Give me a firing solution for that ship.

RAPIER: Sir, targeting data is being problematic because of the auroras.

ALAHIR: All right, we’ll pick them up as they break atmo if they get past you.

RAPIER: Acknowledged, Alahir.

ALAHIR: Wait for the signal, then secure the structure. Non-lethal weapons only, please.

RAPIER: Sir.

ALAHIR: Holcess out.

****************************************************************

Medicus pulled the removable media out of the computer and put it in his backpack, and told Fig, “We’re fucked.”

Fig says, “Skylark was a really nice ship, gonna miss her...”

Bard opened a closet door and said, “Holy Shit”.

Inside the closet was an arsenal of heavy weapons. Vlen had a pair of gauss pistols, a plasma rifle, an ACR with underslung RAM grenade launcher... and an FGMP-15. Even the pistols are illegal on Alell, while that FGMP is illegal anywhere in the Imperium, being it’s a weapon of mass destruction. There is also an aerosol injector with four doses of combat drug and a TL12 vacc suit.

Fig asked Arisa to come into the back rooms.

Fig, realizing that Kipenzi was fully prepped to tranq everyone, got Arisa out of the way and signaled Kipenzi that this was a good time to do that.

Kipenzi walked up behind Morgan and tranqed him.

While Kipenzi was tranq-ing Morgan, Hans found something under a rug in the bathroom.

Bard, distracted by the weapons locker, didn’t hear Kip’s shot.

Leon closed the outside door and locked it.

Arisa, on the other hand, heard and recognized the tranq shot. She pulled her body pistol out and turned, but Fig shot first.

Fig hit her with his SNP-12 (good thing it was up close...).  She went down, unconscious, and he secured her weapon, dragged her into the bedroom and started tying her feet and arms in case she woke up.

Sam asked Hans, “what’s under the rug,” keeping him occupied while the others acted.

Hans showed him a hidden hatch, probably leading to the cavern the marines had detected.

Kipenzi walked up behind Hans and less than a second later he was unconscious. Sam tied him up.



Medicus checked Arisa and Hans’ vitals and gave them something to keep them out for a while. Kipenzi bagged up all of the paperwork and books that she could carry.

Medicus grabbed most of the weapons before heading for the hatch behind her.

We figured we would check out the cavern and hope there really IS a ship down there.

Sam, going last, checked for a lock but didn’t find one. He tried to get the rug to cover the hatch on the way down but failed. He decided it wasn’t worth the time it would take to get it right and followed Medicus down the stairs.

We left the four add-ons tranked and left a note with Arisa that we are not all bad folks.

At the end of the staircase, as expected, was a cavern with a ship hanger in it.

The Star Hunter was there, it was an Empress Marava class, Type A2.  It looked modified - the engines and fuel scoops were larger than what was standard with that class. It was 200 Tons of get-us-outa-here.

Med noticed a hologram covering the entrance of the cave; the cavern is invisible from the outside. There’s a terminal here and some computer equipment. There are also some crates and boxes, that turned out to contain some spare parts and life support packs.

Down in the cavern, Fig looked at the will. Vlen’s will left his possessions to the Backett family and leaves the ship to “any of his kin who are willing to fly the damn thing”. He wanted his funeral request to have a nonmetallic container, his body as whole as possible and buried no more than two meters below surface. That’s already done.

The cargo doors were closed, but a personnel door opened when Fig approached it. (Another biometric lock?)

We loaded up the boxes and crates onto the Star Hunter pronto.

We heard a loud voice come in through the mouth of the cave, “Surrender in the name of the Emperor”. The screen on the terminal came on.  It showed a marine in full battle dress approaching the house with two more hovering nearby.

Suddenly there was a subsonic thud coming from under the lodge as a projectile was launched and hit one of the marines.

Medicus ran to the bridge of the Star Hunter and brought up the pilot’s console. Sam, right behind him, brought up the sensors.

Kipenzi set down the extra life support packs in the hall and ran to engineering with Leon. Fig booted up the gunnery console.

Medicus took off as fast as he could manage, accelerating into the sky at 4G. We were hoping to get out of range and to a jump point before the Alahir could stop us.

Checking out the stats on the Starhunter:

• A nice TL15 computer
• 4G M-Drive
• 2 Parsec Jump Drive
• Two hardpoints, 2 beam Lasers in one, a sandcaster and missile launcher in the other
• 41 Tons of cargo space
• 60 Ton/day fuel refiner, with 42 tons of fuel it completes refining in 18 hours.
• Six seat air/raft.
• A 20-Ton launch.
• 6 Passenger staterooms and 6 low passage berths.

Medicus liked flying the ship, it had much better aerodynamics than the Skylark and it had about 33% more power. It was a lot more maneuverable.

Two thumps on the hull, and two marines were attached.  Kipenzi tried using the jump grid to demagnetize the hull to dislodge them. No luck there.

Medicus rolled the ship abruptly and flung them off.  Fortunately, they had grav belts; it was a long way down.

Fig sent a message to Vaca Goya saying we found the will and giving them Vlen’s funeral instructio

As we broke atmosphere, Sam started plotting a jump from Alell to Whanga, and we headed for the 100-planetary diameter limit.

That would have to come later. Sam, on sensors, sees the Alahir in the upper atmosphere behind us. We have a small window to escape through the heavy electrical interference.

Captain Holcess hails us. “Star Hunter, stand down now. I don’t want to blow you out of the sky but if you give me no other choice...”

We don’t want to (get blown out of the sky, OR slow down).  We are still 100,000 Km from the jump limit and on our best course, we will be in weapons range just before we get there, it is going to be close.

Suddenly our sensors light up. There is something else out there, something that sent a burst of energetic particles cascading through the system. It is like the burst associated with a ship, a really big ship, jumping in, but it happened well within the jump limit... At first we thought it might be someone’s mis-jump, then we detected something on sensors three times the size of a Tigress-Class dreadnaught heading toward Alell between us and the Alahir. It had shields or some kind of force-field, the particles were lighting it up like an electrical storm.

The Alahir seemed equally confused. We picked up bursts of unencrypted transmissions between her and the starport – and then communications and sensors go dead, drowned out in a flood of static. A section of the atmosphere below is warped by an invisible force that whips up a cyclone. 

It was going straight toward Vaca Goya. Whatever it was, it was their problem now.

246-1110  2010
We reached the jump point and Jump for Whanga.

Fig says, “I’m wishing good luck to the folks we traveled with, hoping Arisa at least reads my note.”

Holcess thinks we’re part of a conspiracy. Only we can clear our names now, it to find something valuable enough to trade, like solving his conspiracy.

That ship, or whatever it was, had Ancient level tech. We seem to be bumping into a lot of that lately, how does it tie into Holcess’ conspiracy?

It occurs to us that we have no money that we can use except the cash in our pockets.

Kipenzi put together a TO DO LIST:

• Inventory of the Star Hunter
• Familiarize selves with ship controls and equipment
• Check computer hard drive from Vlen’s lodge
• Data feed from Regina
• Transmission from Alell starport
• Books and notes from Ancients, scholarly tomes, military secrets
• Files: Ancient artifacts in museums and research institutions and notes on all of them including if they are real
• Scepter of UR from Brotherhood of Humanity has Droyne glyphs and warm to the touch
• Photo of statue of winged pillar, pic taken on Rhylanor at auction house
• Weapons closet fusion weapon
• Combat drug increase reaction time and trauma, +4 initiative, 1 dose <2hp, 10-minute effect and fatigue at end of time
• ID papers, Vlen is at least 600 years old and probably older and he works for someone else he’s getting instructions from

Continued in Secrets of the Ancients

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, Justice, Mission to Mithril, Outback, Skylark and the Pit, Last Flight of the Amuar and One Crowded Hour.