(we roll up characters here!)
(part one is here!)
(part two is here!)
(part three is here!)
[the ship ... out of danger?]
Harriet: Since Spanky only has 1 Health left and disadvantage on all rolls, I'm going to look and see whether there are any live, sparking wires poking out or ceiling panels about to drop loose before I go over to see what the damage alerts on the Engineering screens say.
GMSG: No immediate dangers that you can see. The warning popups seem to be about a variety of jump drive malfunctions that you'd need Engineering to know the significance of. Elle, what's Pol doing? Both Pol and Spanky almost immediately realize that their warped perceptions of reality have gone back to normal now that the ship is out of hyperdrive.
Elle: I'll move back toward Engineering, cautiously.
GMSG: You find Spanky there. His jumpsuit is charred and smoking, and he appears to have some sort of energy burns across large swatches of his exposed skin.
Elle: Pol says it's good that one of us left and remains in adequate condition to rouse the other crewmembers.
GMSG: Actually, Pol is aware that the cryosleep systems are set to automatically awaken the captain as soon as the ship returns to normal space.
Elle: Yes, but if the panels are flashing damage warnings about the jump drive, those automatic systems may not have registered that we're back in normal space. Pol hasn't looked at the screens yet, but damage to the hyperdrive systems seems like a probable outcome based on everything that's happened.
GMSG: Does that mean you're assuming the captain isn't waking up yet?
Elle: Good point. I'd better go to the cryosleep chamber and make sure Captain Addiction isn't doing something erratic.
GMSG: Remember, Akane's character never shared her suspicions with you. All Pol knows is that Kellerman has been behaving strangely and showing signs of a jittery exhaustion.
Elle: Oh, that's right. In any event, he has displayed evidence of less than exceptional competence, and that's using a baseline of human-level competence as a starting point. I still feel he should be checked on ... especially since my duties as android-on-watch probably mean he'd expect me to be present in the cryochamber to help with revivifications anyway.
Harriet: And he'll be curious that Spanky's pod is open and empty.
Elle: Another good point. I'll recommend Mr. Spannerman accompany me, since he doesn't seem to be actively addressing any repair needs and does seem to be in need of repair work himself.
Harriet: Spanky will say, "You got that right," and go with the android.
GMSG: The cryochamber and the medbay are at opposite ends of corridors that meet in a 4-way intersection by the lift. The other two corridors lead to the airlock and to the forward part of the ship where the galley and quarters are. When the lift gets to the habitat deck, you see that both doors are closed, even though you left the cryochamber one open when Pol chased Spanky to the lower deck.
Elle: Hmm.
Harriet: Spanky was in the lift by the time Pol left the cryochamber, so he doesn't know to expect the door to be open. He'll head for the medbay.
Elle: Pol will go to the cryochamber.
GMSG: Spanky's hurt, and Pol has a slightly higher speed, so Elle, you reach the cryochamber first.
Elle: I'll cautiously open the door.
GMSG: The chamber looks just as you left it ... except that there are now two open pods instead of just the one you opened to let Spanky out.
Elle: Assuming it's the captain's, I'll go in and start the procedure to wake our medic and engineer.
GMSG: The revivification process isn't quick, but the activation procedure is very simple. You just push a few buttons and wait. Hettie, when you get to the medbay door and touch the pad to open it, the display gives an acknowledging flash and buzzes quietly, but the door does not open.
Harriet: Is that normal?
GMSG: It indicates a privacy setting rather than a lock. You know that pressing and holding the button will open the door despite the privacy setting; the medbay would only be locked in extreme circumstances.
Harriet: Spanky presses and holds the button.
GMSG: The door slides open to reveal a room about twenty feet to a side, with a transparent partition down the middle to separate a workspace and examination area from a convalescence area. Equipment cabinets, storage cubbies, and a medical refrigerator line a wall facing those two areas. You see a figure by one of the cabinets -- it looks like Captain Kellerman, but he's half-hidden by the open cabinet door.
Akane: My medicinals!
GMSG: Upon hearing the medbay door, the figure straightens abruptly, shuts the cabinet, and looks at you. It's the captain, and he looks surprisingly alert -- possibly worrisomely so.
Harriet: It wouldn't occur to Spanky that the captain might be unaware of our dire straits, so it's no concern to me if he looks a little wide-eyed and keyed up. I'll politely say I was hoping to see the medic and ask if I should wait.
GMSG: He blinks at you and says, "Why are you even up before she is? Go back to the cryochamber and wait." Then he blinks some more and says, "Why do you look like that? Did something happen?" There's no sympathy or concern for your health in the question -- he just realized belatedly that you look like there's been a disaster.
Harriet: I'll say, "Well, there was a bomb ..."
GMSG: "A BOMB?!?"
Harriet: If he lets me, I'll try to explain what happened.
GMSG: You don't get much farther than mentioning the jump drive before he bolts out of the room headed for Engineering.
Harriet: I suppose I'll just wait here, then.
GMSG: Pol, shortly after you get the revival process underway, you hear rapid footsteps from the direction of the medbay.
Elle: I'll go to the door and look.
GMSG: By the time you get there, the footsteps have turned the corner toward the lift.
Elle: Pol calls out, "Is that you, Captain?"
GMSG: You hear the lift door swish open and Kellerman yell, "Get the engineer up!"
Claire: Hey ... can I call a time out real quick?
GMSG: Sure thing, hon. What's up?
Claire: I know it looks like my character and Akane's are about to get in on the action, but I just wanted to check on whether there's going to be a reason to get our passengers up soon? Sasha's looking kind of fidgety, and I think Ariel's been biting her nails over there from not being able to do or say anything while all this action has been going on.
Ariel: No, it's fine my character isn't doing anything ... I'm just so worried for everybody! I'll try to stop biting them. Sorry!
GMSG: I was actually thinking about summarizing some of the upcoming stuff already, so it's not a problem. I'll give a quick rundown of some information, then let everybody who's awake say whether they want to act on that information, and if they don't, I'll give the next bit of information. Sound good?
Sasha: I'm in!
Claire: Thumbs-up all around, I think.
GMSG: Okay. First: I'm assuming Pol and Pandora, head downstairs to either the Engineering area or the computer room. They find the captain frantically going over the readouts there. The short version is, the hyperdrive is fried. Pol got the explosives from the bomb out, but the mechanisms were still wired into the drive's systems, and they created a bunch of feedback throughout the drive and parts of the power core in Engineering as well. You can maneuver on thrusters, but while the thrusters are on, a lot of other systems will have to be power-prioritized. So the lights may cut in and out, and maybe the climate control for parts of the ship you can seal off and not use.
Elle: I'm unconcerned about the climate control.
GMSG: Well, what you may be more concerned about is the fact that to leave this system, the ship will need significant repairs using replacement parts that aren't on board.
Ariel: Maybe they have some at the virtual reality resort we're going to?
Sasha: Are we even in that system?
GMSG: You're in the system, but something may be wrong. Your long-range scanners are picking up the station, but it's dark. No signs of power being on, no response to communications hails.
Claire: I'm remembering what you said about hyperspace foul-ups causing time to go all kerflooey. Panda is nervous about that. Can I use my Astrogation skill to see if there are any astronomical clues that we've jumped way ahead in time?
GMSG: Nice! Roll Intellect + Astrogation.
Claire: I need a 48 or less and I roll ... 24!
GMSG: The navigation systems know the orbit of the station around its host planet and the orbits of that planet and a couple of others in the system around the local star. Based on where you'd expect them all to be, compared to where they all actually are, you calculate that you've arrived about three and a half years off-schedule -- although the same planetary configuration recurs every 350 years or so, so it might be 353 years off-schedule, 703, etc.
Elle: Great. So we're three years late, Disneyland has shut down, and there's no way out of the system.
GMSG: Overall, you don't have many options. There might be resources on the station you could use to repair the hyperdrive, so Captain Kellerman orders you to set course for it. By the way, Akane, when Dr. Yamaguchi gets to the medbay, she finds there are only two stim packs left in the cabinet.
Akane: But there were five! This Kellerman is a drug gobbler!
GMSG: Apparently. But if you keep the last two stim packs under lock and key or hide them away, he has no source left, and after a couple of days starts exhibiting serious signs of withdrawal. He's shaky all the time, paranoid, and takes to spending most of his time in his cabin. It's a four-day trip to the station, and by day four you hardly see him at all. Incidentally, each day, you can roll a Fear save to reduce your stress. If Yamaguchi succeeds on a Psychology roll, she can give one of you advantage on the roll per day.
Elle: Pol's Fear save is ridiculously good, so she should probably do her therapy on Spanky. Pol also doubts the applicability of human emotional counseling to the more esoteric and refined processor reactions of an android.
Akane: Yamaguchi is ready!
GMSG: All right. Day one.
Akane: My Freuding is 07! Success!
Harriet: I get a 30 and a 75.
GMSG: The rule is, you remove a stress point for every 10% you roll under your needed save. And it rounds down, so no luck on day one. Elle?
Elle: 69 from my save of 85 is 16, so I get one point back. Amazing.
GMSG: Day two.
Akane: Tell Yamaguchi about your mother. Aha! 44 is a Critical Success!
GMSG: Hettie, I'll let you round up instead of down because of that
Harriet: 63 ... but then 01! That's 34 less than I needed, so 3.4 rounded up to 4?
GMSG: Right.
Elle: Pol gets a 34. That's 5 points of Stress gone.
GMSG: Day three.
Akane: 50. It's a setback. I needed 48 or less.
Harriet: So only one roll ... but it's a 09, so I'm down two more Stress.
Elle: 28. Can I go below 2 Stress?
GMSG: No, that's the minimum. Day four.
Akane: Oh, 85. We probe a trauma of childhood mistakenly.
Harriet: No progress, then, because I roll a 43. Well, 7 Stress is better than 13.
GMSG: Het, you also have a chance to heal, and resting in the medbay gives you automatic advantage. Make a Body save for each day. The amount you succeed by is the amount of Health you get back.
Harriet: 02 the first day. Nice. That's 28 points of Health, almost half my total. And a 07 for day two for another 23 points. Third day is 25, fourth is, goodness, 01. I'm fully healed, then. And now I'll probably go back to miserable rolls for the rest of the scenario.
GMSG: In story terms, the crew spends those four days in cramped conditions with large portions of the ship closed off. No life support energy being wasted on the crew quarters or machine shop, the cargo bay, or the computer room, where Pol can keep working because he's an android. The captain insists on keeping his own quarters powered up, but Panda, Spanky, and Dr. Yamaguchi have to sleep in the medbay, which has multiple hospital beds that can extend from the walls. Panda carries out whatever repairs she can without spare parts, Pol finishes up the software patches the captain ordered him to do, and Spanky and Yamaguchi work on Spanky's Stress levels.
Sasha: Rowr!
Akane: Not in that fashion!
GMSG: Finally, you arrive at the unlit station, rotating cold and dark in the shadow of its neighboring planet ...
[natural dramatic break! sorry if this one seemed short -- things start to really heat up next time!]
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