Flight by Starlight

"Flight by Starlight" is episode 3 of SuperQuest Saga. Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian have finally made it planet side, but what they find there is nothing to celebrate.

Introduction

 * Will Stark shall be your heralded dungeon master for this evening
 * Josh Freeland plays Sebastian Crenshaw, a half-orc paladin
 * Your Special Guest Jake is playing Persephone Goldpetal, the firbolg druid
 * Brian is going to be playing Carter Huttenburg, human warlock level 2

Recap
Last time they played, the party got launched into space. The girl that they found turned into some weird monster with angel wings, and then they got kidnapped after being shot with electric guns. They were interviewed by a strange tiefling woman who refused to believe their story. She claimed their planet was destroyed 100,000 years ago and that the orcs were wiped out 80,000 years ago by the elves. The interview was interrupted by a giant craft that announced themselves as the Elven Empire and to prepare for them to come on board to inspect and interrogate. Victoria put the party under the Zone of Truth spell, asked some key questions, and made an arrangement to disguise them as part of the crew if they stay quiet. They all marched into the hangar to line up with the crew. The crew is three tieflings, an old gnome, and a gith woman. A giant canoe-like vessel glided right into the hangar area.

The Imperial March
The outline of a door appears on the canoe-like ship and a ramp extends from the doorway down to the floor. Six elves march out, but these elves look different than the elves the party are familiar with. They are all 6’4” to 6’8” tall and in peak physical condition, and their eyes glow with a soft pulsing light. They are all wearing matching military uniforms made of beige cloth and carrying spears that end in 10-20 deadly looking points. An elf with silver hair wearing a red uniform comes out of the vessel, and one of the other elves announces his arrival. “In the name of the God Emperor Solastaran, I present his honor, imperial magistrate Dennethar, Son of Anaduir.”

Carter tries to act as normal as possible, he’s watching what the other crew members are doing and mimicking their behavior. Dennethar demands to see the captain and Victoria steps forward and gives him a slight bow. He asks her to explain what their vessel is doing in Imperial territory without a permit. Victoria apologizes and reveals they were sent on a scavenging mission by The Draconic Star Sovereignty and followed a distress signal, not realizing it was in Imperial territory. Dennethar tells her excuses matter little and wishes to see the distressed vessel. She gestures towards the black husk of a capsule, he recognizes it as an illithid vessel. As Victoria explains they did not find anything on board, Dennethar starts walking to survey the crew.

He approaches Sebastian and pauses for a second with a quizzical look on his face, but does not say anything and moves on. Persephone appears to irritate him as he turns to Victoria and demands to know why a Singer is on board. Victoria tells him that they picked her up on Iomandra, that Persephone was looking for passage for work and the crew didn’t think anything of it.

Dennethar addresses Persephone. “Tell me, Singer, have you abandoned your Coven?” Persephone hesitantly says yes. Dennethar orders his soldiers to grab her so that they can see her hands. Sebastian grabs his weapon in anticipation for a fight. Dennethar pulls out a scanner to scan both her palms, and it makes a beeping sound. The readings indicate that Persephone is not in their system, and he demands to know which Coven she is from. Persephone tells the truth and says she does not know what that is. Victoria steps in to say that Persephone may have sustained a head injury, and Percy plays it up saying “Oh, I’m so concussed."

Dennethar passes Carter, gives him a look of withering distaste, and then moves on as if he means nothing. Dennethar states that he is disappointed by the situation; no permit, a strange Singer with no records, and a very high Aetherium reading from the engine room. Victoria looks nervous and tries to explain that they are scrappers who came across a broken goblin vessel and took the aether-cores. Dennether says he’d like to inspect the cores for himself, and before Victoria can answer there is a blinding flash from out in space behind the elves.

They've Got The Davy Jones
Emerging out of the darkness is an enormous black vessel, a towering black citadel covered in dim purple lights. At its base are four gargantuan tentacles extending forward. One of the tiefling brothers yells “SQUID SHIP!” and the elven vessel and the illithid vessel start open firing upon each other. The alarm system on the ship goes off and Dennethar turns to Victoria and the crew and makes a declaration. “I hereby accuse you of blasphemy and deceit against the one true god. And of conspiracy to aid and abet enemies of the empire, arrest them all.”

At his command, all six elven soldiers bring forth their spears and start moving forward splitting the group, three move in on Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian.

One of the elves approaches Sebastian and twists a throttle on his spear, activating a crackling lighting, and stabs him. A second elf approaches Persephone with the same attack and stabs her. The third elf approaches Carter and stabs him as well. Sebastian tests out his aether-blade axe, taking a wide sweep that misses the elf. Persephone holds out her staff and she pulls out a greenish-purple fire from the moonstone. Blowing it on the elves she casts Faerie Fire on all three. She then Wild Shapes into a direwolf, but the transformation was oddly painful, her body stinging like a belly-flop. Carter casts Arms of Hadar, Persephone and one elf dodge but the second elf is hit.

The elves strike again, hitting Sebastian, Persephone, and Carter with their lightning spears. Sebastian swings his aether-blade again, cleanly striking at the neck of one of the elves. Dennethar has fled the battle and is halfway up the ramp to his ship as the fire fight between the elven and illithid vessels outside escalates. The ship is rocked, Persephone’s Faerie Fire drops as she loses concentration. Persephone moves forward to attack, and Carter calls out for her to attack the one in front of Sebastian since he’s almost down. Persephone delivers a critical hit, pouncing on the elf and ripping his throat out. Carter casts Armor of Agathys, opening his spellcasting focus and a mist comes out and coats his body in a frosty mist.

One of the remaining elves hits Persephone with his spear, the other tries to strike Carter but misses. At this point Dennethar has reached his ship and flees into space. Sebastian strikes one of the elves with his aether-blade. Persephone again strikes critically and rips the throat of the second elf. Carter snaps his fingers and the remaining elf is struck with Eldritch Blast.

The elf tries to strike Carter but misses. Sebastian steps over the direwolf and strikes the elf, who looks bad but is still standing. Persephone moves in, biting his leg to bring him to the floor before she pounces, mauling him to death.

The other three elves have been handled by the Victoria’s crew, elven bodies litter the floor. Victoria checks the situation and orders her crew to dispose of the bodies. She pings Watt for an update on the situation, he reports that shields are at 80% and the ship won’t be ready to jump for another ten minutes. The laser battle outside is nuts.

Asimov! Asimov! Asimov!
Victoria runs out of the hangar and commands the party to follow. She gives instructions for them to get Primina, gives them the password “Asimov,” instructions to operate the elevator, and tells them to return to the bridge.

Carter, Persephone, and Sebastian follow her instructions and find Primina in the room guarded by a giant metallic android humanoid. The android has two laser cannons pointed out the door at any intruders. They start shouting “Asimov” at it until it lowers its defenses. Primina looks relieved to see them, but is clearly terrified and asks what’s going on. Persephone tells her there’s a war going on and excitedly recounts how she ripped out the elves' throat. Prim looks horrified both at Percy’s story and the fact that there are illithids.

The four of them make their way to the bridge, Victoria is at a large console in front of the viewing window. They see the elven ship and the illithid ship firing on each other, both are sustaining damage. Victoria orders them to sit down and strap in; Carter gets his seatbelt on, Persephone ties the two ends of the seatbelt together, and Sebastian just holds on. Victoria asks Watt for a status update and his voice announces shields at 11%, A-Reactors in primer cycle, two minutes til jump. The ship shudders violently, and red flashing lights and alarms go off all around. Victoria says they’re jumping now, Watt tries to object but Victoria presses buttons, she says “May our bonds never break and Unity hold strong,” and she jams the handle forward and the whole ship lurches.

The two battling ships disappear, the stars start to streak, and their ship suddenly comes to a stop. Sebastian manages to brace himself. The power in the ship appears to have gone out, and Victoria is hunched over the console not moving.

Find Watt, Get Power
Sebastian asks if Victoria is okay, but there’s no answer. He jumps up to go to her and when he touches her shoulder she stirs but Sebastian sees she has a head injury. It takes her a minute to come to her senses. She checks on everyone, pressing buttons and calls for Watt, and when there’s no response she concludes the generator is out.

Carter checks on Primina, she is snug in her seatbelt and wants to know if they've gotten away. Carter asks for the next steps and Victoria says they need to check on everyone else but when she tries to stand her knees are weak. Sebastian tries to cast Cure Wounds on her, she stops him and tells him to save it in case someone else needs it more. Carter is able to do some basic first aid to help with the bleeding. She pulls a key out of her pocket, Sebastian takes it. She gives them instructions to get to the safe room where Watt is since he’s the best chance they have to get the power back on. Carter tries to see if Victoria will keep watch over Primina, but Primina insists on joining them. Carter sends his mage hand to help unlock Primina’s seatbelt but she swats it away and does it herself.

They get to the emergency hatch and find a long ladder in a small shaft that they take down three flights. They find an extremely long hallway with a big silver steel door at the end. Persephone tries the Asimov password, nothing happens. Carter tries to open the door with Mage Hand, it doesn’t budge. Sebastian and Persephone try to open it together and as the door swings open a wave of hot air hits them.

Inside is an enormous domed and circular room with a thin steel pillar in the center. There are long crystals embedded into the pillar that are all black and smoking. Carter investigates but has no clue what they are. Persephone looks around for Watt and finds a heavy duty door with a viewing window. Inside she sees a short little gnome. Percy waves and the gnome says “Thank the gods!” He reveals the door is jammed because the power is out. He directs them to a panel with a switch that will turn on the emergency generator. Persephone throws the switch but nothing happens, she reports back to the gnome and he says she has to flick the switch three times. The power comes back on, the door opens and he walks out and looks quite pleased.

Watt emerges from the safe room and properly introduces himself. Carter asks Watt what the next steps are to get out of here. Victoria comes in over the intercom checking status. Watt confirms they are all fine and the other crew members start to chime in as well. Carter asks Primina why she didn’t introduce herself, Primina wants to know why Watt is so small. Watt introduces himself and promises not to harm her.

Watt reports the aether-cores are fried, but they have enough to travel a little. Victoria orders everyone back to the bridge. She announces there’s an Aetherium reading in a system named Meridar. Watt pulls up info about Meridar, it’s in old goblin territory, an old outpost system that was annihilated in the Second Goblin War 25 years ago. Victoria states there could be scavengable material and initiates a jump. When they arrive at the coordinates, they see a blue tinged planet made entirely of a brown land mass, Meridar-3.

The Party

 * Sebastian Crenshaw: A half-orc paladin. Sick battle moves.
 * Persephone Goldpetal: A firbolg druid. Not good at lying.
 * Carter Huttenburg: A human warlock. His Mage Hand is frisky.

NPCS

 * Elven Soldiers: Jacked space elves.
 * Dennethar, Son of Anaduir: An Imperial Magistrate. Wears red because he's special.
 * Victoria: A tiefling woman. Captain of the ship
 * Dag: A tiefling male. Brother to Dirk. Victoria's cousin.
 * Dirk: A tiefling male. Brother to Dag. Victoria's cousin.
 * Watt: An elderly gnome. Now officially introduced.
 * A Gith Woman: A crew member
 * Primina: A young woman of mysterious origin. Can turn into a creature if provoked.
 * An Android: Asimov is the password.

Music

 * SuperQuest Saga Theme - by Brian

Out of Character

 * Will did not expect Special Guest Jake to say "Yes" when Dennethar was questioning Persephone. He forgot the players could lie.
 * The time they were interviewed by Victoria in the previous episode is counted as a short rest.
 * At one point Victoria says "If you three are done flirting, could you please get to the matter at hand..." the three being Carter, Primina, and Carter's Mage Hand since Sebastian and Percy were just bystanders.

World Building

 * Will uses the term "Coven" to describe groups of Singers, in a later episode he makes the correction that it should be "Choir."
 * The blood from the elves is green, Persephone discovers it tastes a little sweet.

Nat 20's (2 total)

 * Special Guest Jake (Attack as Direwolf)
 * Special Guest Jake (Attack as Direwolf)

Nat 1's (2 total)

 * Brian (Initiative)
 * Brian (Investigation)