"Eternal Joy to Turd Ferguson!" Andre echoed raising his stew bowl.

He was more and more convinced that these "people" were inadvertent visitors from another dimension. It didn't mean that they were bad but he hated that he couldn't trust them as much. Lilly, the barghest, the kids, Andre was a nerd. Goblin-wolves and Engineering-goblins, and... Well there were a dozen other goblin things that the trio could be with trickery magics hiding their appearance and that was only if goblins were the only fantasy stuff that made it over. Goblin-spiders SHOULD look uglier in human guise... but maybe not everything would add up. It didn't make them bad... he reminded himself just different, but different and scared was often dangerous.

"Is there anything you all would like to sleep better? If you all have no special skills or abilities then locking up your quarters if we get into a dangerous situation would be prudent for your safety, I think. I would anticipate a cut in non essential power and services for that time as well. I don't want you getting startled by it if it becomes prudent."

Edwin had remained quiet through the meal, simply listening. Even though he had never cared much for the Turd Ferguson person he obliged Gill and raised his glass at the toast.

He had so many questions but for now he would wait. He wanted to let the others talk he generally learned more by listening anyway.

Lilly shook her head.

"Normally we have a remembrance ceremony and then recycle the remains to be used for fertilizer. Releasing precious organic material out here is a waste and wasting someone's body would be a dishonor to the rest of their cl---family."


Lilly smiles.

"I think we will be fine with whatever is...normal. We can just observe whatever your special skills are."

Their guests continued eating and thanked them for the meal. The captain directed Val to show the guests to their quarters while everyone else prepared for a crew meeting on what to do next.

---

OOC
13:07, Today: Game Master, for the NPC ed, rolled 18 using 1d20+3.  insight (active observation). – [roll=1710180432.64832.366573]
13:10, Today: Game Master, for the NPC skip, rolled 14 using 1d20+6 ((8)).

"Huh, don't think I've ever made it to anywhere that had the ability to do that.  Things are pretty scrabbly most places I've had the fortune, or misfortune, of visiting.  Where did you say you were from?"  Osram inquired, genuinely curious of places that may have been built with such luxuries.


"Unfortunately we don't have the ability to, uh, honor, them that way here.  Though I think we could likely muster up some semblance of a remembrance ceremony if you let us know how such a thing usually goes."  He offered.

Skip continues eating his food, slowly chewing as if he means to avoid having anything to big to be swallowed.  He remains silent for the rest of the meal, at least while Lilly and the kids are present.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:56, Tue 12 Mar.

PLAN OF ACTION

Jhenko gathers the crew to set in motion a plan of action once the guests are gone.

The unknown warship and its fighters were clearly out for blood and will likely be hunting down ships that escaped. You're currently outside the normal travel lanes and too far away to call for help. If you head back into travel space, there's no telling if you'll accidentally be falling into a trap set by the warship predicting ships trying to circle back.

You have 3 more crewmembers and a big creature, so that's roughly 50% less food, air, and water supply. So even though your fuel cells and energy cells are stocked, you're still running low on time.

Osram has proposed you risk going back to the wreckage to find salvage, maybe save more survivors. It's a bold risk. Something so reckless it may be unexpected move by the warship. It could also be exactly what they were counting on.

Your AI gremlin seems to be on your side and functional again.

You must brainstorm ideas on how you want to get back to civilization without being caught by the warship and without exposing yourselves as criminals affiliated with this operation in any way.

Gill went directly to lawyer mode, with a detour through pilot. "I can out fly anyone they got. That isn't cockiness or arrogance, it is logic. I got us out of the soup...Okay Mad Dog McGrath got us out of the soup but it was me all the same. I wanna go back and see if we can find more survivors. I abhor slavery and slavers, taking the freedom people are born with and reducing them to chattel." He  took a deep breath to fend off the anger that threatened to over boil. As he did so, tiny sparks of electricity run up between his fingers. They are snuffed as quickly as they appear, but they are there. He did not see them because he had closed his eyes to refocus.

"As far as keeping our nose clean, I think it would be a matter of having ourselves made into a sanctuary vessel. I should be able to put that paperwork together in a couple of hours, but I can't do that and fly in the soup so either one or the other  must be our immediate concern. Which begs the question, how much time do we have to find and rescue any cubes before they...ahhh...become inert?"

Andre was mixed in his feelings about the trio and beast. He had a lot of thoughts, part of what made him smart was that he thought a lot quickly. It could also be a detriment, "Lilly unnerves me but I think I can have an algorithm for the sensors ready by close of business tomorrow. The problem is I don't know if the warship was part of the people who's sending them out into the Stars. That is absolutely how I would want criminals to run as fast to their drop off points as possible. With increased food and water expenditures and a reasonably likelihood that everything behind us was annihilated, there's no real reason to turn around and go back unless we're decent people. Decent people are among the first casualties to the Stars." It was a lament as much as it was a fact, there were plenty of aliens and terrible humans out among the Stars. But people who had no particular gifts were near absolutely useless. Then he remembered that not all of the monsters of the universe were practical. Not all of the good people were practically either but there seemed to be so much more of the monsters that the good people hardly seem to be a quotient to consider.

"I think that if we go back, we shouldn't need to worry about them attacking us. We can likely stay ahead of any small contingents left to watch or perhaps initiating search patterns for survivors would indicate that we're not bad people. If they are bad people then we die doing the right thing. If there are more survivors, than our supplies of food and water are going to be unbalanced significantly. Other survivors would need to stay in the cubes until we can get them to a place where we could trust that they could start being free."

"If we circle back, and come in quiet and cold, we should be able to see if there's anything, or anybody we can pick up."  Osram figured.

"I think it's not unreasonable to believe whomever that was is likely more interested in taking the majority of their ships and hunting down whomever got away than loitering around that asteroid.  On the chance we're wrong, we should be able to figure that out before making ourselves known."

He then gave a bit of a shrug.  "After that it's mostly logistics.  Where can we get to with the supplies we have.  We can worry about paperwork then.  Whoever that was that started blasting likely doesn't care about such things, but maybe it'll be useful to wherever we end up heading."

That warships, those fighters?  They were from a crime syndicate.  I didn't see any markings, so I can't say which one, Skip informs the others.  If those cryo-cubes are worth money to them, they are not likely to stop hunting us for quite awhile.
He pauses a few moments.  Truthfully, the greater concern to me is Lilly.  She is not nearly as upset about those other cryo-cubes failing as she lets on.  She isn't happy, but she isn't torn up about either.  She is hiding something, and that worries me more than anything else.

Something Skip said caught Gill's attention. "Do you get the same vibe off the ankle biters, Skipster? Because I've got a rapport with those tykes. If they know, I could likely get them to fess up."

@SKIP & ED

Skip did indeed get a similar vibe from the kids. They were terrified when the cube opened but calmed down quickly when they realized the crew of the Nirvana were not hostile. The kids didn't seem upset by the fate of other other cubes but Lilly may not have told them. The only thing odd about the kids was that they kept referring to everyone by their full name "Mr. Gill Rurry" instead of "Mr. Rurry" or "Gill" and they seemed to take things literally. Which could be trauma but it may also just be autism or some other social disorders or mental illness. It's hard to tell with kids. They did experience genuine fun and joy at Gill's games and eating candy. But Skip and Ed's intuition told them that whatever was "wrong" or "odd" about Lilly, the kids seemed to have it too. Nothing obviously harmful but they just didn't think or act the same way normal people do. More interaction with them might yield more information though.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:29, Tue 19 Mar.

"I don't know what's going on, but that warship snuck up and was burning ships to crisps without so much as a demand for surrender. And human and animal cargo..."

He shakes his head.

"Now I see why they were in a hurry to leave. They knew someone was coming after them."

He sighs.

"But why? Why would anyone fry cargo? Pirates or rival gangs would've plundered. Law enforcement would've demanded surrender to make arrests. How else could have assets for a ship like that...why? Why then? Why there?"

Lance has a lot on his mind. He's used to having answers and he definitely has none right now.

---

OOC

Sometimes I'll ask you to do a CLUE DEDUCTION.

When I do this, your can each ask a yes or no question about the circumstances of the mystery you're discussing/studying.

You can each pick one Int, Wis, or Cha-based skill and roll it.

If you succeed in a DC12 check, you'll get a minor clue. 17 gets a major clue. 3 minor clues = major, 3 major clues = a revelation (crack the case or at least one big mystery about it). What clue you get depends on the skill and some may be more useful than others but all will give some info. You don't know (unless your question was "which skill would be best for answer to ____ question?".

You can forgo your question to assist someone else instead (granting them advantage).

Right now, everyone do ONE clue deduction at the bottom of your next post.

Yeah, they seem a bit different, too, the security guy advises.  I would have to spend more time with them to figure it out.  You keep doing your thing with them.  Unlike the rest of us, they actually seem to like you.
The expression on his face, and the twinkle in his eye might suggest that he is ribbing the pilot a bit.
He looks to Lance.  These weren't pirates, that's for sure.  They were well funded and had a purpose.  Like I said, organized crime.  I've dealt with them enough to know their Em-Oh.  These guys were particularly ruthless.

Andre nodded, "The word is mechanical. The trio function like robots. The advanced tech of the stealth warship and absolute, efficient destruction of other ships was nearly binary. Though, when you are an engineer everything is SOME kind of machine."

Andre Klanktonne rolled 25 using 1d20+8.  Mechanics for clues.

Likely not the most effective for clues harvesting in this scenario

Edwin listened to the others as he tried to piece together what little information they had. "I have to agree with Skip. I am no psychic but there is something peculiar about the trio, just wish I could figure out what it was. As for the the ship and fighters to me it feels like an effort to cover something up. I could be totally wrong but sorta wondering if the pirates or whoever it was hired the pick up didn't get their hands on those cubes and whoever owned them originally wanted to make sure information didn't get out on what they were doing. No witnesses, no evidence, no liability."

OOC: Search for clues. 08:45, Today: Edwin Arlo Park rolled 20 using 1d20+5 ((15)).

Gill tipped an imaginary cap at Skip. Maybe he was finally getting how weird the universe was and maybe Gill could let him slide some. Gill relaxed and tried to let answers come to him. He felt like there was some kind of con job here and maybe his own ability to deceive would help him in this deduction.

10:36, Today: Gill Rurry rolled 22 using 1d20+6.  Deception Reliable Talent Min 12. Is there a con?

A cover-up.  Or an attack, the former Space Marine suggests.  Either no one was supposed know about it, but several people found out, and decided to raid the station.  Or, somebody sold the crates to several parties, and whoever they are decided if they can't have it, nobody else can.

@SKIP You're convinced it's a coverup. That warship came to destroy everything. Going back is likely going to find nothing but debris and probably one or two scouting ships roaming around to catch survivors and silences them for good.

@ANDRE The tech used to stealth an entire warship is some extremely advanced cutting-edge stuff. It couldn't be organized crime to back that much firepower and manpower. It would have to be official military to sustain such operations. So either its a big black ops or war is brewing and the few days you've been disconnected from the net a lot has changed. You also dawns on you that the acid in the cubes was not planted in the cubes. There were no containers of acid or other chemicals to make acid. The acid must have come from the cargo itself. Meaning either the cargo had containers with them or...inside them. A troubling prospect. Why would anyone carry acid bombs to dissolve an entire person and any immediate surrounding material? Some very powerful people must want witnesses very dead because regular dead isn't good enough.

@ED Ed is absolutely certain this is a coverup. The motives are unclear, but someone wanted all witnesses eliminated at any cost. That means whoever is doing this, probably won't negotiate but will likely set a trap.

@GILL The gears in Gill's head began turning. Who would go through so much effort to annihilate witnesses? Who would have so much power? Why are they this terrified of information getting out? Obviously, there is something about Lilly and the other survivors that powerful people think is so dangerous they'd spend enormous resources and brutal murderous tactics to silence them. Nobody attacks with this much vigor to silence someone unless they're afraid of them...Gill doesn't know how or why, but Lilly and the kids are a threat to whomever did this. It also means whoever did this likely cleaned up survivors at the location. Nobody would do this and leave crates lying around for someone else to discover. Lilly and the kids are likely the only ones left alive. Whoever their friends were, they are almost certainly vaporized or captured by now.

@OSRAM Osram's suspicions of Lilly remain. She doesn't seem hostile, but she is definitely withholding information.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:24, Tue 19 Mar.

Gill spoke up, "Skipster is right, this is a cover-up. It was done by someone with a lot of power and money. They wouldn't have left anything alive, no crates, no cubes, nothing. Lilly and those kids know something, something that has powerful person or persons terrified that it will come out. So terrified they are willing to raze a planet. I think we have the only survivors on this ship." He looked at his shipmates one at a time so they could see this was a rare moment of complete honesty on his part. "This scares the living shit out of me. I am serious. I am going to have to change my boxers after this little meeting. We may have to run as far and as fast as we can, and even that might not save us. In short, we're all fucked. But hey we got a gremlin flying out AI for us, that that can't be anything but helpful, right?" Despite his flippancy, he is clearly scared, not for himself but for them. He has never cared whether he lived or died, but he does care about them.

He laughed aloud, "Actually the gremlin would be to our advantage I think. You want to talk about an evasive little bastard that enjoys making people look like idiots and see machinery taken apart? That is every part the war we seem to be embroiled in now. I can't imagine a better instinct to guide survival against this enemy actually. Skill might be lacking but drive is all there," the engineer spoke with sincerity.

Andre frowned, "That Lilly wants to go back but hasn't particularly cared about losses suggests that either she is a high born or she has inability to emotion though she fakes it decently. She didn't deny having special abilities but merely wants to learn ours. She may be a splinter from the very organization that blasted the facility though it probably doesn't warrant being called a planet... A map that shows no active cubes out there would likely be accurate and timely to justify not going back. Then a ride to the third closest starlanes that pushes our engines just a few percent might be unorthodox enough to increase our safety. Once at lanes we can catch up on news and maybe locate a safe, wet, rock for these passengers. We would need to make money... I give us pretty good odds really!"

"If we're not going back, then we need to decide where to head to next.  Plenty of places to hide in the belt.  Only issue is keeping provisioned."  Osram considered.

"Maybe we should just have Lilly brought back in here. If she continues to be evasive we can just drop them off at the next planet we come to, see how long they survive without us."

I have questions that I feel need to be asked, Skip informs.  Questions whose answers may affect the operation of this ship, and the safety of the crew.  And Lilly has those answers.

The engineer snorts, "Unless you are going to ask in an unconventional manner she isn't going to answer. She doesn't feel like giving answers. I am certain I cannot trust her and by extension the other 3 from the cubes are highly suspicious. Was she in the cube that had the headgear? I want to inspect that to determine function. The kids didn't have gear; were they shackled? I was late on the scene... I also want to test blood samples from them because I don't think they are even close enough to human to consider them mutants. Medical isn't my forte though. If the astral anomaly they hit is the same fold that Gryftrr came through then someone might be covering up access, if only one way, to another dimension. News from lanes would really help sort that out." Andre was done as far as Lilly was concerned and hated not being comfortable with the kids. Weirdly, not an animal person generally he was liking the wolf better than any of them. No guile.