Traveller: Research & Rescue

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Pain.

The following are GameDoc's actual session notes:

Session Summary:

(Wow! A lot more happened tonight that I realized!)

Having returned to Tinath Spaceport, the Travellers make their way into Serson Province, passing by the Oracle, an ancient temple-palace built by an unknown alien civilization millennia before khan colonists arrived on the planet.

They deliver the recovered research data to Baroness Edda and file the necessary salvage claims for their ship, the Kingfisher. As promised, the Baroness agrees to pay for needed repairs and maintenance on the ship.

Pleased with the Travellers’ work so far, she offers to keep them on retainer as a bonded mercenary company while they remain on the planet and offers them a new job. An archaeological expedition to the largely unsettled continent of Valeive has lost contact. The expedition was sent by the Baroness to study ancient ruins there, assumed to be built by the same ancient aliens that built the Oracle. The Baroness directs the Travellers to locate the missing researchers and rescue them if necessary.

J. C. negotiates a fee for the group, as well as ensuring that they are allowed to secure their own repairs and bill the Baroness rather than having her own staff snooping around the ship. The Travellers are provided survival gear, weapons, and  transport and set off for Valeive.

As they approach the archaeological site, they are suddenly intercepted by three fighter craft identical to those that attacked the Kingfisher during their recovery mission.  Riley is able to evade them by dropping the transport into the forest and maneuvering through the trees. However this also leads them right into a violent sleet storm with near zero visibility.

Try not to botch the sensors check.  Again.

Their transport suddenly shudders and begins to dive towards the ground. They Travellers emerge from the crash injured, but alive. Inspection suggests that the transport wasn’t struck by a projectile, but grounded by some sort of gravity weapon. Before it’s power is drained completely, the Travellers send out a message to notify the Baroness of their situation and then set off for the ruins.

Hiking through the forest, they are attacked by a flock of winged, bat-like creatures. After shooting them down, Hernando discovers the creatures have some sort of cybernetic implants, including data ports leading to their brains. He and Sally May attempt to retrieve data from the implants but the programming language is gibberish. Hernado collects specimens for later examination and the group sets off again.

Finally arriving at their destination, they find no overt signs of the research team. Closer inspection reveals a few remains of a campsite and scattered bullet casings. It appears there was a gun battle of some kind, but there were no bodies or equipment left behind.

The ruins consist of a large stone plaza flanked by two ziggurats on the east and west sides. Scaling the eastern one, the Travellers discover a door at the top that appears to have been recently damaged. Prying it open, they find a shaft leading down into the ziggurat, apparently for a gravity lift. But the lift platform is gone.

Outside, from atop the ziggurat, Sally May sees a group humanoid creatures armed with rifles emerge from the forest. Half head for the western structure while the other male to scale up their one the Travellers now occupy. Amadeus attempts to make psionic contact with one of them, but is unable to. The creatures seem unaware of the Travellers for now, but it won’t take long. They are left with a decision: Engage the creatures directly, or escape down the shaft into the alien structure.