Deepnight Revelation #1

Captain's Log, T001*

Upon exiting the wormhole our ship was right away shaken by a series of impact, which we were able to determine to be from a drifting field of debris, consisting of ice and what appeared to be planetary fragments. As the debris were numerous and of mixed composition and scattered electromagnetic waves in a non-uniform fashion, we were unable to navigate through the debris field safely.

On Mr Stamper's advice I order boats to be launched from the ship to determine a safe path through the debris field and for crew upon them to place demolition charges to clear the larger pieces of debris. Due to the density of the debris, the operation necessitated the deployment of a broadcast relay boat to maintain communications between the ship and the boats.

Two hours into the operation, a demolition charge being placed by the crew on Boat 13 went off prematurely, causing the boat to lose power and spin out of control with three of the crew still tethered to its hull.

Before a rescue boat could be organised, the pilot of Boat 01 (which was serving as the broadcast relay and safety boat) Lieutenant Xebac disobeyed orders and started off to intercept Boat 13. Boat 01 was struck by a debris and Lieutenant Xebac was rendered unconscious, and the cockpit began to depressurise.

The remaining crew on Boat 01 responded to this unexpected series of events admirably: Crewman (Probationary) Ajax (of the Deck Department) sealed the breach in the cockpit, while Sergeant Ahab (of the Security Department) took control of the boat.

With the communication to the ship lost due to their movement, the crew of Boat 01 decided to continue the rescue effort on their own. Social Scientist Goldfone was able to located Boat 13, and Sergeant Ahab piloted the boat expertly, matching the spin of Boat 13 perfectly as he moved the two boats into contact and then gradually reduce the momentum to wind the tethers around the hulls of both boats. Scout Trooper Blake, Mr Ajax, and Mr Goldfone were then able to recover the crew of Boat 13 into Boat 01, where they were given medical aid by Corpsman Wootue.

The crew of Boat 01 - excepting Lieutenant Xebac -were given commendations for their action, and Mr Ajax was formally inducted to the crew of the ship and was granted full crew privileges. Lieutenant Xebac was put on report for his actions.

Having cleared the debris field, Astrography was able to determine that we were in the Tadpole Galaxy, having emerged at the end of the shorter spiral arm, and that the transit, while it took merely two minutes for us, had in fact taken 294 days.

Tadpole Galaxy, some 420 million light years from our galaxy

It was further determined that there were multiple sources of psionic emanations from many parts of the galaxy, with the most prominent coming from the 'tail' end of the galaxy. While the journey to the tail end could be made in 10 weeks at maximum speed, after conferring with the Mission Command team, the decision was taken to take the safer course and to travel to the main body of the galaxy in short jumps, and to gather intelligence and replenish our fuel, water, and food as the opportunities presented themselves.

At Astrography's recommendation, our next waypoint will be a strong radio signal 50 parsecs from our current location, which they have named Radio Source Vilaakasii.

Captain's Log, T010

We completed our survey of the Vilaakasii region today, and are making preparations to jump to our next waypoint. Exploration of the systems QVS-88 and QVS-122 had revealed two terrestrial planets that once supported life - in the case of QVS-122 a pre-hyperspace civilisation - and which should by all accounts still support life. While the mass extinction of life on the two planets can be explained by the supernova event that resulted in the Vilaakasii black hole, Life Sciences Department cannot explain why life had not re-emerged on these planets after 800,000 years. We are awaiting the results of Social Sciences Officer Dr Gregrorio Tsoukalos' field-survey.

* - for this series I will employ this dating convention to indicate days after the transit through the wormhole.

Prepping and Running the Game

The start of a new campaign is always exciting for me as a GM, although my first sessions are usually a little stilted as I try to get back into rhythm.

I was aware that the first session would be a lot of talking and a little playing, as there was a lot of scene-setting and plot exposition to be done, plus a player who is new to both the backstory and the Savage Worlds system.

My general plan is to run the campaign more or less in the order of the module, but to fit my backstory, I had to make the part of the galaxy that the ship first pass through a dead zone. This meant no discovery of alien species, and of course no interaction or combat with them. To inject some action into the session, I lifted an incident from Book 3 and used it as my first action scene.

I am gratified that the players responded admirably, and took the opportunity to roleplay their new characters: Ajax being super-eager to prove himself a useful member of the crew, Goldfone making wisecracks, and Ahab taking command of the situation like a marine sergeant - the boat rescue episode will remain one of the memorable stories in my career as a GM.

I had the opportunity to introduce quite a few NPC crew members this session, some of whom were created by friends and fellow forummers. I expect that over the next few session a few of them will become "crowd favourites" and recurring NPCs.