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--- game_systems:traveller:solar_phoenix:adventure_journal [2025/04/11 20:11] – [Kwas Follies] Bryan Stephens
+++ game_systems:traveller:solar_phoenix:adventure_journal [2026/06/10 13:59] (current) – [Moon Heron Logs] Bryan Stephens
@@ Line 495: / Line 495: @@
 ==== Jumping to Where? ====
 The consensus is the planet is too dangerous to further explore and they decide to return to Corvalis. Neil goes to create the report with their footage. Jumps are routine. Tupper is on the bridge with Rutgers who is monitoring the jump drive. Tabitha is in her cabin like Neil, but Liza and Amarr are there on the bridge. Just as Rutgers engages the J-Drive, a gravity surge from the site on the planet strikes the //Solar Phoenix// and alarms no one wants to hear sound across the ship. MISJUMP!
+{{:game_systems:traveller:phoenix:shadoweyes.jpg?250 |}}
 The gravity surge flows across the ship. Tupper’s pilot seat is sheared from the deck and slammed into the ceiling. It is only because of a spin she was not killed. Liza is thrown across the bridge, landing on her left arm, clearly breaking it. The rest of the crew are all bounced around their areas. Light flash and flicker, while systems try to restore themselves automatically.
 Tupper is critically injured. Amarr is the first to stand and races to her side. Without talking, he grabs her and rushes her towards the med bay and autodoc. Rutgers races to help Liza and make sure she is OK then checks their status. They are in jump but the readings are strange.
 With the captain severely injured, there is no coordination of activity, but each person knows their duty. Neil immediately heads to the bridge to check on the systems. He is shocked to see the Pilot’s chair across the room. That does not stop him from strapping himself into the sensors station to review the ships. Meanwhile, Rutgers is getting Liza to the med bay.
 Amarr finishes getting Tupper safely inside the autodoc and turns around to see a cluster of glowing eyes. He strikes at the area, but hits nothing. The Aslan feels what seems to be a fang across his body. He charges out in search of a foe as Rutgers arrives with Liza. After getting Liza into a cast, he calls to Amarr asking what is going on, and Amarr gives his tale.
+{{ :game_systems:traveller:solar_phoenix:dragonsdomain.jpg?300|}}
 Tabitha, not able to do much for the ship, decides to bring food and drinks to everyone. The others start to look over the //Solar Phoenix//. Whatever has been the glitch in the sensors seems to have spread to every computer system. Strange glitches seem the norm. Rutgers and Amarr find something worse: the J-Drive has a space where parts are simply gone. They hope they come out in a place where there is help; even with fuel there is nothing they could do to jump.
 Rutgers analyzes the Jump bubble. He gives the crew the news at dinner: The jump-bubble will decay normally over a week, so they will emerge as they expect. The bad news is that it is fluctuating with the outside universe. Rutgers has no idea how far or how long they will have been in jump space relative to the universe. Indeed, they might be going back in time. The next few days are filled with going about their business. Amarr works on the damage to the bridge, Neil tries to get the computers under control. Tabitha tries to keep up moral, and when Tupper awakes, she is told the rather grim news. The crew tries to do the best they can to be normal.
 Everyone is on the bridge when the //Solar Phoenix// emerges back into the real universe. Before them is a silent milieu. It is a sargasso sea of spaceships. Tabitha calls it a graveyard.
+====== 09 Glass Sargasso ======
+|Game Date|05/17/2026|
+|Campaign Dates|1105-299 to 301|
+|Campaign Dates Jumps Back|1105-302- 315|
+==== Distress Call ====
+{{ :game_systems:traveller:places:viewof_the_sea.png?400|}}
+The crew of Solar Phoenix gets to work. Rutgers attempts to get a decent scan of the area around them, but the glitches in the system are far worse than they have been previously. There are ghost images, bursts of static, and most disturbingly, at least once he was sure he caught a single glowing white eye.
+Neil has similar issues trying to get the comms operating. He has been hacking at the computer for the past week, but the problems have only been getting worse. Now their electronics simply seem to be misbehaving. Tabaitha, having little else to do join Neil in working on the comms. She has more success.
+Tabitha detects a Imperial Standard emergency beacon broadcasting from a ship called The //Gilded Swan//. It has a Mora registry, a subsector over 20 parsecs away. Tabitha sends a signal and in a few minutes they get a harried response from the //Gilded Swan//.
+//”This is the //Gilded Swan//, Nadia Serrin in command. Captain Vorn is dead. We have total reactor failure and are on emergency power. 15 souls on board, two critically injured in autodoc and low birth. We have been her for three days. Water running low. “// Nadia’s voice is clearly stressed.
+//”Gilded Swan, this is //Solar Phoenix//, Lady Tabitha Perez of the Five Sisters speaking”// With a distant Imperium ship, Tabitha uses her link to Imperial nobility. //”We have a bearing and will attempt to render aid.”//
+Amarr pilots the Solar Phoenix gingerly through the debris. The cantankerous sensors do not help. It takes two hours following the beacon to find the //Gilded Swan//. It has a slow tumble, signs of at least one glancing collision and looks as derelict as everything else, except for its heat signature, whereas others ships have matched the cold of space.
+Rutgers is suspicious.
+Neil agrees.
+They will take their ship’s boat. There is a debate about who goes and who stays. Who can fly the ship settled it. As much as Amarr wants to go, he says with Liza. The other four fly over. With the long practice of odd maneuvers from his Scout Service days, Rutgers deftly matches the odd tumble and docks as if it was stationary. He even uses the M-drive to ever so gently stop the tumble, never overstressing the docking mechanisms. (Rolled boxcars)
+They enter the cripped ship and meet the haggard pilot now captain Nadia Serrin. She meets them with a crew and passenger manifest, which Tupper takes, immediately asking about the injured crew. Security Chief Sabine Kestel is in a low birth to stop her from dying, and a young woman passenger, Liora Venth is in the autodoc. Both are running on their emergency back up power. The state of the ship is obvious:
+There are measured water cups.
+There are handwritten ration charts.
+There is luxury all around, but it has become a thirsty, stale, expensive shell.
+They don’t get far into the ship before the overview is interrupted by Lucian Vale, one of the passengers. He is quite insistent that he be evacuated. Neil has already had enough and pulls his pistol pointing it right at Vale’s head.
+//”That will be enough!”//
+Vale, like most of the ultra-rich in stable worlds such as Mora, does not have strangers issue him orders often. He cannot think of the last time that happened. Of course, he has never had a gun pointed at his head, and at that moment he cannot really think about much of anything.
+Tabitha breaks the tension, stepping between Neil and Vale.
+//”We are here now and I am fine. Neil is simply protecting us. We will do this orderly. Lady Tabitha Perez of the Five Sisters. Our crew is going to see to this ship and everyone on board it. Please be patient and let us assess the situation.”//
+This is more than enough to get the rich passengers to sit down and follow orders. Between the clear threat of violence (even if it was a stunner which none of them could recognize), and the soothing charm of someone who socially outranked them all, order is maintained.
+Chief Engineer Tomas Hale shows Rutgers the reactors and jump drives. The Reactors overloaded and scrammed. Maybe they could be repaired, but the //Swan// no longer has the reserve power to get them ignited. Besides, the jump drives are worse. Hale shows Rutgers perfect sphere-shaped voids where parts of the drive used to be. Sliced cleanly by jump bubble failures. Rutgers has seen something like this before, except that had included deck plating.
+{{:game_systems:traveller:npcs:insidemoonherrorn.png?400 |}}
+And people.
+Jump bubble breaches are a fear of all Scouts. They know the truth about space. It is not safe.
+That shuddering horror aside, Rutgers sees something that makes his soul sing: This is a heavily modified pleasure yacht. If carries more fuel than needed for its full J-Drive. It has fuel.
+Glorius hydrogen, still cryonic. Enough to fill the tanks of the //Solar Phoenix//.
+Tupper sees to the wounded and coordinates with Dr. Mira Quill whom she finds slumped over asleep at her desk. Dr. Quill has been working to treat the wounded, many of whom sustained injuries when the gravity drives warped, much like had happened to Tupper. She is most worried about her two “on ice” as there is only so much power. That is the priority for Tupper. They will get those units hooked into power on their ship’s boat first, then start a plan to evacuate the crew.
+Rutgers and Ammar coordinate setting up for a fuel transfer with Engineer Hale and his assistant, Rowan Pike. The rest of the //Swan’s// crew assist with the transfer. They will launch the ship’s boat and return to //Phoenix// first, then begin the fuel transfer. It will take some EVA work, but this is the next step.
+Before they depart, Neil has a moment of insight and tells Tupper he will be on the bridge. He calls Rutgers up with him.
+//”What if these sensors work better? We can power them up and do a quick search.”//
+It is a great idea, but they don’t see much of use. Both men are tired and pushed. Rutgers takes a recording of what they have to see if he can use it with the more sophisticated systems on their own ship.
+They hear screaming as they walk down the empty corridors but don’t see anything.
+==== Deja Vu ====
+Incidents are growing. Once the fuel transfer is underway, the crew meets. Everyone now has some sort of story of strange feelings, sightings, hearing voices or sounds. They are all thinking it, but Neil says it first,
+//”Like the ice moon and caves.”//
+Liza has been told those stories. That is why she got hired. She shivers and pulls her legs to her chest.
+//”I have kept working on my medication,”// Tupper says. //”I can dose all of us, at least. It should have far less side effects.”//
+They don’t have to talk to agree.
+They do have to keep the increasingly frightened passengers calm. Tabitha and Neil have their hands full. Ammar’s menacing presence helps.
+Tupper takes time to find out where they are, exactly while Rutgers again goes to the scanners.
+At first he almost dismisses it as an error. The image comes back as hull identical to their own. Must be a reflection in all the noise.
+Except a reflection would be mirrored. This is not. Another look. It is an Animal Class Safari ship, like their own.
+Parts!
+It is at this moment, Tupper says //”I know where we are!”//
+It turns out they are two parsecs away from Rathis. They have not been there, but itself is only another Jump-2 from Taxu, their entry point into the Foreven sector. Now they just need to repair the J-Drive.
+==== Moon Heron ====
+{{:game_systems:traveller:creatures:chatgpt_image_may_16_2026_10_21_47_am.png?400 |}}
+After the full transfer of fuel, Liz reports she has most of the passengers of the //Swan// sedated, but that the crew is holding up, though are exhausted. Tupper and Tabitha let them crash in their quarters to rest. They have passengers scattered throughout the ship.
+Amarr gets the //Phoenix// close to the other Safari ship. Under their lights, they see its top has a white heron drawn into hit, much like their own phoenix. In fact, the hull exterior is nearly identical do theirs. While the Animal class Safari ship was an old standard design, usually different manufacturers had different details. No two ships were identical. This one looked to be a twin.
+//”This looks like our sister ship”// Tupper notes.
+//”Parts should match then,”// says Rutgers dryly.
+This time, Amarr is going. He, Rutgers and Neil head over to the //Moon Heron// its name painted on the side. As they go to enter, Tupper’s voice crackles in their ears,
+//”Split up and search every compartment”//
+The three men look at each other. Rutgers cues his mike,
+//”Tupper, that last transmission was not clear. Can you say again?”//
+Tupper’s response is confused. //”I didn’t say anything.”//
+//”We are not splitting up at all,”// notes Neil to nods by his two non-human companions.
+The //Moon Heron// is a horror film set. First of all, it is dark except for their lights. Cold, dead, and elegant. Some luxury spaces remain pristine. Others show emergency modifications. Some doors are sealed from inside. The ship makes more sounds than it should.
+It feels wrong.
+They make their way to engineering. While Amarr and Rutgers survey the J-drive, Neil goes for the computer logs. The former security man brought an hand held external power source. This takes surprisingly little time. The logs appear left to be found.
+// Moon Heron// and her sister vessel //Star Falcon// explored strange worlds to hunt and capture exotic creatures. The ships once hunted and captured a pair of what appeared to be psionically altered predators they christened “Vorruul”. One was carried aboard //Moon Heron//, the other was carried aboard //Star Falcon//.
+//Moon Heron// mis-jumped. It found itself in this space sargasso sea.
+And the Vorruul, empowered by this space, escaped.
+The logs are not pleasant.
+=== Moon Heron Logs ===
+//“Moon Heron and Star Falcon proceeding under split-capture protocol. Specimen A secured aboard Star Falcon. Specimen B secured aboard Moon Heron. Both sedated. Recommend no unscheduled wake cycles.”//
+// “Specimen B is responsive even under sedation. We are seeing increased stress responses in handlers and inconsistent telemetry around the containment cradle.” //
+// “I don’t like the way it pauses. It doesn’t act like a beast sizing up a threat. It acts like it’s listening.” //
+// “Something went wrong in transition. Instrument spread makes no sense. We are not where we should be. Some of the crew are reporting voices on internal comms that were never transmitted.” //
+// “The thing is different here. It is stronger. Or the place is making it stronger. Containment field draw is rising without corresponding output.”
+// “Do not trust verbal orders unless face to face. Repeat: do not trust verbal orders unless face to face. It knows how we sound.” //
+// “We sealed corridor three. Then got an order from the bridge to open it. Then another order not to. We opened it. God help us, we opened it.” //
+// “The luminous organ is not simply visual. It appears to be a sensory and directive node ... a focus point for the neuroaffective field. If the animal can be killed at all, that may be the point that matters.”
+// “Field collapse. Repeat, field collapse. It’s in the walls. I know how that sounds. I don’t care. It is in the walls.” //
+// “If anyone boards this ship ... it isn’t confusion. It’s predation. Keep your people together. Do not let it divide what is true from what is seen.” //
+And there is a picture of the thing that was killing them.
+While Neil is reading and recording this unsettling news, the other men are having much better news: The J-drive is intact. They can replace every part they need. They can get home.
+Based on the logs, the three pick their way through the ship, always together, to salvage what the logs referred to as the “containment field”. A quick review shows it to be some sort of psionic suppression technology.
+//We are taking this!”// Neil says.
+{{ :game_systems:traveller:creatures:chatgpt_image_may_16_2026_09_46_41_am.png?400|}}
+==== The Monster ====
+The crew decides to try to deal with this creature before repair of the drives. With all the fuel, they have time. Also, it appears.
+Tabitha is the target of the manifestation, as she was moving from compartment to compartment. Fortunately, no one is alone and Amarr leaps into action driving it “off” as the manifestation fades.
+With access to the logs from the //Moon Heron//, Liza is able to offer an analysis.
+  *This thing is not haunting the ship like a dead sophont.
+  *The original Vorruul imposed patterns on other nervous systems ... fear, obedience, confusion, bad sensory prioritization.
+  *This place is feeding the old imprint and using it as a template.
+  *The eye-like node is not just an eye ... it is the focus organ, the control center of the psionic effect.
+  *If they force the manifestation to commit to local space and destroy that node, the rest will collapse.
+  *The containment field module from //Moon Heron// can be jury-rigged with //Phoenix// systems to create a temporary psionic cage in a chosen compartment.
+Yet again, the crew of the //Star Falcon// ne’ //Solar Phoenix// goes hunting.
+Using the containment field, they set a trap down in the pool area, where the old bio holding cells used to be. Amarr is the bait.
+He is alone on the deck.
+With his laser carbine.
+The creature cannot resist this snack and fully manifests. Amarr snaps on the containment field. The monster cannot just fade away again. Its tentacles lash out, but Amarr is a Marine at heart. He is a warrior of a warrior race.
+He takes aim, even as the creature grabs him.
+He aims directly great white eye. They eye that cannot daze or control the warrior thanks to his friend’s medication. He stays clear. The weak spot cannot defend itself. Energy enough to burn through metal slices through the eye.
+At first nothing. Then, the energies within the beast release. Amarr’s visor darkens, and when he sees again, the monster is only burned flesh.
+==== Can we go home now? ====
+With the death of the manifested vorruul, the electronics of the //Phoenix// are restored. The psionic residue from the death of the last vorruul on the //Star Falcon// are purged.
+//”I felt it pulling at my mind there at the end, but it could not get ahold. That stuff of yours really works.”//
+//”Maybe I should patent it”//
+It takes two days to get the drive repaired and then the jump. It is a tight week, and the life support of the //Solar Phoenix// complains. But they are free and on their way back.
 **End of Season 1**

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