With Rahman dead, his executive officer on board the Maori Spirit, Commander Bethran took charge of the squadron. The squadron split up to explore different worlds.
Slowly the PCs discovered that the area of space they were in was known as 'The Forest' by its inhabitants. They encountered several different and new alien races, including the Thotloth (small, aggressive, orange clones), the Tchopth (short, brown, bipedal invertebrates with a taste for a good deal), the Ba (gangly, bipedal bureaucrats) and the Syrrgl (militaristic, purple worms).
Fun encounters included a Tchopth filling station attendant (the first of his race or in fact any of the races of The Forest to be encountered), a bar-room brawl between Thotloth and Syrrgl which resulted in some of the PCs joining in (on one or more sides) and ultimately with Baroness Bubbles Chatterly starting a chain of 'Bar Bubbles' starport bars across the subsector.
A group of PCs* on board the frigate Miltiades set off to investigate the legends of the 'Sky Raiders' on the planet Loenchdda. A journey into Loenchdda's sweaty, swampy outback was followed by the discovery of a ziggurat and human skeletons apparently buried with some ceremony. These seemed to be the Sky Raiders, but were the Sky Raiders also the Yaskoydri - the lost human race that the Spinward Squadron was searching for?
Another group of ships, the scout tender R.J. Astudia, the close escort Zylle and the fleet courier FC-281 'Rainbow', headed in a different direction. The PCs** in this group explored a seemingly abandoned space station after something pulled the Astudia out of jump-space. The space station turned out to be the prison holding a psionically powerful alien called a Ssitransh - a being able to manipulate jump-space.
Certain of the PCs (I think Chronotis and Duke, but I couldn't swear to this) freed (unwittingly or otherwise) the prisoner who then used his jump-space manipulation power to transport the PCs back in time a thousand years to his original trial. This Ssitransh was in fact Dominator Dook'krss, the tyrant that the Foresters had fought 'The Ssitransh War' against. The Foresters won the war, destroyed the Ssitransh's home planet and perpetually imprisoned the Dominator in low-berth.
Having now gone back in time, the PCs were split into two groups - prosecutors and defenders and the trial was carried out again. Only this time the verdict was that it was the Foresters who were guilty. Although too late to save the Ssitransh race, Dook'krss was freed.
* Ithklur Marine Lieutenant Assato*kla, Vargr Able Spacehand Anozarrekh, Ensign Vincent Drake, Commander (and Chief Engineer) Sorlie McSporran, Prrt' Able Spacehand Rrl and Science Officer Archimedes Flux.
** Captain Faradon Larg, Ship's Librarian Autumn Rabbits, Professor Jonathan Chronotis, Sophont Liaison Specialist Matthew Duke, Hiver 'Executive Assistant' Medusa and Aslan scout ship gunner Iyaritetiyrl (aka 'Duncan').
no subject
Slowly the PCs discovered that the area of space they were in was known as 'The Forest' by its inhabitants. They encountered several different and new alien races, including the Thotloth (small, aggressive, orange clones), the Tchopth (short, brown, bipedal invertebrates with a taste for a good deal), the Ba (gangly, bipedal bureaucrats) and the Syrrgl (militaristic, purple worms).
Fun encounters included a Tchopth filling station attendant (the first of his race or in fact any of the races of The Forest to be encountered), a bar-room brawl between Thotloth and Syrrgl which resulted in some of the PCs joining in (on one or more sides) and ultimately with Baroness Bubbles Chatterly starting a chain of 'Bar Bubbles' starport bars across the subsector.
A group of PCs* on board the frigate Miltiades set off to investigate the legends of the 'Sky Raiders' on the planet Loenchdda. A journey into Loenchdda's sweaty, swampy outback was followed by the discovery of a ziggurat and human skeletons apparently buried with some ceremony. These seemed to be the Sky Raiders, but were the Sky Raiders also the Yaskoydri - the lost human race that the Spinward Squadron was searching for?
Another group of ships, the scout tender R.J. Astudia, the close escort Zylle and the fleet courier FC-281 'Rainbow', headed in a different direction. The PCs** in this group explored a seemingly abandoned space station after something pulled the Astudia out of jump-space. The space station turned out to be the prison holding a psionically powerful alien called a Ssitransh - a being able to manipulate jump-space.
Certain of the PCs (I think Chronotis and Duke, but I couldn't swear to this) freed (unwittingly or otherwise) the prisoner who then used his jump-space manipulation power to transport the PCs back in time a thousand years to his original trial. This Ssitransh was in fact Dominator Dook'krss, the tyrant that the Foresters had fought 'The Ssitransh War' against. The Foresters won the war, destroyed the Ssitransh's home planet and perpetually imprisoned the Dominator in low-berth.
Having now gone back in time, the PCs were split into two groups - prosecutors and defenders and the trial was carried out again. Only this time the verdict was that it was the Foresters who were guilty. Although too late to save the Ssitransh race, Dook'krss was freed.
* Ithklur Marine Lieutenant Assato*kla, Vargr Able Spacehand Anozarrekh, Ensign Vincent Drake, Commander (and Chief Engineer) Sorlie McSporran, Prrt' Able Spacehand Rrl and Science Officer Archimedes Flux.
** Captain Faradon Larg, Ship's Librarian Autumn Rabbits, Professor Jonathan Chronotis, Sophont Liaison Specialist Matthew Duke, Hiver 'Executive Assistant' Medusa and Aslan scout ship gunner Iyaritetiyrl (aka 'Duncan').