The Widening Gyre Campaign/Session 1

We've entered a pocket of null space, and it's time to rely on the skill of our sherpa team to drag us through the various debris using their grotesque cuttlefish-like ground crawlers. Can't damage the 50 million ducat ship too much, right? Sylvia steps outside of the ship to assess the state of the aether and notices the erratic flow of debris, as though there's overlap of multiple streams. Her eyes burn a bit, and she steps back inside.
Quill'Ka gathers information on that Fialta ship that seems to be following us. Based on the insignias it seems to be at least a Leandran-era ship, if not older. Sylvia believes it to be a ghost ship, lost in a time loop, forever doomed to experience the destruction of Bishant. She's unsure why it seems to be maintaining a fixed distance from us.
The sight of the ghost ship inspires Gundahar to propose some "prophylactic therapy" to assuage the crew's mental state. He starts by motivating his droogs with an odd mix of Jungian and Freudian methods. Quill puts his capuchins to sleep so they won't be affected by etheric fluctuations. Sylvia motivates her students to get ready for the ride of a lifetime.
Despite the sherpas having trouble synchronizing their movements, Zylch manages to assist them from inside the ship. Their movements seem out of sorts due to the irregular movement of time in this space.
We then confront a large and relatively intact asteroid with an oddly regular patterning. It seems like there were (or are) automata scavenging it, and we debate what to do to avoid them, unsure if they've been slagged by null space or whether they can jump at us. As a preliminary test, we fire a torpedo at it, having engineered the torpedo to explode backwards to create a distraction. No response.
We vote to take our chances and go over the large asteroid, once again relying on our sherpa team. One of the crawlers gets stuck and relies on etheric energy to free itself, attracting the attention of some automata. It's able to detach without getting captured or scavenged, and despite the automata jumping out at us like a barrel of monkeys, they can't reach us. We escape them and get past the large asteroid, noting that the structure of it resembles an old Kirvan city, with 7-pointed symbols everywhere.
We reach the hot zone. Where there once was an etheric storm to give potential cover, we don't have that luxury and need to find another way through without attracting too much attention. Rumors flew of scavengers and guard ships hanging around this area. The Kidney checks up on the history of the area back to the destruction of Bishant. It's unclear which direction to head in first, but we have to end up in the middle at some point.
Time to navigate. Zylch pilots aggressively, but we don't run into any serious issues… yet. There are a few issues with the crew's sanity, however. For one, the capuchins have a shared dream, but Quill manages to disrupt them with minor shock treatment. Sylvia's students aren't as lucky, taking turns staring into the open aether. After they fall asleep, they begin to write something in a hand that's not their own.
This writing is coordinated and calligraphic. They can't remember how to recreate the symbols after waking up. Sylvia sneaks a look at the writing and tries to steal and replace some of the papers as they sleep. All this gets is a "thank you" in an unfamiliar accent which resembles a pre-Aeldrum crusader.
Between Sylvia and The Kidney, they deduce the writing as some kind of lamentation and summoning ritual: a cry of despair at Leandra's failure and a call for Kirva's direct intervention. It seems like a bad idea to let the students write for too long, or they'll begin to go insane. Sylvia starts by trying to wake and speak to Ferdinand. She fails to wake him and gets a threat from that odd voice. She pleads with Ferdinand to tap into his nature as a student and treat the experience as an academic exercise. In response, the writing speeds up, and the students barricade their quarters with furniture.
Meanwhile, on the bridge, Gundahar is psychoanalyzing Zylch to ensure he's doing his job properly. Gundahar sees no issues, then gets distracted by the "rancid vibes" coming from down the hall and goes on a tangent about the upsetting state of the environment. This offends Captain Marley, and Gundahar leaves the bridge to investigate.
The Kidney whips up a knockout gas to stop the writing spree. Sylvia tries again to reach Ferdinand. When she takes his pen, he screams. She implores him to break the hold of whatever this is. He fails to do so and keeps writing on his desk. By now, the crew is having doubts about their situation as they stare at Sylvia. Gundahar arrives, trying and failing to divert the crew's attention. He and Sylvia drag Ferdinand into Gundahar's quarters. Gundahar motivates his droogs to be brave against the horrors. She tries to convince Gundahar of his useful qualities, but he doesn't like this for some reason.
The Kidney, along with Quill, pipe the knockout gas into the barricaded quarters. Some of the students are knocked out, with the rest writing even faster. Sylvia tries to gag Ferdinand with her hand to keep him from screaming, managing to avoid a bite. Gundahar restrains him, and he finally wakes up, terrified. He blurts out something about losing the only way to save us.
Zylch, mostly left alone, now sees the ghost ship appear ahead of us.
Gundahar, Sylvia, and The Kidney attempt to breach the barricaded door. The Kidney fails, re-specs itself, and they try again, succeeding. In the process, 2 of the 3 sleeping students are injured. The two who are still awake have started writing on the walls. The Kidney and Quill restrain them, and the capuchins gather up the scattered papers. The Kidney knocks one of them out, but as it tries to stabilize the injured students, something odd happens. Durham's body sweats profusely, and something tries to take it over. Corporal Durham is awake! Durham immediately activates "maximum sweat" to maintain control, turning off his power armor and running off to the infirmary. Gundahar and Quill grab the injured students and follow him.
In the infirmary, Durham is about to perform a surprise nephrectomy. Quill tries and fails to grab him. Gundahar manages to grab him, but Durham breaks out and stabs himself with a large knife (extremely unsuitable for surgery). The two manage to restrain him, and Gundahar tries therapy, but it doesn't work. Sylvia manages to rush in and sedate Durham, but she accidentally hits him directly in the kidneys.
Durham's body is in turmoil, the organs in an outright uprising against The Kidney. The stomach betrays The Kidney and teams up with the heart and lungs. The Kidney, still asserting dominance over the lower systems, tries to mount a comeback. Quill, having read the file, knows The Kidney needs assistance, so he sedates the lungs and puts Durham on a ventilator. The Kidney is back in control, and it shuts down the body to heal and reset. In the meantime, Gundahar stabilizes the injured students (Bradley and Bartholomew).
While all that is going on, Zylch is trying his best to pilot. He miscalculates and gets trapped in between two moments in time. He sees visions of bands of fire from the first eruptions marking Bishant's downfall, as well as scores of automata pouring through a gate, arriving to strip down the ravages of destruction and rebuild them into a more perfect form. Despite all this, he's able to gun it through the middle of these visions and guide the ship back into the hot zone.
Category:Session Summaries