Episode 1: The Beginning

**The Beginning** is the first episode of Campaign 1. The crew of Old Bessie get some leads to get ahead of the Scimitar and its duplicitous captain, Dev Selimas. Taking on a job from the fast talking Oomal, the crew flies towards the star Vivarium to intercept an interstellar hyper-train. But before they make it a ship moves to intercept! Now the *Moon Scraper* and its crew of werewolf scrappers have our outlaws in a tight spot.

## **Synopsis**

> Welcome to Health Hits Experience!
>
> Britty Lea

The adventure begins six months after the events of The Team Up. The episode opens with a broadcast from the Zalarian Empire which is promptly hijacked by the pirate crew the Plasma Fangs, who boast about their recent raid on a Zalarian mining transport.

In the past six months, the crew of Old Bessie have settled into an uneasy rhythm. They have done several low-level heist-type jobs here and there, only enough to keep food on the table. They have made Old Bessie into a more functional vessel as they continue to pursue leads related to their former employer Dev Selimas and his stolen *Scimitar*.

The crew receives a call from Grigelli, one of Heironymous' contacts. She offers the crew an art heist job related to shield generators for the *Scimitar*. Grigelli agrees to fax over the mission details for the crew's consideration. As the fax comes in, the comm rings again. This time, it's Oomal, one of Cyrus' contacts. Oomal offers the crew a train heist job related to a hyperdrive regulator for the *Scimitar*. Oomal agrees to fax over a few details, with more promised once the job is accepted. As Oomal's fax comes in, the comm rings a third time. This time, it's Magella, one of Flux's contacts. Magella offers the crew a recruitment job related to a cloaking device for the *Scimitar*.

As the crew reviews the potential jobs and bicker over the possibilites, PEARL reviews the Plasma Fangs' recent broadcast and comes to an uncomfortable conclusion. The Plasma Fangs' recent raid has all the earmarks of a Dev Selimas job. Dev has likely hired the other crew to continue to expand his empire in the supposed demise of Old Bessie's crew. The crew adds this information to the list of potential jobs. After continued discussion, the crew votes to take Oomal's train job.

Before they can take meaningful action in that regard, another ship appears on Old Bessie's scanners. A scrapheap of a vessel populated by werewolves appears within range and commences combat with Old Bessie and her crew. The crew begin to fight off the werewolves, with limited success. Heironymous employs Vicious Mockery with middling results. Cyrus enters a rage which does not help as much as it should. Flux introduces two of his recent inventions (a magic repeater rifle and a steel defender) with mixed results. PEARL combines Old Bessie's guns with her own spellcasting with similarly mixed results.

The Moon Scraper deploys grappling chains to secure Old Bessie and tug her in close for deck to deck combat. As the battle continues to rage, we break net to continue next week in Episode 2!

## **Quotations**

* **Heironymous**: "I'm only sticking around for the clif bars."

* **Ian**: "I'm trying to make us less likely to die and I can't even do that!"

* **Ian**: "He didn't fall for my charm so now he dies."

* **Britty**: "This is not a PvP show!"
* **Robin**: "It's about to be!"

## **Trivia**

* This is the first live-streamed episode of Campaign 1.
* This episode contains the first instance of the running gag that Flux's attitude is due to being hangry.
* It is implied that the Aether Bastards have worked with Oomal on the Hypertrain before.
* Cyrus has danced burlesque in a job for Oomal.
* The first natural 20 of the campaign (Liz) and the first natural 1 of the campaign (Rob) are both rolled during combat with the space werewolves.