Session 167 – Christmas Special (3rd January 2019)

- And here is the 2018 Christmas Special. It was a little late because David was in hospital. The point of the Christmas Special is normally to do something with a Christmas theme or do something more light hearted. It doesn’t always succeed but it’s tradition.

- Grant, Ethan and Macavity (Ethan’s capital-C Cat) are travelling together on a passenger vessel to Nautica. The Doors are on different planets. It has been a week since their failed attempt to recover Abigail. Even though inside the ship is festooned with Christmas decorations (they even call it Christmas in this reality), Ethan isn’t really in the mood. He’s confused by Abbie’s behaviour and using Divination and Scrying to hunt for answers. He isn’t having much luck. Also the Kingdom of Bloodstone is a mess given that Abbie lost the entire army. The people of Bloodstone are spooked and upset. Bloodstone’s neighbours are already eyeing Bloodstone with envious eyes.
- It’s only a short trip through Warpspace to their destination and about eight hours travel in normal space. Macavity fits in here as there are many talking pets here. Ethan finally tries to contact Abbie to talk to her but she doesn’t respond. Ethan enjoys the view of the nebula from the viewing deck and chats with Macavity (who has a belly full of fish) while Grant tries out the holodeck. 
- They encourage passengers to sleep during the six hours through Warpspace and Ethan follows instructions. Unfortunately on the journey, the ship enters a minefield and is disabled. Grant and Ethan go to work to try to figure out what has happened and they find large sections of the ship have been opened to hard vacuum. Ethan concentrates on engineering. Grant heads to the bridge and rescues a crewman who has been blown out into space and is tumbling away in a spacesuit. Macavity does a survey of the ship and tries to keep the remaining passengers out of trouble. They quickly realise the scale of the damage is beyond three people to fix and Ethan contacts Isabelle (who is tipsy) and asks for her aid. She sobers up quickly and comes to assist. They repair the communications array and then repair one of the engines to provide some basic propulsion (as they are drifting further into the minefield). Then Ethan goes to provide some medical aid to the injured – including the Captain.
- By this time, Grant has identified that there are many mines outside the ship and it will take some careful manoeuvres to extricate the ship from the minefield. As they make preparations, an ancient warship and minelayer emerges from the nebula to finish them off. The old warship appears to be operating autonomously. With no weapons onboard the ship, Grant lures the ancient minelayer into the minefield. It takes many mines to destroy the enemy ship but they are successful in doing so.
- Isabelle thanks Ethan for the invitation and she heads off to the next party. Five hours later, a military hospital ship arrives to evacuate the crew and wounded. The three friends play cards on the way. Arriving in Nautica, they are greeted by a lot a frantic people who are waiting for their loved ones, some of whom will not be coming home. However, Grant spots the engineer that he rescued from space being reunited with his family and feels better about things. As they head for the Door, Ethan considers contacting Abbie again via Icon but thinks better of it. Instead he contacts Isabelle and asks if he could join her. She accepts and he and Macavity find themselves in a familiar looking hotel – it’s Midas (GM’s note - first visited in Session 70) – and there are others here whom Ethan knows. However, there is no Yaeger Zane. It is late afternoon and there is a party on the beach. Ethan and Macavity sit on the warm sand and watch the sun setting. Ethan thinks about the future ….