The party took a moment to catch their breath after finishing their last orientation task, the physically demanding assault course. Once they paused for a moment, disbelieving of how full a morning it had been, and feeling ready for the lunch Tarto promised, they returned to the simulations deck to report back to Officer Tarto.
When the group arrived, the found Tarto speaking with a Thri-Kreen. The party recognized the Thri-Kreen as one of the people they encountered with Veena earlier in the day. Officer Tarto notified the party that she was reassigning the Thri-Kreen, named Xerek Far, to their party. He cited that he didn’t want to be associated with Veena as her bullying antics were the kind of thing he was wanting to leave behind when he came to the academy.
Returning to business, Officer Tarto assigned the party with one last task before breakfast: Take a shipment addressed to Headmaster Mirt to his quarters. She gave them temporary security clearance to do so. In lifting the box, Inrim reasoned that something alive was in the box. Tarto said it wasn’t their place to ask what Mirt the Merciless ordered and sent them on their way.
Part way to the bridge quarters, the party paused to inspect the box. They became convinced that there was something alive and angry in the box, but ultimately decided to follow through with their delivery.
Once there, Mirt had them open the box. Reluctantly, they did so, but not before riling up the Old Wolf, hung over as he was. With the box opened, eight Neogi Hatchlings burst forward in attack. The party fought hard to dispatch the monsters. They briefly got the better of Inrim, but Idakath quickly helped him get back up.
With the battle over, and Inrim trying to demand more of Mirt, security and Tarto finally made it to the room. Tarto took the security helmets from the party and told them to get some lunch and some rest. Mirt offered each of them a gold ingot for their trouble and expected discretion. On their way out, Mister Blip entered the room, notifying Mirt and Tarto that the attack was a diversion, and more burglaries took place.
The party found their way back to the Weeping Goddess for some lunch then called it a day after speculating about the things going on at the academy.
A couple days later, the party was summoned to begin their official training after breakfast in the mess hall. At breakfast, they met Officer Ryeback, the giff cook. They exchanged glares with Veena. They also met and encouraged another cadet, an anxious young man.
After breakfast, they went back to the simulation deck to begin training. Officer Tarto and Saerthe Abizin decided to set the training up as a competition between two teams: The party and the group that the anxious young man was part of.
After the instructors gave direction to the parties, Saerthe required each team to choose ship roles. Idakath took the role of captain. Kiboko took the role of spelljammer. The rest took crew positions with intent to operate the ballistae. With parties sent to respective decks, the simulation began.
The party was tasked to retrieve a captain’s log from a shipwreck. Without much trouble, they were able to leave dock and chart a course for the expected location of the shipwreck. Their flight was interrupted partway through as they encountered a group of space eels. The party was able to deal with the electrical storm and minimize damage from the resulting fires that broke out. The crew decided to fire a ballista bolt at the group of space eels after they got through, though they left its remains floating in realmspace.
Resuming flight, they reached the asteroid cluster where the shipwreck was expected to be. Kiboko was able to navigate their Hammerhead through the cluster without damage.
Finding the wreckage, the party was able to spot the captain’s quarters quickly enough, but then they spent a bit of time deciding how best to retrieve the log. Uncertainty about how gravity works in space made the decision difficult, but they ultimately ran rope between the ships to retrieve the map. After the ropes were secured, Charlie utilized her astral step to simply hop, skip, and jump to the wreckage, much to the frustration of some of the party members. While retrieving the log, Charlie sensed that something was off about the quarters, but couldn’t place what. Something about the light, the shadows, just didn’t sit right with her.
With log in hand, the party returned to the ship. Ready to complete their mission, they set out to pass back through the asteroid cluster. They were not quite as skillful in their flight, and their Hammerhead took some damage because of it. Nevertheless, they got through in one piece. From there, they set a course back to home and set to jump to full speed, but something kept them from doing so…
Next chapter: Spelljammer 2022 – Session 03, 2022-11-09