Arden reflects on events past and uncovers meddling in his affairs.
- 📖 An all too familiar feeling for Arden - unconscious in space. At least this time he was in his ship and not outside. He woke to Pandora looking down on him, lying on the floor. A throb on the side of his head reminded him of the fall.
Arden picked himself up and sat back on the pilot seat, mustering his surroundings and getting a bearing of where he was. The ship's power was back and all systems to their normal functions. He could no see any of the debris or the gas cloud. Did he drift away that far? Systems indicated he did not move one meter in the last hour.
What the hell happened? - 📖 If only Pandora talked, Arden could ask her if she saw what he did. But for now he had to life with the feeling, that maybe everything that happened, was only in his imagination.
Arden sighed deeply. Once more he experienced the harshness of space. First with the Trithia Six and now this. He should know better then to enter the fray headlong. He owed it to himself to not repeat that same mistake in the future.
🎲 Advance (-2xp): Explorer (Secure an Advantage) - 📖 With newfound confidence and exploratory spirit, Arden engaged the engine anew to uncover more of unknown space. But mostly to leave this place behind him, together with all the memories of it.
🎲 Undertake an Expedition (+wits): 5(2+3) vs 4/5 (Weak Hit) - 📖 The ship rocked and shifted as it made a premature exit from subspace into a nearby drift. The engine immediately shut down to prevent further disaster and to cool down. Arden used the time to run a full system diagnostic. Everything ran perfectly fine according to the systems. But everything was not fine, he was stranded - again - in space, ejected forcefully from his travels.
🎲 Oracle (Spaceborn Peril): Sabotage is Revealed (73) - 📖 No matter what Arden tried, he was unable to travel beyond a certain point. Even we he only used the sublight engines. He didn't want to subject the engines to even more experimentation. The intention became clear to him, once he triangulated the origin of his problems. His travel was limited to a specific distance, centered around Deadrock. And Arden had a pretty good idea who was to blame.
- 📖 Arden refrained from trying to fix whatever they manipulated. It could make matters worse. Besides it didn't answer the question, why they would ask him to leave but to keep him so close around. Maybe there was more to it. So he decided to return and get what he wanted from the source.
Answers.
🎲 Set A Course: 10(6+4) vs 4/3 (Strong Hit) - 📖 They said to newer fly angry, but Arden did not care. He was angry alright. Being played like a puppet just waiting for its next instructions. Pandoras fur changed to a deep crimson. She could feel the rage as well.
Arden had no idea how to contact the Arbitrator once he touched down. But he hoped his mere presence should be enough to alert him.
There were unspend experience points lingering around. But I didn't just want to spend them out of context so I took this opportune time to improve an Asset when it made narrative sense. So the experience and growth is actually reflected in the story. It was nice that everything came together this way.