Mothership

Gradient Descent Session 1

March 8th, 2021

Players: Brendan, Evan, Josh, Stephen

Kjell and Kant arrive on the Bell, smuggled in by a ship resupplying the station. Kjell believes The Deep is of great importance to his religion, and has his own reasons for venturing there. Kant is an android assigned to watch over him while he does this missionary work. They meet Upgraded Repair 812 (UR812) and Scott Van Clapper, who have been biding their time on the Bell waiting for more divers so that they might return and continue their search for super-science. [UR812 and Scott characters from the one shot I ran.]

Despite the warnings of Arkady, the leader of The Bell, the group plan on entering the station from the 6th floor, the engineering and maintenance level. Arkady deposits them in the loading dock. They decide to take an incredibly massive lift to what they assume to be the factory levels of the station, the 3rd floor. Klaxons howl as the lift arrives, but thankfully nothing is drawn to the sound.

The lift takes them to another cavernous room. There are pallets of finished androids, deactivated, ready to be moved elsewhere. The space is 0G and the party float about the room. The make their way down one passage that leads them to an airlock chamber. It is a dead end, though a chute looks to empty out into this room. They decide to backtrack and take the other exit. A hallway leads them to yet another industrial sized room, filled to the brim with deactivated androids. Thousands and thousands, stretching out into the darkness. They cautiously explore the space, and come upon a small stash that looks to have been left by another Diver. They grab the loot and retreat back to the proceeding area, which felt somewhat safer, where they decide to rest.

Loot:

Commentary

Random encounters are likely the big thing to make this adventure move, and I forgot to roll them as frequently as I should have! The session was quiet, but perhaps a bit creepy. A slow start seems fine for a longer campaign.

I more or less forgot about the fact the 3rd floor is 0G. There is some advice about how to approach that in the zine. It’s probably worth thinking about how it might interact with the mechanics of the game when it comes to combat or other situations where being able to move more concretely is useful.