Space Whale Adventure, or not.

[sabredog]

I see there isn't a spot for adventures so I might send this to Freelance Trav when it is finished but I have an adventure for Space Whales that might be kinda fun.

There is a thread on here about my version of the beasties so you can look that up for a sort of preview of what this all might entail. I've elaborated a bit IMTU on the whales so I will incorporate that info into the package. This can be run in any format of Traveller I'm sure, since I don't have any stats in the data that has to be locked into one rule set over another. As far as the Who/Why component of the adventure, all anyone needs do is plug in the appropriate Who/Why when it comes up as fits within the lore of their own campaign universe. You'll know it when you see it.

Anyway, a brief outline to tantalize and entice:

There are two known Space Whales within known space. One is a gigantic asteroid eater that currently lives (if the word applies) in an especially dense asteroid field. This one is being studied by scientists who have even established a base camp on the beast where they, among other things, are drilling into it for core samples and to study the animal's life systems.

The other whale is following a rare comet cluster on a vast orbital path waaay out in empty space. When it has, in various times in the past, gotten close enough to a gravity well to at least make an index point Jump near to it, scientists have attached various monitoring systems to send data back for study. This whale is considerably larger than the first, as well as looking different. It's life systems are apparently the same and are fueled by the debris coming off the cluster of several large comets that the whale follows.

The science teams know the two whales as "Moby" (the comet follower) and "Dick" (asteroid eater), and these are the only two such creatures ever found.


However.....a new signal has been found that seems to be another whale. Through triangulation with the two known whales the source has been traced and it seems the three whales are in communication. Why? And will the new signal lead to the answers involving the source of these beasts? Are they natural or made by someone?

An expedition needs to be made to the third source and find out.

Sound like anything anyone would wanna play in?

 

[sabredog]

And here is the whale data to help you know what crazy thing I'm talking about.

Space Whales


Armor = Buffered Asteroid and then some Hits = not worth counting unless you have a meson spinal gun

A (maybe, depends on your comms frequency) F (never) Speed= 4

Weapons= Plasma Vent (equivalent to Code 6 Plasma Gun in HG with radiation)


Legends have always been written about monsters lurking just over the distant horizons of known seas, lands, and now space. “Here Be Tygers (or Dragons)” was often penned on the unmapped blank spaces of maps and any disappearance of explorers in those regions was claimed to be proof of the existence of such beasts. Once man began to travel the stars, the legends followed him and sometimes, just sometimes, the reality was more fantastic than the legend could have been.

The Space Whales are gigantic silica-based lifeforms that live single lives among the asteroids of several systems. The beasts have never been found in groups, and scientists know nothing of their reproductive behavior, and speculate that their solitary existence may not have always been so. Studies of their patterns of dispersal, and documented encounters with migrating specimens found in deep space between stars, suggest that the animals originated from the stellar core and have been radiating outward from a dense point of origin. To encounter one is exceedingly rare, but possible if looking for one in the right places and if you know what to watch for.

Space whales that are known to exist range from 800-1200m in length. The overall body form is a segmented, radially symmetrical cone with rows of tall spikes down the two lateral sides and dorsal spine of the beast from behind the head to the rounded, cone tip of the tail. There are two long, segmented limbs on each of the first 4 segments that branch off into smaller segmented clusters of 6 gripping limbs. The limbs have no joints, but have a freedom of movement similar to a tentacle. The head is rounded, with a long, flexible snout-like structure that contains the gaping maw. This consists of a series of circular rasping, grinding rows of “teeth” that run in concentric rings inside the maw towards the actual mouth. Each grinding ring has between it and the next, a ring of manipulative palps used to keep food moving toward the mouth so it doesn’t drift off in space.

The head has four large bands of black and silver organs that appear to act as eyes for the creature. They appear to have (as best as scientists can tell when examining live creatures in the wild) structures within them that will allows the animal to see light and dark visible light, perhaps even color, but most of the eyes look like clusters of concave dishes that may pick up radio and energy waves passing through space, allowing the animal to “see” as a radio telescope would. Given that the the tall spikes running along the animal’s body are known to act as broadcast and receiver antennas for all manner of radio waves, this would be a logical theory about how the animal experiences its environment. The animals broadcast massive bursts of radio waves in what old spacehands call whalesong, and there have been numerous experiments to try to communicate with the animals using radio and other transmission systems. The results have been debatable, and even dangerous, as was recorded in one instance when a research ship was torn to pieces and blasted by radioactive plasma vented by the enraged creature right after scientists broadcast over a previously untried frequency. Ship masters among belter communities have said for generations that when near known regions where a space whale might live it is best to not play around with the radio lest you find yourself charged by an enraged beast capable of melting half your ship away and eating the rest. Scientists are divided as to whether or not this behavior is related to territorial or mating responses, but since no one has repeated the experiment it is ripe for speculation. Some rare reports of large ships, those as large as or larger than the space whale encountered, being attacked, and scientists do agree that this is probably a defensive, territorial response.

Because they are so totally alien in biology, and so large and generally oblivious to anything smaller than a Free Trader broadcasting on all bands while leaking plasma, scientists have actually established small research stations on two space whales for long term study of the creatures. One is on an animal currently active and grinding away on asteroids in a system, and the other is currently transiting between systems and in a dormant cryptobiotic state. The scientists on the dormant whale have made a deep mining tunnel into the beast by drilling through its mineral rich and incredibly dense shell layers in an attempt to learn more about the fission core and crystal lattice nervous system (powered by megawatts of piezoelectric discharges blasting through it) that keep the animal alive. The active animal is not being drilled into due to safety reasons (not that the animal would probably notice so long as the penetration avoided transecting the nerve lattices and channels of plasmas and gases that seem to act as analogs to endocrine and circulatory systems, but radiation leakage might be a problem.

The animals have a fission core (naturally occurring fission reactions have been found before but it is still unknown how this animal developed such a mechanism through evolutionary processes – current theories point accusatory fingers at The Ancients) that drives the internal chemical processes and organs supporting the animal. As the beast grinds through asteroids of all types (but they do seem to relish any containing fissile materials and rare earth metals, it feeds the reactions inside of it. Occasionally, the process produces waste gases that the animal vents through a posterior orifice in a spectacular display of hot, radioactive plasma that can reach up to 3 kilometers behind the beast. The venting is accompanied by a speaker-blowing burst of static on comms systems and depending on the minerals the animal has been eating recently, the plasma may even be brilliantly multicolored. When such an event occurs, the custom among the knock-on-wood types among crews is to mutter, “Thar she blows”. No one knows why, exactly, but etymologists claim the expression dates back to the time when scratching a wind-powered ship’s backstays supposedly made a ship go faster.

The plasma venting has also been used by animals when attacking ships on those rare occasions when enraged for unknown reasons. The animal on those occasions curled its tail up under its body and deliberately fired on the ship, causing structural damage equal to a bay-sized plasma weapon, along with radiation contamination.

The other byproduct of the animal chewing up and eating mineral-laden asteroids are the resulting deposits of refined and pure minerals that become the outer shell layers on the creature’s epidermis. The largely volcanic black covering of the animals sparkles with deposits of purest metals and minerals. Not only do these many meters-thick deposits help shield the animal from the hazards of its environment, but they are highly valuable. Belter miners will sometimes sink anchor points into the shells of space whales and use plasma torches to carve out sheets of rare metals, while the space whale munches on oblivious to the process. Laws protect the whales from harm, and declare them to be natural treasures of the Imperium. Mineral harvesting and scientific research are allowed only with special permission of the Emperor and the rules for such operations limit the chance of “disturbing or harming the animal.” Any caught poaching are subject to severe legal repercussions. Still, the draw of being able to carve off a ton of pure nickel iron or some rare metals in less time it takes to drill ten meters into an asteroid tempts some to risk arrest.

Mainly, these magnificent animals spend the days of their long lives (core samples of their denser parts have show possible ages of several thousands of years) grinding away tasty asteroids and drifting between systems looking for more to eat. They have no natural enemies (at least none the Navy would want to meet), are peaceable, and their songs over the radio lull many a traveller to sleep.

 

[Carlobrand]

Space whales. Huh, okay, well I recall one of th e Star Trek series - serieses? - going roughly in that direction, so there's precedent.

First thought comes to mind is these almost have to be created organisms, or at the very least the scientists will tend to assume they're created rather than naturally evolved. Evolution presupposes previous forms from which this might evolve, and there's no mention of other spacegoing forms or fossils of such to support a naturalistic hypothesis. Might be interesting to speculate on why a sapient species would create such a life form.

Second thought is you might be dealing in millions of years instead of thousands. These beasties need to get up around 0.001c - 300 kps - to cross parsecs in thousands of years. That's a hella lotta mass and/or energy, and I'm not sure they can achieve those energy levels with the fissionables they can glean from eating asteroids. Maybe they've got fusion going on - there's a lot more hydrogen out there than radioactives.

 

[sabredog]

First thought comes to mind is these almost have to be created organisms, or at the very least the scientists will tend to assume they're created rather than naturally evolved. Evolution presupposes previous forms from which this might evolve, and there's no mention of other spacegoing forms or fossils of such to support a naturalistic hypothesis. Might be interesting to speculate on why a sapient species would create such a life form.

Second thought is you might be dealing in millions of years instead of thousands. These beasties need to get up around 0.001c - 300 kps - to cross parsecs in thousands of years. That's a hella lotta mass and/or energy, and I'm not sure they can achieve those energy levels with the fissionables they can glean from eating asteroids. Maybe they've got fusion going on - there's a lot more hydrogen out there than radioactives.

That is the hypothesis: the Ancients may be involved. Why? Who knows?

Does it matter, or is it enough to have a few wonders in the universe to marvel at?... That's actually one possibility - that the whales are there because the Ancients (or their analogue) wanted to see if they could make something like this. Maybe it's a weird alien art form? The possibilities are endless.

The fusion thing is obvious and one of the reasons why scientists would be studying them deep inside their body. The density and heat within would make for a nice reactor, and munching on ice asteroids with the occasional jaunt to skim an aperitif out of the local gas giant's atmosphere would supply the fuel. At least that's the theory and practice IMTU where they live. The "animal" also eats the frozen icebergs of concentrated gases within the GG atmosphere which have specific elements it seems to need.

The one following the comet cluster is in a cryptobiotic dormant state and encased in a chrysalis for the journey. The theory is that when it enters a system with a bright enough sun the animal "thaws" out and fuels up. When the cluster gets far from the system the whale goes back into dormancy. Records show that transmissions have been picked up (whale song) from the comet whale in the past when it was still in deep space, so for some reason it may sometimes wake up in deep space, too. It bears further study.

Mainly I did this thing as a request and banged it out in a hour or so, so the details may be sketchy but sufficient for using them in a game. IMTU the asteroid eater is not only a tourist attraction but a good side adventure for players. Supply run, bringing out a new science team, etc..

Buuuut......the third signal is something new. These animals have never been found communicating with each other before. Now they suddenly are, and a third source of the signal is coming from coreward. These signals are extremely powerful, far more so than any others before, and scientists are furiously working to decode them. Or at least hazard some good-sounding guesses.

What is needed is some staunch crew of Scouts to go see what is going on. And take along a doddering scientist, his daughter, a former whaler (archaic term for one of the roughnecks that drill into and harvests samples off the asteroid eater), and a few good Redshirts. Disney can buy the rights to the Holosim so it is all paid for. The Scouts can supply a middling sized ship equipped for a long, deep space trip with extra space for a lab and a meson gun turret that can double as a comms beam. The ISS Nantucket.

 

[flykiller]

a former whaler

prospector?

 

[Nathan Brazil]

What might these lifeforms eat? Do the find Bonded Superdense yummy?

Adventure Idea:
What treasure might lie in the craw of such a beastie?

"The railguns are loaded and ready Cap'n."
The Captain absently scratched the cyber leg. It still itched from being taken by the devil years ago.
"Aye, bosun. FIRE HARPOONS!"

YARRR! :nonono:

I am a sick piece of wood...:coffeesip:

 

[Otto Harkaman]

The Disney animated Star Wars Rebels has several episodes with Space Whales.

Purrgil
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Purrgil

Youtube Purrgil jump to hyperspace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnOz18GjBlU

 

[pigboy1537]

There she blows.

This is a really good idea. I tip my hat to you.

 

[flykiller]

What treasure might lie in the craw of such a beastie?

(not to mention the parasites, the symbiants, the hangers-on, and the internal eco-systems.)

remember that scene from "jaws" where the biologist pulls a car license plate from out of the shark's stomach ....

 

[LeperColony]

I seem to recall an episode of Farscape where an entire mining community lived on the corpse of some dead creature, just floating through space.

 

[BRJN]

Dr. Who built a city on a space whale, along with a moral dilemma to solve.
One antagonist might decide to do similar with a whale outside Imperial territory - he just knows the creature will never notice or object.

 

[flykiller]

Sound like anything anyone would wanna play in?

I'll play. if of course the offer is still good. sounds like a great setting for a prospector character and adventure.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I seem to recall an episode of Farscape where an entire mining community lived on the corpse of some dead creature, just floating through space.

The Celestial's head (Knowhere) in Guardians of the Galaxy, as well.

 

[Cryton]

I seem to recall an episode of Farscape where an entire mining community lived on the corpse of some dead creature, just floating through space.

I seem to recall nearly every episode that they have a ship that qualifies as a space whale.

 

[Rigel Stardin]

considering farscape used living ships, couldn't they be considered as space whales, especially without crews and have learned to fend for themselves.

 

[flykiller]

Sound like anything anyone would wanna play in?

still interested ....

 

[mike wightman]

The rather excellent MgT Deepnight Revelation campaign includes a creature that would qualify as a space whale.