Spelljamming Post Mortem 3 Take the long way home

Link to Introduction and Week 1
Link to Week 2
Week 3
When we last left our intrepid adventurers the "Pride of Hasauphut" had just exploded. Being intrepid they immediately turn around to loot what remains. Unfortunately for them the explosion of a power plant big enough to run a battle hulk has triggered a secondary explosion of the infernal engine which powers the "Pride of Hasauphut", so the ship had been reduced to a fine mist of brass droplets. Miraculously the space marine who had been taking a nap on-board (player didn't show for week two) is found drifting in space unharmed (Being a "softie" I prefer to have players kill themselves with their own foolishness, than rule them dead because the party did something foolish the week they didn't show). Captain Sabido stands speechless in shock and awe (his player didn't show this week). The party quickly straps Captain Sabido in the co-pilots chair and the Fighter (the farm boy snatched by Negoi off the surface of planet Farmville) assumes piloting control. They set course for the dinosaur planet, as the druid has a strong hankering to see a few of those in action. Remembering Captain Sabido's promise to the githyanki, the party wisely decided to exit the red mist on the opposite side of the red mist. Unfortunately, the githyanki being experienced space pirates have posted a manticore rider here as a sentry to watch for that sort of thing. The party opens fire with everything they've got to take the rider out before he sounds the alarm. However, the pilot decides to take the ship further away from the sentry (new player, after contradictory advise from all the table, I took the standard DM approach quieting the kibitzers down, and saying it's your character, what are YOU doing?). This makes it so when the sentry turns and flees he out of effective range of every one (having lost two thirds of his hit points in the first round he know when its time to get help). For a couple days it looks like they have given the githyanki the slip, then on day three who should appear but five manticore riders on attack vectors moving at flank speed, plus some tougher looking guy on white dragon back. The word "dragon" seems to conjure a susurrus of fear amongst the party, but the druid and the wizard devise a cunning plan. The druid quickly summons his band of invisible pixies and sends them 200 foot out to meet the oncoming githyanki.  As the githyanki cross the 200 ft mark the pixies cast polymorph on the dragon, the wizard loans the dragon a "2" from his dice of fortune and voila! space chicken. The githyanki hurtle onwards, although one is slowed by having to retrive his illustrious  leader from chicken back. As the they cross the 100 foot mark they are bombarded by fireballs from the wizard and cleric (who knew sun clerics could throw fireballs), as well as being entangled in a wall of thorns by the bard. With grim determination the githyanki press on while the dragon fails to un"chickenize". The party is surprised when the githyanki misty step through the hull, but the opening bombardment has taken too much of a toll and the githyanki are quickly cut down. The dragon still stuck in chicken form gives up and flies off. Thus the legend of the "Space Chicken" is born. The party continues on and lands at the space port on the dinosaur planet which looks like a cross between Mos Eisley and a Mayan pyramid complex. The fifty foot tall posts with lighting bolts shooting between them and the surrounding jungle, suggests dinosaurs nearby. The city itself is inhabited by a fifty-fifty mix of dragonborn and spacefarers. Due to a character flaw the marine find the nearest bar and challenges the meanest looking customer, a dragonborn, to a fight. Although creatures with claws are at an advantage in a bare fisted brawl the marine comes within one punch of wining before toppling over due lack of hit points. The party halls the marine back to the ship to rest up. While the bike messenger sets off to explore the city. The druid and the cleric, and the druid's girlfriend (NPC) sneak out into the jungle. The rest of the night is spent using pass without trace to observe without disturbing the local fauna. The druid gets to add allosaurus, triceratops, pterodactyl, and saber tooth tiger to his list. More next time.