Tag: Checkhov’s Egg

Egg-sactly what you ordered

“I’ve just transferred 6,000 credits to your account for a job well done”

“We appreciate the credits, but if whatever is in that egg is related to the nightmarish creature that chased us when we were in atmo on Planet 0, you might want to reconsider the idea of trying to keep that in a zoo.” 

“Do you have any recordings of the creature that chased you?”

“I’ll send the sensor data when I get back on board my ship.”

Gain 6,000 credits and continue your turn if you have any actions left.

It hatches

You leisurely sip your coffee and spoon mouthfuls of spacer’s porridge into your mouth while enjoying a quiet breakfast in the small galley of your ship. You’ve always assumed spacer’s porridge is like hot dogs, and it’s better not to know what exactly goes into making it. At least the coffee is good. Your first officer joins you in the galley, their red jumpsuit catching you off guard.

“I didn’t even know those came in red,” you quip.

“Neither did I Captain, but when I saw it I knew that if anyone could make it look good, it would be me.”

“I do appreciate your humbleness.”

“Thanks for having coffee ready. I just want to grab a cup before checking on our mysterious egg again. It seems to be getting warmer and last night I swear I felt something moving inside.”

“I can’t wait to get that thing off our ship. If it’s anything like the creature that chased us, I don’t want to stick around to see it mature. The owner of the Space Zoo must be mad.”

Trying to change the subject, your first officer looks down at your porridge. “Do you have any idea what that is made of?”

Shortly thereafter, your first officer makes their way out of the galley and a few minutes pass, when a ship wide comm comes on. It’s your first officer’s voice, “Hey guys, we have a problem. The egg has hatched and I can’t find the hatchling anywhere.” Suddenly, there’s a scream and crunching noise over the comm.

You bolt from the galley and as you enter the cargo bay you see that your comm officer beat you there by moments and already has his blaster drawn. Everything happens so quickly but you see it all in slow motion. The monstrous creature is gorging itself on your first officer when it turns its head towards your comm officer with a menacing look. Without hesitation, your comm officer shoots the creature center mass. The blast would have killed you, but the creature only lets out a howl before blasting a hole in the hull with some sort of plasma breath. Before the shields can activate, both the creature and your first officer’s remains are sucked into the vacuum of space.

Remove the egg from your cargo hold, and add a damage token to your ship for where the creature escaped.

That egg has scales on it

As your ship lands on Planet 0 near the data beacon, you take a quick look out of your cockpit. “Well, that was easier than I expected,” you say to yourself when you spot a single large egg just 10 meters away from the beacon.

Your navigator jumps in, “We’re going to need a grav-sled for this.”

You and your crew immediately notice how interesting this egg is. It’s massive in size, requiring an entire standard cargo space on your ship. The egg’s surface is unlike any other you’ve seen before – it’s covered in rough black scales with a reddish tint. As you struggle to get it onto the grav-sled, you can feel its warmth against your skin. Perhaps it’s just absorbing the heat from the nearby sun.

Once the egg is secured in the cargo bay, your crew hears a loud roar reverberating through the air, containing both high and low pitches. The sound seems to penetrate your very soul as you can feel it vibrating within you.

Quickly, you key the overhead comm and say, “Let’s move, everyone. We don’t want to stick around and find out what made that sound.”

As everyone else was busy loading the egg onto the ship, your first officer had the foresight to divert enough energy from the data beacon for an extra engine boost. You’re now hurtling towards the planetary shield at a frantic speed, but you hear that same unsettling roar once again.

“Incoming weapons fire!” your first officer yells from their station.

With no time to spare, you shout for evasive maneuvers. A splatter of plasma narrowly misses your ship’s hull and collides with the planetary shield, causing a disruption. “Navigator, head for that break in the shield!” you command. The gap closes just as you make it through. “I don’t know what just attacked us, but we need to get this egg off the ship and delivered to the Space Zoo.”

Place the egg game token in your ship’s cargo hold. You may take any additional actions that you still have sufficient armed markers for.

At the beginning of every round while you have the egg in your cargo hold, roll a [d20]. If you roll a 1-3 at any point read/listen to Story 80.

If you get all the way to the Space Zoo and deliver the egg without rolling a 1-3 on a [d20] along the way, then read/listen to Story 81.