The crew of the Longhaul spent a surprising amount of time discussing character advancement, trauma, and whether or not a psychic pill bug rescue operation counted as a reasonable life choice.
In fairness:
it probably did.
Milestones and Bad Decisions
The session opened with the crew finally digging into Wildsea milestones and reflecting on what had actually mattered over the last two sessions.
For a group that started as “people hauling suspicious crates,” the answers had gotten weirdly personal very quickly:
Charls hearing whispers from impossible creatures
Flint hauling ancient chain wreckage aboard through sheer stubborn engineering
Grakte becoming the crew’s increasingly exhausted responsible adult
Nettle trying to survive while carrying memories that were never hers to begin with
Then, naturally, everyone agreed the next step should be:
breaking back into Dr. Pelt Quill’s lab.
Nettle’s Problem
One of the strongest threads running through the session was finally seeing what life is actually like inside Nettle’s head.
The stolen memories aren’t just information.
They intrude.
At one point, memories of illegal firelit caverns and impossible scenes overwhelm her perception entirely, replacing the deck of the Longhaul with flickering underground chambers full of enemies and shadows.
The crew has started to realize that whatever happened to Nettle isn’t temporary.
And worse:
it may be spreading.
The Plan (Such As It Was)
The operation itself slowly emerged through the usual combination of:
genuine strategy
terrible strategy
jokes
side conversations
and increasingly specific crimes.
The rough idea:
wait until late night
infiltrate Quill’s Fourth Wall laboratory
locate the strange pill bug specimen
get out before the enhanced guards become a problem
Simple.
Probably.
The Lab
The return to Quill’s laboratory immediately felt wrong.
The place had shifted.
The specimen hall was still lined with preserved horrors, but the atmosphere had changed from “illegal science” to “something actively listening.” The bug Charls had connected with earlier was no longer where it had been.
Worse:
when Charls reached out using Knock and whispers, something answered back.
Not nearby.
Somewhere deeper in the complex.
The original pill bug remained in its jar.
Dead.
Apparently from old age.
Which somehow made the situation significantly more upsetting.
Charls Continues Becoming Extremely Concerning
Charls’ attempt to use his abilities to track the creature resulted in the session’s first major disaster roll.
The result wasn’t physical danger.
It was connection.
The bug’s voice—its knock accent and diction—began echoing from somewhere else in the laboratory complex entirely.
The implication landed immediately:
Whatever they had interacted with before may not have been unique.
Or worse:
may not have been fully contained.
Combat, Wildsea-Style
The session ended with the crew cornered by the laboratory’s enhanced guards.
Grakte shouted a BIG whisper, which is going to catch up with us soon.
A second massive augmented enforcer charged.
And Nettle stopped him.
Not physically.
Not magically, exactly.
She reached into the memory of the engine accident that nearly killed her—the moment where her heart stopped, where death briefly felt real—and forced him to experience it.
The enforcer stumbled mid-charge, overcome by panic and intrusive sensation.
For one second, the monster looked terrified.
And that’s where the session ended.
What We Learned
- Nettle’s memories are becoming more invasive
- Quill’s operation is larger than expected
- Charls is developing a disturbing connection to whatever these bugs are
- The crew still does not really have a plan
- This has not stopped them before