Duty Roster:

Ella Stanbridge
Ertrane “Buck” Buckner (Herodian)
Henri Haank Makruus (Gigermann)
Ibrahim “Abe” Nouri-Abbood (Rigil Kent)
Sam Turner (Winston)
Sae Rraetheg (CommJunkee)

Loose Ends

…Continued Abe rejoined the rest of the Crew as they arrived at the Dowe estate, a sprawling plantation on the outskirts of the small town, and crept amongst the trees onto the property. There at some distance, at the manor house, they witnessed the arrival of a well-dressed, very angry gentleman they presumed (and later, confirmed) to be Colby Dowe. The man appeared to yell at his servants, and later an unknown clipboard-toting employee; then a woman, presumably his young wife, he back-handed, sending her away crying—she then re-appeared on the manor balcony, alone. There were a handful of guards patrolling the property, but they did not seem to favor any of the outbuildings in particular, which might have suggested a holding place for the expected hostages. Fearing discovery by the patrols, the Crew retreated from the property after 15 minutes or so.

They returned to town and secured lodgings for the night, while doing what they could to keep out of sight of the local police, having been warned of their persons-of-interest status by Ella. As they settled in, they scoured the planetary network for information on Colby Dowe and the local situation, confirming what they had been told by Arden and his wife; it appeared that Mr. Dowe had been helping the offworld corporation strong-arm local property owners into selling in exchange for a prominent role in whatever was to follow, and was therefore under pressure to convince the Torelles to capitulate, which could be motive enough to kidnap them, if not kill them. Sae went to a local store that sold hunting supplies and returned with a few ghillie-type camouflage capes and some “super-spy” toy-sets that included cheap parabolic microphones. Sae and Buck volunteered to return to the Dowe estate after dark with the new gear and conduct further surveillance, with some rough satellite maps of the town to guide them—the rest of the Crew would listen in on comms at a diner a couple of miles down the road. Toward evening, light rain started moving into the area, heralding a proper storm.

Maintaining radio contact, Buck and Sae crept back onto the Dowe estate from different directions and hid themselves in the trees, suffering the rain as they surveilled the manor house. They observed Mr. Dowe, Mrs. Dowe, and a third individual they identified as the liaison for the company, all relaxing with drinks out on the balcony. Buck managed to get the toy microphone working well enough to overhear some of their conversation, including Mr. Dowe telling the liaison not to worry, because the Torelles were “being handled.” Some time later, as the wind and rain picked up, the trio went back inside, and Buck and Sae turned their attention to the guards on patrol, and the outbuildings. As they looked to start searching the outbuildings, one of the guards went to the side of the manor house to interact with someone in the cellar there, another guard by the look of him—Buck and Sae figured this to be the Torelles’ location, and after relaying their intentions to the rest of the Crew, started creeping in closer to converge on the cellar door.

Then Buck stepped in a puddle, and tripped.

Buck lay absolutely still. The guards had heard him fall, and one in particular was sure it was an intruder, but due to Buck’s camouflage, he couldn’t make him out in the darkness. The guards cautiously swept the area, closing in on Buck’s position; figuring he would be caught, Buck let out a groan, as if he were hurt. The nearest guard—the one that outed him—quickly approached and demanded Buck identify himself and his business on the property. Buck pretended to be drunk, indicating he was going hunting, and had stumbled onto the wrong property; the guard pulled him to his feet and brought him to the front door, and called for Mr. Dowe. Colby answered the door, and again Buck was asked to explain himself; when he couldn’t recall the name of the owner of the neighboring property he claimed he had come from, Buck had to think quickly…

He raised his pistol in Colby’s direction, and said, “Now I’ve found what I was looking for.”

Colby kept his cool, and ordered his guards to lower their weapons at Buck’s demand, then politely invited his captor inside to talk the matter over. Buck accepted his host’s offer, and a seat, and a drink (though only for decorum), and eventually even laid his pistol on the end-table, while he explained the situation. He was open and honest, saying that all the Crew wanted was to deliver Old Man Torelle’s remains and be on their way. Colby twitched a bit when Buck mentioned the shooting of his men, but he accepted the “deal,” to allow the Crew to finish their business with the Torelles and be on their way, and stood to shake hands on it. When Buck offered his hand in return, Colby took it, threw his drink in Buck’s face, and went immediately berserk, trying to wrestle him down and strangle the life out of him. Buck quickly got the upper hand, though, and, having suffered enough indignity for one day, was busy snapping Colby’s neck before Mrs. Dowe entered the room brandishing a small pistol and commanded Buck to let him go.

Meanwhile, Sae had himself frozen in place when Buck tripped, but upon hearing the scuffle between him and Mr. Dowe, both on comms and otherwise, he immediately started out of hiding and rounded the corner of the manor, unexpectedly coming face-to-face with one of the guards. Sae disarmed the guard of his gauss rifle, and the two traded punches, until Sae managed to land one and activate his stinger-implant, though it took some moments before the venom kicked in to knock the guard out.

Also just after Buck tripped, at the diner up the road, Haank turned to an adjacent patron and paid him 50 credits to immediately drive the three of them a couple of miles down the road. Once dropped off at the end of Colby’s drive, Haank, Sam and Abe jogged forward toward the manor, some hundred yards distant through the darkness and rain, and were stopped halfway by a pair of guards. Haank waved in a friendly manner, and said they had heard a friend of theirs had gotten lost and wandered onto the property. The guards escorted them to the manor house without a fuss, but were surprised to find Sae standing over the unconscious body of one of their fellows, but too late… they turned to find Haank, Sam and Abe’s sidearms pointed at them. Abe, a bit excited, fired his stunner at one, dropping him immediately to the ground, unconscious. The other surrendered his rifle to Haank. Now joined up with Sae, they and the guards entered the manor, emerging just behind the pistol-wielding Mrs. Dowe.

By this time, Colby had partially recovered himself, and was yelling at his wife to shoot Buck; the Crew calmly encouraged her not to, but to lay down the pistol. After some tense moments, Abe had enough of Colby’s belligerence and shot him; Colby slumped unconscious to the floor, and his wife rushed over to catch him, in tears at the horror of it all.

During this, Sae had circled back outside to the cellar, and as expected, found the Torelles inside, bound to chairs and gagged, clearly having been beaten and otherwise mistreated. Sae informed the others by radio and unbound the hostages, and helped them out of the cellar.

In the house, the corporate liaison entered the room, very cool and calm, and informed the Crew that the damage had been done, and that they should leave immediately—about the time police sirens could be heard approaching the property—and then he left the premises. When asked, the Torelles had said that the local sheriff was on-the-take for the corporation, and not to be trusted, so as the police were approaching the manor, Haank called planetary law enforcement and asked for their assistance, keeping them on comms to listen in. Then, prepared for a confrontation, the Crew met the police outside the manor, unarmed, hands raised in surrender. To their surprise, however, sheriff’s men moved right past the Crew and seized Colby Dowe, hauling him out to their cruiser in cuff-tape. As the Crew gave their official statements regarding the goings on at the plantation, the discovery and rescue of the kidnapped Torelles, they could see the corporate liaison further up the drive, who after a brief look back, got into the sheriff’s personal transport, which then departed. The Crew was informed that they were free to go, but advised to remain in town for a few days until they could sort this mess out. Colby would doubtless be blamed for all of it, and was probably not long for this world.

The Crew took their ease at the local hotel for six more days after the events at Colby’s estate. They met with Anthony Torelle many times during their stay, taking dinner at his house. Old Man Torelle’s case was handed over to his son, who received it with misty eyes, as he had the news of his father’s death. Anthony offered to fill the hold of the Spinward Star with local produce for half the usual rate, and the Crew accepted, Haank seeing to the details—Haank spent many hours discussing business in the region, and developing a professional rapport with Mr. Torelle, who offered his services any time the company returned to Equus. Then, as soon as the local police finally gave their blessing, the Crew got on the next train back to Equus Downport.

As they returned to their ship, they chanced a look at the arrival/departure boards at the concourse, and were surprised to find that the Black Star had been in port during their stay in town, and had departed only four hours ago.

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Notes

• Ella’s player was out for this session, as declared last time
• Keeping up with the tradition of late, for this adventure at least, someone (Buck) rolled a Critical Success to overhear the conversation on the balcony
• Buck’s fall was the result of a Critical Failure on his Stealth check, followed by a Critical Success on the guard’s Perception contest. Buck didn’t have Acting (or any alcoholic beverages to enhance his performance), so he was defaulting it—the GM did not say whether or not it had worked. After that was pure emergency improvisation
• Haank has taken Anthony Torelle as a low-level Patron; part of a new strategy for him of business-networking
• The GM described a cut-scene afterward where a large, intimidating fellow, with a blade, entered Colby’s cell, standing between Colby and the “camera”—of course, we presumed the worst, but the GM never said specifically what had occurred