On Quopist,a team of Imperium Scouts conducting recon in attempt to locate the vargr corsair that escaped them are shot down.
Four of these scouts survive the crash landing, though one is promptly taken out by the vargr soldiers once they start trying to get clear of the burning dropship.
A firefight ensues with two of the three surviving Scouts getting critically injured. Desperate to prevent the attacking vargr from taking the dropship, the final Scout triggers a contained self-destruct that violently destroys the craft … and most of the vargr as well…
GM Notes:
We were down to just three players (plus the GM) for this session so we did a sort of side-trek with 150-point soldier types. I’ve kept track of exactly how many vargr are available for when the PCs move capture the corsairs… and when Herodian blew up the dropship, they’ve basically dropped the numbers of bad guys down to three named bad guys.
Herodian’s decision to blow up the ship caught me by surprise, but his arguments made sense so it played out nicely.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..
On Quopist, the crew stand over the corpses of the bizarre plant monsters they just defeated. Despite Doctor Lewys’ urgings otherwise, they press on, following the trail to and into a cavern complex.
Deep within the cave, the crew encounter a massive beast that seems to be the host creature. It has the missing caravan guard in its maw. Doctor Lewys, Armin and Buck are overcome with fear at the sight of this thing when it lets out a bone-rattling shriek and flee. As they flee, Haank, J-Aris and Sae lay down covering fire, with the latter arming one of his remaining shaped charges and hurling it.
When the explosive detonates, however, it triggers a sudden gush of molten lava, prompting the crew to realize that they are inside a volcano. They now flee with an even greater intensity, daring exploding shrapnel and super-heated steam to get out. In the process, Eddy and Dr. Lewys are injured, the former having his leg broken and the latter having fractured ribs due to rocky shrapnel.
Pressing on toward the caravan, the crew detect the sound of gunfire and are contacted by Orgamon who relates that raiders are attacking. Haank orders J-Aris forward to lay down suppressing fire; the drone’s fire is less effective than he would like but the arrival of it is enough to cause the raiders to withdraw in mild confusion. These raiders are witnessed briefly observing the crew’s return before melting away once more.
Onto Temple Valley the caravan presses, arriving several days later. The crew are surprised to find that it is little more than a junktown surrounding some prefab buildings and the like. Buck and Eddy seek out drinks at the local bar while Sae accompanies Orgamon in his search for intel regarding his master, leaving Armin and Haank to assist with the caravan unloading. Eventually, Orgamon learns that Lord Mika is some miles to the north, investigating a crashed ship, and the crew head there.
And it is here, at this crashed ship, that the crew finally find and meet Lord Mika Anjiliac.
GM Notes:
Good Lord, but I screwed up the intended ‘skill challenge’ of escaping the volcano. I think only the players of Eddy and Sae were remotely satisfied, while the rest were either confused or irked. I absolutely have to do better.
I’m retrofitting the Star Wars d20 adventure module, “Tempest Feud” for this although I’m definitely making some tweaks and adjustments to fit better.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..
On Quopist, the crew stand over the bodies of the fallen thugs in the cantina. After attending Lord Mika’s sick bodyguard Orgamon, they interrogate him and learn that the target of their hunt is in the Temple Valley, some days to the north.
At Orgamon’s suggestion, they seek out one of the many caravans leaving the city and discover one, headed by a local named Simol Toc, is heading in that direction. Eddy convinces the man to hire them on as bodyguards, especially since they are transporting some of the medical supplies.
The following morning, they set out and, exactly as Eddy feared, the ‘caravan’ is less comfortable than he would like. Along the way, they see hints of brigands lurking around but the sheer numbers and weapons of the caravan appears to detract any attack.
Late on the second night (or third morning, depending upon one’s definition), one of the bodyguards disappears. Sae does some tracking and discovers that some weird alien critter types appear to have taken the man. Haank discusses these findings with Simol Toc, then decides that the crew will head after the missing man.
Near dawn, many kilometers away, the crew are set upon by alien plant creatures. Both Doctor Lewys and Eddy are paralyzed by claw strikes, but the other members of the crew are better armored. The gauss weapons carried by some of the crew are less than effective against these plant-monsters but still, they are felled.
GM Notes:
Because poor Eddy got felled early in the fight, his player started digging into the gravity and the like of the planet and we quickly learned that it was significantly lower than we thought. Naturally, because that’s how some of our players are, that led to an argument about it.
I’m retrofitting the Star Wars d20 adventure module, “Tempest Feud” for this although I’m definitely making some tweaks and adjustments to fit better.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..
On Quopist, having just repulsed the initial boarding team from the Dzarukh, the crew contemplates counter-boarding but Haank orders them to hold. At the same time, Lee abruptly shouts for them to brace!
As the Miss Adventure struggles to dodge, the Dzarukh tears free of the connecting umbilical, opening fire with one of the laser turrets. Eddy, who is outside the Adventure witnesses this, noting also that the corsair’s other turret is spraying fire in a different direction. He also observes several of the vargr who were boarding the Adventure come tumbling out; many of them are instantly incinerated by the engine backwash.
It quickly becomes apparent that Resolute has dispatched fighters and the corsair is fleeing from them, but the damage to the Adventure is fairly significant … and Aris has been killed by an exploding panel. (To him, though, there was a massive power surge and now he seems trapped in the virtual headspace that he went to while remote-piloting his drone, Jim…)
The Adventure limps toward the Resolute, which is in a geosynchronous orbit above Tel Bollin, the single major city on Quopist, and is allowed to land upon the massive warship. Soon after, Ella and Haank are escorted to meet with the ship commander, Angela Krin, though Haank knows her by a different name from their time at University: Elana Shankarr Muudashir, the heir to Duchess Delphine of Mora. Commander Krin advises them they are not allowed to land dirtside due to the quarantine, though she is greatly interested in information on the vargr corsair. This leads Ella and Haank to suggest she speak with Sae who knows a great deal more about them, which she will do later in great detail, a meeting that culminates in her shifting Sae’s Scout status from Detached to Active.
Commander Krin assembles the Adventure crew – sans Ella, who is somewhat shaken by Aris’ apparent death … although by now, the Aris-driven drone has related his strange predicament – and advises Haank (who she calls “Henri,” much to the crew’s continued amusement) that she will allow some of them to go dirtside while the rest remain on the ship to conduct repairs to the Adventure; in return, the crew will halp her locate and seize the vargr corsair.
The following morning, Haank leads his team consisting of Ar-Jim (the drone that may or may not contain Aris’ consciousness), Armin, Buck, Eddy, Sae and Doctor Lewys dirtside via an automated landing shuttle carrying supplies where they promptly discover Tel Bollin to be a miserable, wretched place thanks to the ongoing outbreak. Despite the fact that this is normally a ‘high law’ world, the security personnel are stretched too thin to care about blatant displays of weapons.
With Eddy convinced he can ‘find a guy,’ they set out where they encounter several afflicted fellows and negotiate. One of them is rather untrustworthy so Sae punches the man rather fiercely and sends him running. The others led the crew to Skydove Freight which is owned by the count; they discover is ransacked but find hints pointing them toward the Fallen Warrior cantina.
In the cantina, they find one of Lord Mika’s bodyguards, Orgamon, who is currently visibly afflicted with the plague and unconscious; a band of tempest-abusing gang members are harassing the poor man and Haank’s initial, quasi-diplomatic efforts to handle this without violence quickly go south. Because some of the crew have already had bad experiences with such addicts, they open up with lethal fire (much to Haank’s chagrin.) In seconds, the last of the addicts is down, either dead or dying, with the crew wholly unscathed…
GM Notes:
I kind of messed up the opening scene. It was clear in my head what I wanted to do, but game-time came and I botched it.That’s turning into a very frustrating pattern.
Mel is looking to retire Ella, so this was part of her phasing the character out. I thought she would have her be injured in the opening bit, but she decided against it. She’s taking over Armin since Loki is absent and we’ve already started a discussion about how we handle the captain leaving (since technically, Haank is the number two and nobody, not even his player, wants him to be in charger; there is some consideration of Haank picking up a Ally to act as the captain.) Aris being killed and then being stuck in the drone was something Andricus and I have discussed in the past and this was just a good opportunity for it.
I’m retrofitting the Star Wars d20 adventure module, “Tempest Feud” for this although I’m definitely making some tweaks and adjustments to fit better.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..
Dirtside on Porozlo, the crew are dismissed from Count Para’s presence, having agreed to go to Quopist to retrieve his son.
The count’s aide-de-camp, Vago Gejalli, converses with the crew and reveals he is authorized to offer 200K for this mission. Recognizing that they have insufficient numbers to properly crew and maintain the Miss Adventure, the crew convince him to pay for additional personnel in the form of the Aimless Pilgrim crew still on Porozlo.
Once upon Nemso Orbital, the crew split up to accomplish different tasks. During this, Eddy is jumped by muscle for the “merchant” he owes a Debt to and is thoroughly roughed up. Only the intervention of a helpful stranger stops this.
Once the medical supplies are loaded aboard the Miss Adventure, the crew depart the following day. They Jump to Tureded, refuel, then continue on to Quopist.
Immediately upon arrival, they are engaged by a vargr corsair waiting to ambush them despite the sheer impossibility of such an action. These are the Dzarukh, an enemy of both Ella and Sae. Quick shots are exchanged with the corsair hammering the Miss Adventure. Ella orders a stand-down and agrees to allow the vargr to board…
But the crew is waiting for the vargr boarding teams. In seconds, five of the vargr are dead, including the commander, and the rest are in retreat while the crew press their advantage and move to counter-board…
GM Notes:
I thoroughly screwed up the space battle at the beginning. It was terrible.
The vargr’s tactics were kind of terrible for the boarding action. I’d originally intended on them being smarter and more aggressive, but then Haank’s player called for a Tactics check which resulted in him beating me by 2 – he made it by 1, I failed by 1 – so I decided the vargr were bored and not expecting real resistance so when they started taking fire, they panicked. Next week, we’re going to start with the counter-boarding action…
I’m retrofitting the Star Wars d20 adventure module, “Tempest Feud” for this although I’m definitely making some tweaks and adjustments to fit better.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..
Dirtside on Porozlo, the crew have spent twenty-one days dealing with the aftermath of the previous adventure as well as poking into other things.
Ella is obsessed with locating Sam and her investigation overlaps with Sae’s own digging into his unsanctioned Aramis operation. In a sleazy urban bar in Madua, Nemso, the two get involved in a fight with inexplicably enraged barflies. At the beginning of the fight, Sae observed a familiar woman who he suspects to be responsible for the sudden flare-up of hostilities. Following the fight, as they are exfiltrating, Ella and Sae encounter Envoy Dannica who passed on information she’s found from Sam.
At Nemso Orbital, Haank is approached by a drone bearing an invitation for the crew to meet with His Excellency, Count Para Anjiliac which he acknowledges and schedules for later.
Once the full crew is reassembled, they review the Sam information and learn he is behind the disappearance of the Spinward Star because he was concerned about being killed by Monsaanti-Neogene. He has also renamed the ship to Ellasaurus Rex so as to avoid further detection; everyone but Ella is delighted by this name change.
The crew proceed on to their scheduled meeting with the count. His Excellency’s aide-de-camp, Vago Gejalli escorts them planetside to the count’s personal domain where they meet him and his eldest son, Viscount Zonno.
The count informs them that a plague has enveloped the planet, Quopist, in the Lanth sub-sector, and it has been quarantined. His Excellency desires the crew to captain a ship that will be carrying medical supplies to assist … but more importantly, he wants them to locate his youngest son, Mika who went to Quopist on routine business and has since vanished.
Viscount Zonno interrupts and insists that the crew does not look up to this task. This eventually results in a duel between Sae and one of the viscount’s aslan retainers to prove they are capable. The fight is fast and frenetic, but culminates in the vargr kneeing the aslan so hard in the junk that the poor kitty passes out…
GM Notes:
There will likely be no game next week (4/14/18) since I (the GM) will be travelling. At least one other PC is out, and possibly a third (both related to my travel.)
Andricus (Aris’ player) was out and will miss the next two or three sessions due to wedding and work stuff.
I’m retrofitting the Star Wars d20 adventure module, “Tempest Feud” for this although I’m definitely making some tweaks and adjustments to fit better.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..
Dirtside on Porozlo, the crew land on the top of the targeted building in Nemso, having learned that one of the air cars has been shot down.Unfortunately, Eddy displays his utter lack of competence with the contragrav belt and badly overshoots, smashing into control panel of the uplink dish which knocks it out of alignment.
Aris reports that the mining facility on the island, which is the second target, has also exploded and there are reports of other explosions across the planet. Realizing that this likely means that Monsaanti-Neogene is trying to cover its tracks and that this building is probably also wired, the crew decided to conduct a frontal assault down the stairwell.
Almost at once, a fierce firefight ensues between the crew and multiple armored and armed personnel, with Sae pulling out some near movie-level gun fu theatrics. In the course of this encounter, Eddy pursues and tackles the facility commander only after she has activated a bomb. Sae ends up rescuing his friend with a well-placed pistol shot.
As Eddy and Sae disable the bomb, the rest of the crew spread out to search for intel. Haank discovers Roxy in Recovery and, when he checks her pulse, she wakes with a simple “Did I fall asleep?” It does not take him long to realize that she’s evidently been mindwiped.
In the level below, the crew also discover numerous cryo tubes containing important businessmen and women of Porozlo, though they are unable to determine what the purpose is as someone has initiated a remote system purge. Hearing the distant sound of sirens approaching, the crew exfiltrate from the building.
In the week or so after this, the news about Monsaanti-Neogene’s connection to the various explosions that have caused so much trouble across Porozlo comes out and a feeding frenzy ensues as rival corporations swarm them. Besieged on all sides by their various corporate rivals, MNC is quickly forced to declare bankruptcy.
The courts promptly throw out the case against Spinward Star, LLC, which means they are once more masters of their own destinies.
That is, until they discover that the Spinward Star is missing…
GM Notes:
We had to skip last week. There were two planned absences and one unexpected one.
This ended up being (as I feared) just one long combat. I could have (and probably should have) tried to figure out a way to speed up this process or at least make things more interesting for everyone.
Andricus (Aris’ player) was out and will miss the next two or three sessions due to wedding and work stuff.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..
Dirtside on Porozlo, the crew are aboard the train-bus Pod en route to Nemso.
During the trip, Buck finishes his hack into Sam’s computer and, with Sae’s assistance, they identify links to Monsaanti-Neogene Corporation.
There is a brief delay on the train line during which Sae is embarrassed by a very young child who is ecstatic about seeing a puppy!
Shortly before arriving at Nemso, Ella receives a voicemail message from Abe that strongly indicates that he’s on Porozlo (against her orders!) and is now at the Madua Metro Diner. Almost simultaneously, Sae receives a coded message from an unidentified number that all but confirms his theory that they’re being tracked by their financial accounts. Luckily, a former co-worker of Ella’s from the taxi company she once worked for happens to be pulling into the station terminal and he owes her a favor…
Following a quick, high-speed trip to the Metro Diner, the crew discover Abe chatting with a woman who introduces herself as Ivixia Dannica, an agent entrusted with extraordinary authority operating on a ducal warrant signed by His Grace, Leonard Stephanos Kirgashii, Duke of Rhylanor. She is tasked with apprehending Breyon Sodhii, who was once an Envoy himself until he went rogue.
After confirming that their foe is Monsaanti-Neogene, Ivixia offers an alliance: she wants to hit a data farm to track down Sodhii and would appreciate if the crew could provide a distraction by hitting a MNC facility. She offers three solid targets – one an abandoned oil rig no longer in use, one an island mining facility, and the third a building here in Madua, Nemso. After much discussion, the crew decide to go for the triple distraction: they will rent a pair of aircars with company assets, then send one to the oil rig and the other to the island. While this is going on, they will then hit the Madua building personally.
To that end, Eddy and Sae hit the startown, seeking out personal contacts first to get some clean funds (so as to avoid drawing further attention to themselves) while also purchasing gear like contragrav belts and explosives. Buck and Haank attempt to hack the building schematics but find they’ve been intentionally blanked out. Ella reaches out to the lawyer firm to arrange for them to begin researching (through the courts) the island and the oil rig in the hopes that this will cause further distraction.
The following day, while Aris lurks in a secure location so he can remote pilot the two air cars, the rest of the crew move to assault the Madua building.
And then, Aris announces that one of the two air cars has been shot down…
GM Notes:
Andricus (Aris’ player) was out and will miss the next three or four sessions due to wedding and work stuff.
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..
Dirtside on Porozlo, Sae observes the approach of the utility vertols and is then startled when Aris passes out after eating some of the newly delivered pizza. The vargr opts to act quickly: he breaks into and hotwires a pair of cars.
The rest of the crew exit Sam’s apartment and take the stairs down. Along the way, upon hearing loud noises emanating from the roof, Ella pulls a convenient fire alarm which results in many people in the apartment building attempting to escape as well.
Sae, upon seeing armored personnel lurking outside the building while numerous building inhabitants come streaming out, decides to cause a distraction by firing a couple of rounds in the air. This results in chaos as some of the civilians see the armored people and go for weapons which results in some of the armed troopers shooting back.
Whoever is running this op orders the troopers to withdraw as distant sirens can be heard. The crew (sans Aris and Sae) don’t immediately rush out but instead try to help the casualties until the EMTs arrive, then make their escape (after grabbing Aris who they discover passed out in the back of an idling car.)
The crew decided to take Aris to an urgent care clinic where they learned he’d been roofied. Relying on common sense, I had the on-call medic refer this to a cop who checked with the PCs … who failed their Fast Talk rolls and gave conflicting stories. This led the cop to call this in which resulted in Detective Kennex showing up again. After giving him the full story, he arranged to have them taken to the precinct to fill out paperwork and make statements.
In the police SUV, the crew (sans Sae who has lurked in the periphery to avoid notice) are startled when one of the utility vertols drops out of nowhere and opens fire, grievously injuring the driver. Ella takes over and expertly escapes the vertol. Behind, in a rented car, Sae observes a half dozen air skimmers suddenly attack the vertol which is forced to retreat very quickly.
At the hospital where the crew has taken the injured driver, the crew converse again with Kennex who is understandably frustrated at these events. Against his captain’s orders, Kennex arranges to get the crew out of the city via a train while he tries to figure out what is going on.
The crew board the train-bus Pod and with loud clanks and hisses, it pulls out of New Gevae…
GM Notes:
I thought this episode was a complete mess. The PCs kept catching me off-guard; Sae’s decision to cause the distraction with the discharge of guns, for example, caused me to go all blue-screen of death. The pulling of the fire alarm was not obvious thing that I should have been prepared for but wasnt. Further, the decision on the part of the PCs to stay behind to attend the casualties was totally in-character for many of the PCs but something I had not considered at all.
As the PCs got on the train … bus … thing (we started calling it a ‘Pod’ I think), I had each player describe a passenger. Amusingly, the last time we were on a train, the GM at the time did the same thing…
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..
Dirtside on Porozlo, Buck arrives in time to see Ella and Haank being led out of the mall toward waiting ground-skimmers. Suddenly, an unseen sniper engages the group, killing two and sending the rest scattering. The crew manage to retrieve their weapons as the team led by “Roxy” are either reduced or flee.
On the highport, Eddy and Sae are cornered by a trio of addicts; when Sae kills one and grievously injures a second, they order their makeshift drone to engage. It does but uses riot gas, which blocks line-of-sight by the survivors (who are calling up the ‘rest of da boyz’) but forces Eddy and Sae to retreat and find an alternate escape plan.
The crew dirtside are interviewed by responding police but are released, thanks in part to Haank having vid of the encounter. The lead cop – Detective Kennix – especially takes a liking to Ella and provides her his contact info. In case she needs … anything.
Eddy and Sae meet Aris (who has temporarily damaged Jim’s weapon systems), then head dirtside upon receiving Haank’s summons. They arrive just as the police are letting the other members of the crew go.
The Crew then decide to investigate Sam’s place which they locate easily enough. While Aris and Sae wait downstairs (particularly for the pizza that Eddy just ordered), the others head up and break into Sam’s apartment, hoping to find some sign of him.
Eddy begins canvassing the other apartments, introducing himself as a ‘friend of Sam’s’ but this proves to be problematic when he tries to smooth talk a young lady only to discover she has a musclebound boyfriend on a hair trigger. He also gathers (from certain familiar clues) that Sam might have been a little too friendly with this lady. A fight ensues that Haank intervenes in so he can take down the tankhead.
Outside, Sae hears a familiar sound and observes the approach of two unmarked dropships. While one provides overwatch, the other deploys some of its armed personnel…
GM Notes:
A bit more disjointed than I would have liked. I should have run the two ‘combats’ simultaneously instead of splitting them up like I did so as to avoid having so much dead-time for fully half the party.
I’m still getting a handle on certain parts of the Traveller universe – the ‘highport,’ for example … I only just realized that all ‘official’ starports are run by the Imperium (though a planet might have lesser spaceports. As a result, the CR was retconned a bit. Not that it mattered to Sae who has that stealth attache case thing…
Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at Ronnke’s Twitch channel and then later uploading the stream on the YouTube channel, we’ve decided to dial back on the extensiveness of the recap to just the overall outline..
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