Olympus RPG Blog

Duty Roster:

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

Boat House

…Continued. As the Crew sped across the wetlands on Arden’s air/raft, armed only with their sidearms, they kept a sharp eye to the horizon for trouble, and they spotted another air/raft trailing them a couple of miles back; with his image-enhanced glasses, Haank was able to make out four rifle-armed men, likely the same ones that Arden’s wife shooed away earlier. The Crew arrived at Lighthouse Point and disembarked, and started looking for a way in. Haank took the path leading about a hundred yards further up the point to the lighthouse, intending to climb up and keep lookout for their shadows; he commed back that the door was locked, and Sae quickly followed to pick the lock, before he rejoined the others. The others had slipped into the boathouse under the boat-door, and found the place in a strange state: it was deserted, the doors obviously having been kicked in but replaced (barely), and otherwise looked like the place had been “tossed” but cleaned up afterward; the Torelles’ boat was also still present, and as they searched it also, found it in a similar state. Haank soon alerted the others to his having spotted the yokels a few hundred yards back, their air/raft stashed in the tall-grass out of the way, creeping up on foot through the marsh, rifles at the ready.

Sae left the boat-house and hid himself in ambush nearby. Buck also tried to sneak in a wide circle around the yokels’ approach to steal their air/raft, but Haank alerted him that one of the enemy had heard him pass, and had split off from the group to close with him; Buck briefly braced himself for a fight, but instead decided to walk back to the house, daring his pursuer to act. As such, the local fellow sprang out from the tall grass, rifle pointed at Buck, and demanded his surrender; Buck declared the Crew’s honest intentions, but the man was determined to expel the intruders on his supposed territory. As his would-be captor called out to his fellows, Buck made “finger guns” with both hands, and mimed a trigger-pull—Haank had been taking careful aim with his ETC slug-pistol from 150 yards distance atop the lighthouse, and at that signal, he fired, ruining the man’s gauss rifle. Buck then drew his own pistol and took the now-disarmed yokel into his custody and returned with him to the boathouse. The other three yokels, having heard the gunshot, picked up their pace toward the boathouse.

The Crew still inside the boathouse questioned their prisoner, who, after confirming his unbroken kneecaps were not preventing him from speaking freely, confessed that they were hired by Colby Dowe to discourage the Crew’s curiosity, though he claimed they only meant to scare them off—which was not believed. The interrogation was interrupted by automatic gauss fire on the lighthouse, and Haank’s calm-but-urgent information that a couple of the yokels had broken off and passed up the boathouse. With Sae also reporting another was sneaking around to the boathouse door, Buck forced their prisoner to call out to his fellows to encourage them to abandon their mission—the one near the door responded that they would not. Sae came out of hiding and shot the one at the door dead with his magnum, and continued on to the lighthouse, where he shot another as he entered the lighthouse—the third was already inside, making his way up the stairs to Haank. In the boathouse, the prisoner took advantage of the momentary ruckus to flee to the water, but Buck gunned him down without hesitation, to Ella’s later irritation; meanwhile, Sam climbed atop the boat and hotwired it, revved the engines, and beckoned the others to board. The last of the yokels traded quips with Haank from either side of the partition below the lighthouse windows, shooting out the glass to rain shards down on Haank; he brashly popped up with his rifle over the low wall, but Haank reacted more quickly, and put three rounds through the yokel’s chest, killing him. Sam was just easing the boat out of the dock when the all-clear was called.

No longer in immediate danger, the Crew moved on to search the residence adjoining the boathouse, and again, found it ransacked-but-cleaned-up; however, Abe noticed some small spots of dried blood, which according to his analysis, were perhaps a couple of weeks old—not enough there to indicate a murder, but perhaps a struggle. They all agreed that, most likely, the Torelles had been kidnapped by this Colby Dowe. As the Crew had already gone beyond the call of duty in their investigation, they did briefly discuss the idea of leaving the matter undone. Instead they decided that the surviving gunman should be taken to the town’s hospital—Ella and Abe would accompany the wounded in Arden’s air/raft, and Arden would safely part ways with the Crew there—while the rest would make their way on foot to Colby’s estate to spy him out, and see if there might be sign of the Torelles there.

Colby Dowe

At the town hospital, the wounded man was seen to by the available physicians, who, as expected, reported the shooting-injury to the local police. Ella took Abe aside and told him to leave her and rejoin the others before the police arrived; he attempted to refuse, but Ella would have none of it. The sheriff arrived some minutes later and took Ella and Arden back to the station to record their official statements; they told the truth, though perhaps not all of it. While taking Ella’s statement, the sheriff was interrupted by a well-dressed and exceptionally angry man, complaining loudly about one of his men who wound up in the hospital, while three others were missing—the sheriff called him Mr. Dowe, and was visibly cowed by him. Some time later, Arden was released, as was Ella, though her Imperial identification card was taken; she was instructed not to leave town until the matter of the shooting had been resolved, and to gather up the rest of her crew as well. As Ella left the station to go about her business in town, unsurprisingly, she spotted one of the deputies attempting to look like he wasn’t following her. To be continued…

Notes

• There were some exceptional rolls to spot things early on, including a Critical Success by Haank to get the details on the air/raft that was following them
• There was a bit of map-related confusion regarding the position of the lighthouse in relation to the boathouse; the players were under the impression it was a handful of yards away, but when the shooting started, it turned out to be more like 100—the GM did say so, we just didn’t quite register it
• The finger-guns, in our heads, at least—turned out fairly similar in the end 😛
• Sae’s ETC Magnum Pistol was shown to be the monster it truly was here; he took one of the men down to -5×HT in one shot to the Vitals
• Ella’s player knew she was going to be absent for the next session, so she intentionally isolated herself from the others, to make it a little easier next time

Duty Roster:

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

Last Request

Old Man Torelle

As the Crew put the Spinward Star through her final pre-flight checks, Haank heard a rapping on the port-side airlock door, and checked the viewport for the source of the sound. He opened the airlock door for the lone old man outside it, and asked his business. The old man introduced himself as Torelle, and was going door-to-door looking for passage to Equus. Haank cleared the late notice with Captain Stanbridge and accepted the not-quite-full amount the old man was able to pay—he was uncomfortable with low-berth travel—and sent Sae to assist the old man with his luggage. The friendly old man chattered away with Sae as they went, telling stories of days gone by, and upon their return, Abe took him to his stateroom and got him settled in. The old man showed Abe a medium-sized case and asked if they had somewhere it could be secured; Abe offered to lock it in the ship’s locker for the trip, and the old man agreed—he said he was returning after many decades to Equus to give the contents to his estranged son there.

With no further surprises, the ship put out to the Black once more, and some hours later, entered jumpspace for Equus. That evening, the old man insisted on cooking dinner for the gracious Crew; he showed a gift for making more with less—the meal was excellent—and he accompanied the meal with a bottle of very old, very fine wine, from Terra herself, and more entertaining stories of his many travels. On the following morning, Abe went to wake Torelle for breakfast, but there was no answer; when he didn’t respond for lunch either, the stateroom was unlocked, and they sadly found that the old man had passed away in his sleep—Abe determined his death to be of “natural causes.” Beside him, they found an old undelivered letter, begging forgiveness of his son for the grievances that had resulted in their separation—which included his son Anthony’s address on Equus. The death was logged, and the body placed in low-berth stasis, to be delivered to his next-of-kin on arrival at port.

The Spinward Star exited jumpspace and entered Equus’ orbital traffic, and was directed to its downport, a bubble of glass and steel in the middle of an ocean that covered most of the planet’s surface. Once landed and settled in, and fees paid, the Crew immediately set about researching the possible comings and goings of the Black Star; their search of public records revealed little, so Buck resorted to less-reputable means, and hacked into the SPA network—his digging led him to a local police blotter detailing a violent incident between Adric Mason and one of his crew, a woman he had recently hired, with whom, according to her official statement, he would not willingly part ways. In the meantime, the rest of the Crew attempted to locate and contact Anthony Torelle, with no real success save to confirm the address on the old man’s letter, a well-to-do plantation in a small farming town of around a thousand souls in one of the many swamplands on the surface. After twenty-four Imperial-standard hours with no response, the Crew decided to take to the field, and took a scenic underwater train to this town to see if they could catch him up in person. They took the old man’s case along, just in…case; they were only lightly armed, not expecting a fuss.

In town, the Crew started asking around after Anthony Torelle, but everyone they spoke to seemed to shrink away at the mention of him, denying any knowledge of a man by that name. They went to the local constabulary’s office to inquire after him there; the sheriff claimed ignorance of the Torelles’ whereabouts, though at the mention of important items to be delivered, offered to take those things and hold them on the Torelles’ behalf, should they turn up. The Crew weren’t buying his story. They had about four hours before the last train back to the downport arrived in town, so they wandered around town “seeing the sights” while they searched the local network for more information—Anthony had a long-time wife, no children, and was a pillar of the local community. His parents were both dead, his mother more recently, and the Crew found her memorial in the square, with flowers no more than a week or two old—someone had been here.

The Crew decided to “wander” down the road a mile or two to the Torelles’ estate, and peeked through the windows, to find it vacant—the state of the house suggested it was lived-in, but the piled-up hardcopy mail indicated there had been no one home for a couple of weeks. The Crew noticed a neighbor down the road had been observing them, and started toward the property to see if they might be willing to shed some light on the Torelles’ whereabouts, when an open-bed air/raft sped down the road toward them, full of armed yokels, intercepting them at the end of the neighbors’ drive. The yokels disembarked, brandishing their weapons, and demanded the Crew leave, “or else,” but the little-old-lady neighbor emerged from her home, brandishing her own gauss shotgun, and scolded them, shooing them away. Once the yokels had left, the lady invited the Crew into her home, where they asked her what all this was about over tea. She revealed the little that she had seen, saying that an offworld mega-corporation had been buying out all the landowners in town for some unknown purpose, and the Torelles’ had refused to sell out to them, then two weeks ago, they disappeared; knowing much of the town was in the corporations’ pocket, likely including the sheriff, she had no one to turn to for help. The Crew asked if the Torelles’ owned any other properties in the area they might retreat to and hide out, and she mentioned they had a boat-house out on the lighthouse point; her husband, Arden, offered to take them to it, took up his gauss rifle, and showed them to the garage, where his air/raft waited. To be continued…

Notes

• The GM never described what was in the old man’s case; we imagined when he showed it to Abe, it went something like this
• Buck has been settling in, more and more, as the group’s designated h4xx0r; but making use of that presents a problem for Haank, who has the Honesty Disadvantage—he can’t legitimately ask for it, or tolerate it if he knows it’s going on, so the hacking has to be done without his knowledge
• It was at this point that the players started to realize that the information we were finding regarding the activities of the Black Star isn’t exactly “linear”; we had to start organizing our notes, which took a bit of time to sort out
• Sae’s player was asked to describe the underwater train ride; he did a really nice improvisation, including annoying kids and chatty old ladies—unfortunately it wasn’t recorded, so I can’t reproduce it here
• The GM originally only mentioned a boat-house, but the players immediately associated the situation with a Scooby Doo episode, including the typical creepy lighthouse, and the GM just rolled with it
• The GM included a stinger at the end of the session, a cutscene where, as the crew sped across the wetlands in Arden’s air/raft, another air/raft was seen following them unseen at a distance

Duty Roster:

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

Risk Averse

After a brief conference amongst the Crew, Haank returned to the crew lounge to inform the middleman that they would rather not take the risk of delivering the surplus military weapons in person to the planet’s surface, owing to its lawless and hostile reputation, but they would be willing to sell directly to the middleman at an attractive discount. The middleman agreed, and once payment had cleared, the goods were offloaded. The hold of the Spinward Star was empty once again. Haank checked out the local network notice-boards looking for freight and passengers; there would be little-to-none headed for the next stop Rimward on the Mains, Vreibefger, or the second, La’Belle, but the third, Equus, had some potential. He found around 25 tons in total available for Equus, and went to the company offices to see to the details, but found a handful of ship-captains dealing for the available lots. One captain, seeming particularly desperate, was bidding entirely too low for the whole thing, and Haank decided it wasn’t worth the argument—they had already made money selling the surplus, though leaving with an empty hold felt somehow wrong. However, they did sign up the single low-passage customer headed for Equus; he paid up front, and Abe got him situated into cryo-stasis for the trip. Once the ship was refueled, they departed, planning to skip Vreibefger entirely for La’Belle, hoping to catch up the Black Star a little in the process.

The trip to La’Belle was uneventful. The Crew took advantage of the empty hold to do some more Judo training, as Haank was still trying to sort out how he should have handled himself in the bar-fight with the Vargr alpha. They exited jumpspace and entered orbit around La’Belle V, which had a total population of less than 100, a snowball not unlike Kegena, where this crew’s misadventures began. The Spinward Star berthed at the highport, and the Crew took some shore-leave to stretch their legs a bit. Haank wanted to go check out the local tourist attraction, some ruins left behind by a primitive civilization, to exercise his new archaeology skills, and the rest of the Crew decided to tag along, having little else in mind to do here; Sae and Jones would remain behind with the ship. After calling ahead, they took the next shuttle bound for the site. The surface of the planet was cold enough that the Crew would need wear their space suits, and as local ordinances weren’t so restrictive as their last stop, they brought along sidearms.

Prof. Kendrick Malik

At the site, they met Professor Kendrick Malik, an older human who had been studying the ruins here for some years, who took them on a grand tour of the ancient colony and chattered away about what he had been able to deduce, happy for the company and the interest. It was an impressive site, well-preserved despite the harsh environment of ice and snow. Abe took a particular interest in some local plant life, which had developed a sort of natural anti-freeze capability; he took some samples, hoping to research them later. Afterward, Professor Malik took great interest in the Crew’s account of their experience at Kegena, with the Aslan colony they stumbled upon (though some obvious, unpleasant details were left out); the NDA they all signed prevented them from discussing the Ancients tower as well, to their internalized disappointment.

As they were finally ready to go back to the station, and called back for the shuttle to pick them up, the Crew was informed that due to some rough weather coming in, they would have to wait out the night there—not an unusual occurrence. The Professor’s shelter was too small to fit the lot of them, so they had to make do with their survival skills, which served them well enough, and they passed the night, cold and uncomfortable, but otherwise unmolested. Some time after sunup, Haank woke to discover a very large predatory creature, which the Professor had described as common in these parts, having taken shelter in the same hollow between crags as the Crew. He quietly fell back to his sheltered position and contacted the others via text-only on his comm, informing them of the intruder, and they all crept up as they dared. It stirred from time to time at whatever noise the Crew was unable to prevent, but was otherwise disinterested in leaving the area. The Crew wasn’t really interested in killing the beast unnecessarily, but they would be unable to move out until they could get it to leave. Haank texted Abe to ring his comm in 30 seconds, set his comm to a full-volume audible ring, and pitched it over the creature some distance away; when it rang, the beast excitedly ran over to it, pawing and biting at it, so long as it made noise, but still would not leave the area. The Professor’s only weapon, a gauss rifle, was handed to Buck, and he prepared to bring the creature down, but they decided instead to call for the shuttle. As directed, the shuttle flew in close and buzzed the creature until it ran away, and then landed to pick up the “survivors”; Haank’s comm would not survive the ordeal, though—it would have to be replaced.

Back at the highport, the Crew set about researching the comings and goings of the Black Star, and found that it had been in port 12 months prior (that is, 4 months before Valerie Vaskor went missing). The incident was odd, as no one left the ship while it was in port here, and though it advertised for passengers headed Rimward, it would accept low-passage only. There were no other reports of its presence in the system, though it would have to have passed through at least twice more—possibly stopped at a gas giant to refuel and moved on. Having found all they expected to here, the ship was readied for departure, outbound for Equus.

Notes

• The search for Valerie Vaskor began here
• The incident with the ice-creature mirrored the first combat encounter of this campaign, on Kegena, with another oversized, predatory ice-creature—that one was shot dead
• At this point in the pursuit of Valerie Vaskor, we’re starting to run into reports of the Black Star’s whereabouts that aren’t matching up to our more-linear expectations, and decided we should get a little more organized, so we started a “clues” document to keep track of it. It’s beginning to look like chasing it down won’t be so simple
• The GM has been pushing us to start taking on some speculative freight; we’ve been making money here and there, enough to cover expenses, and haven’t really given it much thought, though it is a staple of Traveller campaigns—we’ll probably pay it a bit more attention in the future

Duty Roster:

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

Restricted Space

In the evening of the day the Crew settled the matter with the outlaws at the abandoned mine, they met at dinner with Elijah Patterson to discuss the Black Star and Valerie Vaskor, and what he might have uncovered regarding their comings and goings in the month-or-so they visited here. He explained that the Black Star had been undergoing repairs requiring parts that had to be shipped in, grounding them for an extended period waiting for them to arrive. Afterward, they continued on rimward, their next declared destination, Tureded. Before leaving, they took on a freight consignment on behalf of a local businessman—Elijah provided contact information at the Crew’s request.

On the following day, as Buck drove Abe to the hospital for his day’s volunteer-work, they stopped first at the aforementioned businessman’s residence, and were welcomed. The man had a mining business that had dried up here, and had been in the process of relocating his operation to Tureded, piece by piece, over the last year. He met with Captain Adric Mason at dinner seven months ago to agree on terms of shipment of some mining machinery to Tureded for him. His recollection was that the captain was an odd fellow, never taking off his gloves, it seemed, for fear of local germs or whatnot; and he had a wandering eye, taking a lascivious interest in the waitress. The businessman had 28 tons of gear remaining to be shipped still, and Buck and Abe suggested that the Spinward Star might take it; he gladly agreed to meet with Ella, and sent a gift of a bottle of good wine with them.

That evening, Ella met at dinner with the businessman, along with Haank to work out the details; they all agreed to the standard rate, and shook hands on it. The next day, the freight was loaded aboard the Spinward Star, and payment was made up-front. Meanwhile, the Crew managed to find a buyer for most of their remaining load of surplus military gear salvaged from the Gileden system—mostly the vehicles and parts—for a healthy sum, turning what should have been a loss into a quite profitable stop.

As he had promised when they arrived, Haank took Elijah’s granddaughter, Kaylii, on a comprehensive tour of the ship, answering her many knowledgeable questions. She was disappointed she couldn’t leave with them, but she produced a small soapstone carving of herself, carved by her grandfather, and asked that it be taken aboard, so she could travel with them in spirit; Haank agreed without hesitation, and helped Kaylii hang the carving on the bridge with a nice view through the windscreen. Loaded, fueled, and paid, the Spinward Star took to the black once again, bound for Tureded.

Six days in jumpspace passed without incident, and the ship exited jumpspace, and entered the busy, tightly-controlled traffic pattern approaching the Tureded highport. Sam confidently refused a port-guide and docked manually; he had to jink the ship to avoid some work-craft outside the assigned berth, and scraped the ship against the entry, doing no real damage but to his own pride—though the port authority rep made a bit of obligatory fuss over the mishap. The cargo was then unloaded via the station’s automated handlers—as locally mandated. On completion, Haank took some pictures of the view of the berth with Kaylii’s carving, and planned to do so everywhere they went, sending the pics back to her on Pirema as he found opportunity. Local law aboard the station was as restrictive as orbital control, so shore-leave here would be unarmed and unarmored. Despite the vulnerability, most of the crew went ashore, separating to do whatever business they had in mind.

• Abe wandered the station’s halls, exploring. In a crowded market area, he noticed his pocket had been picked, and confronted the thief, politely demanding the return of his property. The thief, of a species Abe had not before encountered, returned Abe’s property without a fuss and cautioned him to be more wary. Intrigued, Abe offered to buy the thief dinner at a place of his choosing; the thief agreed, choosing an establishment with “outdoor” seating. Over the meal, Abe questioned the thief regarding his species: he was a Sparrial, called Rolemnarla, and he answered freely, with strangely accented Galanglic, regarding his people and their culture. Something caught the Sparrial’s attention, and he “spoke into Abe’s mind”; to Abe’s shock, he was able to respond likewise, and immediately recalled his experience aboard the Unconquerable, and his strange reaction to being psychically scanned by an awakening Zhodani officer. Rolemnarla offered to help Abe develop this ability, but had to cut their conversation short, and bolted from the restaurant. Some moments later, as Abe was paying for the meal, a couple of officious-looking “government agents” arrived at the entrance, looking for someone—Abe didn’t remain to find out who or what they might have been searching for, but returned to the ship.
• Ella also went exploring the station, and eventually found herself at a salon, getting her hair cut and styled, and engaging in small talk with the four-armed female humanoid stylist. During the process, Ella brought up Valerie Vaskor, showing the stylist her picture—she recognized the girl, having also cut her hair when she visited the station some months ago.
• Buck made a few calls and hit the streets, looking for a potential buyer for the remainder of their salvaged weapons; Tureded Prime, outside the Imperial starport, was a lawless, dangerous backwater, and the locals would surely have a use for some surplus military gear. He worked his way through the less-scrupulous areas of the station and found such a person, and they arranged to meet at the ship later to inspect the cargo.

Haank, Sam and Sae found a mostly-automated, middle-class pub, with available wi-fi connection, and settled into a corner-booth with some drinks. Thereat, Sae found himself being bullied by an alpha Vargr and his fellows, establishing dominance over “their territory”—Sae stood his ground, but took a hard punch that knocked him back, injuring his face and his resolve. The alpha downed Sae’s drink and smugly returned to his table. As Haank promised to back his play, Sae threw the empty glass at the alpha. Haank walked calmly to the other table and explained that a drink was owed his friend; the alpha stood, and the two glowered at each other. Haank reached down and grabbed the alpha’s drink; the alpha grabbed Haank’s hand. As Sam and Sae positioned themselves in opposition to the other Vargr at the table, Haank took the glass in his free hand and drank from it, maintaining eye contact with his opponent—and the fight was on. In moments, two of the Vargr had been wrestled to the ground, and Haank had taken a hard hit to the jaw after struggling to reverse the alpha’s hold, just before the alpha collapsed into an unconscious heap, having been flanked by Sae and injected with a knockout drug via hidden stinger implant. With their leader down, the remaining pack ceased fighting, and carried their unconscious fellow out of the pub. The Crew paid their bills and left shortly thereafter, to return to the ship and see to their injuries.

Some hours later, everyone had returned to the ship. Abe tended the bar-fight injuries, and chastised the participants, but made no mention of his encounter with Rolemnarla. Everyone made inevitable comment regarding the Captain’s new hairdo. Later, on schedule, Buck’s middleman arrived at the berth, and was allowed to inspect the surplus military goods, under Haank’s supervision. Satisfied with the condition of the cargo and its price, the middleman revealed the catch: it would need to be delivered dirtside—at high risk of being swindled, hijacked, or worse.

Notes

• The search for Valerie Vaskor began here
• Commerce between Pirema and Tureded, both low-population backwaters, was virtually nil. But between the business being moved and a lucky roll (a “3” on Haank’s part) finding a buyer for the surplus, the trip turned a tidy profit in spite of it. Once again, that “consolation prize” we were left with after our misadventure aboard the Unconquerable saved us
• Sam’s piloting skill is high enough that he can’t fail but for a crit. How many times can he roll a crit fail on a Piloting check? At least once more. Somehow, the shit-hot pilot always looks like a noob 😛
• This session followed the release of GURPS Aliens: Sparrials, so the appearance of a Sparrial in the campaign was no surprise, but Abe’s player had been suggesting that his character needed a proper “Yoda” to unlock his latent psi abilities to the point he could excuse improving them—and violá!
• There was a fair bit of time wasted posting image-suggestions of Ella’s new haircut, all variations on a “mohawk” theme
• Haank is a fairly competent melée fighter, and had a pretty solid plan for schooling the alpha Vargr, but the dice absolutely abandoned him—could barely roll less than 14-15 the whole time; pretty much everything he tried failed. After going back to the ship, he ended up studying the video of the confrontation over and over trying to figure out where it all went wrong
• When the GM explained that the Crew would have to go to the surface to deliver the weapon-cargo, where he had already described as the “Wild West,” with people getting robbed/hijacked all the time, he referenced “Patience/Whitefall” (which portends a deal-gone-wrong to anyone who has watched Firefly)—we’ll be expecting trouble

Duty Roster:

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

Miner Infraction

Ella looked over the map of the mine tunnels provided by Ducote, and leveraging her tactical experience, decided which approach the Crew should take when assaulting the outlaw’s enclave within. They discussed up-armoring themselves, but the idea of riot shields or similar portable cover was eventually abandoned as too bulky. They discussed the use of drones to scout ahead, and Ducote offered the use of a microbot swarm canister and associated gear—normally used for locating trapped miners. Not wishing to drag out the affair any further or allow the enemy any more time to dig in, the Crew returned to the Spinward Star to depart.

The ship was landed some distance away, out of sight of the tunnel entrance they intended to use, and the Crew approached on foot. The door was shut, locked down and stuck fast by years of wear and neglect. Buck brought out his tool kit and forced the gate open, though he damaged the mechanism in the process, such that he had to cut through.

As Buck worked on the door, the canister was opened, releasing the hundred or so microbots, which, as directed, squeezed through the tiniest openings and quickly spread throughout the mine complex, reporting sensor returns to Abe via the control computer, which was also configured to feed positional data to Haank’s TacNet software. The microbots indicated 12-15 humanoids were within the complex in various defensive locations around a central hub—presumably their headquarters. As the microbots continued their search, Abe observed that some of them were disappearing, one by one, as it turned out, being smashed by the outlaws—they knew the assault was under way. Once the mine entrance had been forced, the Crew approached the elevator leading down into the tunnels with some concern, as its transit would probably not go unnoticed by the occupants. There was some discussion of a more stealthy option, bypassing the elevator and climbing down, but Ella didn’t trust their luck with a potential hundred-foot drop, and they were a reasonable distance from the hub, so they decided to risk the elevator; she also wouldn’t allow the team to be split up to scout ahead, lest the scouts be caught too far from help. At the bottom, Buck threw the switch to turn the lights on—the microbots sensors suggested the guards were wearing helmets, which meant they probably had some kind of night vision, so darkness wouldn’t be to either side’s advantage. The Crew crept forward down the mine tunnels, using the map to help keep their bearings, while Abe kept an eye on the microbots’ display.

Keeping the group together, they approached a tunnel-corner around which they expected a couple of sentries. Haank peeked his gauss rifle around the corner to spot the enemy on his scope’s video feed, while Sae maneuvered into position to follow him up, but the weapon was spotted by the sentries, who called out an alarm and assumed defensive positions at the other end of the rough-cut hallway. One of the sentries peeked out from cover, and Haank fired a memory-baton shotgun round into his faceplate, knocking him to the ground. The Crew immediately pressed forward, around the corner. Abe tossed a B-cell ahead between the sentries and called, “Frag out!,” hoping to trick them into running away. The sentries were joined by two more from further in, and they all sprayed ineffective gauss fire in the Crew’s general direction, ricocheting off the rock walls, but leaving the Crew untouched. Sae bounded forward of the rest of the group and planted a memory-baton double-tap in the second sentry’s sternum before bearing left at the “T” to pursue a third to cover. Buck trailed close behind Sae and shot down the second. Haank took the right-hand tunnel to pursue the fourth, who was fleeing back the way he came. Seeing the severely injured sentry-two, Abe immediately sprang forward to render medical aid; Ella ordered the Crew to remain in place to cover Abe, as he worked frantically to save the fallen enemy’s life, forcing his fellow sentry-one (who wasn’t able to flee) to help. Sae exchanged fire with sentry-three, dropping him with his UAW, and covered Sam as he slipped forward to drag the now-unconscious enemy back to the medic—as he did, Sam spotted a fifth fighter around the next corner, who hesitated to shoot. To the right, Haank, Buck and Ella engaged the fourth man as he popped in and out around a far corner, eventually resorting to poking his rifle around the corner to spray gauss fire blindly down the tunnel; Buck shot through the rifle and the hand that wielded it. To the left, Sae pursued the new fifth man, who fled before him; he loosed a memory-baton shotgun round into the back of the fleeing enemy’s leg, shattering his femur.

Haank and Buck attempted to convince the wounded sentry-four to surrender, but he stubbornly refused, having slumped seated to the floor. From a chamber beyond him, a young woman, not wearing armor or environment suit, rounded the corner with empty hands raised, saying that one of them needed medical help, before sentry-four angrily pulled her back. As the Crew continued to attempt to talk the sentry down, the girl reappeared and got free of him, and cautiously approached the Crew; Haank waved her forward and handed her off to Ella, who took her back to Abe. She explained that Amelio had been wounded nearly to death in the elevator (Buck’s doing); he had been dragged out and bandaged as well as they could, but his condition continued to worsen beyond their meagre ability to treat him. Abe was focused on his desperate attempt to repair sentry-two’s torn artery, and told the girl that Amelio would have to be brought to him. Buck and Haank pressed forward down the hall and, with no fight left in him, sentry-four finally surrendered where he sat. There were a dozen others in the chamber beyond, of various ages and armament, including the bedridden Amelio; after laying down their arms, Haank ordered a couple of them to take up Amelio’s bed and carry him back down the hall to Abe. Meanwhile, a call was placed back to Ifogi, to fetch medical personnel to the mine to help; Sam was tasked to go take the Spinward Star back and pick them up, along with Ducote and whatever law-enforcement officers he saw fit to bring along. Sam got a bit turned around in the mine tunnels, and ended up back where he started before being directed out properly.

Abe was still working on the sentry when Amelio flatlined; Buck started emergency resuscitation procedures, aided by Haank, and managed to bring him back, just in time for Abe to finish closing up the other one, and switch patients.

Shortly thereafter, Ducote and his people arrived to take custody of the surrendered outlaws. After the wounded had been stabilized enough to move, they were all taken aboard the ship and flown back to Ifogi to be locked up. At town, Abe followed the doctor and his patients into the hospital facility and continued to help out; he was later asked if he could stay on for a while, as they were a bit short-handed at the moment, and he agreed to do so, with the captain’s permission granted. The rest would take the next couple of days to sort out where and how their quarry, Valerie Vaskor, had gone.

Notes

• Buck’s player rolled a critical failure opening the door; the GM decided it would just take longer—we have no idea whether or not it had any special effect on the situation
• Sae showed his Overconfidence by splitting off from the group more than once, earning some annoyed looks from Ella
• In the last session, Buck sprayed automatic fire down the elevator shaft after the escaping Amelio; when the elevator returned, there was blood all over, but no Amelio, presumed to have been dragged out by his comrades
• When Sam decided to head back to the ship, solo, the GM asked for an IQ roll to navigate the tunnels, and he rolled a “17”
• Amazingly enough, none of the outlaws were killed in this entire affair, though several would spend a comparatively-long time in the hospital

Duty Roster:

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

Lost Boys

Continued… The leader of the outlaws reacted to Sae’s hostile realignment and dropped his PA mike, and briefly ducked out of sight, returning with a ready gauss rifle to spray automatic fire down upon the Crew, before retreating again. Haank was wounded in the process, but stood his ground as his suit’s trauma-maintenance programming kicked in to stop the bleeding. Sam bolted for the ventral hatch of the Spinward Star and made for the cockpit. The gauss rifle of the second man, the sniper that had crept up behind the Crew, was destroyed by a long burst of gauss fire from Abe, some of which penetrated the rifle and struck the sniper, wounding him badly; Abe continued to press his target until he crawled out of sight. Sae engaged the third man, which Haank had spotted earlier at the corner of the main building, and after a few exchanges of ineffective fire, flanking, struck him squarely in the chest with a double-tap from his underbarrel gauss shotgun’s memory-baton rounds, cracking ribs and sending him flying back. Meanwhile, Ella, Buck and Haank rushed forward to the main building’s ground-level entrance; Buck was in first, and spotted the outlaw leader escaping in the open-sided industrial elevator down into the mine, and sprayed gauss fire down the shaft after him. No others were encountered, and the fight was over. They recalled the elevator, which they found empty upon its return, save for a great deal of blood, smeared toward the exit, suggesting the leader had been dragged out. The sniper was found unconscious from his wounds, having crawled a short distance away, and Abe immediately rendered aid, removing the man’s environment suit to patch up his wounds before taking him aboard the ship—he would survive the day, though he would need further hospitalization and treatment for mild radiation exposure.

The corner-man was also brought aboard the ship, hurting but alive. Sae, growling menacingly, backed up Haank as he questioned the man, threatening to toss him out of the airlock without his environment suit if he didn’t cooperate. The corner-man confessed that there were around a dozen more in the mine, well armed and prepared for an assault. He demonstrated great loyalty to his fellows and his leader, and unrepentantly insisted they would never stop raiding the colony. Satisfied they had gotten what information they could from him, both prisoners were remanded to low-berth pods, to be delivered to the colony’s authorities, where they might be more properly interrogated.

Before leaving the mine to return to Ifogi, the Crew gathered up the outlaws’ nearby vehicles—all of them—and drove them back to the colony, escorted by the Spinward Star overhead. If the outlaws were to exact some sort of revenge, they would have to walk.

The ship landed just outside the city of Ifogi, and was met by the colony’s President/Mayor/Minister of Defense/General of the Army/Chief of Police/Lead Detective, Chas Ducote, and some of his men. The vehicles were secured, and the prisoners awakened from stasis. Abe followed the sniper as he was carried on a litter to the hospital facility, gave his report to the doctor there, and left him in their custody, under armed guard. Haank debriefed Ducote on what had occurred, showing him recorded video from his HUD-glasses of the encounter. With help from the colony database, Ducote was able to identify the outlaws in the video: one was an off-worlder; another a third-generation colonist with family still in residence. The leader was also identified as a third-generation colonist, named Amelio, a miner and explosives specialist, a charismatic but ill-tempered fellow that inspired loyalty amongst his followers, with a rap sheet that included numerous violent episodes.

With the mine complex the outlaws were using as a headquarters now identified, Ducote was able to get some maps of the tunnels, such as they were before they had been abandoned—the corner-man had claimed the Crew would never be able to navigate the maze below. The outlaws had been raiding for around six months, and the supplies they had taken were accounted for; they raided every couple of weeks or so, and would not likely last long without making another run—but the Crew didn’t want to take the time away from their search for Valerie Vaskor to wait out the outlaws’ supply. Haank recommended the outlaws be somehow drawn out of the tunnels, not fight them on their very-defensible home ground. Not knowing what innocents might be down there, they were reluctant to pump gas into the mine’s exposed life-support processor, though they were considering shutting it off or disabling it, to force the outlaws to emerge to repair it, where they could be ambushed. After some discussion, though, the Crew decided they would go into the mine after them—with proper caution and preparation, they could bypass, or at least, survive the inevitable boobytraps, expecting that in a direct confrontation, the outlaws’ morale would quickly break, especially if their leader could be taken down.

Notes

• The search for Valerie Vaskor began here
• The mercenary contract specified that lethal force was not to be used except in self-defense, which meant the Crew wouldn’t engage until actually attacked—though Sae nearly broke contract, he kept it under control. Haank’s character added an SOP Perk to always record video of hostile encounters, for CYA purposes—we wanted solid evidence we had not broken the terms of our contract. As it stands, we haven’t killed anyone yet, though it looks pretty bad for the leader from our current perspective
• The outlaws were wearing un-armored environment suits, so they weren’t going to take much punishment; just “glass cannons” here
• Abe ended up being the combat-monster in this fight, to his surprise—as a self-defense-only pacifist, and mostly-new to the use of lethal weaponry. He was looking to disable the enemy’s weapon, and succeeded, but gauss rifles aren’t good cover
• Though we did eventually agree that we would be going into the tunnels next session, we haven’t quite decided how we’re going to get around the inevitable explosive boobytraps yet. Our preparations may include riot-shields, and maybe scout-drones, if we can scrape up that sort of thing

Duty Roster:

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

Fallout Shelter

There was no freight or passengers bound for their next destination of Pirema—a population of less than a hundred—and no more information to be gathered regarding their quarry, the missing Valerie Vaskor. So, with their business on Kkirka concluded, the Spinward Star broke orbit and headed for Kkirka V, the nearest gas giant, to refuel; a trip of three days, cut down a few hours by some masterful navigation-plotting by Sam. Refueling operation completed, they immediately jumped outbound for Pirema. The week in jumpspace passed without incident, and they used the time to get in some Judo training in the empty hold.

They arrived and entered orbit around Pirema II on schedule. There was a bit of a delay before ground control responded to their request for landing clearance, to no one’s surprise—the pad was just a clear spot on the ground, and monitoring of traffic for a colony this small would not usually be a high priority, for obvious reasons.

Elijah Patterson

As they exited the airlock, the Crew was welcomed at the site by the Port director, Elijah Patterson, accompanied by his two grandchildren, all wearing sealed environment suits to protect them from the heat, and the radioactive dust that clouded the otherwise breathable atmosphere. The older girl, Kaylii, was fascinated by the ship, and asked many questions, hinting at some actual familiarity. The younger boy, Owin, was fascinated with the Vargr, having never met a non-human before—Sae answered his questions matter-of-factly, as if he expected this sort of thing. Elijah was very friendly, and invited the Crew back to their facility, a half-mile drive away, to take their ease and get something to eat—he indicated that the food here was particularly good. Buck and Jones remained behind at the ship to keep watch and do regular ground maintenance, as the others took up their host’s offer.

At the colony, their suits had to be decontaminated before entering. Inside, the facility was functional and well-kept, but definitely not designed for aesthetics. They followed their host to the mess hall, and were treated to a fine meal, as advertised; pictures were taken and sent back to the ship to taunt those who remained behind—Jones took off on foot across the half-mile of desert to join them. As they were finishing eating, when shown the last-known image of Valerie Vaskor, said he had indeed encountered her, as she had spent nearly a month at the colony, helping the local doctor and otherwise making herself useful while the Black Star was under repair, but he did not know the current status of the Black Star—though he could find out.

They were interrupted as Elijah received some news that obviously caused him concern. The Crew expressed their willingness to help with whatever-it-was, and he reluctantly admitted that the colony had occasional problems with “outlaws” raiding supplies, sometimes doing damage to the facility or causing minor injuries, though there had been at least one death at their hands, recently. The Crew offered their assistance.

Chas Ducote

Elijah gathered up the Crew and drove them out to the old “city,” Ifogi, the center of population when they had some to speak of, which remains the center of the colony’s tiny, yet overly-officious government. As they traveled, the Crew called back to the ship to have Buck gather up their combat gear from the arms locker and bring it to the city in the air/raft, in case they needed to get to it in a hurry. At the near “ghost town” of Ifogi, they were escorted to Government Tower, where they were introduced to the colony’s President/Mayor/Minister of Defense/General of the Army/Chief of Police/Lead Detective, Chas Ducote, who went into more detail regarding the raids—perpetrated by a mix of off-worlders and former colonists/employees believed to be hiding out in one of the abandoned mine complexes that littered the nearby environs, the specifics of which the colony had been unable to determine thus far. Ducote then produced a standard Imperial mercenary ticket form—Haank was very familiar with these from his mercenary days, but Buck sorted through it all with ease that suggested some familiarity of his own—and the documents were reviewed, conditions agreed upon (outlaws were to be brought in alive to face local justice, for 150,000 credits), signatures made, and hands shaken. With that settled, the Crew went back to the Spinward Star.

The ship was taken up as high as they could go while still able to see well enough through the dusty atmosphere. They scanned the abandoned facilities indicated by Ducote as possible bases; one mining complex in particular showed hot on thermal scans, indicating it was probably in use—that would be the one. Sam guided the ship in a stealthy approach to the facility, hugging the terrain, and as he crested over the nearby mountain, stuck the landing like a prize-winning Olympic gymnast. Jones remained aboard to man the ship’s laser turret and monitor the security cameras, as the rest exited the ship to approach.

The Crew stood on open desert ground between the ship and the dilapidated structure that presumably housed the mine shaft and observed for a moment. Haank spotted a glint in the shadows under the structure, but couldn’t make out what it was. Ella called out to whomever it was to surrender themselves, as the others flanked her and kept watch on the nearby rocks for an ambush. A voice on a PA system responded that they would not, and had the Crew surrounded, and demanded they lay down their arms. Ella demanded to see with whom it was she was dealing, and the PA-man stepped out of an upper platform door to the structure; he did not appear “military” at all, just a thug to their reckoning. Sam spotted another outlaw behind them, creeping into position. Ella continued to threaten force, but the PA-man continued to refuse to capitulate, offering no excuse or mitigation—he claimed that the reported “murder” was the fault of the victim, who attempted to resist. Ella had mostly run out of solutions and patience, and Sam had started to fall back to the ship’s airlock, when the itch in Sae’s trigger-finger was about to get the better of him, and his muscles tensed in preparation to realign his weapon toward the PA-man. To be continued…

Notes

• The search for Valerie Vaskor began here
• Our trip in this case was from a world-population of ~1000 to one of ~80—BTN 2.5—so potential commerce was zero. We did discuss buying a few cases of beer, at least, which we later discussed as a possibility for the future, to keep a few pallets of something like beer/cigarettes for sale on backwaters we might come across
• Local gravity on Pirema is (according to some online sources) .66G; -2 DX, as appropriate, for most of us. The GM was mostly equating the environment to a “hot” Mars, plus the radiation danger
• Sae’s player is the father of two (currently) small children, so he was playing out the questioning between his Vargr and the young boy in chat in a very “lifelike” fashion
• The GM did check the Star Mercs book for details on the mercenary ticket
• The GM decided the landing spot would be tricky and called for a pilot roll; Sam’s player rolled a 3
• Sae’s player has been studying up on the Vargr psychology in general, and has been making some adjustments to how he’s played. In this instance, though he’s super loyal to Ella and the rest of the Crew, he won’t hesitate to take charge of a situation. After the mess that was 1Shot.02b, though, he’s trying to hold back a little before going off half-cocked. We wrapped on a cliffhanger just as the player decided to pull the trigger

Duty Roster:

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

Missing Persons

The Crew did not stay long on Yori V. They spent a day dropping off the company men they had rescued or recovered, turning over the surviving insurgents they had captured, making official statements, signing non-disclosure agreements, and destroying recordings of their “visit” to the now-destroyed Ancients site on Yori IIn. Once paid for their delivery (which didn’t quite occur) and officially exonerated of any wrongdoing, the ship was fueled, and the Spinward Star soon jumped out for Regina, leaving Yori and the unpleasant business thereat behind them.

The Spinward Star arrived insystem at Regina without incident, and was met there with large amounts of vessel traffic of all shapes and sizes, civilian and military, as befitted the sector’s capital. Haank, in particular, had been looking forward to the arrival here, as Regina was his homeworld; he made contact with his family as soon as they were within range. The ship was cleared for approach to the Regina downport, and set down at Bay A312 after another hour or so navigating traffic patterns. Once cleared for entry by customs officials, Ella officially released the Crew for a week of liberty, after which they would decide where to go next.

• Ella spent the week going to live poetry readings, and otherwise trying to forget the ship, and her experiences on it of late
• Sam went on a week-long pub-crawl; he got merrily smashed, and met many interesting folk that were soon forgotten in an alcohol-induced blur
• Buck spent the week doing post-jump engine maintenance at a leisurely pace
• Haank went home to his family farm and spent the week with his mother and father there, and ran a few errands (like applying for a brokers’ license for Regina)

A couple of days into their liberty, Haank’s mother had invited an old family friend of theirs to visit, Richard Vaskor. As they had the opportunity to talk, Richard revealed to Haank that he was searching for his missing daughter, Valerie (whom Haank had babysitted for in his youth before he had gone hitchhiking). She had dropped out of medical school to go hitchhiking the sector, taking working-passage on tramp freighters here and there, and had been communicating regularly until eight months ago, after which there had been no word. Her last communication was from Echiste: she had been picked up by a free trader, the Black Star, as their medical officer, and they were headed rimward down the Spinward Mains. Richard had reported her missing to the authorities, but they had given up for lack of any usable leads. Haank spoke to Ella, then the others, and they agreed to look for the missing girl, or news of what had become of her. Richard offered to pay for the Crew’s services; Haank initially refused, but at Richard’s insistence, Ella agreed to the offer. Haank took copies of all the communications Richard had with Valerie since she had left, and the Crew started researching.

Valerie Vaskor; last-known image

The Crew’s research revealed that there wasn’t much information to be had. The Black Star was an old Beowulf-class free trader with a sad history of rotten luck with its former owners, the parents of the current captain, Adric Mason. That curse continued under Adric’s command in the form of a couple of deaths, both low-berth failures—no wrongdoing was ever alleged. Besides that, Adric had a bit of a “revolving door” with regard to his crew, Valerie being among his latest hires, picked up at Rech, where she had been stranded after her previous venture. The jump-1 drives on the Black Star restricted it to the Mains, which left only a couple of possible destinations from Valerie’s last transmission on Echiste, and meant that the Spinward Star should be easily able to catch her up. The Crew plotted the quickest route to Pirema, the most-likely choice, and Haank found some freight and a passenger bound for Kkirka, which would be their first stop on the way.

At the end of their shore-leave, the Spinward Star was fueled up, loaded up, and ready to go. They broke orbit, and jumped out immediately for Wypoc, an Amber Zone, so they wouldn’t be staying longer than they had to—they refueled at a gas giant and continued on to Kkirka without delay.

The Spinward Star arrived in the Kkirka system, and they set down at the mainworld’s downport. With a population of only 1200, they didn’t expect much. Sam made straight for the local pub and started schmoozing with locals and transients alike, backed up by Buck, and joined hours later by Haank, after he finished offloading their freight. A local human woman, who worked at the port, took a shine to Sam, and invited him to spend the night with her—he accepted. The next morning, Sam returned to the ship with a smile on his face, and some new information: a year past (a couple of months before the hiring of Valerie), the Black Star was here on Kkirka advertising for a new crew position, which was odd, in that the candidate eventually chosen was the least experienced among the applicants, a woman, of no obvious attributes that would suggest a reason for the decision.

Notes

• This was a fill-in one-shot game, due to some absences; Sae and Abe were playerless for this session
• Back when we purchased the ship, we had no real plan where to go from there, so we decided to head for Regina—not too far, Haank’s homeworld, and a wealthy stop. Now that we’d arrived, we needed a new plan—we didn’t exactly come up with one, except that it will now obviously include chasing down the Black Star
• Our short-term plan is to get to Pirema, find out whatever we can, and circle back to Regina, picking up freight jobs where we can along the way. We’re pretty flush with cash right now, but we’ve been bleeding it out with each jump where we haven’t taken on cargo. Of course, whatever information we find on Pirema could lead us elsewhere…
• Sam is beginning to settle into his new role as “getter of information”—though he’ll still have to compete with Abe for “ship’s tomcat”