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Spinward Star, LLP

Corporate Retreat, Part Three

    • 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..


Digloiotti says soldiers killed in border skirmish with Stepozhevac

GIOMAE, Democratic Republic of Digloiotti (Traveller News Service) – Digloiotti soldiers were killed and wounded in a cross-border skirmish with Stepozhevac troops this week, Democratic Republic of Digloiotti’s military said on Tuday.

Each side accused the other of violating the poorly-demarcated border, the scene of periodic clashes in recent years. During the recently ended world war, millions of people were killed in wars in the region.

Donovon Ndjike, a spokesman for Digloiotti’s army in East Kiivo province, said he did not yet have exact figures but that Wonday’s fighting broke out when an army patrol came under fire from Stepozhevac troops 200 meters into Digloiotti territory.

“According to our information, there were deaths and injuries during the exchange of fire, which took place several hours before the two countries declared a ceasefire,” Ndjike said.

Stepozhevac’s army denied it had crossed the border in response to Count Anjiliac’s demand for a report stating instead that Digloiotti troops “violated our territorial border and subsequently attacked our defensive position”.

Both sides asked the count to dispatch a team to investigate the incident.

Since the end of two major wars in eastern Digloiotti between 1100-1107, Stepozhevac has backed a series of insurrections in the region, saying its actions were necessary to neutralize perpetrators of Stepozhevac’s 1098 genocide who fled to eastern Digloiotti.

Reporting By Fiston Ross

Spinward Star, LLP

Corporate Retreat, Part Two

  • 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..

Spinward Star, LLP

Corporate Retreat, Part One

  • Seven days after reuniting with Admiral Gloval, the crew departs 627-301 and head for Porozlo. Ninety-six days pass.
  • Upon arrival at Porozlo, the crew split to their own interests.
  • Buck encounters Ulysses Pitt, his commercial enemy, and the two end up getting drunk together which patches up their relationship.
  • Sae is summoned to his Imperial Intelligence contacts where he discovers that his operation in the Aramis sub-sector was wholly unsanctioned!
  • Eddy is mugged on the station and attempts to pursue the thief but the man escapes. Furious, he reaches out to Sae for help in hunting this guy down.
  • Ella and Haank go dirtside for the court date with Monsaanti-Neogene Corporation where they get hints that MNC was not expecting any members of the crew to show up. Afterward, Haank is contacted by “Roxy” who he believes is Sam’s latest girlfriend; she arranges to meet him and Ella at a nearby (familiar) mall food court.
  • Meanwhile, Eddy and Sae have tracked down the former’s mugger in a run-down hostel where they discover him dead, evidently of an overdose. They search the body and room but do not find the stolen monies. Sae, however, discovers a concealed camera observing the room and, as he attempts to get it, armored men kick in some doors…
  • At the food court, Ella and Haank meet with Roxy with the former quickly becoming suspicious. Her deception revealed, Roxy makes a signal and suddenly, the two are surrounded by armed personnel…

GM Notes:

  • Andricus was out for this session.
  • Spent a little more time than I would have liked trying to figure out how much each PC was paid.
  • We skipped the 96-day trip to Porozlo because it wasn’t all that relevant.
  • 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..

Spinward Star, LLP

Crucible, Part Five

  • Flashback: Ten minutes earlier, on the engineering deck, Rolemnarla sneaks around like a gobliny Obi-Wan Kenobi. He remains undetected and appears to cause a massive cascade failure. Alarms shriek, warning of imminent core containment failure. All hands are warned to evacuate.
  • The ‘exfiltration’ team made up of Ella, Buck and Aris ‘borrow’ the system defense boat and launch, hoping to hook up with the ‘rescue’ team on the medical deck; simultaneously, the ‘rescue’ team (Haank, Eddy & Sae … plus the unconscious Ibrahim) opt to get off the station via an escape pod. The two groups reunite soon after.
  • A fast gig is observed leaving the station, protected by six fighters. Three of these fighters angle sharply toward the system defense boat, las-guns flashing. A fierce lightfight ensues, leaving the three fighters destroyed and the SDB lightly damaged.
  • The crew are able to deduce the destination of the gig: a jump system grav-anchored alongside an icy planetesimal. Recognizing their only way out of system, Ella aims toward it as well and a race is on! The three fighters then move to engage the SDB while the gig continues to burn hard toward the jump shuttle.
  • Two of the fighters are destroyed and, when Eddy’s attempts to talk the gig into surrendering fails, it too is shot down.
  • A strike carrier arrives in-system during the fight, commanded by Admiral Gloval, much to everyone’s surprise. The crew then realize that far more time has passed than the two or so days they’ve experienced. They’ve lost more than 188 days…

GM Notes:

  • We used GURPS: Spaceships for the lightfight and it worked fairly well. I made a couple of mistakes along the way, but that’s par for the course. I also introduced a spaceships range band chart that was heavily influenced by the starship range chart thing in the first d20 Star Wars RPG (which, ironically, I hated at the time because I was so accustomed to actually using miniatures for everything.) We then used some modified Chase rules that I sort of hashed out before the case for the race. I’m thinking of  trying to rewrite them and maybe submit them to Pyramid magazine…
  • This completes Season 4, Adventure 1: Crucible.
  • 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..

Spinward Star, LLP

Crucible, Part Four

  • Flashback: Ten minutes earlier, in the medical, the three rescued spacers from the INS Drake wake from low berth, begin screaming, and then start killing everyone present. Alarms sound.
  • The crew are reunited and, with LT Thanisson’s aid, formulate a plan that requires them to split up. Haank will take Eddie and Sae (acting as a prisoner) to rescue Abe, while Ella will lead Aris and Buck to the flight deck to “liberate” the system defense boat.
  • Both groups are forced to go through security checkpoints but encounter no real difficulty thanks to Thanisson’s remote assistance.
  • In surgical area, the rescue team discover that Abe has been implanted with some sort of implant by a sociopathic doctor who is very pleased that this subject survived. Sae has had enough and shoots the man in the head. While escaping, the crew are set upon by security personnel and must defend themselves.
  • At the same time, Ella’s time encounters resistance in the form of the system defense boat’s crew but handily cut them down in a short but fierce firefight.
  • Suddenly, the entire station trembles. Alarms begin sounding: ‘Core breach detected. You now have ten minutes to reach minimum safe distance…”

GM Notes:

  • The simultaneous firefights on two different maps was an experiment that worked out nicely, though in the future, I will need to name some of the bad guys differently so as to better differentiate between them.
  • No one was really surprised that Sae shot the doctor after the state they found Abe in.
  • 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..

Spinward Star, LLP

Crucible, Part Three

  • Flashback: Sae is interrogated by Imperial Intelligence types.
  • Crew is in the fighters, thrusting away from the INS Drake and are intercepted by a systems defense boat that provides them oxygen and coordinates.
  • Coordinates lead them to a space station. On the station, crew meet LT Thanisson who Sae realizes is an Imperial Intelligence agent.
    Crew forced to go through decon but are gassed instead.
  • Wake up in cells. Abe is missing. Sae is escorted to interrogation by Thanisson, discovers that not only is Abe a psi but he’s being experimented on! Sae’s cybernetics are reactivated by Thanisson and he attacks.
  • In cells, a new alien the crew do not know is brought into the cellblocks by more guards who begin to beat it. The crew are enraged (thanks to subtle psionics by the alien) and, when the cells open, attack the guards.
  • As the last of the guards collapse … alarms begin sounding.

GM Notes:

  • Had to cut the session early due to work issues.
  • We were all very amused by Aris’ battle madness.
  • 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..

Spinward Star, LLP

Crucible, Part Two

  • We open with flashback for Buck as he recalls something about his youth that he did not remember previously. Apparently, he has a highborn cousin who arranged for his memories to be altered.
  • Back aboard the INS Drake, the crew attempt to figure out what’s going on. This results in the discovery of a great many corpses, all of whom appear to have killed themselves.
  • When Eddy finally breaches aft engineering, he is horrified to discover an armless, legless human being secured in a bizarre contraption tied to the ship’s systems via cybernetic implants. Telepathically, this individual relates his horrific agony and desire simply to die.
  • Some hours later, just as the crew are beginning to settle in for the Jump, the Drake abruptly returns to realspace with a hideous shudder. To their horror, they realize that they are dangerously close to a black hole! Something explosively self-destructs and the entire aft end of the Drake is torn free, crippling the vessel.
  • The crew desperately race to figure out how to escape and ultimately decide to use the Sparrowhawk fighters still present. One such fighter is nonfunctional and they have discovered three of the Drake’s crew in low-berths, so it is decided to jury-rig fives ‘freezers’ to the fighters (three for the crew, two for Aris and Buck.)
  • We end with the fighters launching…

GM Notes:

  • As GM, I made a few errors here.
  • First, I should have actually read up on the radiation stuff (even though there actually wasn’t any radiation) because it came up.
  • Aris is a Klutz and in my notes, I specifically intended for him to be responsible for the aft end of the Drake getting torn free and he fumbles something, it causes a malfunction, which results in a cascade feedback and then boom. And, of course, when that point came in the game, I completely forgot about this plan and did not remember it until well after.
  • Finally, and this is something Gigermann brought up after the fact, I really should have had all the people in the cockpits of the fighters make their launch rolls secretly (or “into the box” as we say) and then end the session without letting them know what the results were apart from “Fighters … launch!”
  • Since we’re livestreaming our games every Saturdays (6:00PM Eastern) at the Olympus 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.

Spinward Star, LLP

Crucible, Part One

Scene 1:

  • Open with Ella Stanbridge being interrogated by unknown agents, then flash back to the moment of escape.
  • Crew are racing toward malfunctioning gate, having rescued Sae who is grievously injured thanks to his escape pod getting damaged.
  • Pass through malfunctioning gate, which hyper-accelerates the Aimless Pilgrim far faster than it is designed to handle which hurls many of the crew into bulkheads and the like, resulting in many broken limbs. Chief Engineer Enzo Arabejo is grievously injured when his skull is smashed into something.
  • The Pilgrim is boarded by freaked out and trigger-happy marines. Several of the PCs realize that the unit patches worn by these armored marines indicate this is Gazulin, some 53 parsecs away from Corfu!
  • As the crew is taken aboard a strike carrier, Aris and Haank are able to see where the Pilgrim emerged from: one of Gazulin’s moons. And it has melted.

Scene 2:

  • For the next thirty days or so, the crew are kept isolated from one another and repeatedly interrogated about how they managed to Jump so close to the sub-sector capital.
  • Eventually, as their stories seem to add up, they are relocated to a lower security prison but the interrogations continue, albeit sometimes in groups and now with more scientists than intelligence spooks.
  • Everyone notes that Ibrahim seems more detached and quiet than normal but he passes it off first as a bad reaction to the drugs he received during interrogation and then due to his ‘break-up’ with Lorain.
  • Admiral Gloval manages to obtain the crew’s release but is forced to do some missions for Gazulin Intelligence. He also reveals that Enzo lived, but the engineer suffered severe brain damage due to the accident and is currently in a hospice for treatment.
  • The crew departs Gazulin at the earliest opportunity, their initial destination: Peridot.

Scene 3:

  • The Pilgrim heads to Peridot but does not land; they refuel then jump to a seemingly empty system though Gloval knows better. He informs the crew that he has been instructed to scout out some abnormal activity detected here.
  • Eventually, a very faint transmission is detected in-system which leads them to a seemingly derelict INS Drake. The large corvette-sized vessel is mostly powered down and Ella takes her crew aboard with Armin flying the launch.
  • The crew boards but finds everything pretty much powered down; Haank attempts to reactivate the auxiliary power unit but it fails quickly, indicating that the batteries have been expended. Ella decides to split the team – she, Abe and Aris will remain on the bridge to monitor while everyone else accompanies Buck to the engineering section to power systems back up.
  • Reaching the forward engineering compartment requires manually opening several hatches, but eventually they reach their destination and Buck begins bringing systems online.
  • Abruptly, the Drake lurches forward and its weapons systems inexplicably fire, damaging the Aimless Pilgrim! Buck automatically reaches for the manual shutoff … but his hand freezes in mid-air!
  • And then, the Drake makes a surprise Jump…

GM Notes:

  • I (Rigil) have officially taken over GM duties for this campaign. I’ve been jonesing to run some sci-fi for a while now and my original intent – “run a one-off adventure” – quickly morphed into a potentially massive story arc that could take an entire year or more to finish. As this would mean nobody else has to run for a while, there haven’t been any complaints.
  • Due to school and other real life obligations, Loki had to bow out of rejoining us so Armin has been relegated NPC status. The same obviously holds true for Abe, my PC.
  • 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..

Company of the Bere

Live Stream
YouTube

But in the end, the village held fast.

Moving more carefully than previously, Lëodan pursued the retreating Antagonese mercenaries as they fled Gentleham. Though it takes him about two hours (or more accurately, takes the mercs that long), he finally reaches the camp where he observes an argument taking place between what appears to be the mercenary leadership, no doubt concerning the recent defeat. The arguing men enter a much larger tent, which limits the amount of information Lëodan might glean. After some time, the elf becomes satisfied that the Antagonese are not going to march a reprisal force back to the village and thus, heads back to Gentleham. He reaches the village near midnight and wakes Ser Kenrick to inform him of his findings; the knight then seeks out the acting watch officer of the lord-vicar to pass this on.

The following morning, the Company heads out, taking with them the survivor of the earlier ambush to the site of the Antagonese attack. Once there, they spend some time evaluating the tracks; Lëodan is able to easily pick up the route that the ambushers took with their prisoners which is, to no one’s surprise, headed in the direction of the mercenary camp. Ser Kenrick thanks the survivor for assistance and allows him to return to Gentleham while the rest of the Company follow the trail of the enemy.

Upon reaching the outskirts of the mercenary camp, the Company are surprised to discover that a large, open pavilion set apart from the other tents. There, a man Lëodan recognizes as the commander of the force is waiting underneath a white flag of truce; he has several guards with him, and, after a moment of consideration, Ser Kenrick advances with Rayna and Brother Getwelle, also under the white flag.

The mercenary commander identifies himself as ‘Mallus the Clever’ of the Brigandian Band and he is quite polite as they exchange pleasantries. From him, the Company learn that Band are members of the Mercenaries’ Guild, but they do not find out who has hired them. After a bit of discussion – and some very excellent wine – Mallus has a drunken Marthyn the Swift returned to the Company and accepts Ser Kenrick’s offer to carry the missive to the arl regarding a hostage exchange.

With Marthyn rescued, the Company returns to Gentleham to discover that the bulk of the lord-vicar’s forces have arrived, but he himself has headed back toward Nobleham to report his success to the arl. The Company spend a short time gathering supplies and saying their goodbyes before heading out, knowing that they will have to camp overnight.

Once at Nobleham, they make their way directly to the castle where they are escorted inside so that they may get cleaned up in preparation for a meeting later with the arl; Ser Kenrick has the chamberlain take the missive from the mercenaries regarding the hostage exchange so that the arl is made aware of it immediately. Some hours later, the Company is summoned to the arl’s Council where Ser Kenrick is asked to debrief them. Satisfied with these results, the Company is dismissed until later.

Released to their own interests, the Company splits apart to do whatever most interests them. Ser Kenrick, having grown up in the Woodlands, is fascinated by the sea so he spends some time walking along the bay and simply soaking this in. Most of the rest of the Company simply relax, while Lëodan replenishes his arrows and Brother Getwelle makes an attempt to heal the arl’s wife of her sleeping sickness, sadly without success. Later that evening, the Company are summoned to the more formal arl’s court where he officially thanks them for their successful efforts and declares their term of service complete. He also offers to employ them on a more permanent basis, should they tire of the Heroes’ Guild, but the Company defers for the moment, leaving the option open for later.

The following morning, the Company sets out, intent on reaching the Capital as quickly as possible. Along the way, they encounter some people burying a man and, when Getwelle advances to offer his services as an itinerant holy man, they learn that this poor fool died of the burning pox. To Murdok’s eyes, the corpse stirs and issues an ominous threat that hints at the dwarf having unfinished business with a demon; none of the other members of the Company see this, however, though they do note that the dwarf is visibly shaken.

Some days later, they reach the Two Burning Cocks inn where Getwelle heals the innkeeper’s daughter of a dire illness. In thanks for this, the innkeep gifts the militant brother with the borrowed “donkey” that Getwelle has grown rather fond of.

On to the Capital the Company press and, upon reaching it, they head directly to the Heroes’ Guild to report their success. Eventually, they are brought before Válaris of Heroham who asks of Aidin how well they did; the cleric admits that they were far more successful than expected and, as a result, the Company are promoted to journeyman status within the Guild. Payment is meted out and the Company are released to sell their captured loot.


Player Notes:

  • This recap is horribly overdue. We played this session two weeks ago (on 4 November) and I’m just now getting around to typing this up. We had more after this during the stream but it’s basically just paperwork.
  • This marked the conclusion of Giger’s initial run. Next up is a return to Frome County, CommJunkee’s GURPS: Western game.
  • We livestream our games every Saturdays at 6:00PM Eastern; the live stream can be found at Ronnke’s Twitch channel. He’s also setup a YouTube Channel.

See the Daniverse Blog for the GM’s post-game debrief.