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Dramatis Personæ

Wherein Castle Defiant is Officially Reclaimed…

Thorn’dil’s imbued light goes out, leaving him and Yusuf in darkness an instant after having witnessed the Elder Thing. Arn approaches them, however, armed with a stone he has cast continual light upon, but they discover that the abomination has vanished! The other explorers join them, have a very brief discussion regarding their next actions, and set out to hunt the Elder Thing down.

A tense cat-and-mouse game ensues, with the explorers attempting to maximize their fields of awareness – no easy task given the level of damage done to the castle – while the abomination sneaks about and utilizes its far superior mobility to strike from ambush. Dropping down from a hole in the roof from with lightning speed, the Elder Thing snatches at Arn who manages to blink away, then the abomination vanishes back up through the hole. Finn weaves a spell upon a rock so it emits light, then hurls it upstairs, hoping to illuminate the creature, but it is already gone; his weave is not entirely solid and the light pulses on and off rather than simply illuminating. Thorn creeps up the stairs until he can no longer see anything although he can certainly hear something up here; he retreats back down the stairs. Haruki shifts position and then, locks eyes with the Elder Thing through another hole in the ceiling, though it promptly shifts out of sight once more. Again, the explorers argue over the best way to deal with this creature.

Haruki, frustrated at this inaction, opts for the direct approach and charges up the stairs where he promptly trips and falls prone; the torch he was carrying skitters from his hands and slides across the floor to illuminate the Elder Thing which hisses and charges him! A fierce fight ensues, the noise of which draws the other explorers up the stairs – Thorn is the closest and uses Haruki’s great mass as cover to stab and thrust at the Elder Thing, though he quickly finds that his best efforts are barely penetrating the abomination’s thick hide. Yusuf joins the fray and attempts to dazzle the abomination with his cloak to no avail, and Ilanna quickly discovers that her bow is nearly useless against it. Zistral squeezes through the tight spaces of the stairwell and thrusts his spear into the creature but soon learns that it has an unnatural anatomy. When Arn and Finn enter the fray, they are forced to concentrate on the sudden appearance of three young trolls and thus, never even engage the Elder Thing. In the end, it is mostly Haruki who deals the killing blow despite being grappled by the abomination’s tentacles; with a Herculean effort, the Sahudi warrior thrusts his tetsubo into the creature’s beak, clearly breaking something which is too much for it as it passes out from pain. Haruki then breaks free and smashes the Elder Thing’s unconscious body into paste. As for the trolls, well, they don’t make good showings of themselves and are easily dispatched.

With the threat removed, the explorers spend some a little time regaining their breath, then search the Elder Thing’s would-be lair where they discover several valuable (and magical) items that will be put to good use in the near future. Having taken the time to clear out the upper levels of the castle, the explorers then turn toward what appears to be a basement which once had stairs but now has rubble. Climbing down is no fun for some of them – especially Zistral – but the moment they are down, skeletons begin standing up and charge them!

Another fierce battle ensues, with the living fighting the swarm of undead that seem to come out of nowhere. Finn and Yusuf are both badly injured but managed to struggle on while the others hold their own quite well. An ominous moan that sounds like thousands of plaintive souls crying out in misery echoes from the nearby room which intensifies the aggression of the skeletons still upright; on the bright side, it also means they attack with wild abandon, leaving themselves wide open for brutal counter-attacks which the explorers take great advantage of. Haruki especially is smashing apart his foes with mighty blows, though Ilanna is discovering that her newfound magical bow is quite deadly against armor.

With the first wave of undead downed, the explorers re-orient themselves to face the impending second wave and a zombie encased in heavy mail emerges from the nearby room – at his appearance, Ilanna looses a readied shot which punches through the undead creature’s shield and nails him in the head … though this does not seem to slow him too terribly. Two additional skeletons lurch out of the room behind the zombie and flank it in a shield wall. They display a surprising level of tactical competence in this, no doubt due to the zombie’s presence. Finn, having memorized all of his father’s stories about Castle Defiant as well as having learned a great deal from his primary martial instructor who was also from this place, recognizes that the zombie can only be Captain Ethrin, one of the last defenders of the castle who led a last-stand against the attackers.

The ensuing melee is fierce and fast, with the living explorers maneuvering for better position while the undead creatures strike quickly but seek to maintain their shield wall. Arn and Finn both hurl blasts of flame at the zombie captain, though the latter misses entirely and the former’s ball of fire is blocked by the undead creature’s shield. Arn, Thorn and Yusuf concentrate on one wing of the shield wall, eventually dropping that skeleton, while Haruki concentrates on trying to draw the zombie out of position so Zistral can get a clear shot at him. Eventually, this tactic sort of works – with a mighty blow, Haruki strikes the zombie so hard he is knocked forward and prone which gives the centaur an opportunity to drive his spear through the captain’s skull, ending his Unlife forever. The last skeleton is felled almost at the same time when Finn hurls his last prepared sunbolt to engulf it in flames and Haruki smashes it into pieces with another mighty blow from behind. The battle is over…

Following the battle, the explorers spend several long minutes simply recovering. Finn weaves a quick minor healing on Yusuf, then re-assembles the collapsed stairwell long enough for him and his allies to climb back into the castle’s courtyard. Having completed their mission, they exit the castle environs where they meet Ser Malfoy and his men who have completed their own sweep of the surrounding area. He listens to Finn’s brief description of the threats faced within the castle with a surprised (and perhaps briefly impressed) expression, then escorts them back to the caravan camp where they report to Ser Dane.

That evening, for the first time in forty-one years, a Caithness flag flies over Castle Defiant once more…


Player Notes:

  • This recap covers two sessions since both were basically two big fights. 1.05 was mostly just the fight with the madness sphere, while 1.06 was entirely the skeleton & zombie fight. Both fights were a lot more tense than my shoddy recap implies – Haruki was a few bad rolls away from getting his brains eaten by the Elder Thing in 1.05, and both Finn & Yusuf were very close to being dropped in 1.06 due to injuries taken; the former was down to 4 HP at one point and the latter ended the fight at 2 HP. Interestingly, the skeletons were more of a big threat in 1.06 than the badass zombie.
  • In the wake of the big fight in 1.05, the GM had us roll Search checks for loots and the four successful rolls then used Dungeon Fantasy 8: Treasure Tables to determine what we found. Three of these rolled really, really well – a scroll with a couple of spells on it; a dwarven light shield that has dancing shield on it; and a dwarven bow that has Armor Penetration (10) on arrows loosed – and the last roll ended up with a crowbar.
  • Haruki’s fall on the stairs in 1.05 was entirely the player’s decision since the character is Impulsive and a Klutz.
  • Fantasy Grounds was especially erratic with regards to dice rolling during 1.06 – the GM could not miss and, if the players connected with an attack, they did minimum damage more often than not.


Dramatis Personæ

Wherein the Expedition Begins a Campaign to Retake Castle Defiant…

After many difficult days of travel, the grand expedition now stands before the ruins of Castle Defiant. The celebratory mood of the smallfolk wanes somewhat when they are not allowed to rush forward to these ruins, but are rather redirected to the crumbling remains of Galentown where they are instructed to raise tents while the soldiers work on scouting out the environs and erect defensive fortifications. These are the Orclands, after all.

While this transpires, Finn will lead a small team of explorers (also known as his fellow PCs) to scout out the castle ruins to ensure that there are no troubles or foul beasts waiting in ambush. Only after he gives the all clear will the expedition look toward entering the castle and working on rebuilding it. Eager to prove himself, Finn accepts this task.

The explorers first do a wide sweep of the ruined castle with an eye toward verifying that there isn’t an inconveniently placed tribe of orcs on the other side, although both Haruki and Ilanna are barely able to conceal their impatience and desire to just get on with the poking around in the ruins. Zistral notes many tracks in the area, many of which he is unable to identify but appear to be large and relatively humanoid. Thankfully, there do not appear to be any lurking orcs waiting in ambush – or, if there are, the explorers failed to notice them – so they press on into the castle ruins themselves.

As expected, they find the interior of the castle to be a complete mess. Weeds from a once pristine garden have overgrown everything and it is clear that nature has started to reclaim this place. There are skeletal remains of fallen defenders everywhere, including within the castle’s well. While looking around, Arn notices movement on the upper levels and discreetly advises Finn who then passes word to the others. They look around for a way to reach these levels. Despite finding two sets of stairs, several of the explorers – Ilanna, Thorondil, and Yusuf – opt the climb up a broken wall while the rest plan to ascend stairs (particularly since Zistral is a Centaur and they suck at climbing.)

Haruki and Zistral head up the stairs first, but as they do, they disturb some sort of strange-looking slimy moss that begins to crawl toward Haruki’s legs and up his boot which the centaur notices. The two promptly retreat back down the stairs upon noting just how extensive this slime is, coughing as spores are kicked up. Above them, Ilanna and Thorondil investigate the very loud noises of the two moving down the stairs, and Ilanna recognizes the moss as ‘slime mold,’ a dangerous flesh-eating thing that puts its victims to sleep via the spores. The elves usually burn it out. Rather than risk this at the moment, the four on the lower level decide to take the other set of stairs up, despite them being much narrower which makes for more difficult going for the larger members of the team.

Upstairs, the two groups begin to converge with Ilanna in the vanguard. They enter a large room where several of them sense another presence but press forward. As Ilanna rounds a corner, she surprises a waiting creature she recognizes as a troll and springs back out of its reach; the beast pursues and strikes, but Ilanna dodges so well that the creatures lumbers past her. She then wheels around and shoots the troll squarely in the back of the head; her arrow strikes the beast’s brain and it falls. Thorn’dil has had a ringside seat to this and the others scramble to investigate the noise but find Ilanna leaning upon her bow and looking thoroughly pleased with herself. She calmly advises them that the creature will regenerate and will need to be decapitated, which Thorn’dil starts doing.

And then, another troll rushes from concealment and charges Yusuf! A fierce melee ensues with the three heavy fighters of the group – Haruki, Yusuf and Zistral – bashing away at the troll. Badly injured, the troll begins to retreat but the three pursue and Haruki finally lunges forward to smash its head to paste with his tetsubo.

While investigating this upper level, the great size of both Haruki and Zistral results in them falling through the already weakened floor; at first, it seems as though Haruki might be able to hold on and Zistral might be able to escape this fate, but the centaur’s attempts to help his ally results in both tumbling down. While looking for a way to aid them, Ilanna briefly catches sight of a bizarre-looking thing near where the two are and recognizes it as an Elder Thing, a sphere of madness. She advises Finn who hesitates for a moment – the logical course of action is for those on the upper level to head for the stairs and navigate down – and in this moment of hesitation, both Thorn’dil and Yusuf chose to begin climbing down. Thus, the decision is made and the three remaining upstairs – Arn, Finn and Ilanna – must climb down. Finn, being a terrible climber, takes an extraordinarily long amount of time to get down and is very pleased that he managed to do so … until Arn slips and falls on top of his fellow mage. Ilanna gets down with no trouble.

In a darkened room slightly apart from the others, Thorn’dil and Yusuf look around. The elf briefly imbues his sword with fire and, in that brief moment, both see the madness sphere lurking nearby.

And then, the fire goes out, leaving them alone in the dark…


Player Notes:

  • Per GM, the original plan was not for a “dungeon crawl” but we all had so much fun with this that he adjusted his plan on the fly and now we’re crawling the dungeon. And ending the session right before the madness sphere attacked was perfect timing…
  • Finn has Unluckiness and Haruki is a Klutz, so having Finn climb down with Haruki helping him was a recipe for disaster. Still, Finn made his Climb check by 0 (after taking 30x normal to get the +5 for this) … so of course, Arn failed his roll. As Finn’s player, I thought it was appropriate to invoke Unluckiness here and have Arn fall onto Finn … and the GM agreed.
  • Ilanna gained the bonus CP for this session after her awesome crit to the brain of the first troll. She dropped it in a single 1-second round while the three heavy fighters – Haruki, Yusuf, Zistral – took forever (like 5 or 6 seconds) to beat down the second troll.

Dramatis Personæ

Wherein a Great River is Crossed and a Fierce Beast is Fought…

Having crossed the desert, the great caravan now faces their next obstacle: crossing the River Kashk, which is very high due to the melting snows from winter. While the engineers debate over whether a ferry or a bridge is best, scouts are sent out to ensure the camp’s safety, especially considering the discovery of the Vasar corpses some days earlier. Zistral opts to swim the river and reconnoiter the western bank where he soon comes across a long-abandoned elvish camp but finds little else of note. To the north goes Ilanna, where she finds old game trails and what seems to be orc spoor, also long abandoned, while Thor’ndil heads south, finding little of note save signs of beasts.

At the campsite, the engineers continue their dispute regarding the river crossing but it is eventually decided that a bridge is the best option and work is promptly begun. As work progresses, Yusuf finds time to romance a young woman in the caravan at the expense of his actual duties, but is discovered doing so by a furious Ser Malfoy who drags him before Finn and demands punishment. The knight wishes five lashes at first, then increases this to ten when Yusuf mouths off to him, but Finn prevaricates and suggests a permanent latrine duty for Yusuf as well as promising to address this personally; Malfoy is displeased at the decision, no doubt thinking that Finn is being too lenient, but accepts the judgment. When he storms away, Finn then gives Yusuf a very stern talking to about duty and responsibility, two things that the gladiator has not had much experience in.

The construction of the bridge is fraught with delays and issues, with the various engineers continuing to bicker and dispute how things should progress (which definitely does not bode well for the rebuilding of Castle Defiant!) As it turned out, the bridge was not seated correctly and, as a result, was constantly being flooded once the first of the wagons began to cross. Several days pass before the convoy begins crossing and, as a precaution, a rope line is stretched across the river some distance down from the bridge for anyone unfortunate enough to be swept off into the water.

As the last of the wagons are crossing, the bridge suddenly shivers and shimmies – Finn, who is in the middle of the bridge and trying to keep everyone moving, shouts for an engineer to explain what just happened, but the would-be builder – Paedrag Parcell – has barely had time to reach the younger Sardock’s side to reassure him about the bridge’s structural integrity when a great beast erupts from the water and seizes the poor man! Mayhem ensues as the many tentacled beast begins laying about wildly, smashing apart wood pylons and trying to seize more tasty, tasty long pig.

Panic erupts among the three wagons still on the bridge with horses suddenly insane with terror and thus incapable of forward momentum. Finn, being an unlucky sort, scrambles out of the way of an immediate tentacle attack, while several of his companions – Arn, Ilanna and Zistral – are momentarily stunned by fright, while the others charge toward the danger. A fierce skirmish takes place with the beast flailing about while the more martial of the adventurers lay about with their weapons, intent on severing or crippling any tentacles they can reach. Thor’ndil gets one wagon clear of the bridge while Ilanna, who is on the opposite side of the bridge, moves to relocate to get a clear shot. In this chaos, the beast submerges for a brief time, giving the adventures long seconds to rush others of the smallfolk to safety.

When the beast reappears, it does so squarely under the now rickety bridge and the fight continues with half of the adventurers attacking and the other half desperately trying to get people to safety. One of the wagons is lost, with its pair of horses so panicked that they go over the side into the water, but no more civilians are lost as they are hurried away from the source of conflict. Finn abandons his attempts to calm the horses and shouts for the driver to abandon his wagon and flee, then stays alongside the man to protect him; Haruki simply seizes the man’s terrified wife who is clinging to the back of a wagon and forcibly carries her to safety. Seeing that Finn has not succeeded in calming the horses, Ilanna races forward and springs atop a panicking horse which she spurs forward, directing it and its partner (plus the attached wagon) across to safety. Noting that Arn still seems stunned from fear, Yusuf charges toward him and bellows at him to snap out of it.

Again, the beast emerges from the water and the fight resumes with Yusuf and Zistral attacking first and often. Finn also pitches in with his naginata as he retreats alongside Mister Thatcher who he is escorting to safety. Arn, now recovered, hurls a fireball at the beast. Meanwhile, Haruki is still evacuating children from the last wagon as he’s faster than their mother. Having sustained severe damage, the river beast sinks back beneath the water and moves again … but Zistral is having none of that and springs off the bridge to drive his spear deep into the creature. Both vanish in the river and all goes silent for a long time. Those on the now badly swaying bridge hurry to get the last of the civilians (and wagons) to the other side while trying to brace for another attack. Long moments pass and, just as Zistral is presumed lost, he emerges from from the river, gasping and swearing that the creature is not dead. Unwilling to stay this close to the river, Ser Dane orders the caravan to move away and conveniently, Zistral knows of a nearby elven camp. As the caravan sets out, behind them, the damaged bridge collapses entirely.

On the caravan presses,with Ilanna and Zistral leading the way.Throughout this time, they feel as if they are being carefully watched and followed, though they find no one. Some days before they reach Defiant, as they are traveling across the plains, Ilanna and Zistral observe an orc scouting party in the far distance that retreats as soon as the pair are sighted. They do not necessarily feel that these orcs are related to the sensation of being watched earlier.

The expedition reaches Castle Defiant without further incident and there is a great celebration as they stand there, looking at the ruins that are intended to be their home.

In a postscript “after credits” cutscene, the pale-skinned orc who was leading the scouting party enters a barbaric-looking hut wrought of wood and pelts and announces to his shadowy, hooded master that “fires burn at Castle Defiant.” The ‘camera’ sort of zooms in on the shadowy figure and reveals only his sinister eyes…


Player Notes:

  • Viewed dispassionately, we actually didn’t get a whole lot accomplished this session. There was some pre-bridge scouting along with bridge setup/construction and then the bridge fight which really ate up most of the actual session. Well, that and the GM getting it set up because it was a spur-of-the-moment change to his original plan.
  • Second session in a row where the technical difficulties were minor enough to be counted as insignificant. We did have a big period of dead time (~:27 minutes) where the GM spun up the improv bridge encounter, but that doesn’t count.
  • The GM had one of the players – Herodian – make a roll for the bridge construction and the result was an 18. This led the GM to rejiggering his plan in the middle of the session – evidently, he’d intended for us to fight some elves but thought better of it – which led to the “river kraken” fight. There was some confusion about the nature of that die roll: Herodian thought it was a ”universe reaction roll”” where the GM was thinking a skill check for the engineers.
  • Feste, Yusuf’s player, used the stern talking to by Finn as a reason to start buying off Selfish. As Finn’s player, I was totally unprepared for the bit with Malfoy – in my gaming experience, I’ve never seen one PC be responsible for the whipping of another and figured that Finn is still wide-eyed and naive enough to seek alternate options. If we were playing in 1700s on a ship, a flogging would have been his first option though. Still, I am interested to see if this situation recurs because if it does, Finn will likely have no choice but to order the flogging … how will Yusuf react to that, I wonder…
  • Herodian earned a bonus CP at the conclusion of the session for Zistral’s dive into the water. Some of us halfway suspected he wasn’t going to make it considering how rough the “water kraken” was.

Dramatis Personæ

Wherein Blood is Shed at an Oasis…

Ilanna Hawkeye and Zistral stand their ground in the face of the lizardmen who back off, before then flanking wide to get a proper visual of the main caravan. Realizing that there’s not much they can do to stop the lizardmen short of engaging them, the two scouts return to the main group to advise Ser Dane of this situation. At Finn’s recommendation, word is quickly passed along the ranks of the convoy with further instructions to close up the formation; he also suggests (which his father charges him with overseeing) that the children of the convoy be moved to the center of the caravan where they can be more easily defended should an attack take place. Within minutes, the entire convoy can see the four lizardmen ranging along the caravan’s sides which naturally causes some panic amongst those not armed; Arn is forced to calm down many of the smallfolk in his area (facing the lizardmen) who react fearfully at the sight of the dreaded creatures but he is rather successful at this. The lizardmen follow the column for some time, then break away to the south. That evening when camp is set up, it is done so to maximize line-of-sight to limit any potential lizard ninja attacks and, as a result, few of the expedition rest well for the night. Some, like Haruki, get no sleep at all because they remained awake the entire time. Campfires are noted in the distance as well, which is troubling.

Upon setting out in the morning, it is quickly noted that the same four lizardmen are following the column once more which the expert desert-men among the formation admit is a very bad sign. These lizardmen will trail behind them each of the remaining days, staying just out of engagement range, and with camps set up in the evening.

Some miserably long and hot days later, they reach the oasis but again, Finn urges restraint rather than everyone just rushing forward and leads a small group consisting of Arn, Haruki, Thor’ndil, and Yusuf to ensure that there is not a trap waiting for them. What they find instead is even worse: the water is spoiled! There are a handful of dead creatures scattered around which Arn and Yusuf notice first, and Finn utilizes a flow of Water and Spirit to determine that, as feared, drinking from the spring could be potentially lethal. The team discuss their options and Finn makes the decision to relate this newfound information to his father, along with a suggestion that he (Finn) utilize his spell-weaving to purify any of the water they do get. It is further decided that they wil replenish their water here and, once Finn purifies what is obtained, only the animals will drink of the cleansed water with the remaining water spread out among the people. Finn later addresses the convoy to advise them of the situation – as someone not particularly comfortable with addressing large groups of people, he doesn’t do too terribly though it definitely does not go over as well as he would like.

Late that evening, Arn is on duty and notes that the lizardmen campfires have been extinguished! Realizing that this might hint at an impending attack, he seeks out Finn to wake him; the younger Sardock listens, then goes immediately to advise his father and Ser Rodham who listen without expression. The elder Sardock does not allow Rodham to immediately begin issuing orders and instead asks Finn what he would recommend as a training tool. Finn awkwardly makes his suggestions and is pleased when Ser Rodham agrees on all points before offering a few minor adjustments. All of the warriors are alerted and instructed to get kitted up for a potential fight.

Several hours later, Thor’ndil notices strange movement near the herd animals and alerts Haruki before stealthing forward to investigate; the big Sahudi then informs Arn, Finn and Yusuf before following. Just as Thor’ndil sneaks forward, he catches sight of lizardmen ninjas who simultaneously detect him. This group of ninjas are moving in a pretty professional manner and, as the five adventurers draw closer, there is a sudden cry of alarm on the other side of the camp. Finn realizes immediately that the other attack is likely a distraction while this is the main thrust but by then, the fight is on! Haruki and Thor’ndil engage first, with the former smashing about with his great tetsubo, smashing bones when he connects, while the latter dances about in a very elfy manner that is quite effective. Unaware of exactly what’s going on due to the darkness, Yusuf charges toward the noises, then locates some lizardmen and rushes to engage them while Arn and Finn, who is greatly frustrated at the lack of team cooperation, pursue. During the fight, Yusuf is badly injured but stays upright which is more than can be said for most of the lizardmen as five of the seven are felled with two escaping.

In the immediate wake of the battle, Finn finds a place to throw up, as this was his very first ‘life-or-death’ fight; Haruki commisserates and is reminded of his first fight as well. Finn will then utilize a minor healing weave on Yusuf, though the former gladiator is still quite badly injured.

This victory is big as the lizardmen were considered something of a boogeyman and seeing so many of them felled with no resulting allied deaths results in a great morale boost among the convoy. Ser Rodham does not hesitate to execute the captured lizardmen which momentarily surprises Finn, even as he acknowledges the mercy in doing so. Scouts follow the fleeing survivors and determine that they are unlikely to make a second attempt; this strike clearly cost them more than they were expecting them to.

Many days pass as the convoy continues its westward march under the unrelenting sun. Ancient abandoned elves ruins are passed, leaving the more adventuresome among the caravan wishing they had more time (and water) to explore. Sandstorms strike and no one likes them at all but there are no losses and the terrain gradually transforms into plains as they emerge from the desert which pleases everyone. To Arn’s relief, mana begins to reappear, sporadically at first but then normally (which to someone from Caithness feels intensely powerful.) Behind them, strung along the route of their convoy are the corpses of livestock that fell and were left behind because Ser Dane was more focussed on getting the suffering smallfolk out of the desert than saving the animals. After so many days of unrelenting sand, seeing green grass and trees is a wonderful thing. Onward they push for several more days until they reach the banks of the River Kashk to everyone’s great relief.

But not all of the news is good as a small, long abandoned campsite is found that holds the corpses of feral Vasar…


Player Notes:

  • Missing Herodian and Melissa for this session so we discovered that the GM and those two resolved exactly what happened to their characters after the rest of us logged out the previous session.
  • Surprisingly free of technical issues for a change.
  • Fantasy Grounds was being particularly insane for this session. We saw, by my count, at least six natural 18s, three of which were rolled by one player (me!) in a short span of time.
  • Speaking of those crit fails, it’s a good thing we have “Plot Points” in this game, otherwise Finn would died early on due to a critical failure on a Path of Energy roll. According to RPM rules, a crit fail using that Path results in 4d burn damage, which put him at negative hp … and on fire, then he passed out attempting to ‘stop drop and roll’ and took additional “OMFG, I’m on fire” damage (think it was 3d-3?) while the other PCs were failing on DX checks to try and put him out (which brought to mind the Three Stooges – “I throw this water on him to stop the fire!” “Well, it turns out to be lamp oil so …”), which took Finn past his first death check threshold … which I promptly failed by 1. Needless to say, I was very irked – this wasn’t even in combat! – until I was reminded that we had Plot Points. So I burned all of mine (see what I did there?) to reroll that PoE check and not suddenly explode into fire. Am already looking into possible options about how to avoid doing that again …
  • As was to be expected, the darkness penalties really played havoc with us and made the fight drag out for a long time.

Dramatis Personæ

Wherein A Grand Expedition Sets Out From Caithness…

It is spring, 2035, and an expedition to reclaim Castle Defiant has been organized. This expedition will be led by Ser Dane Sardock and must first cross the Great Desert, which is no easy task thanks to both the harsh climate and the presence of many aggressive tribes of lizardmen. His intended plan is to strike out from Bordertown, then cut across the narrowest portion of the Desert as he knows many of the smallfolk who are simply unprepared for the difficulty inherent in a desert crossing. To serve as his war captain, he has enlisted the aid of his close friend, Ser Rodham Malfoy, who will command the seventeen soldiers who are to help protect the smallfolk. He shall also be taking his second son, Finn, while leaving his firstborn and heir to rule over his lands while he is away.

From Wallace, the expedition heads south to Bordertown where they gather and prepare for the arduous journey upon the morrow. To the frustration of the expedition leadership, they do not set out until near midday. The centaur, Zistral, is declared to be the head scout and, along with the archer, Ilanna Hawkeye, he will be setting the route. Based mostly on Zistral’s recommendation, they will move during the day – this he believes poses the least threat, despite the high chance of lizardmen encounter. Strict water rationing is to be put into place but no one expects the smallfolk to really listen, at least on the first day. Upon breaking up this first meeting, Ser Dane takes his son, Finn, to a dinner with the Bordertown mayor; this quickly becomes excruciatingly uncomfortable for poor Finn when the mayor introduces his daughter and then starts hinting at a possible marriage. It does not help that Ser Dane seems to enjoy his son’s discomfort and plays along. Nothing is decided, of course, and Finn remains fairly noncommittal throughout.

Upon the morrow, the expedition sets out from Bordertown after a brief announcement from Ser Rodham to the smallfolk; in this short speech, he announces the strict water rationing and warns them harshly that attempts to replenish their water ahead of schedule will be flatly refused. Their first destination will be the salt mine that serves as the primary source of income for Bordertown; the road to this mine is patrolled fairly frequently and is thus expected to be safe. Unlike the previous day, the expedition mostly sets out on time.

It is very hot and many of the expedition are simply unprepared for just how hot. Finn utilizes a weave that drastically improves his temperature tolerance, but that does not help with regards to water so he begins making mental plans to obtain more water via magic; he makes sure to tease Arn for being able to actually weave his spells in the no mana zone. Arn and Thorondil have been tasked to walk with the water wagons and are forced to turn back several smallfolk during the day who have already finished their water rations for the day. Ser Rodham intervenes briefly when Thorondil is not quite as convincing as he would like and the hulking knight’s simple presence makes the smallfolk glumly back down. Throughout the trip, Haruki also spends time moving through the convoy and does what he can to make the children present smile and laugh despite the difficult trip.

The expedition arrives at the salt mine and discover it to be even more inhospitable than the part of the desert they’ve already travelled through; the terrain appears almost white from all of the salt dust. Ser Dane orders camp to be set up as far from the actual mine as possible as many of the miners are known to be prisoners and he does want to mix the groups. Once camp is set up, the second half of water rations are handed out. Arn and Thorondil note that the married soldiers tend to sneak bits of their water rations to their families, which is against Ser Rodham’s instructions; neither of the men reveal this, though Arn is torn between his sense of honesty and his code of honor. During the water replenishment, Finn gets permission from his father to utilize his spell-weaving to refill at least one of the now empty water barrels; it isn’t much, only about 40 gallons, and it takes an hour to do this, but it is something. That evening, another ‘brain trust’ gathering takes place in which it is debated whether they should instead move during the night as opposed to the day, but it is decided to continue moving during the day because the benefits outweigh the difficulties. Also, late that evening, Thorondil seeks out the salt mine’s water tower to climb.

In the morning, the various characters get up to carry out their assigned tasks. Arn and Thorondil are still on water protection/hand out detail, while Haruki and Yusuf circle amongst the camp, hoping to encourage the smallfolk to pick up the pace. One such family is definitely lagging behind so, while Haruki attempts to talk sense into the irritated and unenthusiastic children, Yusuf bellows an order for the family to pick up the damned pace! The family jump to obey but are not particularly happy with the former gladiator for being singled out as lagging behind. During this, Finn moves through the camp, offering suggestions and recommendations and instructions about how to pick up the pace; demonstrating some clear leadership in this, he draws an approving look from his father but, being a delusional sort, probably misinterprets this.

Into the deeper desert the expedition goes where they find the terrain is even more unforgiving. The heat is unrelenting and there is no longer a road to follow. Ilanna and Zistral are at the vanguard of the convoy as befitting scouts and, around midday, catch sight of a quartet of armed lizardmen atop strange-looking beasts of burden. There is a tense stand-off as the two groups stare at one another, with Zistral side-stepping as appropriate to ensure that the lizardmen never quite have a clear route to the convoy. After some time, the lizardmen clearly grow frustrated with this and instead, begin advancing on the two scouts which Zistral knows is a very bad sign…


Player Notes:

  • Recap by Rigil Kent.
  • Spent a long, long time just trying to iron out Feste’s Fantasy Grounds and TeamSpeak problems. Computers very clearly hate him – I’d be willing to bet that in the sessions he’s played with us, easily 75% or more of them have included him having some sort of technical difficulty.
  • Looking at things objectively, we actually didn’t get a lot done, but that’s almost to be expected when you start a brand new campaign with brand new characters, not to mention doing a long desert crossing.
  • Four of the seven players represent the children of five of the previous Banestorm characters. Not bad for a ‘Next Generation’ thing – could be five of the seven if I (Rigil) can talk the GM into revealing a Secret that Ser Dane is actually Ilanna’s dad. 😛
  • Yes, I know that “Ser” is the wrong way to spell it but that’s how it was done in the Game of Thrones books and I rather liked that affection, so I went with it.
  • Herodian and Melissa are scheduled to be absent next week, which is ironic considering where we left off.

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)

Clearing the Heir

Note: This recap was finally posted about a year late (and post-dated) for…reasons. It is highly condensed as a result, and covers roughly four sessions.


  • Arrived at Risek; Ella took over as pilot, for practice.
  • At downport, contacted IISS regarding the Gloria Exodus; IISS comes over to take possession of the survivors.
  • Local press makes a big deal of the “discovery” and mobs the docks for a press-conference, photo-op; Eddy schmoozes, before heading off on his own.
  • “Lurker” spotted at the back of the press-conference.

  • Ella, Haank and Sae leave the ship for the bank to take care of ship’s business; followed by the “lurker.” Sae circles back and observes the lurker while the others enter the bank, and ends up calling the cops on him.
  • Lurker “bumps” Ella on her way to the postal service, drops a note in her pocket, which she reads later: “Vincent” needs discreet charter off world, leaves contact info, a time and phone number at a local bar.
  • Sae loses Victor when he leaves in a taxi.
  • Sam goes ahead to the bar, chats up the locals, and observes. Ella calls the bar for Vincent, discusses charter: he needs to get one passenger and himself off-world without entanglements, offers 10k/passenger, counters w/ 100k for no-holds-barred. “Sad Keanu” also spotted at the bar.
  • Local news: heir to Chandler Enterprises (private-owned local mega-corp) is missing after parents killed in accident; Crew figures that’s the guy.
  • Later, at the ship, Crew discusses possible plans, including a fake radioactives delivery to smuggle someone through customs.
  • Observe starport security processes, and determine vulnerability: sympathetic locals might look away or assist. Ella chats with laundry service lady.

  • Day 2
  • Vincent contacted again at specified bar at specified time. Sam already there, observing. Arrange in-person meeting at starport Brubek’s. Sam watches someone follow Vincent out of the bar, tails him. Sae picks up the tail at the starport, while Same stays with Victor.
  • Haank talks discreetly with Victor at the bar. Meanwhile, Sam enters, followed by Vic’s tail, followed by Sae. Haank discreetly switches out with Sam to continue conversation. The tail is observed checking for dead-drops. Sam leaves, and Haank goes to pay his tab, leaving Vic a scrambler code for mission updates.
  • Victor leaves, still followed by tail, still followed by Sae, who breaks off after a bit.
  • Day 3
  • Ella convinces the laundry lady to help their smuggling op.
  • Buck, with Abe’s help, A-Teams a “perfect” Wang-Chung laundry delivery van in the startown.
  • Sae pickpockets a Wang-Chung laundry driver’s SPA badge.
  • Day 4
  • Buck repurposes SPA badge for Haank. who will drive the truck. Taxi acquired.
  • Victor is informed of the plan: Bruss to be picked up and delivered through the laundry service to the ship, while Victor is picked up in a taxi, tail is shaken off, and walked through SPA security.

  • Sae Fast Talks Jones into his role in the heist.
  • Sam has to “fix” tag scanner for laundry guy when delivering spacesuits to the laundry.
    • Haank drives the truck to the safe-house, with Abe.
    • Bruss picked up, plus suitcase.
    • Abe and Bruss hide in laundry carts.
    • Haank delivers laundry to the starport and leaves with the suitcase (having removed and discarded the gun) before returning to the ship.
    • Abe almost gets dumped, has to tranq a laundry worker.
    • Bruss gets into visored spacesuit, and Abe escorts from staff entry to the ship.
    • Ella is at the ship on comms, directs traffic
    • Sae drives the cab, and arrives to pick up Victor, Jones in trunk; Vic’s tail slaps tracker on trunk
    • Under way, Jones and Victor swap clothes and positions.
    • Jones dropped off at bar (Dick & Pickle); new fare gets in, a couple, bound for Arcology B; tail follows Jones.
    • Jones heads for the bathroom, caught by tail; they struggle; Jones finds out about the tracker before escaping, informs the others.
    • Sae’s cab is followed by another vehicle; scares passengers with his driving as he speeds away. Loses tail with a lucky vertical track-change, tracker knocked off. Stops in Arcology B, let fares off, and takes a new cab back to the ship.
    • Jones loses (original) tail at crowded mall, and returns to the ship.
  • All flights delayed, security flagged; Victor is still outside starport and can’t re-enter.
  • Buck starts hacking, cancels customs flag on Vic and Bruss.
  • Crew departs without further incident.

Duty Roster:

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

trav2-hangar

Rogue Planet

With all pirates dead, unconscious, or otherwise out of the fight, the Crew began sorting out the situation that remained. The “slaves” were held in jury-rigged cages in the hold of the hangar’s lone occupant, the far-trader, Jacob’s Apprentice, whose owner/captain, Jacob Bishop, was among those released. The pirates that still lived replaced the released hostages in the cells, and were questioned. What remained of Captain Bishop’s cargo, mixed in with other loot, was warehoused nearby; though they did not demand payment for the rescue, the Crew did agree to split the cargo with Bishop. Buck evaluated the condition of the ship and found it spaceworthy, though the jump-drive was a bit dodgy—might make a jump or two before it failed. It was decided that the Spinward Star would escort the Jacob’s Apprentice and Learned Lady back to Titleman Station (Fulacin Prime’s highport).

trav2-fulacin orbital

The nine-day trip went without incident. After disembarking, Professor Well gave them his sincere thanks for the rescue of his colleagues, and an official note from the University’s insurance company promising a 200k credit, standard “rescue fee,” which they could redeem at the nearest Rhylanor Imperial (Bank) branch on their way back to Regina; they decided Risek was their best option, only a little out of the way. With that, the Crew bid farewell to those they had rescued, and departed outsystem for Risek.

The Spinward Star entered jumpspace, and the Crew settled into their usual routines. Four days into the jump, while Haank was on watch in the middle of the “night,” the ship was suddenly pulled out of jumpspace. Haank immediately sounded the alarm and jumped into the pilot’s seat just in time to steer the ship out of the way of some debris. Before them was a massive, dark gas-giant, with several moons and lots of asteroids and planetary debris in its orbit, but no sun at all—a rogue planet. Sam was able to determine their position at around halfway between Fulacin and Risek. The ship’s comms began to pick up an automated distress call, which they triangulated, appearing to originate from a nearby moon. They approached the moon and began to scan the surface from orbit for the source of the signal, and found the wreck, a massive generation ship of a possibly Terran or very old Imperial make.

Gloriaexodus

The Crew cautiously entered the moon’s atmosphere and landed the ship on what solid ground they could find in the loose sand near the crash site, and disembarked in a wheeled rover (which was among their share of the Apprentice’s cargo); the air was full of radioactive dust, so they dosed themselves with anti-radiation meds before leaving, and remained in their vacc-suits for the duration. The drove the rover as close as the dunes would allow, within 10m or so, and continued on foot over the treacherous sand (Eddy was nearly swept under the ship), to find a place to enter the crash. Buck decided to force one of the cargo ramps; he used the rover to power the electronic locks, and rigged a bypass, but the door itself was stuck fast, so he ended up using the rover’s winch to pull the ramp down.

Inside the cargo bay, they found the wreck silent as the grave. They found a pile of discarded animal bones—cattle, from the look of it—years, maybe decades old. They also found electrical lines running fore and aft, powering a jury-rigged communications suite, apparently wired up to the ship’s antenna array. The Crew split up to follow the electrical lines and some weak hits on hand-held bioscanners that some had brought along. They discovered, in one cargo bay, a number of jury-rigged low-berth pods containing around thirty survivors in stasis; and in another bay, an old encampment, the condition of which suggested a multi-year occupation; and in another bay, what was left of the startup colony’s supplies, including some old ground vehicles; and in another bay, hundreds of the ship’s original low-berth pods in various states of repair, some still holding the dead, having been stripped of usable parts to serve the remaining survivors. It was decided to attempt to move the jury-rigged pods to the Spinward Star to be taken to Risek and awakened there, though it would take a bit of engineering to move them without endangering the occupants—some took the rover back to the ship to fetch the portable fusion reactor to keep the units powered during the move. Meanwhile, Eddy continued to explore, and found a portable computer terminal belonging to the captain, Elliot Vance; after managing to power it up, among other data, he found copies of the ship’s logs. He relayed to the rest of the Crew the fate of the generation ship, the “Gloria Exodus”: centuries back, it had crashed on a moon of this uncharted rogue-planet, and the survivors managed to survive for around three years sheltered within the ship from the harsh environment outside; after further deaths from sickness or accidents, the chief engineer, Alexander McGarren—a mechanical genius, by all accounts—managed to hobble together enough functional stasis pods to keep the survivors alive almost indefinitely, in the hopes that someone might eventually stumble across their signal.

The Crew took time and care, and using the colony vehicles in addition to their own, managed to move the pods to the Spinward Star without incident. They then departed the moon, skimmed the gas-giant for fuel, and jumped out for Risek as originally planned.


Notes

  • Commjunkee took over as GM for a one-shot run, of which this session was the second part; Eddy, the regular GM’s PC, continued with the Crew; Abe’s player was out this week as well for reasons.
  • Due to…circumstances, I took far too long to get around to writing up this report; as a result, my memory of the events is less than complete, and I had to abbreviate things a little more than the session probably deserved
  • In the 2.5 weeks out and back to Fulacin II, Salla had finally gotten his repairs done and left the station, I think
  • I don’t recall if the fate of the captured pirates was ever specified, but I assume they were turned over to local authorities—I think the one that cooperated was discreetly allowed to slip away
  • The captain of the Gloria Exodus is is named for two of the guest-GM’s children (Elliot, and Vance)
  • The chief engineer, Alexander McGarren, is an homage to MacGyver
  • I don’t think the rogue planet was ever referred to by name by the GM, but I have referred to it on our wiki as EV-001 (standard scientific naming convention is to name it for the discoverer—Elliot Vance—and in this case, it was his first such discovery), but it’s just as likely they called it “Bob” or something like that

Duty Roster:

Edrasii “Eddy” Bkar’hen (Ronnke)
Ella Stanbridge (Melissa)
Ertrane “Buck” Buckner (Herodian)
Henri Haank Makruus (Gigermann)
Ibrahim “Abe” Nouri-Abbood (Rigil Kent)
Sam Turner (Winston)
Sae Rraetheg (Winston)

trav2-safariship

Pirate Activity

While Abe rendered medical aid to the three wounded pirates, the one that had surrendered was taken to the hold, and Eddy continued questioning him regarding his former company. The ex-pirate continued to be forthcoming, and Eddy offered him food and drink as he told his tale. He revealed the pirate company was 10-15 strong at the moment, based out of a partly-hidden hangar; their other ship/crew left a little over a week ago to do some trading in a neighboring system, and would not be expected to return for another few days at the very earliest; there were regular patrols of the surface near the base, with a few men at most, currently traveling back and forth to the scientists dig site to loot their supplies; captives were being held in a captured ship in the hangar, and were being readied for sale as slaves within the week; the base had a sensor suite that would be able to spot approaching craft. Meanwhile, Sam tried to narrow down the source of the ground-based comm signal he had picked up during the fighting, and to get a better view of the topography around the area, the details of which were corroborated by the surrendered ex-pirate, who also supplied a rough map of the hangar indicating likely encounters with its occupants. The planet was airless, .66 G, but inside the base would be normalized.

The Crew then gathered in the lounge to make their rescue plans. They studied the intel, and determined base’s sensors would be masked by the ridge the base was hidden under. They decided to go in fast, in a nap-of-the-earth approach in the sensors’ blind spot; the idea of using the launch or the safari ship as a distraction was discussed, but they decided against putting their crew in any further peril—speed and stealth should be enough. They geared up for a hard fight; for non-lethal options, they took along some tangler grenades they had purchased from Salla at Fulacin.

The approach went smoothly; no sign of detection. As they descended below the cloud of volcanic ash, they were able to pick up clearly the pirates’ comm signal; there was a bit of casual chatter between the base and a patrol at the research camp, and some wondering regarding the ambush team’s status. The Spinward Star swept up to the side of the ridge opposite the base, and barely touched down to let the assault team disembark, before backing off a safe distance to provide overwatch. The assault team scaled down the ridge-face to the half-buried hangar, and split into two teams, each stacking up on a different airlock. Access to the base was unlocked, but would make some noise as the locks cycled—their entrance would not go unnoticed—so they would be going in loud, vigilant for potential civilian bystanders.

trav2-hangar

  • 1shot5b-002The “A” team of Ella, Sae and Abe entered through the forward airlock, and as it cycled, they spotted a couple of pirates within the control room on the other side of the inner viewport, who reacted to their appearance by attempting to sound an alarm. Sae pressed in first and shot the operators down, killing one instantly. Abe followed behind and did what he could to keep the other alive, while Ella and Sae turned their attention to the airlock’s side exit, and a couple of pirates they had spotted taking up cover positions on the other side of the hangar, near the back of the Empress Marava-class far-trader therein. They took cover beside the opening airlock door and began to exchange long-range fire with the pirates. The pirate taking cover at the aft corner of the ship retreated out of sight, presumably to circle around, while his comrade remained behind cover and kept up pressure on the airlock.
  • 1shot5b-001The “B” team of Haank, Buck and Eddy entered through the side-tunnel airlock, and as it cycled, they spotted a couple of pirates in a barracks-room on the other side of the inner viewport, playing cards on one of the bunks. The team rushed in immediately as the door opened and surprised the guards, who couldn’t arm themselves quickly enough to put up a proper fight, and indicated their surrender. As Eddy approached to secure one of them, he caught his vacc-suit on a nearby wall-locker and pulled it down on top of himself, at which point one of the pirates attempted to seize the opportunity to attack Haank from behind, but was shot down. Eddy remained behind to secure the prisoners while Haank and Buck emerged through the secondary airlock exit into the hangar.
  • 1shot5b-003The pirate that had been exchanging fire with Ella and Sae walled them inside the airlock with a barrage of tangler grenades from an under-barrel launcher. Sae fell back into the control room, where Abe was still performing first aid, and began attempting to shoot through the thick glass with his magnum pistol, but failed to connect with his target beyond. The pirate changed to a fresh magazine of high-explosive grenades and fired on the airlock, which did little more than clear out the webbing, and decided instead to fall back behind the ship, pursued soon after by Ella, then Sae.
  • 1shot5b-004Haank and Buck rounded the corner to head for the ship’s lowered port cargo ramp when Haank was jumped by a cutlass-wielding pirate; Haank ducked out of the way, leaving his attacker open for a long burst from Buck’s gauss rifle. As Haank approached the ramp, someone inside tossed a grenade out, and Haank quickly kicked it back inside before it detonated, and then ducked under the ramp to crawl across to the other side, while Buck took cover at the airlock corner and exchanged fire with the pirates inside the ship. Haank reached the other side of the ramp and sneaked his gauss rifle low around the corner, viewing through the scope video link, sighted in on the heavily-armored pirate leader, and with a lucky “perfect” shot, fired a single APHD that blew a hole straight through his heart and out the other side of his armor. It so shocked the remaining couple of pirates nearby (the ones Ella and Sae were after, having just entered through the open starboard ramp) that they threw down their arms and surrendered, lest they suffer a similar fate.

Meanwhile, outside the base, the Spinward Star had been loitering, and had eventually picked up a heat-signature inbound from the research dig-site—the patrol, in a wheeled-vehicle. Sam maneuvered the ship to intercept, with Jones manning the laser-turret, and secured their surrender as well.


Notes

  • Commjunkee took over as GM for a one-shot run, of which this session was the second part; Eddy, the regular GM’s PC, continued with the Crew, while Sae was taken over by Sam’s player for the combat portion
  • This session was taken up almost entirely by a combination of mission-planning and executing a moderately-sized combat, the total of which took us far overtime for the night
  • With the barrage of tangler grenades fired at Team A’s airlock, we found ourselves needing to know what the DR of a “wall of goop” was, and what visibility, and the possibility of firing through open spots in said wall would be. We just improvised at the time; I’m not sure that information had been specified anywhere in the rules—we didn’t find it, at any rate
  • I don’t quite remember the specifics, but Haank was “forced” to resort to using his under-barrel gauss shotgun—I think it was just late, and we needed to end the fight quickly—which he had loaded (per SOP) with APHD rounds, which we discovered some time back can blow holes in ships (literally), 6d×3 (5) imp; the damage total rolled was 66. The leader of the pirates currently present was wearing space armor (DR100). I rolled a “1” on a d6 for the extra hit-location (MA137, “Torso”)—Vitals. Needless to say, it was insta-death. As Buck’s player said afterward: “You can’t just read a newspaper through that hole. You can deliver one”
  • Due to…circumstances, I took far too long to get around to writing up this report; as a result, my memory of the events is less than complete, and I had to abbreviate things a little more than I normally would have liked

Duty Roster:

Edrasii “Eddy” Bkar’hen (Ronnke)
Ella Stanbridge (Melissa)
Ertrane “Buck” Buckner (Herodian)
Henri Haank Makruus (Gigermann)
Ibrahim “Abe” Nouri-Abbood (Rigil Kent)
Sam Turner (Winston)
Sae Rraetheg

trav2-fulacin orbital

Trojan Horse

trav2-zwell
Prof. Well

As the two containers were being hauled away, the Crew of the Spinward Star observed a neighboring ship, a Type R2 Class Subsidized Merchant, the lcarus in Decline, with her jump drive pulled out for service. As they began searching for outbound delivery opportunities, they found a number of freight lots and passengers held up on account of her situation. Almost immediately, the Crew was approached by a tall, thin man, a university professor by the name of Zinfield Well, who required insystem transport to Fulacin IV as soon as possible, to meet another charter in orbit there; he referred back to a gaggle of bored and frustrated young college students, wearing vacc suits, seated on their luggage and science gear on the wharf, saying he and a few of his astrogeology students were on a university-sponsored research trip. Eddy took the professor aside and presented the company’s “best offer” (without consulting the company)—double the going rate—and convinced him that he had no viable alternative. The exorbitant charge was reluctantly agreed to, though the professor could only pay a fraction up-front; the remainder would be covered by a bank-note on the university’s behalf. Abe decided to hang out with the science students and talk shop, to learn what they might know about botany, and be generally sociable; he brought Valerie along, who eventually seemed more at ease around others of similar age and background.

trav2-salla
Salla Altunizian

Meanwhile, Ella was approached at the ramp by a well-dressed man, who introduced himself as Salla Altunizian, captain of the lcarus in Decline. He revealed that Sae (who wasn’t in the area at the time) had been a trusted crewman aboard his vessel in the past. He then explained that his ship was stranded waiting for jump drive parts to be delivered, and he had a rush-shipment in his hold that he was unable to deliver on time as a result; he would be willing to sell off some or all of it at a much-reduced price—small arms and military equipment, obtained legally—to recover some of his loss. Ella discussed the offer with the other partners; together they decided it was a good opportunity—they had the funds, and could probably sell off whatever they purchased at Yori or Treece, on the way to Regina, for a decent profit.

Ella contacted Salla and informed him that she would be sending someone to inspect the cargo. Haank took Buck and Sae with him to the lcarus’ berth, scanners in hand, and were welcomed by Sae’s old crew-mates, who showed them the cargo and associated manifests. Sections of the ship were kept strictly off-limits to prying eyes—Buck tried to get a look, saying he was wondering how he might help with their jump-drive issue. They took their time and went over everything thoroughly, and no shenanigans were discovered. Haank cleared it with Ella, and purchased 5 tons, which were loaded aboard the Spinward Star within the hour. They would be keeping a case or two of tangler munitions, as they’d been discussing the need for some non-lethal combat options. Afterward, Salla contacted Ella and invited the Crew to dinner; she accepted. The whole Crew attended, as did Salla’s; the dress was casual, and the food and drink excellent, and they wrapped up their business with a toast to good fortune. They might have stayed longer into the evening, but they didn’t want to keep their passengers waiting much longer, so they made their farewells and returned to their berth to ready the ship for departure and get all aboard.

trav2-safariship

It was a 9 day, 8 hour trip to Fulacin IV, in which nothing much occurred. Abe spent most of his time keeping company with the science students; their discussions eventually drifted into his research into the anti-freeze plant samples—he showed them his research, and held nothing back, not thinking about patents, or any sort of “business” concerns. After a week-plus in the black, on schedule, they made contact with the 200-ton Safari ship, Learned Lady, in orbit around the rockball planet, and Sam docked the Spinward Star belly-up at her ventral airlock. Her launch was gone; as the passengers disembarked and the Crew was allowed to look around and talk to their counterparts aboard the Lady, they were told that the launch was at the research site, dirtside, and was expected to return shortly. Some time later, the launch was picked up on sensors on a routing intercept vector, though it would not respond to comms; the crew of the Learned Lady thought little of it, but the Crew of the Spinward Star were immediately suspicious. The launch continued its approach, and docked, as if nothing were amiss. The captain went to the airlock to meet the returning team, and as the port opened, he was immediately shot dead.

1shot5a

  • Haank, Sam, Sae and Jones were still aboard the Spinward Star, and at the sound of gauss fire, they scrambled to repel boarders. While fetching his rifle from the ship’s weapons locker, Haank directed Sam to cut the gravity and lock down the cockpit, while Sae and Jones bolted for the turrets. Then Haank floated gracefully through the hatches “down” to the other ship, followed shortly by Sam, after he had attempted to find the pirates’ comm frequency and failed, due to some kind of interference caused by volcanic activity on the ground.
  • Ella and Buck were in the common area adjacent to the launch airlock, and took cover behind some local furniture and exchanged fire with the pirates as they pressed in from the launch. A couple of pirates quickly entered, while another, guessed to be their team-leader, remained behind cover in the airlock—one of the pirates who entered was killed; the other returned ineffectual fire from cover behind other nearby furniture.
  • Eddy helped clear the civilians out of the line of fire to starboard and up to the level “above.” He heard some movement on the other side of a nearby iris, and being unarmed, grabbed a nearby trophy and readied it to strike.
  • As Haank and Sam passed through the Learned Lady’s cockpit area, Sam remained behind to help them get the gravity shut off and try to lock down the launch so it couldn’t leave, while Haank made for the nearby hatch to the upper deck to join the others.
  • Abe was in a lab room across from the airlock where he had been socializing with the research students. As the shooting started, he closed the door, and set the students about gathering some materials to improvise a smoke-bomb. When completed, and the students had taken cover within the lab, he opened the door and threw the device to the launch’s airlock, though it deflected when the gravity unexpectedly cut out. The area around the launch airlock was quickly filled with obscuring smoke.
  • Another pair of boarders entered through Eddy’s door, but his “weapon” broke up mid-swing, and he was forced to use bare hands. He fled “down” through the hatch and brawled with the pirates as they attempted to follow and get a clear shot at him. He managed to knock one’s weapon away before kicking him unconscious, and pursued the other as he attempted to flee back to the launch.
  • The living pirate still inside the ship surrendered, flanked by Abe, who had managed to grab the other’s lost weapon as it floated by, around the same time Haank floated down from the level above. The pirate-leader closed the airlock and retreated back into the launch; it sounded like he was trying to spin up and break it free, to escape. Ella and Buck rushed the airlock door, and tried to force the lock, but the ship’s safeties prevented it from opening.
  • Eddy swung from the ceiling hatch and booted the remaining boarder through the door into a far wall, and beat him unconscious, just as Haank caught up to him. The two followed around to the launch’s starboard cargo portal, and managed to force it open just before it was locked down. They entered cautiously through the airlock leading into the passenger/cockpit compartment—knowing the pirate will have heard it cycle and would be prepared—and Haank put his rifle around the low-corner of the now-open iris, and fired a quick burst at the enemy, dropping him before he could react.

The (literal) smoke cleared. The launch was shut down, the dead placed in low-berth, and the prisoners secured. The surrendered pirate was questioned; he had been forced by circumstance into the pirates’ service, and told all he knew of their operation—the science team below had been captured and would be sold into slavery. Though Sam had been unable to pinpoint the source of the comm signal below, they had a pretty good idea where the pirate base would be, and would have to move quickly before the rest of the pirates began to suspect their ambush had gone awry. To be continued…


Notes

  • Commjunkee took over as GM for a one-shot run; Sae was therefore demoted to NPC status and generally kept clear of the action, while Eddy, the regular GM’s PC, continued with the Crew
  • The guest-GM took advantage of the opportunity to introduce Salla, Sae’s “arms-dealer” Contact, an old shipmate and captain of his, who had not made an appearance in the campaign as yet
  • Abe’s as yet unnamed “anti-freeze plant” goes back to the Crew’s shore-leave on La’Belle in Session 2.5, and has become a sort of side-goal for that character to turn it into something marketable, though the character, himself, is not so business-savvy to capitalize on the discovery. As a budding scientist, he was very proud of himself for having “scienced the shit out of” the pirate action, as were the students for their participation in repelling boarders
  • With the pirate’s attempt to flee with the launch, we found ourselves having to answer the question of how such a thing is secured to the mother-ship when so docked; we didn’t find any sort of reference at the time, though we presumed there should be some sort of safety measure to prevent the inner doors from being open when the launch was away, and that having the ability to programmatically prevent its leaving (by the ship’s computer) would be problematic in an emergency situation, and so disallowed

Duty Roster:

Edrasii “Eddy” Bkar’hen (Ronnke)
Ella Stanbridge (Melissa)
Ertrane “Buck” Buckner (Herodian)
Henri Haank Makruus
Ibrahim “Abe” Nouri-Abbood (Rigil Kent)
Sam Turner (Winston)
Sae Rraetheg (Ronnke)

trav2-Porozlo downs

Rush Job, Part III

Continued… It was around 08:00 IST and everyone was now awake in the crew’s lounge, sorting out what to do about Eddy’s capture. Buck pulled a radio-source detector out of his tool-pocket and synced it to his comm, and placed a call to Eddy; he could only narrow down his location to a residential quarter of the startown, moving generally toward the starport. Then Ella arrived, rather irritated at having to tear away from her “private business” so suddenly, having been alerted by a missed-call notice on her comm that contained a recording of the conversation with the bounty-hunter. Though his attempt to communicate had been cut off, Eddy had managed to pass on the words “broker” and “meeting”; Jones had been keeping tabs on the TrampNet feed for incoming deliveries (another now arriving) and found that there was a face-to-face meeting scheduled for an hour hence. Resigned to having to rush to this meeting she previously knew nothing about, Ella took a few minutes to put herself together and got under way, taking Abe along in Eddy’s place; there would be just enough time to get through security, navigate the startown, and make the schedule. Buck, Sam and Sae were left to plan Eddy’s rescue, also on an unknown, but believed short, timetable.

Sae took charge of the rescue mission planning. They had the advantage of knowing the bounty-hunter was taking Eddy to the Hellhound, his ship berthed on the other side of the starport; Buck’s comm signal trace gave a rough starting location, giving them a fair idea how long it would probably take for him to reach the ship—depending on how much grief the security personnel would give him at the entry checkpoint. Getting the bounty hunter in legal trouble would be difficult if his paperwork were in order, and they presumed it was. An open assault would give the Crew their own legal problems, aside from the potential difficulties inherent in the combat itself. In the end, they decided to have Buck booby-trap the ship’s access hatch with a simple electrical discharge that would, hopefully, stun the very large man. As backup, Sam and Sae would be at the Crew’s air/raft across the wharf, pretending to work on a smoking engine, with Buck in the open back seat hidden under a tarp, aiming Sae’s gauss shotgun loaded with stinger rounds. Once the bounty-hunter was stunned or unconscious, they could sweep in to “help” and spirit Eddy away in the confusion. They left immediately to see it done; the air/raft was positioned, smoke generated, and tarp readied. (Before leaving, Sae made a quick stop to “check the cargo” at the wharf, and dropped off Abe’s blood sample in the specified drainage grate.) Buck made his way separately along the busy docks to the Hellhound bearing a toolbox and clipboard; he was stopped on the way by a neighboring ship’s crewman, complaining that the repairs he was waiting for were long overdue—Buck promised he’d look into it ASAP. At the target, he made sure nobody was looking, rigged the booby-trap and disabled the remote-opening receiver, and returned to the air/raft the long way around, to take up his sniper’s position. Then, they waited…

Meanwhile, Ella and Abe had to call ahead to the broker to let him know they would be a bit late, as there was a lot of foot traffic at the security checkpoint—he didn’t make a fuss. They arrived around at the small, somewhat disorganized office around 09:30, and were greeted by a middle-aged fellow, the broker, who seemed like he was trying just a little too hard to be “hip,” coming across a little awkward, but otherwise harmless. He said it was customary for him, and company policy, to meet with new clients and shippers directly, to look them in the eye and see what sort of cloth they’re cut from. He offered them both a drink, and made some small talk about their company and its dealings, and cleared up a couple of minor paperwork and licensing questions. Afterward, they all shook hands and parted, satisfied that both sides were trustworthy.

trav2-checkpoint

As Ella and Abe were most of the way back through the still-crowded security checkpoint, Ella happened to look back and saw Maaq Mountain in the back of the queue, along with apparently-handcuffed Eddy. They decided to avoid drawing any attention right away, but find a waiting-room seat on the other side of the checkpoint, to observe the bounty-hunter as he passed through—they commed the rescue team to inform them. Eddy was taking every opportunity to cause the bounty-hunter trouble; security personnel were observed ushering them both to a side office to be interviewed. After a long wait, they finally re-emerged, with a more-compliant Eddy, and were ushered through the rest of the checkpoint. On the other side, Eddy spotted Ella and Abe at the waiting room; when Maaq wasn’t looking, he mouthed, “Help me,” as they passed, before the bounty-hunter flagged down a starport tram headed in the direction of his ship.

trav2-MMountain
Maaq Mountain

The rescue team got a second comm from Ella informing them that the bounty-hunter was on his way to the ship, and some fifteen minutes later, they emerged from the terminal and walked over toward the ship. Eddy stopped momentarily to ask the bounty-hunter to check his comm, which was beeping an alert (the bidding on the last freight lot had closed; the Spinward Star had the low bid); Maaq reluctantly obliged, expecting Eddy’s shenanigans to resume at any moment. They then continued to the ship and Maaq triggered the remote, cursing when it failed to respond. Then the rescue team held their collective breath as the bounty-hunter reached for the door handle.

There was a loud electric crack, and the large man collapsed to the ground on top of Eddy.

Sae rushed over to “help” as a crowd began to gather. He checked the fallen giant’s vital signs and declared him to be “just fine” (Sae’s medical training didn’t include Humaniti, exactly). Buck then came over as well, and could find no pulse or respiration at all. Being untrained in medical matters, they called out to the gathering onlookers for skilled assistance; one of the crowd happened to be a medical student, who determined the bounty-hunter had suffered a full cardiac arrest, and started trying to revive him, while waiting for the starport paramedics to arrive. As the crowd was focused on the lifesaving efforts, Buck discreetly removed his booby-trap from the door and made a quick exit from the scene, while Sae collected up Eddy and did the same. Sam piloted the air/raft away with all aboard, leaving the bounty-hunter to his fate, in more-or-less capable hands.

An hour or so later, as the Porozlo suns had set for the first of two times for the day, to be replaced by the gathering clouds, the last of the freight arrived at the wharf, and Customs was called to perform their outbound inspection. The customs official arrived on time, and complained of a bad hangover from a night of partying; he curtly refused Eddy’s “sympathetic” offer of a drink—he really didn’t want any extra paperwork over the scuffed RFID tags on the containers, so he admonished Eddy to keep them sealed, and cleared everything for departure. Haank and Valerie returned around that time as well; Haank had a good day on the course, got some good tips from some famous golfers, and admitted he “may have used Valerie as a distraction”; Valerie seemed to be feeling a bit better as well for it.

Now with nothing remaining to be done, the Crew set about clearing up their business and readying to leave: Sam submitted the flight plan (he didn’t bother Ella, who usually handles this; she had gone immediately to sleep after returning) and he and Buck worked through the pre-flight checks; Haank and Sae got the cargo loaded and secured; Eddy paid the starport “tab,” and at the starport authority office, attempted to delay the departure of the Jesse Belle as payback for their under-bidding on freight—which ended up costing him a large chunk of what little cash he possessed to bribe the officer. Then, as the rain began to fall across the docks, roughly 21 hours after arrival, the Spinward Star lifted off once more, with all souls aboard. As the ship was vectored around the edge of the incoming weather, a bit of turbulence woke Ella, and she immediately commed Truman to apologize for not returning to him before the ship departed as she had promised, but promised instead to find him again sometime.

trav2-fulacin orbital

Forty-four hours later, the Spinward Star reached the outbound jump point and entered jumpspace for Fulacin. Eight days later, she broke out of jumpspace in the Fulacin system, around six hours out from the mainworld. Orbital traffic was light, no significant delays, and she berthed at the highport, a day and a bit before the rush-deadline—the Crew had succeeded. The cargo was unloaded at the wharf, and their respective buyers signed off; the sealed containers (which Haank had no reason to suspect were illegally-obtained) were paid for in cash in full at the wharf. Then the Crew began the cycle anew, bound for their next stop on the way to Regina.


Notes

  • I took over as GM for this one-shot run; as a result, Haank was demoted to NPC status and “written out” of the event, while Eddy was “written in” for the regular GM, Ronnke. See my GM’s behind-the-scenes insights on my blog
  • Sae’s player couldn’t make this session; Eddy’s player took over Sae for the duration, as Eddy was expected to be “tied up” ( 😉 ) for most of it
  • Buck’s tracking device (his use of Gizmo) actually occurred on the previous session, but fit the narrative a little better here
  • Eddy’s player specified that Eddy would be making a scene at every opportunity, delaying the bounty-hunter’s progress as much as possible. Once they ended up in the security waiting room, he mostly figured it was over without outside intervention and offered to behave himself from there on in exchange for a bit more understanding—Maaq agreed, “Don’t start none, won’t be none.” Of course, Eddy still intended to contact the rest of the Crew if he could.
  • Sae critically failed his First-Aid diagnosis check to decide what was wrong with the bounty-hunter after the booby-trap went off; this usually means “misinformation,” the most logical interpretation and worst potential outcome in this case would be to say, “there’s nothing wrong”
  • After the success of the mission, I had Haank take the broker/acquaintance at Rhylanor as a proper Contact, as part of my recent improvement strategy of developing his local networking capabilities. Ella also would end up taking Truman as a Contact, and Eddy a two-sided Reputation as “the one who took down the Mountain.”