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Olympus Role Playing Group Blog

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Duty Roster:

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


Fallout Shelter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Notes

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

Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)


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Of Portals and Closure

4 June 2014

Lord-Commander McDonald of the Templars explained to Dane that, although he was charged with the Heroes’ incarceration for their alleged treason, he was willing, for the sake of honor, to allow them to leave Cardiel and never return, after which they would not be pursued. Bishop Zabka joined the conversation, having barged past the other Heroes in the courtyard, ignorant of their sidelong glances; he was furious at the Lord-Commander for having not imprisoned the Heroes, and angrily demanded they be immediately seized, but the Lord-Commander would have none of it. Auqui stood silent. Dane responded, saying he would need to confer with his fellows, and left the hall to do so. Dane returned shortly thereafter to inform them that they had agreed to leave, and the Lord-Commander dismissed them to be on their way, in spite of Zabka’s continued complaints.

The Heroes now free, of course, had no intention of leaving without their Lord Wallace, and remained convinced he was being held here at the Templars’s fortress. They stopped a short distance down the road and hid themselves behind the rocks there, and began casting spells: they tried again, without success, to detect the presence of Lord Wallace, though they knew that the Templars employed spells to block magical scrying; Brother Mendel weaved a spell to remotely map the fortress, in and out, and then cast an illusion of it so the others could review it—they could still find no sign of Lord Wallace, though there were some dark spaces in Brother Mendel’s map where he could be held; and finally, suspecting their Lord might be in the Otherworld, Brother Mendel cast a weave to detect portals, and found that there was indeed some manner of portal in the fortress chapel—this would be their objective. The Heroes continued back to their ship, which they then sailed some distance, out of sight, where they could row ashore after nightfall and enter the fortress, hopefully unseen.

Gestlin cast a Walk on Air spell upon all of them, so they could scale the wall quickly, and teleported some randomly-encountered wildlife into various points within the keep to distract the guards. The Heroes crept unchallenged into the chapel, but there they encountered a Templar emerging from a hallway, accompanied by Auqui. To their shock, Auqui apologized to his fellow Templar before killing him, and swore at his former fellow Heroes that they had spoiled his plans. As Gabriel fought within himself to stay his blade, Auqui said they would find the portal key with Zabka, but they must hurry now, to find him in the north tower. Then Auqui left as quickly as he had arrived.

The courtyard was still a scene of chaos, which allowed the Heroes to slip amongst the shadows, unseen, to the north tower, and they entered, killing a couple of the Bishop’s guards as they climbed up the tower to Zabka’s chamber. As they burst into the room, Zabka threatened to drop the key—a golden crucifix on a chain—out of the tower window, but Dane loosed a well-placed arrow that nailed Zabka’s hand to the window-frame. Gabriel took the key and passed it back to the casters. Zabka would not reveal how to use the key, no matter the threat, so Gestlin cast a Sleep spell upon him, and Magnifico cast a Mind Search, against which the sleeping Zabka could not defend; Magnifico informed the otherswhat he had found out. The Heroes left the chamber, but looked back to find Gabriel had stabbed his long-time, much-hated enemy, to his death; Rainald hoisted the dead Bishop and unceremoniously flung him out of the window, to fall impaled on a pike far below.

The Heroes took advantage of the new distraction in the courtyard, the discovery of Zabka’s body, to slip back over to the chapel, again unnoticed. There they held the key aloft and said the words, and a portal appeared behind the altar. They all took a deep breath, and one by one, they passed over the threshold.

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bs-oodBeyond the portal, they found an immense hall like nothing they had ever before witnessed, and cautiously, they moved forward. They saw a handful of beings—some human, some indescribable creatures—held motionless, almost lifeless, behind some sort of magical field. At the far end of the hall, they found Lord Wallace in such a field, and moved toward him to see how he might be freed. Just then, three being entered the hall: they appeared to each of them as their gods; Rainald saw them as Odin, Thor, and Loki, and he fell to his knees to worship them; many of the others saw the Christ, flanked by the archangels, Gabriel and Michael. However, not all were convinced these “gods” were truly divine, and challenged their identity. When Rainald asked “Odin” where the warriors’ feast was, the god motioned back to the hall, and Rainald beheld a great feast, and went to join it, and to find his long-dead brother and father. But the unconvinced Gestlin cast a Dispel upon the being before him, and for some, the illusion failed. The Heroes attacked, Gabriel stabbing “Christ” through the heart with his family blade, which drew forth no blood, nor seemed to affect the creature in any way—Dane, intent upon Lord Wallace at the time, saw the stab wound appear upon their Lord, and called out what he had witnessed to the others. The strange, tentacle-faced creatures fell upon the Heroes then, with unimaginable speed, and they could scarcely defend themselves. Then Brother Mendel dispelled the magic that held Lord Wallace, and seeing that he no longer suffered the wounds of the creatures, the Heroes loosed themselves upon them, not caring about the other captives, and after much effort, slew them. The gods defeated, and Lord Wallace freed, some searched the area and found hundreds more captives, similarly frozen with magic. Brother Mendel called back the spirit of one of the slain creatures and demanded to know how many of their kind were here—it responded, “We are legion.” Fearing revenge, the Heroes quickly gathered up Lord Wallace, and the heads of the slain creatures, and fled back through the portal.

Upon their return to the Templar chapel, the Heroes summoned the Templars, and their Lord-Commander, to show them what they had found. The Lord-Commander was astonished, and vowed that the Templars would fight a crusade to cleanse this other world of these creatures, when they had studied it sufficiently. In the meantime, the Lord-Commander “requested” the Heroes stay under guard for the night while he sorted out the matter here, and the Heroes agreed. During the night, Auqui visited them (though he avoided Gabriel) and explained that he had been on a long mission to find and rescue Lord Wallace himself, though he had found his place with the Templars in the process, and planned to stay with them regardless. In the morning, the Heroes were summoned to the Lord-Commander’s hall, where he pronounced them innocent of any crime, and sent them on their way in peace, to return Lord Wallace home to Caithness, their quest now complete.

The End


Notes

  • Due to a number of factors, I ended up combining three sessions into one report, once again, and very late indeed; play was delayed several times due to scheduling issues, so these sessions were spread over a month or so. My writing of this report occurred some weeks after the fact due to…reasons?…and as such, I didn’t go into as much detail as it probably deserved, but it needed to get done, one way or another
  • Though the GM originally described the god-creatures as something more “indescribable,” post-session discussion morphed them into the Ood (from Doctor Who), and it stuck. Out of character, the GM told us what was really going on: the creatures had come to create a new “Christ” on Yrth, complete with a virgin birth, the result of which had been introduced in the very first session of this campaign (which predated its current GM, along with any regular record of the happenings); through the sacrifice of this being, they would be able to enter the Yrth dimension and conquer it (whatever that actually meant). It was also suggested they had visited Earth before that, roughly 2000 years ago…
  • There were Vasa amongst the stasis-held creatures in the alien hall
  • Gestlin, Gabriel and Merasiël remained behind; Gestlin to join the anti-slavery faction in Tredroy and fight with them, while Gabriel and Merasiël traveled together to who-knows-where, likely to cross some more names off Merasiël’s kill-list. The rest returned to Caithness with Lord Wallace, all having lands and/or families there
  • It was decided to retire this campaign and the characters, but after much discussion, we decided to continue it instead with the “next generation,” the children of the Heroes of Book II, in Book III. Keep an eye out here for details on what happened in the years between, and the beginning of the next campaign

Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)


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Of Liberty and Arrest

3 June 2014

As the early-morning sun began to appear, Gestlin triggered his magical, winged harness, and flew back to the Gleaming Endeavor, to guide the ship to a secluded part of the river nearest the safe-house. After some time had passed, the rest of the Heroes left on foot, to the agreed-upon place on the river, taking along Bashir, still-weak from his many tortures in prison. Yet later, as Dane kept watch on the river while the others concealed themselves nearby, he spotted their ship as it approached, and signaled to Gestlin. The Heroes then quietly got themselves aboard, and sailed back across the rover to the pier where they had agreed to deliver Bashir to the anti-slavers.

As they approached the docks, the Heroes remained vigilant for new threats. They spied Aurelius before them—glad at the ship’s arrival—emerging from a nearby street, accompanied by two other men who kept watch over him. But as the ship was moored, the Heroes then also spied two sinister-looking fellows headed toward Aurelius from down the docks, and on a nearby roof, a shadowy figure that leveled a crossbow in his direction. Gabriel leapt from the ship to the dock and sprinted toward Aurelius to intercept the assassins. Gestlin Teleported Merasiël to the roof beside the crossbow-wielding shadow, and then also Rainald, to Aurelius. The lifeless body of the crossbowman slid off the roof to the street below, startling passers-by; they witnessed no sign of his killer, who bounded down to the street in another place. Meanwhile, Aurelius’ bodyguards were surprised, and attacked Rainald, who paid them no mind, but loudly challenged the two assassins as they approached, who fled before him.

The Heroes bade Aurelius quickly come aboard, lest there be more enemies about, and he did so. He embraced Bashir there, happy to see that he yet lived, and was now safe. He was to be taken through the city to a friendly merchant who would spirit him away out of the city; the Heroes believed his bodyguards would not be enough and volunteered to escort them to the merchant, and Aurelius was happy to accept their offer. As they navigated the winding, narrow streets of Tredroy, they spotted the same pair of assassins seen at the docks trailing behind them. Dane ducked into a nearby alley and led one of the assassins away, and circled back to the others; meanwhile, Rainald turned back to confront the one that remained, but the assassin fled before him again, and did not return. They continued to the merchant’s house, and Aurelius said his goodbyes to Bashir as they left him there, and the Heroes returned to the ship with Aurelius. As midday approached, Aurelius spoke of his promise to learn the whereabouts of Lord Wallace, and said that he would make inquiries of his contacts in the city on their behalf. Again the Heroes offered to escort him, and again he accepted their escort. They spent much of the day following him here and there through the city as he spoke discreetly with this-or-that stranger, and they later found themselves at a villa just outside of town, the home of a merchant who had agreed to speak to them.

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As they all entered the courtyard and began to take their ease, however, a score or more Templar soldiers stepped out of hiding there, fully surrounding the Heroes, and demanded they lay down their arms and surrender themselves, saying that they were to be arrested for treason against the King, to be taken before the Lord Commander of the Templars. The merchant apologized, declaring he had been given no choice but to allow them, and hurried away to his chambers. Aurelius stood aghast, for he trusted the Templars as long-time aides to his cause, just as he had come to trust the Heroes for the same. As the Heroes stood back-to-back in the center of the courtyard, Gestlin, at length, brazenly challenged the Templars’ authority to arrest them, and declared the Heroes’ collective innocence, but their would-be captors were deaf to his argument, and continued to expect their surrender. Seeing that Gabriel had murder in his eyes for his hated enemies, the Templars, and also that Merasiël and Rainald were loathe to lay down their arms, Magnifico saw no alternative to battle, but began to dance. Aurelius wisely fled the courtyard to join the merchant.

Crossbow bolts were loosed upon Magnifico as he began his insidious display, but Merasiël threw herself in front of him, taking one herself that would surely have struck him, though he was still struck by another. Fighting through the pain, Magnifico continued, and many of the enemy that surrounded them succumbed to the magically-induced confusion; some stood fast, stupefied, while others saw disturbing visions. Then Magnifico gave in to his wounds, and collapsed.

As the dance had begun to take effect, Gabriel sprang forth from his place and engaged one among the ring of Templars, and found his opponent’s magically-enhanced defenses difficult to penetrate. Rainald held fast in his place to defend his side of the Heroes’ formation. Dane loosed arrow upon arrow, sometimes getting past the enemies’ shields to strike home. Gestlin threw up a Wall of Force to shield his side of the formation, and when Brother Mendel had cast a healing spell upon Merasiël, Gestlin teleported her to a far room adjoining the courtyard, where they had previously spotted more Templars, kneeling in apparent prayer, no doubt maintaining magical protections on the rest—in seconds, she slew the four she found there. After having healed Merasiël, Brother Mendel then turned to Magnifico, to heal and awaken him, and Magnifico got to his feet. At the same time, the Templars that were still capable held their position, loosing bolts from their crossbows, and upon a command from their leader, they began casting a Flash spell in unison—upon the spell’s completion, the sudden brightness flash-blinded the Heroes, excepting Gabriel and Merasiël who were outside the circle at the time. The Heroes continued to resist. Gestlin threw an Explosive Fireball through the formation at the opposite side of the Templars’ ring, but it went errant, nearly scorching Magnifico instead. Then the Templar leader gave another command, and his troops began casting another spell in unison, this time, Distant Blow—those wielding crossbows dropped them and drew their swords—and afterward, they began to magically strike at the Heroes as if there were no distance between them and their targets. Rainald charged forward from his place and, with a war cry, brought down his hammer upon one of the enemy still standing dazed, who fell. Gestlin cast a Darkness spell about their formation to conceal them, and Rainald fell back into it, daring the Templars before him to follow. The Templars on Gestlin’s side of the formation could not press through his magical barrier, but instead used their Distant Blow spells against the Heroes. The Templars on Magnifico’s side of the formation strode forward into the darkness, and continued their attack, while Magnifico hurled jarring insult after jarring insult, causing some to stop momentarily in stunned bemusement, while Brother Mendel disarmed them of their swords with his quarterstaff. Gabriel had finally felled one of the Templars when he was set upon by another, and then two others began also to strike him with their Distant Blow spells, though they could scarcely touch him still for his tumbling about. Merasiël had emerged from the side-room and set upon the Templar leader from behind with such a fury, and after some struggle, she buried her blades in each of his eyes in turn. Rainald slew another Templar that foolishly charged into the darkness near to him, and upon seeing Gabriel’s distress, charged forth again to engage some of his friend’s attackers. Another Templar that charged into the darkness before Dane was brought down by Gestlin’s Tanglefoot spell, and Dane loosed an arrow or two into his head for it, before Gestlin set him ablaze with a Fireball.

Then, as suddenly as it all had begun, a cry of “Parley!” rang out, as the second-in-command of the Templars called for truce. Dane answered, and called out to his fellows for calm, such that they ceased fighting. Several of the Templars’ number had been lost, including their leader, and the second-in-command offered that the Heroes should leave them to tend to their wounded, rather than press the matter. The Heroes agreed, and offered in return that the Templars should send a messenger to the Gleaming Endeavor if their Lord Commander wished to meet with them in peace, in a safe place. The Templar agreed that it would be so, and commanded his troops to allow them to leave the villa.

Aurelius went with the Heroes back to their ship, vexed and conflicted over which side he should favor, but his new friends assured him that their side was just. Aboard the ship, having pulled away from the docks to ensure none could easily board them, they all discussed what they might do, as they waited. Aurelius wished to go back into town to discover the Templars’ motives for himself; knowing the assassins might still lie in wait for him, Gabriel offered to escort him wherever he needed to go, and so the two left the ship. Some time later, as evening approached, a messenger for the Templars called out to them from the docks, and said that the Lord Commander would speak to them in the morning at their stronghold, though he would speak to Dane alone, and the boy awaited there for a response; Dane told the lad to tell his master that it would be so. Afterward, there was talk amongst the Heroes of magically listening to Dane’s conversation with the Lord Commander, but Dane dismissed it, for honor’s sake, preferring that they should wait outside for him. Gabriel returned to the ship later, having left Aurelius at place of safety, having encountered no assassins.

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In the morning, the Gleaming Endeavor was unmoored and sailed downriver to a place just outside the city, before the Templar stronghold, an impressive fortress set upon a hill in the desert. The Heroes disembarked, and after some time walking (Gabriel riding atop Cometes, who was glad of some exercise), together approached the gates, fully armed. The gates were opened for them, welcoming, and they saw within a large formation of Templars, as if greeting some foreign dignitaries. A boy approached and offered to take Gabriel’s horse to water and feed him, and Gabriel accepted. The Heroes made their way through the formation and approached the entrance to the keep, where they would wait, as Dane went inside to meet with their enemy.

At the far end of the massive hall sat a grizzled, older man, behind a desk, flanked by Auqui, in his Templars’ garb. Auqui met Dane’s gaze, and nodded in recognition, though he said nothing. The old man offered Dane a chair, and some wine, which Dane accepted. And the old man revealed that he was McDonald, Lord Commander of the Templars, and began to speak his mind…



Notes

  • Due to some short content, and a big multi-session combat, I have combined the last three sessions into one report; these three sessions were spaced out over more than a month, as we had scheduling difficulties that prevented us from having all players in attendance, which was needed for the fight.
  • As soon as we got to the villa, before the Templars were revealed, we were all already quoting The Empire Strikes Back, “They arrived right before you did. I’m sorry.” The GM was a bit disappointed—he intended to spring that on us himself 😛
  • Due to a lot of factors that would take a whole blog-post or two on their own to explain, the fight was taking a really long time to get through—could have gone on for at least another session, and maybe more—and was becoming an unbearable slog, so we all decided to cut it off, resulting in the “parley”; the GM confessed that the ending of the campaign, which is nigh upon us, has changed a little as a result

Duty Roster:

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


Missing Persons

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

trav-regina

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

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

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

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

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

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spinwardmain2The Spinward Star arrived in the Kkirka system, and they set down at the mainworld’s downport. With a population of only 1200, they didn’t expect much. Sam made straight for the local pub and started schmoozing with locals and transients alike, backed up by Buck, and joined hours later by Haank, after he finished offloading their freight. A local human woman, who worked at the port, took a shine to Sam, and invited him to spend the night with her—he accepted. The next morning, Sam returned to the ship with a smile on his face, and some new information: a year past (a couple of months before the hiring of Valerie), the Black Star was here on Kkirka advertising for a new crew position, which was odd, in that the candidate eventually chosen was the least experienced among the applicants, a woman, of no obvious attributes that would suggest a reason for the decision.


Notes

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

Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)


bs-tredroy2

Of Prison-Cells and Safe-Houses

1 June 2014

The Heroes left the well-to-do inn, and Aurelius, and hasted straightaway for their ship, which departed for the far bank of the River Lorian and the Hazi quarter of Tredroy. As they sailed, they girded themselves for battle. Now evening, Gestlin took wing once again to spy out the city’s prison where Bashir, the captured abolitionist, was said to be held; using the Heroes’ magic ring that allowed one to see in darkness, he observed the movement of the guards for some time, and returned to tell the others that it was guarded by but a few. A half-bell later, the Gleaming Endeavor arrived in a secluded part of the Hazi quarter, and was secured to the dock. The captain was soon called forth to speak with the dockmaster at his office, and Magnifico and Gestlin went with him; through their translation, Captain Finn explained that he was here for trade, and expected to be no more than a day or two. Satisfied with the captain’s story, the dockmaster told him of their laws concerning the comings and goings of foreigners, and gave him white arm-bands to be worn by those who would enter the city, and released him back to his affairs.

The Heroes would not be allowed to carry their weapons openly, so all gave their weapons for Rainald to carry, and Brother Mendel cast an illusory disguise upon him, such that he appeared to be a (large) Hazi man carrying a bundle of sticks. So they entered the city, following the directions Aurelius had given them to one of the abolitionist safe-houses in the city nearest to the prison. They walked for many bells, for it was a long way through such a large city, patrolled here and there by the city watch, and they kept to the shadows and byways as they could. Even so, a pair of watchmen spotted Gestlin in the open, and demanded to know what he was up to. As Gestlin attempted to explain himself in their language, Magnifico stepped out of hiding (surprising the watchmen) and explained that this, his brother, was simple, and they were on their way back from the Mages’ Guild, but had lost their way. Gestlin tried to play the simpleton, but the watchmen were somehow not convinced by his performance. When one of the guards attempted to take Gestlin’s staff, Gestlin Blinked away; the use of magic caused the watchmen to become hostile, and draw their swords. Magnifico tried to calm them, or at least, draw their attention away from the stealthy approach of Gabriel from behind; as one of the watchmen began to strike at Gestlin, Gabriel slew the other, and then the first. The bodies were placed so they would appear to have slain each other over some grievance of coin; as they did so, a boy emerged in the upper window of a nearby residence, and Gestlin cast Sleep upon him, lest he cry out.

They continued, and arrived at the safe-house after midnight, and the master of the house allowed them to enter upon utterance of the pass-phrase given them by Aurelius. Dane, Gabriel and Merasiël left immediately to spy out the prison again, and found it still to be as Gestlin had reported before, guarded behind the gate by but one. Being the fleetest of foot, Gabriel ran back to the safe-house and fetched the others to the prison; during this time, Dane and Merasiël observed a number of armed men enter the prison to replace the same number who were leaving, all with a soldierly look about them—mercenaries, from the nearby guild.

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Later, when the Heroes were all assembled nearby, Gabriel and Merasiël scaled the prison’s courtyard wall, as Dane watched, bow ready, from a nearby vantage; the two crept ’round the building and were upon the lone guard before he could cry out, killing him quickly, before opening the gate to allow the others in. The Heroes then positioned themselves at the prison’s only entrance and found it un-barred, so they crept into the barbican, to another heavy door having a barred window. At first, Gestlin attempted to Teleport the heavy door away, but his spell failed. Then Brother Mendel followed with a spell-weave to teleport them all into the room behind the door, but his spell only sent Gabriel and Rainald. The two guards on the other side, playing at dice, were surprised to find the two before them; Rainald quickly turned to un-bar the door and open it to the others, while Gabriel vaulted the tables and chairs to meet the guards as they drew their swords, followed soon by Merasiël through the now-open door. The guards were slain quickly and without mercy, but not before they could cry out. In the hall beyond, upon the walls, were lined a score of numbered, metal hooks, each bearing a set of keys; the Heroes collected them all, and began searching the rooms to the right and left, cells, finding some occupied, but none occupied by Bashir. Next they went upstairs, to a long hall lined with cells, and again, did not find Bashir.

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Then, as they began to enter a large common room, Gabriel spotted a guard hiding ’round a far corner, and leapt forward to engage him, finding another there; Rainald sped toward the opposite corner, finding another two, while the rest followed. Merasiël joined Gabriel, and they slew one of the guards; Rainald was supported by Brother Mendel, who disarmed one of the guards with his staff. Then an unseen enemy shouted, and six mercenaries charged forth from side rooms and flanked the Heroes: Dane vaulted over a tub of water in the center of the room and loosed an arrow at one; Gestlin set one’s cloak ablaze; Magnifico was greatly wounded by one’s spear, but unleashed a magical satire that confused many of the mercenaries, causing them to hallucinate, such that they fought other imagined enemies besides the Heroes. Though the mercenaries were skilled warriors, they fell anyway, one by one, until none remained: disarmed by Brother Mendel’s staff; set aflame by Gestlin’s magic; throat slashed to the bone by Merasiël’s blade; skull smashed by a mighty swing of Rainald’s hammer; shot through the eye by Dane’s bow; run through the heart by Gabriel’s family sword.

The upstairs cleared of enemy, the Heroes found their way downstairs to the basement below, and found a number of rooms there, guarded, containing more prisoners, in chains, having been tortured in various ways. Rainald loudly commanded one guard to sit, who was greatly afraid, before Magnifico enthralled him, such that he became as an old friend to them. Within, they found Bashir hung by chains from the ceiling, and they released him, and Brother Mendel healed his wounds. The Heroes thought to release all the prisoners to cause chaos in which they might escape, but decided against it, lest they release truly evil men upon innocents. Instead, they took up Bashir and crept as quickly as they could out of the prison, and made their way back to the safe-house.


Notes

  • So, another two-session combo report; I’m still not intending this to be a permanent change in procedure, it’s just the way things have worked out lately
  • Apparently, according to the maps in the old 3e Tredroy book, that city is freaking huge; it ended up being several miles walking to the safe-house, and took most of the night. Even the river is huge: the Blueshoal is about 5-6 miles wide, and the Lorian is only a little smaller
  • The dice were fairly hostile on the first session; Gestlin nearly crit-failed the teleporting of the door. The dice were schizophrenic on the second session; there were a number of critical failures and critical successes during the fight
  • The second session started with the keys, and was dominated by one big fight—didn’t accomplish much, but it was still fun; the mercenaries were clearly not mooks, and were intended to be a bit tougher, but we’re expecting things to get tougher as the campaign inches toward its end

Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)


bs-tredroy

Of Seekers and Strangers

1 June 2014

The Gleaming Endeavor berthed at the Cardien city quarter, the more familiar culture to the Heroes—though its cosmopolitan nature was unlike any place most had seen before. They discussed how they should find the Templars, and parted their company. Gestlin, Brother Mendel, Magnifico—and Merasiël, for protection—went to the Mages’ Guild Hall to see what they could find there, and returned more knowledgeable about its membership requirements but little else. Rainald, Dane and Gabriel went to the city square to see what notices might be posted there, and hear of any local rumors, and returned having learned nothing of use. Back at the ship, it was decided that Brother Mendel would cast a Seeker spell to locate Lord Wallace, but as before, the spell revealed nothing—perhaps concealed by a magical ward, as they had encountered before. Then it was decided that Magnifico would cast the same spell, instead to locate Auqui, who would certainly be with the Templars. Through a ritual casting, all that were present lent their energy to the spell, and Magnifico saw a vision of Auqui on a ship, on a river he believed to be the Blueshoal—though the ship was not within the city, and he could not say whether it was coming or going. Confident of the vision, the Heroes decided that some should search the river by air in each direction to find the ship bearing their enemy, while those that remained in the city would keep watch for the ship atop one of the many long bridges that spanned the river.

Gestlin, via his magical winged harness, and Dane and Magnifico, atop the dragons Primus and Secundus, sprang from the deck of the Gleaming Endeavor and swept quickly to the West, up-river. The three flew just over the trees at some distance beside the river, and scanned ahead for the Templars’ ship; as they reached a distance upriver, with no sign of their quarry, they wheeled about and searched likewise downriver, to the East. Then, at great distance, they spied the ship bearing Auqui and the Templars, as Magnifico had seen in his vision, and immediately turned back toward Tredroy to relay their findings, though Dane’s Eagle Vision clearly showed that Auqui, atop the deck of the enemy ship, had spotted them as well, and also the presence of another familiar visage, that of the Heroes’ foe from long ago, Bishop Zabka.

Meanwhile, the sudden flight of dragons leaving the Heroes’ ship had greatly disheartened those nearby at the docks, some of whom went and fetched the city guard. A troop of guardsmen arrived at the wharf soon afterward and demanded those aboard the Gleaming Endeavor stand forth, unarmed, and answer for the disturbance. Merasiël and Gabriel were loathe to leave behind their weapons, and instead hid themselves in the ship’s hold, while the rest did as bidden. The captain of the guard did not allow Brother Mendel to speak before he sent a few of his men aboard the ship to search it for any others; though expertly hidden beneath an Elvish Hunters’ Cloak, Merasiël was stumbled upon by chance by one of the men, and she stood and surrendered herself without apology, and was brought above to the deck. Brother Mendel explained that this Elvish woman is an ambassador for the Elvish peoples, and should not be treated so; Merasiël took his cue to act the part of the aloof aristocrat, and reluctantly agreed to leave her blades at the ship. The guard-captain apologized for his rudeness and declared that he must escort them all to his superior to sort out the matter there, and the Heroes followed without further resistance. At the headquarters, the guard-commander heard the Heroes’ explanation, and did not seem fully convinced of the truth until they produced their letters given them by Aamir Al-Rahmani inviting them to perform in Tredroy on his behalf; the commander then released the Heroes back to their ship, admonishing them to keep the dragons locked away except under his escort, and informing them that he would post guards at the docks for their (whose?) protection.

Upon the Heroes’ return to the docks, they readied themselves to go to the East Bridge and watch for the arrival of the Templars’ ship, when the dragons returned. Once again assembled (and the dragons locked away), the Heroes shared their findings. Suddenly a new commotion was raised amongst the folk at the docks, as a trio of slaves attempted to reach their freedom by running from the Al-Wazifi side of the river, across the miles-long bridge, to the Cardien side; the Cardiens cheered the runners on, but their Wazifi pursuers shot at them with arrows. One of the slaves was left of his fellows as he was struck by an arrow in the leg, and fell over the side of the bridge, clinging to the rail lest he should fall into the river from such a height. Without pausing, Gestlin took wing and hastened to the man’s aid, diving into the river after the man had fallen and was struck again, and laying hold of him there, Teleported him to safety aboard the ship, where Brother Mendel healed him. Then the Wazifis gave up their pursuit, and the other two slaves came to find their fellow at the ship; Brother Mendel bade them tarry a moment, and weaved a spell to remove their slave-brands, and gave them some money, and the former-slaves were greatly thankful.

Just then, a well-dressed stranger approached the ship and, in fluent Arabic, asked to speak with the former-slaves, and also in Anglish told the Heroes of his great admiration regarding their intervention on the slaves’ behalf, and wished to speak with them as well. He introduced himself as Aurelius, and the Heroes invited him aboard their ship to speak privately. Therein, he explained that he was a member of an abolitionist group in Tredroy who might be glad of the sort of help the Heroes had so demonstrated. Upon inquiry, he revealed that he had interacted with both Auqui on some occasions, as the Templars were of great help to the abolitionists here, and Zabka, though less frequently. The Heroes were eager to help in exchange for information from his network regarding the missing Lord Wallace, and he agreed, and arranged that they should discuss the matter later in the evening, at supper at a well-to-do inn in the city. Aurelius asked many details of the former-slaves, of their former captivity, and wrote them down. Then he bid the Heroes many thanks, and went on his way.

The Heroes kept an eye toward the river for the Templar ship as they prepared themselves to go to the inn. Not long after, Dane, in the ship’s tops, spotted Auqui’s ship approaching, Auqui himself glaring in their direction as they passed by; it continued upriver and turned South up the River Lorian, out of sight. Gestlin called upon Smil-Blam and made himself invisible, and took wing to pursue them, and observed them as they berthed at the Southern edge of the city, disembarking there and entering the city by waiting coaches. Then Gestlin returned and told the others what he had seen, though any action would have to wait, as their appointed hour approached.

Now evening, the Heroes went together to the inn, except Merasiël and Gestlin who would remain behind at the ship. Their patents of nobility were recognized by the dock-guards and they were allowed to enter the city under arms, though some were frowned upon at the upper-class inn, for the Heroes were loathe to leave behind their armor, for memory of the Elvish assassins at such an occasion over a decade past. They were met inside by Aurelius, and taken to a private room to dine with him, while he set forth the details of the mission he would ask of them: they must rescue one of the abolitionists’ members operating on the Al-Haz side of the river who had been caught by the authorities there, and was to be publicly beheaded within the week; the man’s family had been secreted away by his fellows and were safe from reprisal. The Heroes agreed to do the thing, though they would make their plans elsewhere, lest they be overheard. Just then, Brother Mendel spied a shadow under the closed door, no doubt, of someone listening thereat, and he quietly alerted the others to it. Gabriel sped to the door to open it, but the spy had fled through the crowd in the common room, passing coin to a stranger to delay his pursuers on his way out. Gabriel evaded the intended distractor with a sharp word of warning and quickly followed the spy out of the inn, catching him up outside just as the spy had whispered to two others waiting nearby, who then fled into the alleys in different directions. As Dane was catching him up, Gabriel confronted the spy, who upon seeing the dragon-marks on Gabriel’s arms, was greatly cowed, and begged for his life, though he dared not reveal his employer. Not wishing to shed blood in plain sight of the passers-by, Gabriel instead ushered the spy back inside the inn to the private room where the Heroes supped, and sat him down there. Then Magnifico cast Mind Search upon the spy, and learned that he was, as some had suspected, employed by the Assassins’ Guild, tasked to locate and murder the captured abolitionist’s family, as well as Aurelius himself. Aurelius was surprised to hear this, and feared for his life. The Heroes knew they must act quickly, for the spy’s fellows that had escaped would certainly tell of their rescue plans.


Notes

  • Again, I have combined two sessions in one recap. This was not planned, just a product of the current situation, and I don’t intend to continue—but then I didn’t intend it in the first place. The second session was shortened by technical issues, so we didn’t accomplish much.
  • Gabriel’s player was absent for the first session; Merasiël’s and Gestlin’s players were absent for the second
  • Bishop Zabka was introduced to the campaign at the very beginning, before the current GM took it over from the previous GM, and has been featured in Gabriel’s side-stories as a villain, and mentor to his wayward apprentice, Auqui
  • We were a bit surprised to hear from Aurelius that the Templars have actually been helpful here in Tredroy, and not thought villains, as we knew them to be
  • It was fortunate for the city guards searching the ship’s hold that Gabriel’s player was not available, for they would certainly have perished at his hands for their discovery of Merasiël in hiding—and fortunate for the PCs that the resulting diplomatic incident did not occur
  • The PCs got jumped by Elvish assassins at a dinner in Harkwood before the war, and it was one of the more embarrassing non-victories we’ve suffered; we’re very (understandably) paranoid about similar situations now. The GM made laid out a tactical map for this dinner, the very same map as before, undoubtedly to play against our expectations—well played, sir 😛
  • Gabriel (finally) managed a very successful Intimidation attempt against the spy, but we didn’t want to torture a confession out of him in the street—but with Magnifico, he need not speak at all for us to get the info, so we agreed to “Feed him to the Clown”—the horror!

Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)


bs-wazifipirates1

Of Freedom and Commerce

18 May 2014

Continued… As the two pirate vessels began to separate themselves from the Gleaming Endeavor, without hesitation, Gabriel leapt across to the deck of the nearest ship, followed by Merasiël, then Dane; Rainald instead found a loop of rope and cast it across to catch the anchor-post of the enemy ship, and using all his strength, held the ship fast, such that they could not escape. Two sword-wielding pirates charged across the deck to meet Gabriel but immediately fell to his blade; the two enemy that remained above-decks were wizards, and they each cast Water Jet to sweep the Heroes from the deck, but they avoided the attack. Then, one of the enemy wizards cast an Ice Slick upon the deck, and Gabriel and Merasiël, already charging, kept their footing and slid toward their enemy upon the ice. Dane loosed a captured meteoric arrow, which, to the great surprise of the wizard it struck, was not deflected by his defensive spell, just before he fell to Merasiël’s thrown blade. At the same time, Magnifico flew close by atop Primus; now panicked, the remaining enemy wizard cast a magical Fog to cover his escape, as he dove over the side of the ship into the ocean, never to be seen again.

Below-decks, the ship’s slave-master surrendered himself, and the Heroes released the slaves from their bonds. Magnifico cast Mind Search upon the slave-master, and discovered that he had indeed seen Lord Wallace, as these very pirates had captured him and taken him to Sa’Azraq, though they knew not who he was; Magnifico also discovered from him a flag-signal that the pirates use to signify a “protected” vessel. The Heroes siezed what they could from the enemy ship, and after much deliberation, Dane reluctantly gave the order that it should be sunk—too much trouble for a small crew in such a hurry to keep it—and take the former-slaves aboard the Gleaming Endeavor to be delivered to their freedom as opportunity could be found; the slave-master was released in the pirate-vessel’s boat and pointed north, to fend for himself.

bs-saazraq

The Gleaming Endeavor sailed for a day to the northern shore of the Sa’Azraq Straits, to Megalan lands. As they sailed, Brother Mendel cast a weave-spell to remove the slave-brands from each of the former-slaves’ arms. The Megalans were put ashore at a fishing village, and given a share of the monies and supplies recovered, and were wished a good journey home. Then the ship sailed south another day to Sa’Azraq, a renowned trade-city on the Wazifi side of the Straits. Within the walled city’s harbor, Captain Finn refused to dock, fearful of ill-treatment of Christians here, but instead anchored the ship out in the harbor. The Wazifi former-slaves were taken ashore by the ship’s boat and released, with a share of the recovered goods, as the Megalans had been, and wished well on their way.

It was decided that they should send a small, non-threatening team ashore to (initially) gain permission to dock; Magnifico, Gestlin, Brother Mendel, and Dane volunteered. Their boat was met at the docks by some curious guards; Magnifico, speaking Arabic, assured the guards they were no threat, and they allowed the Heroes to pass, though Dane was made to leave his arms in the boat. They entered the city to find out what they could; it was not like Bannock, a mixture of Christian and Islamic cultures, but solely Muslim, a marvel the less-traveled among the Heroes had never seen. As they traveled, Gestlin spilled a great number of a vendor’s fish upon the ground, and angered the vendor greatly, though he clumsily attempted to clean up the mess he continued to make. The guard arrived to attend to the ruckus, and Gestlin was made to pay the vendor two gold coins for his loss. The four continued to the slave-market, hoping to find someone in charge there that might tell them of Lord Wallace. They observed the market for some time, and noticed a strange fellow purchasing slaves—he treated his purchases with unusual kindness, and spirited them away immediately afterward. The Heroes decided to follow this man, and he arrived at a small Christian chapel in a poor district. The Heroes knocked on the chapel door and introduced themselves to the man, a priest, and were invited inside. The priest told them of his mission to free what slaves he could, one by one, and of the “abolitionist” movement operating in secret within the city. When asked, the priest recalled having seen Lord Wallace here a year ago, though he knew not who he was, only that he was “important” and fetched a high price at the slave-market. He agreed to contact his fellow abolitionists, and to send them to tell the Heroes what they might know of whom it was that had purchased Lord Wallace. Then, with the priest’s blessing, the Heroes returned to the ship.

Meanwhile, as those that had remained behind at the ship passed the hours in waiting, they noticed a familiar ship some distance down the docks—the very pirate galley that had escaped the Heroes’ retribution. They took no action against it, but observed it carefully, lest they raise an alarm.

As the evening sun lowered, some time after those that had gone ashore had returned and told of what they had seen in the city, a boat approached the Gleaming Endeavor, bearing two men who called after Brother Mendel. They were the abolitionists sent by the priest, and were welcomed aboard. After ensuring there were no spies aboard, the men said that a year past, Lord Wallace had been sold here to the Templars, through an intermediary, for Templars are not tolerated in this country; this intermediary was a merchant named Jaffa who lived in the city—the men described where he could be found. Satisfied, the men were sent on their way, and the Heroes planned amongst themselves how they might cause this merchant to tell them what he knows.

In the darkest hours of the morning, Gabriel, Merasiël and Magnifico slipped into the waters of the harbor and quietly swam to a secluded area of the docks, where no guards were. As they donned their clothes and weapons in a nearby alley, [redacted]. Then they crept through the darkened streets to the house of Jaffa, avoiding the night-watchmen. Gabriel climbed to the open window of the upper story of the house while Merasiël picked the lock to the front door, and they all entered the house and made their way to the merchant’s bedroom. There, Magnifico performed a Mind Search spell as the man slept, and learned that Lord Wallace had been sold to a hooded Templar he knew only as “Adi,” and was taken into the desert to the South under an armed company, provisioned for a long journey. Upon hearing the name, Gabriel knew that the hooded Templar was Auqui, his former protege and sworn enemy. The three then crept back out of the house as they came, arousing no one, and made their way back to the docks, and the ship, without incident.

The Gleaming Endeavor left with the next tide and made her best speed to Hadaton, a journey of three days. Before, the Heroes had been expecting to spend some time in Hadaton, but knowing the Templars had crossed the desert on foot, no doubt, to Tredroy, they now had no cause to tarry, and so they provisioned the ship and continued up the Blueshoal River to Tredroy. Six days at-sail against the river current brought the Gleaming Endeavor to the massive city of Tredroy, a magnificent sight to behold for those that had not before experienced it. The ship was docked, and the Heroes immediately set about their business of locating the Templars and Lord Wallace.

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Notes

  • It was decided to end session 6.26 in prose, so we worked out the details on the forums between sessions and wrapped it up “officially” here; that wrap-up only covers the fight above-decks
  • Everyone really wanted to keep the captured ship somehow, even if just to sell it at the nearest port, but we didn’t have near enough crew to cover both vessels (there were only two “sailors” amongst the slaves) and still make good time
  • As the swim-team was gearing up in the alley, they were approached by a talking dog (voiced by Gestlin’s player) asking for food or whatnot—the result of Magnifico’s Weirdness Magnet. It said “woof” at a passing night-watchman. Then a strange blue box materialized nearby, with a rhythmic screeching noise, and a man with a colorful scarf poked his head out and called the dog inside, before the box disappeared again. The PCs swore never to speak of this again—hence the “redaction.” 😛
  • It’s noteworthy that the sneak-team managed to get the info from Jaffa, not only without killing anyone, but entirely without being discovered at all
  • The PCs long-awaited arrival at Tredroy signals the ultimate climax of the campaign; but a handful of sessions remain. Whether or not the same characters continue in a new campaign to come is still being settled

Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)


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Of Spirits and Slavers

13 May 2014
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The Heroes, glad of their return to the living world, made their way down from the ruined temple to the shore where the Gleaming Endeavor lay at anchor, and found the crew hard about their work at repairs, unaware that anything out of the ordinary had occurred. That evening, the crew were greatly amazed at the story told them of the Heroes’ travel to the Underworld.

But the Heroes had not forgotten their former business, the sense of a hostile presence aboard the ship which they had detected back in Craine. As the crew slept that night aboard the ship, Brother Mendel went to each and cast a Sense Foes spell upon him, but detected no hostility in any of them. Afterward, they supposed that there must be someone or something stowed away aboard that meant them ill, and Magnifico hatched a plan to discover it. On the morrow, the crew all went ashore. Brother Mendel, Magnifico, and Gestlin divided the ship into equal parts and cast Sense Foes, and as the hostile presence was detected in one sector, divided it further, continuing so until they had narrowed its location to the port-forward hold, but as they did, they found that the presence had moved elsewhere—it was avoiding their search. Gestlin commanded his staff, Smil-Blam, to grant him the ability to see invisible things, and as he did, he came face to face with a ghostly visage, as of a man, grim and hollow-eyed, now surprised to find Gestlin gazing back at him, following his movement, pointing, and calling out his location to the others. Gestlin challenged the spirit to know its purpose, but it spoke not a word. The others had no idea what to do in this matter, and could not see what it was Gestlin spoke to. As the spirit avoided the living, it hovered over the water alongside the ship, and Gestlin attempted to throw a Teleport spell, but his throw missed its target, just before the See Invisible spell ended. Later, speaking with the Captain on the matter, none could recall any that might haunt the ship, but supposed the spirit could do no immediate harm—though they declined to tell the rest of the crew what they had discovered.

15 May 2014

The repair of the ship was completed on the third day, and they departed with the first available tide, making their best speed toward Hadaton. All were glad to be under way again. They continued East for three days. Once clear of Keyhole Bay, they observed an increase in sea traffic, ships of all sorts, including regular patrols of Megalan warships of all sizes. Then they entered the Sa’azraq Straits, known for much pirate activity—slavers, mostly—where the Heroes’ information suggested that their quarry, Lord Wallace, in the custody of the Templars, was shipwrecked, and later recovered and taken further on to Hadaton.

bs-wazifipirates1
18 May 2014

On the third day, well into the Straits, a pair of vessels were observed to be following the Gleaming Endeavor some distance behind, and gaining on her, and the Captain feared them to be pirates, slavers bent on taking them all captive. It was decided that they should spy out these vessels to see what they were about, and Gestlin volunteered to fly out to them, in the magical guise of a large bird, an albatross, to observe them. Brother Mendel cast the illusion spell upon him, and activating his magical winged harness, Gestlin took flight. But the disguise was too good, for Primus, flying about the ship catching fish, mistook Gestlin for a real bird, and attacked, and Gestlin narrowly escaped back to the ship. They tried again, this time securing the young dragons in their cages before Gestlin took to wing. And Gestlin flew between the pursuing vessels, and counted about thirty warriors aboard them, plus other crew—not looking at all like traders, but up to no good—and he returned, unmolested, to tell the others what he had seen. The Heroes decided they should try to slow down their pursuers, and Gestlin again volunteered to fly out to them: he would use Smil-Blam to make himself invisible, and cast Fireballs at their sails; it was agreed. So Gestlin flew unseen between the enemy ships, and set aflame the sail of the former ship, and then the latter. But the sails were doused, by magical means (as far as Gestlin could tell), and the two ships produced banks of oars and began quickly rowing, to the sound of war-drums. Gestlin returned to the ship, and the crew and passengers of the Gleaming Endeavor readied themselves for action, as the enemy continued to approach without their sails. As the enemy closed, Captain Finn tacked the ship to throw off their pursuers. Gestlin conjured up a mighty Whirlwind to sweep the enemy’s decks, but it was immediately dispelled—the enemy certainly had wizards in their company, possessed of some skill. The Heroes and the crew positioned themselves atop the aft-castle and readied themselves to fight.

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At last, the enemy was upon them. They attacked first with volleys of arrows before closing in, and they pulled along either side of the Gleaming Endeavor, trapping it between the two vessels. Grappling hooks were thrown to catch the ship and pull them in tightly. Then the enemy warriors scrambled over the rails amidships, on both sides, and with a fearsome cry and brandished swords, charged the aft-castle.

Rainald and Merasiël held the port stair to the castle, and Gabriel held the starboard, with the others behind and between. The enemy swarmed up both stairs, and in the middle, climbed up the castle and over the rail. Gabriel, soon surrounded but unafraid, set about his bloody work with Misericordia, running the enemy through, taunting them in Arabic, and the dead piled up before him. Rainald loudly laughed and joked as he thrust his spear into the tide of pirates before him down the stair, while Merasiël slashed many throats of those that tried to get past Rainald or climb over the rail nearby. Brother Mendel reached out with his quarterstaff to disarm the enemy of their swords, again and again, as they clambered over the rail. Magnifico unleashed a nasty barrage of magical taunting in the enemy’s tongue, and cast Madness spells, stunning or incapacitating many, such that the crew could finish them, though he was greatly wounded in the process, before Brother Mendel healed him. Gestlin cast a Fireball or two into the midst of the enemy before flying off to defend against the enemy wizards, still on their ships. Dane swung down from the crow’s nest above and alighted to the rear of the aft-castle, and loosed lethal arrows upon those enemy that foolishly allowed him line-of-sight. A few of the crewmen were injured by the enemy as they held the defense, but Brother Mendel was able to give them aid before they should fall. As the enemy’s numbers were quickly diminished, and their morale near to breaking, Magnifico called in Primus and Secundus to harry the enemy from behind on the main deck. And the fight was over, so quickly that none were able to escape to their ships, as the grappling lines were cut and the enemy ships began to push off. To be continued…


Notes

  • These two sessions marked our return to the campaign after a long end-of-year hiatus (due to the usual holiday scheduling issues), the first after our return from the Land of the Dead. Due to a number of circumstances, and a long fight sequence, I combined the account from the first two sessions here. For the first, Dane’s player was absent, and Dane said to be “grievously ill” below decks; for the second, Gestlin’s player was absent, but Dane’s was present, so they effectively swapped places mid-fight (we joked that Dane was in the crow’s nest projectile-vomiting, when he suddenly recovered and swung down to join, then Gestlin caught the same rope and swung away, to projectile-vomit elsewhere)
  • We had been planning to deal with the “hostile presence” for some time, but the down-time for ship repairs was the prefect time to conduct the investigation
  • The “fighter” PCs were in little danger during the fight, now with enough magical armor that the pirates were generally unable to penetrate. Those without real armor, including the crew, were vulnerable, and some took serious wounds. The pirates, however, despite their greater numbers, had no chance at all
  • As the enemy ships separated, most of us wanted to leap over to them and take out the wizards and whomever remained in opposition; it was decided to end the scene in prose between sessions—to be concluded in the next write-up

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)

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Human Shields

At the base of the Ancients’ tower, the Crew’s quick search of the fallen possible-terrorist revealed few clues other than the suggestion, via tattoo, of his connection to the Ine Gavar insurgent group. Ella took up the dead man’s comm and began listening in, to be rewarded later with an overheard call for the man (presumably) to check in. Haank and Buck produced their bioscanners, while Sae borrowed Abe’s, and they began scanning the area for a human chemical trace. They soon succeeded in finding a trail leading past the tower and down the street through a complex of buildings not unlike a small city or military base, all featuring materials and architecture similar to the tower. Some distance down the street, Ella overheard a new voice on the dead man’s comm declaring that “intruders” were in sight moving straight for “us,” and requesting permission to “take the shot”; she passed the news along, and the Crew decided to casually move into a nearby alley, hopefully out of the line-of-fire, pretending to have seen something of interest there. The first voice, a female, from before, told the “sniper” to let the intruders pass unless they tried to enter “their” building, and declared they would need to take a few of the prisoners along; again, Ella passed on the information to the others. They deliberated over how to proceed, while Haank switched his hand-held sensor pack to radar mode to scan for movement, and Sae, looking “lost,” wandered back into the street to see if he could work out the most-likely vantage point for their otherwise-invisible assailant. Eventually, they decided to continue down the street as before, Ella listening for further communications to alert them to when they had gotten close. As intended, a short time later, Ella overheard the sniper call back to his boss again to inform her that the intruders were very close, and again, requested clearance to fire; this left the Crew to deduce that their quarry was in one of two buildings before them. The female leader again encouraged the sniper to not reveal their position, but to fire if he must, and that they were “just about finished here.” The Crew flipped a figurative coin and settled on the multi-level, industrial-looking building to the left, and approached tactically, just as the enemy shot-caller ordered everyone “upstairs,” to make for the “emitter”—presumably, the tower. The Crew diverted down a side-access to try to find a back entrance to the building, when Sae spotted a large air/raft overhead, departing the building’s roof, bearing a handful of armed insurgents and three, bound station employees; it circled wide over the complex, obviously trying to disguise the fact that it was indeed headed for the tower.

The Crew quickly forced their way into the building, and inside discovered some sort of large, multi-level reactor; on the level below were around thirty station employees—nearly the lot of them, according to the company passenger/tag-alongs—all bound and helpless; around the reactor were a number of armed limpet mines. As the prisoners were freed, Buck analyzed the placement of the mines and determined that the intent must have been to weaken the heat exchangers and cause a meltdown, confirmed by one of the freed researchers familiar with the project. Meanwhile, Sae examined the mines for some idea how to disarm them—though his expertise only covered placing them—and decided it would take too long. With no clue regarding the countdown, and insurgents about the only way out of the cavern, the Crew decided there was nothing more they could do but get everyone out.

The now-freed station employees were led through the street back toward the tower as quickly as they could. As they reached the cleared area around the tower and elevator, the Crew spotted the insurgents’ air/raft near a couple of small tower outbuildings. At the same time, arcs of electricity accompanied a hum from the tower—it was powering up; one of the researchers warned that the explosion from the reactor meltdown combined with a fully-charged emitter would be catastrophic enough to obliterate the entire moon, or worse. The Crew told the civilians to take cover where they were while they approached the outbuildings, hoping to catch the insurgents and force them to disable the bombs and/or emitter. Over the enemy’s comms, Ella overheard that the group had been spotted, and heard their leader order one of the other insurgents to run back to the reactor and ensure the bombs were still in place; Ella relayed this to the others and they agreed that the runner should be taken alive, as he might know how to disarm the mines. They could also see that the space-elevator, the only way out of the cavern, was 10 meters or so up from ground-level, presumably with someone inside to operate it.

The Crew began to tactically bound forward in teams across the open space, when Buck was hit by a sniper—presumably the sniper—the shot coming from the roof of the nearer of the outbuildings; the Crew took what cover they could and opened fire on the roof while Abe scrambled over to Buck to provide medical aid—Buck was hit pretty badly, but was in no immediate danger. The sniper ducked out of sight, and the Crew sprinted to close the distance, while Haank and Buck covered them in place. Sam saw the runner emerge from behind the outbuilding, and sprinted after him on his own. The sniper popped up at a different point on the roof and shot Sae, the closest target, nearly killing him outright; his vacc-suit trauma maintenance function kicked in and stabilized him, as Abe sprinted forward to help. Meanwhile, Haank and Buck laid down fire on the sniper, hitting him such that he slid down below sight on the roof. At the same time, Sam, now out of sight of the others, made a lucky turn and tackled the runner, and the two struggled as Sam tried to subdue him while preventing the runner from bringing his weapon to bear; Sam eventually won out, pinning the runner beneath him, though the man continued to struggle. The sniper neutralized, the Crew stacked up on the nearer outbuilding and quickly deliberated how they might gain entry into the other, assuming the controls to the emitter to be there, and believing hostages to be present with the insurgents.

Then it all came to a screeching halt.

As the Crew prepared to move in, on a gantry at the second-level (only) entrance to the other outbuilding, one of the insurgents emerged holding one of the station employees in front of him, a gauss pistol to his hostage’s head, and a gauss rifle in his other hand pointed in the general direction of the Crew—leaving little un-shielded save for his head. The hostage-taker called out to the intruders demanding to know who in hell they were, and insisting they lay down their arms for the sake of the hostage. Ella began trying to negotiate, refusing to lay down arms. Sae continued to aim carefully at the hostage-taker’s eye—a shot he’s made many times in the past—and as he saw the briefest of opportunities, he pulled the trigger; the insurgent was somehow alerted to Sae’s trigger-pull and simultaneously fired his pistol into the hostage’s temple, while ducking down behind his human shield, narrowly avoiding Sae’s otherwise-accurate shot. The hostage was obviously dead; the hostage-taker dove back into the outbuilding, avoiding follow-up shots from the rest; Ella was furious—at Sae, at the insurgents, at herself. The other hostages within the building could be heard wailing at the loss of their fellow.

Having had enough, Ella called over the insurgents’ comms to demand the release of the hostages; the insurgents now understood the intruders’ apparent prescience. Their female leader, Lara, agreed to parley once more, with lowered weapons, at least, and emerged from the entrance, empty-handed, and was met on the gantry by Ella. The Crew remained in place, weapons lowered, as the two leaders began negotiating—or more accurately, just short of arguing. Lara explained that there was no way to stop the destruction of the Ancients site at this point; that the power it contained (the ability to cut off a star system from jump-space) was too great for anyone to possess, much less the Empire; and since she now assumed the lives of the hostages meant nothing to the Crew, but knew the insurgents would be outnumbered by the civilians and easily overpowered if they all packed into the space-elevator to escape, she needed a new hostage, “one they cared about”—one of the Crew. Of course, they promised to let their hostage go once they reached the station—not that anyone believed that. There were some volunteers, but Ella insisted on being the hostage against her crew’s objections, though her past experience in similar situations (specifically, with Lt. Richards on Kegena) left her highly suspicious of the insurgents’ intentions. As such, Ella continued to argue Lara’s terms until the insurgent leader finally gave up, resigned to futile combat, and turned back into the outbuilding to prepare for the inevitable assault.

Ella shot Lara in the back, and she fell at the threshold, unconscious. Combat was resumed.

There were two insurgents visible within; both opened fire, as Ella took cover beside the doorway and returned fire. Haank and Buck circled ’round and up the stair to the gantry. Haank’s laser detector sounded an alarm, and he turned to see the insurgent in the elevator fire a gauss burst at him; his armor stopped the rounds that hit, and he and Sae (from below) both effectively returned fire, and saw the body fall from the elevator. At the same time, Buck maneuvered to help Ella, and together they dropped one of the insurgents within and wounded another. One of them, the hostage-taker who shot the civilian, emerged with hands upraised in surrender; Buck told him, “You don’t get to walk away,” and shot him in the face with his laser rifle.

The fight now over, Sam brought up his prisoner to join the rest, having held his own the whole time to the amazement of all. The fallen insurgents were collected, living and otherwise, and the civilians were gathered up and ushered into the space-elevator, in a hurry, as they still had no real idea how much time they had to make good their escape. The somber mood in the elevator made the fifteen minutes seem an eternity. At the top again, the Crew ushered everyone into the upper hold of the Spinward Star; Jones was elated at their return, having been fighting minor fires in the contragravity plating all over the ship since the emitter started up. The ship was undocked and they broke orbit in record time, Buck pushing the ship’s engines to their maximum limit; they put as much distance as they could between themselves and the fourteenth moon of Yori II, and watched behind them, aghast, as a massive chunk of the moon exploded in a brilliant blue flash.


Notes

  • Sae has points spent in Targeted Attack (Guns (Pistol)/Eyes) (among others) and Overconfidence, and was well able to make the shot; in the rush and confusion of the initial contact there, he took the unauthorized shot, which would have succeeded if not for the GM’s unusually lucky die-rolls that night (consistently rolling 6 or less). Afterward, there was much discussion about the game-mechanics that governed that situation and whether or not the hostage-taker should have been able to dodge; as it happened: Sae fired, insurgent dodged, insurgent fired—though I ultimately cleaned it up a little in the narrative so it, as “simultaneous” made more sense
  • Both of our Traveller campaigns, and a handful of others, have featured occasional hostage negotiations; though this is the only one I recall where we lost a hostage, they do generally end in frustration to some degree—this certainly being no exception
  • Ella’s player had been lamenting her position as “captain,” having to be responsible for these kinds of decisions and speaking for the group; this session really didn’t make it any better for her. We’re expecting some changes in the future of this campaign, including a refactoring of the character
  • Ella’s prior experience as a hostage four-and-a-half months (game-time) prior, early in the campaign, was that the hostage-takers intended to kill them all and bury them in a subterranean ruin—combined with the insurgents treatment of their hostages, this did not encourage her to trust their word
  • This session went really long, and as a one-shot, needed to be wrapped up, so the GM opted to have the players dictate the ending—fortunately, we were pretty close to the end anyway (as we were storming the outbuilding after negotiations had failed), so there wasn’t much left to make up for

Duty Roster:

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


Strict Confidence

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At port on Yori Prime, the Crew set about to take their liberty when a text-mail message was received at the ship: the local Imperial representative was impressed by their heroism in the rescue of the Lancelot survivors and wished to offer them a charter opportunity. Haank cleared it with Ella, and replied that they were willing to meet on the matter, which was arranged for an hour or so later.

Ella, Haank and Abe arrived at the government offices at the arranged time and met the representative, who gave them the details of the job: a one-time freight transport of 18 tons of miscellaneous research and living supplies bound in-system for a moon of Yori II, and the Imperial Research Station Beta located there, as their usual transport was down due to technical issues. It was an ASAP job—already overdue—and typical of government bureaucracy, they weren’t terribly bothered about the expense; Haank checked the local rates and decided on 900 credits per dT. There were no special handling requirements, but the rep said that, due to the sensitive scientific equipment aboard, they were not to activate any contragravity drives near the station—Haank and Abe both felt as if the rep was withholding some details, but given the need-to-know nature of the job—the station’s existence wasn’t so much a secret, though their operations there clearly were—it was not unexpected, so they let it slide. Ella decided the deal sounded reasonable, and accepted with the usual handshaking, then left Haank to work out the details of when and where the cargo was to be delivered. The Crew planned to leave immediately once the cargo was loaded, and to take the opportunity to fuel up at Yori II, a gas giant, to save some money.

Some time later, the cargo was dropped off at the quay as arranged, and Haank and Sae started loading it onto the ship. Mid-operation, a couple of guys showed up at the ramp saying they were a last-minute addition to the charter, though they weren’t exactly thrilled at the assignment, and were perfectly fine if it turned out there wasn’t room for them. Just to be safe, Haank called up the rep and made certain he had sent them—he had—while Abe chatted them up about whatever-it-was they might be doing at the station. They were a little disappointed when Haank returned and had Abe show them to their cabins.

It was a five-day trip to Yori II, and the Crew took the opportunity to talk to their passengers about the station. They were maintenance crew for the station, on a regular rotation, and had nothing to do with whatever research was being done there behind closed doors, and expected to be bored-out-of-their-minds for the duration. Haank recalled from local business news reports that there had been reported a rash of unexplained misjumps into the Yori system, causing some difficulties with local trade, and suspected the station’s research mission might be related.

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Five days later, the Spinward Star entered orbit around Yori IIn, a smallish iceball with no atmosphere to speak of. They attempted to contact the station, but could get no response at all. They approached cautiously, continuing fruitlessly to raise them on comms, and an external inspection of the station revealed no clues. Sam docked the ship, manually due to the lack of auto-docking support, and the Crew boarded the station, kitted out for a potential fight, leaving Sam and Jones behind to stand watch. No one was home. At all. They headed straight for the station’s operations center to see if there was some kind of log to explain the absence, and found that there was no security protecting the computer systems at all, and that there were no logs of any kind available, apparently wiped from about eight hours ago to the present, when another ship had apparently arrived and docked with the station. Buck suspected a virus, and Haank suggested the ship undock immediately, lest there be some “infection.” Abe, Buck and one of the station crew went to the other end of the station to see if there were any sign of the other ship, while Haank and Ella continued to dig through the computer system, and Sam maneuvered the Spinward Star around the station for a closer inspection of the hull. Though no sign of the other ship was found, Abe did spot what appeared to be a single hole, most likely made by a 4mm gauss round, in the inner station wall. As they continued to search for clues, suddenly, there was a burst of blue energy from below, appearing to emanate from the moon itself, that briefly interrupted electronic devices, though there was no permanent damage to speak of—clearly there was something amiss below, and the Crew were now fully suspicious of the information they had been given, and that the prohibition on contragravity use was a ruse to prevent anyone landing on the moon’s surface where they might discover whatever-it-was. The space-elevator connecting the station to the moon’s surface was “down,” suggesting that the occupants might have gone below—the only thing left to check—so the elevator was recalled and they all boarded for the surface (including the station crewmen—better to keep them in plain view, in the event they are somehow involved).

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The elevator took around fifteen minutes to reach the surface, but to the surprise of all, including the crewmen who worked there, it halted only briefly and continued below the surface buildings, below the icy outer crust of the moon, for some time further until it opened into a massive cavern dominated by a tall tower of unknown construction. Haank recalled his archaeology instruction with Kella (on their trip out of Kegena), and decided the tower must have been constructed by the Ancients. Sae and Abe both set about recording the awesome sight.

The elevator finally reached the bottom of the cavern and stopped, and the Crew exited the car ready for trouble. And trouble found them, in the form of a hidden shooter firing at Ella, who was struck in the torso, to no effect thanks to her space armor. A number of the Crew had near-miss indicators installed on their suits, and were able to trace the source of the shot; everyone dove for what cover was available. Haank and Sae started ’round to flank the shooter while Ella and Buck returned suppressive fire on the position. Ella was struck in the face, her helmet’s faceplate shattered, though she was mostly just scratched; Abe did what he could to help, but she was more angry than wounded. Buck hit the shooter several times with his laser, causing him to retreat behind the rocks and containers strewn about the floor of the cavern in front of the tower. Haank and Sae arrived at the shooter’s position just as he was about to move, and they surprised each other; Haank and Sae were quicker on the trigger, though, and the shooter was riddled with fire, quite dead. Upon closer inspection of the shooter’s body, they noticed some distinctive tattoos, that they deduced, after a moment of retrospection, to indicate the shooter belonged to the terrorist group, Ine Gavar.


Notes

  • Due to expected sporadic absences around the end-of-year holidays, we decided to stick with one-shots for the remainder of the year; this led to that, and we ended up going with a bit more Traveller (obviously), which should wrap up next session
  • Sam’s player ended up being the only one absent (not expected), though Ella’s and Buck’s were quite late (expected)
  • I think PCs in an RPG tend to be more paranoid than normal folk—for obvious meta reasons—so it’s no surprise we wanted to vett the new passengers before allowing them aboard; it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had someone aboard who meant us some degree of harm
  • Haank’s picking up of the Archaeology skill in the early days of the first run actually paid off 😛
  • Ella ended up taking 1 HP of damage through her helmet—lucky, lucky