This page is a collection of links detailing my first attempt at a Hero Traveller sandbox campaign.
Pre-Crash Player System Knowledge:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Session 1: Guruphon Jump
Part 1: Getting to Guruphon
Part 2: Guruphon Station
Session 2: Guruphon Meltdown
Part the Only
Session 3: Maresfield Shootout
Part the Only
Session 4: Bhuddas and Bubbas
Part 1: Caraturth
Part 2: Krakatoa
Session 5: Whatever Happened to the Acojah?
Part the Only
This covers the entire first arc of adventure.
Showing posts with label Fragments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fragments. Show all posts
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Fragments – Session 5: What Ever Happened to the Acojah?
Session 5 happened Friday, November 4, 2011, and was the last session of this story arc.
This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. Mongoose is doing good things, so no hate mail.
PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Cyrano Steel (male Lante, computer systems specialist)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)
NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar, Ship’s Captain (female human)
Ted Yahn, Ship’s Navigator (male human)
Albertha Trufin, Ship’s Engineer (female human)
Dr. Quinton Picknell, Ship’s Doctor (male human)
Maresfield Trade Representative:
Deadra Pagenkopf, Maresfield Trade Liaison (female human)
The Passengers:
Brother Kurts of the Order of the Sacre Illuminae
Sister Gunita of the Order of the Sacre Illuminae
Week 7, Day 5:
While the away team was making contact with the locals, Deadra Pagenkopf took the time to go through the Acojah records taken from the dead ship (see Session 4, Part 2 for details). At the morning briefing, she informed everyone that the Acojah ship had been carrying escaping Acojan colonists in its cargo bay when the nuke hit it.
This led to discussions on whether or not any Acojah might still be alive on Krakatoa. While Grar and Max had been able to determine there were sentients on the planet (loosely speaking), they had not checked to see if they were all humans. This would require smaller search areas for any chance of success. Brother Kurts was asked to perform a planetary survey to determine which areas would be best to search. [They were bemoaning the lack of a planetologist in the ship’s crew until I pointed out that Brother Kurts was a planetologist – that’s why he came with them. They had forgotten that.] The survey would take a day to perform and Brother Kurts promised a preliminary report the next day.
Week 7, Day 6:
After spending the previous day (and much of the night) performing a quick survey of Krakatoa, looking for habitable areas that might house Acojah, a very tired but pleased Brother Kurts made his report. He reported five areas that were habitable and large enough to support viable populations and three areas that were possibly habitable but sub-optimal (either desert, downwind from an active volcanic region, or barely large enough for a sustainable population). Each of these areas is isolated from the others by volcanic badlands. He was able to locate seven large-scale strip mines in the volcanic regions. Finally, he also located five irradiated crates located in one of the otherwise habitable zones.
Based on Brother Kurts’s findings, the PCs decided that one of the mines near(-ish) to a crater might be a good place for Acojan refugees to hide and concentrated mind scans in that area. They found no sentient minds in the area. Concentrating the ship’s sensors on the nearby radioactive crater, they could detect the ruins of a city. Brother Kurts estimates that, based on the levels of radiation still present and the size of the crater, the weapon used was either a poorly made home-made bomb or a purposely-made dirty bomb. He leaned towards it being a dirty bomb.
Suspecting that there were no living Acojah left on Krakatoa, the PCs shifted their focus to a different mine and decided to go down and investigate, hoping for some sort of surviving records. Parallel to this effort, an additional salvage run on the Acojan ship was made. [This moved PCs whose players were not at the game off stage.] With Oscar taking the Iron Pig and the captain not wanting to risk the ship’s boat (with the only fuel scoop the ship has), the investigating away team took an air/raft down from orbit. As the vacc suits also provide radiation protection, this did not bother the PCs. They also took one of the repaired security bots from Guruphon Station and Grar established a mind link with Sister Gunita.
It was a long, elevator-like trip down.
Once on the surface, Grar landed the air/raft adjacent to a small cluster of buildings near the edge of the strip mine, on one of the highest terraces of the mine. In the distance, they could see an immense excavator (example). It was inert, but it made the PCs wary. Of the buildings they were near, one was obviously a holding area for ore, one was three stories tall and had windows on the upper floors, and one was much taller and larger but had no windows. All of the buildings showed signs of receiving weapons fire in the past and the windowed building had (empty) sandbag emplacements around the doors. The PCs decided to investigate this building first.
This building seemed to have been used as a barracks, but was re-purposed from something else. The outer walls of the building were quite thick and made of a strong form of concrete. The inner corridors showed signs of combat, with a scattering of bullet marks. The ground-floor rooms were large (possibly conference rooms?) and had been converted to barracks. The next two floors seemed to have been offices originally, but were converted to individual quarters or gun positions, probably machine guns of some sort based on the occasional cartridge shells found. Based on the anti-Acojah graffiti found all over, the PCs surmised that the human populace had held out here against Acojah attackers.
The roof held two sand-bagged anti-aircraft positions (minus the weapons now). Looking around from the roof, the PCs noticed what was likely the wreckage of a downed aircraft and made note of it for later investigation. They also verified the excavator was still where they last saw it and still immobile.
Having finished their investigation of what was likely the administration building for the strip mine, they headed over to the next building, expecting it to be a smelter of some sort. There were three immense doors on the front side of the building (facing the admin building), one of which is not quite closed. Looking around carefully before opening it any further, Grar locates a tripwire connected to an explosive charge wrapped in ball bearings. He disabled the trip wire and inspected the explosive charge. The charge had degraded to the point where it might fizzle at best. Checking further, Grar found booby traps on the other two doors as well.
The inside of the tall (5-6 stories equivalent) building was mostly made up of smelting and processing equipment (making this a mill), with catwalks and equipment on suspended tracks still filling the upper area. This front area took up two-thirds of the front of the building. In the back could be seen rolling doors blocking off three smaller areas. There was a heavy layer of dust and/or bird droppings on everything.
Investigating the machinery in the front area, the PCs worked out that the machinery was designed for sorting out types of ore, for processing iron ore, and for milling iron into steel. Checking the back area to the right, they found the machinery damaged but not irreparably so. The equipment seems to have been stopped mid-process. Grar and Cyrano jury-rigged a crane to safely lower the six-foot tall cup it still had suspended. The cup was found to be mostly full of gold. Several characters did a happy dance at this point.
[At this point my notes ran out, so the rest is from memory.]
With this indicator that the back areas were processing areas for valuable metals, the PCs eagerly moved to the center area to see what it processed. They instead found the center area mostly destroyed and full of mine tailings. Confused by this, they exited the building and circled around to the back side. There they found a large shipping container [think four times as large as a modern shipping container in all dimensions] standing on its end, partially embedded into the back of the building. Looking away from the building, they could see other piles of mine tailings in strange, low rises. It occurred to the PCs that someone had been dive bombing the mill, using cargo containers full of tailings as kinetic bombs. When the last one hit the building but failed to destroy it (or even really damage most of it), they must have stopped. Or got shot down (thinking about the downed flyer spotted from the roof of the admin building).
Returning to the interior of the building, the PCs checked the last back chamber. This room was more damaged than the first one, but not as completely damaged as the middle one, which had taken a mostly direct hit from the tailings bomb. The smelting cup in this area was on the floor, partially crushing some other machinery. Inside was metal, filling about half the cup. After some quick field testing (Max is a field geologist, among other things), it was determined to be Berynium, approximately 1.5 cubic meters (50 cubic feet) of it! [Another happy dance may have happened here.]
With two sources of precious metals located, the PCs decided to finish searching the mill, locating the offices. These were on a raised platform with a commanding view of the main work area. The walkway around the offices had solid sides instead of just railings and seemed to have hardpoints for mounting weapons. Climbing the stairs to the office platform, the PCs noticed that the single entrance area was heavily bullet-ridden. The two rooms that made up the offices themselves were heavily vandalized and shot up. One room appeared to have been a conference room with a large table, now on its side and full of bullet holes and the skeletal remains of a humanoid sophont, minus its head, slumped in front of it. The walls and scraps of things mounted on the walls were covered in anti-Acojah graffiti. The other room was an office with storage cabinets, all looted. Looking through the wreckage of the storage cabinets, Grar located two data crystals in the bottom, under the lowest drawer. There was nothing else of interest here.
Grar used his mind link with Sister Gunita to request that the Iron Pig fly down to the surface and pick up the gold and Berynium the away team had located (it was too large and much too heavy for the air/raft to lift). While the away team waited for the Iron Pig to arrive, they investigated the downed flyer. The wreckage showed signs of being burned long ago and was now mostly overgrown with grasses. In the remains of the cockpit were skeletal remains, which Max’s medical training allowed him to identify as Acojan. Eventually the Iron Pig arrived with gear to pull the cups holding the metals out of the mill, a multi-hour process. The Iron Pig returned to the ship very late in the day and everyone retired for the evening, tired but much wealthier.
Week 7, Day 7:
After a good night’s sleep, the two data crystals were checked for the presence of the VIRUS (they were clean) and then the data was reviewed. The first crystal contained HR records of the mine prior to the Crash, covering a period of eight years. The second was in Acojan and covered the running of the mine some time after the Crash was known to have happened, covering a period of six years, starting after the seizure of the mine and ending roughly 70 years prior to the present. The Acojah records clearly stated that the human workers were now slaves.
With the materials secured from the planet and possible evidence of a hostile power operating after the Crash, the PCs decided it was time to head back to Maresfield and report what they had discovered. Captain Salazar was given the order to make for the nearest jump point and make jump to Caraturth. She gladly set the crew to doing just that.
Week 8, Day 7:
The Just Lucky arrived in Caraturth system and made for the nearest gas giant to start re-fueling operations. Once those were complete, the Just Lucky headed to Caraturth. There they landed Brother Kurts and Sister Gunita, picking up a small delegation in their place. They also provided the Order a copy of all the data they collected in Krakatoa. At the end of the day they left Caraturth and (reaching a jump point) jumped to Maresfield system.
Week 9, Day 7:
The Just Lucky arrived in Maresfield.
*End of Session 5*
[By the end of the exploration of the mill offices, it was getting late, so we just kind of hand-waved the trip back to Maresfield. This was also the last session of the campaign, or at least this part of it. I needed time off as a GM to work on some other writing projects and just had to step away from running a weekly game to do so. In several months I will resume running, possibly returning to the Fragments campaign, but several years down the timeline.
I think one of the mistakes I made with this campaign was running what should have been a long-term exploration game in the short time I was still willing to run. I should have had a definite storyline ready for the players to interact with rather than putting together a sandbox campaign. I should have also run a more standard background rather than a “picking up the pieces again” background. Running an adventure happening during the Crash with the PCs trying to get to some sort of haven as the VIRUS wreaks havoc in the background would have been better suited to the time I had available. Then running the Fragments campaign after my hiatus would have had extra meaning for the players. Something to thinks about.]
This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. Mongoose is doing good things, so no hate mail.
PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Cyrano Steel (male Lante, computer systems specialist)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)
NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar, Ship’s Captain (female human)
Ted Yahn, Ship’s Navigator (male human)
Albertha Trufin, Ship’s Engineer (female human)
Dr. Quinton Picknell, Ship’s Doctor (male human)
Maresfield Trade Representative:
Deadra Pagenkopf, Maresfield Trade Liaison (female human)
The Passengers:
Brother Kurts of the Order of the Sacre Illuminae
Sister Gunita of the Order of the Sacre Illuminae
Week 7, Day 5:
While the away team was making contact with the locals, Deadra Pagenkopf took the time to go through the Acojah records taken from the dead ship (see Session 4, Part 2 for details). At the morning briefing, she informed everyone that the Acojah ship had been carrying escaping Acojan colonists in its cargo bay when the nuke hit it.
This led to discussions on whether or not any Acojah might still be alive on Krakatoa. While Grar and Max had been able to determine there were sentients on the planet (loosely speaking), they had not checked to see if they were all humans. This would require smaller search areas for any chance of success. Brother Kurts was asked to perform a planetary survey to determine which areas would be best to search. [They were bemoaning the lack of a planetologist in the ship’s crew until I pointed out that Brother Kurts was a planetologist – that’s why he came with them. They had forgotten that.] The survey would take a day to perform and Brother Kurts promised a preliminary report the next day.
Week 7, Day 6:
After spending the previous day (and much of the night) performing a quick survey of Krakatoa, looking for habitable areas that might house Acojah, a very tired but pleased Brother Kurts made his report. He reported five areas that were habitable and large enough to support viable populations and three areas that were possibly habitable but sub-optimal (either desert, downwind from an active volcanic region, or barely large enough for a sustainable population). Each of these areas is isolated from the others by volcanic badlands. He was able to locate seven large-scale strip mines in the volcanic regions. Finally, he also located five irradiated crates located in one of the otherwise habitable zones.
Based on Brother Kurts’s findings, the PCs decided that one of the mines near(-ish) to a crater might be a good place for Acojan refugees to hide and concentrated mind scans in that area. They found no sentient minds in the area. Concentrating the ship’s sensors on the nearby radioactive crater, they could detect the ruins of a city. Brother Kurts estimates that, based on the levels of radiation still present and the size of the crater, the weapon used was either a poorly made home-made bomb or a purposely-made dirty bomb. He leaned towards it being a dirty bomb.
Suspecting that there were no living Acojah left on Krakatoa, the PCs shifted their focus to a different mine and decided to go down and investigate, hoping for some sort of surviving records. Parallel to this effort, an additional salvage run on the Acojan ship was made. [This moved PCs whose players were not at the game off stage.] With Oscar taking the Iron Pig and the captain not wanting to risk the ship’s boat (with the only fuel scoop the ship has), the investigating away team took an air/raft down from orbit. As the vacc suits also provide radiation protection, this did not bother the PCs. They also took one of the repaired security bots from Guruphon Station and Grar established a mind link with Sister Gunita.
It was a long, elevator-like trip down.
Once on the surface, Grar landed the air/raft adjacent to a small cluster of buildings near the edge of the strip mine, on one of the highest terraces of the mine. In the distance, they could see an immense excavator (example). It was inert, but it made the PCs wary. Of the buildings they were near, one was obviously a holding area for ore, one was three stories tall and had windows on the upper floors, and one was much taller and larger but had no windows. All of the buildings showed signs of receiving weapons fire in the past and the windowed building had (empty) sandbag emplacements around the doors. The PCs decided to investigate this building first.
This building seemed to have been used as a barracks, but was re-purposed from something else. The outer walls of the building were quite thick and made of a strong form of concrete. The inner corridors showed signs of combat, with a scattering of bullet marks. The ground-floor rooms were large (possibly conference rooms?) and had been converted to barracks. The next two floors seemed to have been offices originally, but were converted to individual quarters or gun positions, probably machine guns of some sort based on the occasional cartridge shells found. Based on the anti-Acojah graffiti found all over, the PCs surmised that the human populace had held out here against Acojah attackers.
The roof held two sand-bagged anti-aircraft positions (minus the weapons now). Looking around from the roof, the PCs noticed what was likely the wreckage of a downed aircraft and made note of it for later investigation. They also verified the excavator was still where they last saw it and still immobile.
Having finished their investigation of what was likely the administration building for the strip mine, they headed over to the next building, expecting it to be a smelter of some sort. There were three immense doors on the front side of the building (facing the admin building), one of which is not quite closed. Looking around carefully before opening it any further, Grar locates a tripwire connected to an explosive charge wrapped in ball bearings. He disabled the trip wire and inspected the explosive charge. The charge had degraded to the point where it might fizzle at best. Checking further, Grar found booby traps on the other two doors as well.
The inside of the tall (5-6 stories equivalent) building was mostly made up of smelting and processing equipment (making this a mill), with catwalks and equipment on suspended tracks still filling the upper area. This front area took up two-thirds of the front of the building. In the back could be seen rolling doors blocking off three smaller areas. There was a heavy layer of dust and/or bird droppings on everything.
Investigating the machinery in the front area, the PCs worked out that the machinery was designed for sorting out types of ore, for processing iron ore, and for milling iron into steel. Checking the back area to the right, they found the machinery damaged but not irreparably so. The equipment seems to have been stopped mid-process. Grar and Cyrano jury-rigged a crane to safely lower the six-foot tall cup it still had suspended. The cup was found to be mostly full of gold. Several characters did a happy dance at this point.
[At this point my notes ran out, so the rest is from memory.]
With this indicator that the back areas were processing areas for valuable metals, the PCs eagerly moved to the center area to see what it processed. They instead found the center area mostly destroyed and full of mine tailings. Confused by this, they exited the building and circled around to the back side. There they found a large shipping container [think four times as large as a modern shipping container in all dimensions] standing on its end, partially embedded into the back of the building. Looking away from the building, they could see other piles of mine tailings in strange, low rises. It occurred to the PCs that someone had been dive bombing the mill, using cargo containers full of tailings as kinetic bombs. When the last one hit the building but failed to destroy it (or even really damage most of it), they must have stopped. Or got shot down (thinking about the downed flyer spotted from the roof of the admin building).
Returning to the interior of the building, the PCs checked the last back chamber. This room was more damaged than the first one, but not as completely damaged as the middle one, which had taken a mostly direct hit from the tailings bomb. The smelting cup in this area was on the floor, partially crushing some other machinery. Inside was metal, filling about half the cup. After some quick field testing (Max is a field geologist, among other things), it was determined to be Berynium, approximately 1.5 cubic meters (50 cubic feet) of it! [Another happy dance may have happened here.]
With two sources of precious metals located, the PCs decided to finish searching the mill, locating the offices. These were on a raised platform with a commanding view of the main work area. The walkway around the offices had solid sides instead of just railings and seemed to have hardpoints for mounting weapons. Climbing the stairs to the office platform, the PCs noticed that the single entrance area was heavily bullet-ridden. The two rooms that made up the offices themselves were heavily vandalized and shot up. One room appeared to have been a conference room with a large table, now on its side and full of bullet holes and the skeletal remains of a humanoid sophont, minus its head, slumped in front of it. The walls and scraps of things mounted on the walls were covered in anti-Acojah graffiti. The other room was an office with storage cabinets, all looted. Looking through the wreckage of the storage cabinets, Grar located two data crystals in the bottom, under the lowest drawer. There was nothing else of interest here.
Grar used his mind link with Sister Gunita to request that the Iron Pig fly down to the surface and pick up the gold and Berynium the away team had located (it was too large and much too heavy for the air/raft to lift). While the away team waited for the Iron Pig to arrive, they investigated the downed flyer. The wreckage showed signs of being burned long ago and was now mostly overgrown with grasses. In the remains of the cockpit were skeletal remains, which Max’s medical training allowed him to identify as Acojan. Eventually the Iron Pig arrived with gear to pull the cups holding the metals out of the mill, a multi-hour process. The Iron Pig returned to the ship very late in the day and everyone retired for the evening, tired but much wealthier.
Week 7, Day 7:
After a good night’s sleep, the two data crystals were checked for the presence of the VIRUS (they were clean) and then the data was reviewed. The first crystal contained HR records of the mine prior to the Crash, covering a period of eight years. The second was in Acojan and covered the running of the mine some time after the Crash was known to have happened, covering a period of six years, starting after the seizure of the mine and ending roughly 70 years prior to the present. The Acojah records clearly stated that the human workers were now slaves.
With the materials secured from the planet and possible evidence of a hostile power operating after the Crash, the PCs decided it was time to head back to Maresfield and report what they had discovered. Captain Salazar was given the order to make for the nearest jump point and make jump to Caraturth. She gladly set the crew to doing just that.
Week 8, Day 7:
The Just Lucky arrived in Caraturth system and made for the nearest gas giant to start re-fueling operations. Once those were complete, the Just Lucky headed to Caraturth. There they landed Brother Kurts and Sister Gunita, picking up a small delegation in their place. They also provided the Order a copy of all the data they collected in Krakatoa. At the end of the day they left Caraturth and (reaching a jump point) jumped to Maresfield system.
Week 9, Day 7:
The Just Lucky arrived in Maresfield.
*End of Session 5*
[By the end of the exploration of the mill offices, it was getting late, so we just kind of hand-waved the trip back to Maresfield. This was also the last session of the campaign, or at least this part of it. I needed time off as a GM to work on some other writing projects and just had to step away from running a weekly game to do so. In several months I will resume running, possibly returning to the Fragments campaign, but several years down the timeline.
I think one of the mistakes I made with this campaign was running what should have been a long-term exploration game in the short time I was still willing to run. I should have had a definite storyline ready for the players to interact with rather than putting together a sandbox campaign. I should have also run a more standard background rather than a “picking up the pieces again” background. Running an adventure happening during the Crash with the PCs trying to get to some sort of haven as the VIRUS wreaks havoc in the background would have been better suited to the time I had available. Then running the Fragments campaign after my hiatus would have had extra meaning for the players. Something to thinks about.]
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Fragments – Session 4: Bhuddas and Bubbas – Part 2: Krakatoa
Session 4 happened Friday, October 21, 2011. This is the second part of the adventure log for this session.
This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. Mongoose is doing good things, so no hate mail.
PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Cyrano Steel (male Lante, computer systems specialist)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)
Nomen Fire-eyes (male human hybrid, negotiator)
NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar, Ship’s Captain (female human)
Ted Yahn, Ship’s Navigator (male human)
Albertha Trufin, Ship’s Engineer (female human)
Dr. Quinton Picknell, Ship’s Doctor (male human)
Maresfield Trade Representative:
Deadra Pagenkopf, Maresfield Trade Liaison (female human)
The Passangers:
Brother Kurts of the Order of the Sacre Illuminae
Sister Gunita of the Order of the Sacre Illuminae
Week 7, Day 4:
The Just Lucky arrived in Krakatoa system and started scanning the system, first using passive systems. They immediately picked up a beacon in Krakatoa orbit, an Acojah beacon, not a human one like they expected. This made everyone a bit nervous. The PCs decided to play it safe and headed to the system’s other gas giant (the one Krakatoa is not in orbit around) and start refueling operations.
While there, the passive systems picked up evidence of debris fields in orbit around Krakatoa. Once the Just Lucky was refueled, the PCs chanced active scanners. The active scanners confirmed Krakatoa is ringed with debris fields – there is no sign of the class B port that should be there. Additionally, the scanners detected an inert ship in orbit around the gas giant Krakatoa orbits. Suspecting the VIRUS hit this system hard, the PCs decided to investigate the derelict ship first.
A couple hours later, when they got within visual range of the derelict ship, they realized that it was an Acojah ship. There was obvious damage on the side, near the cargo area, and the high rad count told them this was the result of a nuclear weapon. The PCs took the Iron Pig over to the Acojah ship, looking for answers and maybe some salvage. Oscar started removing the jump engine nacelle from the ship, something that would take him and Ro and Albertha several hours to accomplish [conveniently keeping Oscar and Ro in NPC-mode as their players could not make the game]. The rest of the group made their way up to the front of the ship, keeping the body of the ship between them and the radioactive parts of the ship, and entered the bridge through an emergency access hatch.
The away team found most of the command crew, all Acojah women, dead at their posts. The only crew member with an obvious wound was the captain and she appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the palate of her mouth. Max’s limited medical training told him that, except for the captain, the crew died of slow asphyxiation, suggesting the ship’s hull is breached and it was unable to maintain atmosphere. They located the ship’s black box and removed it, returning to the Iron Pig.
Back at the Iron Pig, the PCs accessed the black box and started going through the Captain’s Log. The ship was the Sargtlinen Cahallin and was a cargo vessel. It ran supplies to Acojah forces apparently operating on worlds that were human worlds pre-Crash. The Acojah captain (Maynolu Claddath) had received the ship new at a date the PCs knew was after the Crash started and the captain complained about some of the systems being difficult to work with due to the “anti-VIRUS modifications”.
There were months of standard log entries. At the end of the log, the ship was sent to Krakatoa with all other cargo ships, but with no explanation why. There were a few entries showing the captain’s frustration about being kept in orbit and not told what was going on. The penultimate entry is hurried and terse, explaining “the rivvil have broken their bonds and are driving the Acojah from the planet”. The final entry is a day later and shows the damage to the command deck the away team observed. The captain is obviously having trouble getting enough breathe to speak. She barely gets out “I’m sorry,” before the sound of a pistol being cocked is heard and the screen it shut off.
The PCs speculated on what they had learned. They decided that the Acojah had attacked neighboring worlds during the Crash, taking advantage of the chaos caused. Krakatoa was one of the worlds they appeared to have conquered and enslaved, but the enslaved humans had revolted and pushed the Acojah off the planet. This could mean that the Acojah still had space travel and may control the next several worlds along the main route through the sub-sector. This was very troublesome, especially as one of the systems past the known Acojah world was a major shipyard prior to the Crash, and had the capability to produce warships, something Maresfield never had the capacity to do.
Once the Sargtlinen Cahallin jump drive nacelle was removed and secured inside the Just Lucky, the ship headed over to Krakatoa to see what more could be learned. In orbit, Max and Grar used mind scans to see if there was anyone alive on the planet. They discovered there were 100’s of thousands of sentients on the planet, but the ship’s scanners picked up no electronic communications of any sort. Broadcasting to the surface produced nothing but static in response, so the PCs decided to attempt a landing. The planet’s surface is broken up into arable areas isolated from each other by stretches of volcanic terrain, areas where the planet was being flexed by the gas giant’s gravity. Many of the arable patches seemed to be inhabited based on the mind scans. Uncertain of what sort of response they would receive, the away team decided to land the Iron Pig on the fringes of a settled area and make contact where the population was not as dense.
As they descended, they could see evidence of agriculture and some roads near the settlement they had selected. As they landed the Iron Pig in the middle of a crossroads (of two dirt roads), they caught glimpses of wooden and stone buildings making up the settlement. They could also see locals running around, having noticed the Iron Pig’s descent.
Cyrano, Nomen, Grar, and Max (the only non-blue entity in the party) descended from the Iron Pig and waited for the locals to show up. A relatively small group did show, carrying what looked like muskets and hoping from cover to cover. Eventually the locals got close enough and the PCs called out greetings to them. One of the locals then approached and a conversation was had. Two things became immediately obvious during the conversation: the locals were under-educated hicks and noticeably xenophobic, talking directly only to Max, the only obvious human in the group. [This led to Cyrano’s player quipping “space travel turns you blue”.]
After a few minutes of extremely tense conversation, the PCs left, returning to the Just Lucky in orbit to report what little they had learned and decide what to do next.
*End of Session 4, Part 2*
This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. Mongoose is doing good things, so no hate mail.
PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Cyrano Steel (male Lante, computer systems specialist)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)
Nomen Fire-eyes (male human hybrid, negotiator)
NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar, Ship’s Captain (female human)
Ted Yahn, Ship’s Navigator (male human)
Albertha Trufin, Ship’s Engineer (female human)
Dr. Quinton Picknell, Ship’s Doctor (male human)
Maresfield Trade Representative:
Deadra Pagenkopf, Maresfield Trade Liaison (female human)
The Passangers:
Brother Kurts of the Order of the Sacre Illuminae
Sister Gunita of the Order of the Sacre Illuminae
Week 7, Day 4:
The Just Lucky arrived in Krakatoa system and started scanning the system, first using passive systems. They immediately picked up a beacon in Krakatoa orbit, an Acojah beacon, not a human one like they expected. This made everyone a bit nervous. The PCs decided to play it safe and headed to the system’s other gas giant (the one Krakatoa is not in orbit around) and start refueling operations.
While there, the passive systems picked up evidence of debris fields in orbit around Krakatoa. Once the Just Lucky was refueled, the PCs chanced active scanners. The active scanners confirmed Krakatoa is ringed with debris fields – there is no sign of the class B port that should be there. Additionally, the scanners detected an inert ship in orbit around the gas giant Krakatoa orbits. Suspecting the VIRUS hit this system hard, the PCs decided to investigate the derelict ship first.
A couple hours later, when they got within visual range of the derelict ship, they realized that it was an Acojah ship. There was obvious damage on the side, near the cargo area, and the high rad count told them this was the result of a nuclear weapon. The PCs took the Iron Pig over to the Acojah ship, looking for answers and maybe some salvage. Oscar started removing the jump engine nacelle from the ship, something that would take him and Ro and Albertha several hours to accomplish [conveniently keeping Oscar and Ro in NPC-mode as their players could not make the game]. The rest of the group made their way up to the front of the ship, keeping the body of the ship between them and the radioactive parts of the ship, and entered the bridge through an emergency access hatch.
The away team found most of the command crew, all Acojah women, dead at their posts. The only crew member with an obvious wound was the captain and she appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the palate of her mouth. Max’s limited medical training told him that, except for the captain, the crew died of slow asphyxiation, suggesting the ship’s hull is breached and it was unable to maintain atmosphere. They located the ship’s black box and removed it, returning to the Iron Pig.
Back at the Iron Pig, the PCs accessed the black box and started going through the Captain’s Log. The ship was the Sargtlinen Cahallin and was a cargo vessel. It ran supplies to Acojah forces apparently operating on worlds that were human worlds pre-Crash. The Acojah captain (Maynolu Claddath) had received the ship new at a date the PCs knew was after the Crash started and the captain complained about some of the systems being difficult to work with due to the “anti-VIRUS modifications”.
There were months of standard log entries. At the end of the log, the ship was sent to Krakatoa with all other cargo ships, but with no explanation why. There were a few entries showing the captain’s frustration about being kept in orbit and not told what was going on. The penultimate entry is hurried and terse, explaining “the rivvil have broken their bonds and are driving the Acojah from the planet”. The final entry is a day later and shows the damage to the command deck the away team observed. The captain is obviously having trouble getting enough breathe to speak. She barely gets out “I’m sorry,” before the sound of a pistol being cocked is heard and the screen it shut off.
The PCs speculated on what they had learned. They decided that the Acojah had attacked neighboring worlds during the Crash, taking advantage of the chaos caused. Krakatoa was one of the worlds they appeared to have conquered and enslaved, but the enslaved humans had revolted and pushed the Acojah off the planet. This could mean that the Acojah still had space travel and may control the next several worlds along the main route through the sub-sector. This was very troublesome, especially as one of the systems past the known Acojah world was a major shipyard prior to the Crash, and had the capability to produce warships, something Maresfield never had the capacity to do.
Once the Sargtlinen Cahallin jump drive nacelle was removed and secured inside the Just Lucky, the ship headed over to Krakatoa to see what more could be learned. In orbit, Max and Grar used mind scans to see if there was anyone alive on the planet. They discovered there were 100’s of thousands of sentients on the planet, but the ship’s scanners picked up no electronic communications of any sort. Broadcasting to the surface produced nothing but static in response, so the PCs decided to attempt a landing. The planet’s surface is broken up into arable areas isolated from each other by stretches of volcanic terrain, areas where the planet was being flexed by the gas giant’s gravity. Many of the arable patches seemed to be inhabited based on the mind scans. Uncertain of what sort of response they would receive, the away team decided to land the Iron Pig on the fringes of a settled area and make contact where the population was not as dense.
As they descended, they could see evidence of agriculture and some roads near the settlement they had selected. As they landed the Iron Pig in the middle of a crossroads (of two dirt roads), they caught glimpses of wooden and stone buildings making up the settlement. They could also see locals running around, having noticed the Iron Pig’s descent.
Cyrano, Nomen, Grar, and Max (the only non-blue entity in the party) descended from the Iron Pig and waited for the locals to show up. A relatively small group did show, carrying what looked like muskets and hoping from cover to cover. Eventually the locals got close enough and the PCs called out greetings to them. One of the locals then approached and a conversation was had. Two things became immediately obvious during the conversation: the locals were under-educated hicks and noticeably xenophobic, talking directly only to Max, the only obvious human in the group. [This led to Cyrano’s player quipping “space travel turns you blue”.]
After a few minutes of extremely tense conversation, the PCs left, returning to the Just Lucky in orbit to report what little they had learned and decide what to do next.
*End of Session 4, Part 2*
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Fragments – Session 4: Bhuddas and Bubbas – Part 1: Caraturth
Session 4 happened Friday, October 21, 2011.
This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. Mongoose is doing good things, so no hate mail.
PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Nomen Fire-eyes (male human hybrid, negotiator)
Oscar Dougray (male human, salvage expert)
Ro Owen (female human, team security expert)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)
NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar, Ship’s Captain (female human)
Ted Yahn, Ship’s Navigator (male human)
Albertha Trufin, Ship’s Engineer (female human)
Dr. Quinton Picknell, Ship’s Doctor (male human)
Maresfield Trade Representative
Deadra Pagenkopf, Maresfield Trade Liaison (female human)
Week 5, Day 1:
The Company decides that the next system they want to explore is Krakatoa System. It will take two Jump 2s to get there, but it was known to be a source of Berynium, a metal necessary to produce the cores of jump engines and not naturally found on Maresfield.
Krakatoa is a T-type world, but is a large moon orbiting one of the system’s gas giants instead of having an orbit of its own. Its orbit is unstable and the world is slowly spiraling in to the gas giant, with an expected impact in 4,000 to 5,000 years. The pre-Crash star charts indicate it had a Class B starport, so The Company is somewhat hopeful of survivors and some level of technology.
Additionally, Caraturth, the mid-point of the trip, is the home of the Order Grar is a part of and he has a vested interest in stopping there. When he reports back in to the Order, he is entrusted with a copy of all records of the Order on Maresfield for the last 80 years. If the Order is still active on Caraturth, he is to submit the records to the head temple for approval. This includes Grar’s induction into the Order and elevation to Lector.
Week 5, Day 2:
Nomen files a flight plan with the Maresfield Exploratory Committee. It indicates the Just Lucky will jump from Maresfield to Caraturth to Krakatoa and then back along the same route. Normally, getting the flight plan through the Committee can take a week or more, but Nomen knows where all the right people sit and has all the right paperwork prepared, so the entire process only takes a day. The downside is that Nomen and his wife now have a dinner appointment with one of the chief bureaucrats and his wife, a couple they loathe. Nomen’s wife sets the date for the get-together two days after the Just Lucky is expected back. And he better not be late.
Week 5, Day 3:
The Just Lucky jumps out of the Maresfield system, heading to Caraturth. During the one week jump, Cyrano constructs five McGuffins, using one of the bars of Red Gold Phoenix Salvage held onto from the run to Guruphon. Grar spends the week memorizing all 80 years worth of Order records.
Week 6, Day 3:
The Just Lucky arrives in Caraturth system. An active sensor sweep of the system brings to life an old navigation buoy in orbit over the planet Caraturth. A recorded message from the buoy provides instructions on where to land and what frequency to contact Caraturth Station, which is down on the planet. The Company and crew has some worries about the buoy being VIRUS-infected, but they quickly determine that the buoy is too simple and small to hold the VIRUS.
During the flight in from the jump point, Max calls in on the frequency specified and gets a very surprised junior member of the order on the other end. After a delay to get a more senior member of the Order, contact is made and the Just Lucky arranges to drop off an away team while the ship itself goes to refuel. When the ship enters orbit, Grar and max use their psionics to verify there is a population on the planet. They do, plus they notice a few minds verifying them. Grar is able to get a lock on one of the minds, but does not have the power to get a message across from this distance. Max has the power, but cannot establish a lock. [This is a recurring theme between the two of them.]
The Low Port for Caraturth is a grass field – the only grass field on the planet, as Caraturth has no native biosphere. The Order of Sacre Illuminae on Caraturth consists of several interconnected monasteries built into adjacent peaks of a large mountain. They are sealed from the high CO2 atmosphere, but there are large window-walls exposing open areas to the sunlight from the red primary. A sealed walkway, consisting of several large sections of transparent material extends to the Low Port landing field, where it connects to a larger reception chamber with airlocks. There are several dignitaries there to greet the PCs. Grar can identify robes indicating all five branches of the Order amongst the assemblage.
As Grar is a lector in the Order, he is the primary speaker for the PCs. The primary speaker for the Order introduced himself as Abbot Balvis. Grar explained that the PCs are an exploratory/mercantile company, of which he is a member. He then presented the combined records for the Order on Maresfield to the Abbot for verification and validation. The Abbot accepted the records, handing them off to a member of the Archivae for review. He then invited the PCs to a meal while the records were reviewed and the Just Lucky was away refueling.
During the meal, discussion was had about how the Order had weathered the period since the Crash. The abbot explained that the monasteries were designed to be maintained over the long term with minimal resources, so they had not had any social upheaval or loss of life. The data systems were isolated from all external systems and so the VIRUS had not been able to spread here. They had been running short on supplies to maintain the datasystems and had initiated a project to hand copy the material into books for preservation.
After a quick discussion amongst themselves, the PCs offered what spare parts they had themselves and the computer core they had secured from Guruphon Station. The monks were overjoyed at receiving these items and offered access to all of the preserved astrogation data and technical specifications they had. The PCs tried not to drool too much while accepting the deal. The abbot also requested passage for a delegation to Maresfield so that formal communications could be re-opened between branches of the Order and official ordinations could be delivered. The PCs agreed to this, but explained they were going to Krakatoa first. The abbot asked if they could use a trained planetologist (albeit one with little field experience) for that part of the trip and the PCs stated they would be very grateful for the loan of one. And so Brother Kurts and his bodyguard, Sister Gunita, joined the crew of the Just Lucky.
Week 6, Day 4:
In the morning, Grar is informed that the Maresfield records have been reviewed and all ordinations approved, including his own. A small Ceremony of Ordination is planned for mid-day, where Grar will trade his provisional robes (which all members of the Order on Maresfield wear) for a set of confirmed robes appropriate for his rank. The ceremony would have been sooner, but they needed to get Grar’s measurements and have properly tailored robes created (as a Low Waldi, he is a foot and a half shorter than the other members, who are all human).
After the Just Lucky returns from refueling operations, the trade of computer parts and core for complete pre-Crash astrogational data and other technical specifications happens. At mid-day the Ceremony of Ordination happens and Grar receives his robes as a fully confirmed Lector of the Order of Sacre Illuminae. A few hours later, the PCs and the new crew members return to the Just Lucky, head out to the nearest jump-point, and initiate the jump to Krakatoa.
*End of Session 4, Part 1*
This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. Mongoose is doing good things, so no hate mail.
PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Nomen Fire-eyes (male human hybrid, negotiator)
Oscar Dougray (male human, salvage expert)
Ro Owen (female human, team security expert)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)
NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar, Ship’s Captain (female human)
Ted Yahn, Ship’s Navigator (male human)
Albertha Trufin, Ship’s Engineer (female human)
Dr. Quinton Picknell, Ship’s Doctor (male human)
Maresfield Trade Representative
Deadra Pagenkopf, Maresfield Trade Liaison (female human)
Week 5, Day 1:
The Company decides that the next system they want to explore is Krakatoa System. It will take two Jump 2s to get there, but it was known to be a source of Berynium, a metal necessary to produce the cores of jump engines and not naturally found on Maresfield.
Krakatoa is a T-type world, but is a large moon orbiting one of the system’s gas giants instead of having an orbit of its own. Its orbit is unstable and the world is slowly spiraling in to the gas giant, with an expected impact in 4,000 to 5,000 years. The pre-Crash star charts indicate it had a Class B starport, so The Company is somewhat hopeful of survivors and some level of technology.
Additionally, Caraturth, the mid-point of the trip, is the home of the Order Grar is a part of and he has a vested interest in stopping there. When he reports back in to the Order, he is entrusted with a copy of all records of the Order on Maresfield for the last 80 years. If the Order is still active on Caraturth, he is to submit the records to the head temple for approval. This includes Grar’s induction into the Order and elevation to Lector.
Week 5, Day 2:
Nomen files a flight plan with the Maresfield Exploratory Committee. It indicates the Just Lucky will jump from Maresfield to Caraturth to Krakatoa and then back along the same route. Normally, getting the flight plan through the Committee can take a week or more, but Nomen knows where all the right people sit and has all the right paperwork prepared, so the entire process only takes a day. The downside is that Nomen and his wife now have a dinner appointment with one of the chief bureaucrats and his wife, a couple they loathe. Nomen’s wife sets the date for the get-together two days after the Just Lucky is expected back. And he better not be late.
Week 5, Day 3:
The Just Lucky jumps out of the Maresfield system, heading to Caraturth. During the one week jump, Cyrano constructs five McGuffins, using one of the bars of Red Gold Phoenix Salvage held onto from the run to Guruphon. Grar spends the week memorizing all 80 years worth of Order records.
Week 6, Day 3:
The Just Lucky arrives in Caraturth system. An active sensor sweep of the system brings to life an old navigation buoy in orbit over the planet Caraturth. A recorded message from the buoy provides instructions on where to land and what frequency to contact Caraturth Station, which is down on the planet. The Company and crew has some worries about the buoy being VIRUS-infected, but they quickly determine that the buoy is too simple and small to hold the VIRUS.
During the flight in from the jump point, Max calls in on the frequency specified and gets a very surprised junior member of the order on the other end. After a delay to get a more senior member of the Order, contact is made and the Just Lucky arranges to drop off an away team while the ship itself goes to refuel. When the ship enters orbit, Grar and max use their psionics to verify there is a population on the planet. They do, plus they notice a few minds verifying them. Grar is able to get a lock on one of the minds, but does not have the power to get a message across from this distance. Max has the power, but cannot establish a lock. [This is a recurring theme between the two of them.]
The Low Port for Caraturth is a grass field – the only grass field on the planet, as Caraturth has no native biosphere. The Order of Sacre Illuminae on Caraturth consists of several interconnected monasteries built into adjacent peaks of a large mountain. They are sealed from the high CO2 atmosphere, but there are large window-walls exposing open areas to the sunlight from the red primary. A sealed walkway, consisting of several large sections of transparent material extends to the Low Port landing field, where it connects to a larger reception chamber with airlocks. There are several dignitaries there to greet the PCs. Grar can identify robes indicating all five branches of the Order amongst the assemblage.
As Grar is a lector in the Order, he is the primary speaker for the PCs. The primary speaker for the Order introduced himself as Abbot Balvis. Grar explained that the PCs are an exploratory/mercantile company, of which he is a member. He then presented the combined records for the Order on Maresfield to the Abbot for verification and validation. The Abbot accepted the records, handing them off to a member of the Archivae for review. He then invited the PCs to a meal while the records were reviewed and the Just Lucky was away refueling.
During the meal, discussion was had about how the Order had weathered the period since the Crash. The abbot explained that the monasteries were designed to be maintained over the long term with minimal resources, so they had not had any social upheaval or loss of life. The data systems were isolated from all external systems and so the VIRUS had not been able to spread here. They had been running short on supplies to maintain the datasystems and had initiated a project to hand copy the material into books for preservation.
After a quick discussion amongst themselves, the PCs offered what spare parts they had themselves and the computer core they had secured from Guruphon Station. The monks were overjoyed at receiving these items and offered access to all of the preserved astrogation data and technical specifications they had. The PCs tried not to drool too much while accepting the deal. The abbot also requested passage for a delegation to Maresfield so that formal communications could be re-opened between branches of the Order and official ordinations could be delivered. The PCs agreed to this, but explained they were going to Krakatoa first. The abbot asked if they could use a trained planetologist (albeit one with little field experience) for that part of the trip and the PCs stated they would be very grateful for the loan of one. And so Brother Kurts and his bodyguard, Sister Gunita, joined the crew of the Just Lucky.
Week 6, Day 4:
In the morning, Grar is informed that the Maresfield records have been reviewed and all ordinations approved, including his own. A small Ceremony of Ordination is planned for mid-day, where Grar will trade his provisional robes (which all members of the Order on Maresfield wear) for a set of confirmed robes appropriate for his rank. The ceremony would have been sooner, but they needed to get Grar’s measurements and have properly tailored robes created (as a Low Waldi, he is a foot and a half shorter than the other members, who are all human).
After the Just Lucky returns from refueling operations, the trade of computer parts and core for complete pre-Crash astrogational data and other technical specifications happens. At mid-day the Ceremony of Ordination happens and Grar receives his robes as a fully confirmed Lector of the Order of Sacre Illuminae. A few hours later, the PCs and the new crew members return to the Just Lucky, head out to the nearest jump-point, and initiate the jump to Krakatoa.
*End of Session 4, Part 1*
Friday, October 7, 2011
Fragments - Session 3: Maresfield Shootout
Session 3 happened Friday, September 30, 2011.
This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. Mongoose is doing good things, so no hate mail.
PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Nomen Fire-eyes (male human hybrid, negotiator)
Oscar Dougray (male human, salvage expert)
Ro Owen (female human, team security expert)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)
NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar, Ship’s Captain (female human)
Ted Yahn, Ship’s Navigator (male human)
Albertha Trufin, Ship’s Engineer (female human)
Dr. Quinton Picknell, Ship’s Doctor (male human)
Maresfield Trade Representative:
Deadra Pagenkopf, Maresfield Trade Liaison (female human)
Week 3, Day 3:
The Just Lucky arrived in Maresfield system. After properly identifying itself to the Maresfield orbital authorities, the ship received an updated System Map for the Adab subsector and J2 System Survey Report from the Maresfield Scout Service. Most of the day is spent moving from the jump point to planetary orbit.
Week 3, Day 5:
Phoenix Salvage [the players] receives payment from Maresfield government for shipment of red gold made by the Just Lucky. Phoenix Salvage decided to keep 2 bars of red gold for their use. With a great deal of credit in the company’s accounts, the Just Lucky was put into dock for routine maintenance.
Week 3, Days 6 and 7:
Phoenix Salvage starts purchasing items they found they needed on their first outing. Orders were placed for 4 body sleeves, lightweight armor with some environmental support capabilities. Ro was also able to secure a fiber optic intrusion camera for Grar’s use.
Grar also requested updated body armor (to ballistic cloth) from the Order of Sacre Illuminae. While talking with his superior in the Order, Grar related that the Just Lucky would next travel to the Caraturth system. In exchange for the armor upgrade, Grar was provided a pile of scrolls containing the history of the Order on Maresfield over the last 90 years and asked to deliver it to the Founding Monastery on Caraturth.
Week 4, Day 1:
Cyrano compiled a list of components he needs in order to start building McGuffins for Phoenix Salvage’s use. In order to avoid the notice of the Maresfield government, he needed the other members of Phoenix Salvage to secure several of the items. Ro, Grar, and Oscar agreed to help.
Oscar located sources for several of the more technical components and secured a supply of them. Grar went to his Low Waldi contacts while Ro, taking the single mundane item on the list (several spools of fiber optic circuitry) simply went shopping for it. After checking a few places, Ro ended up in a technically-oriented bodega where few questions were asked if payment was in cash. She waited at the front counter while the owner was putting together her order (the FO circuitry was kept behind the counter). Waiting in the back of the bodega for his contact to show, entirely by coincidence, was Sherwood Switch, head of a pirate gang and sworn enemy or Ro. As far as he knew, Ro Owen died on the island he marooned her on several years ago.
Imagine his surprise when one of his flunkies pulls him aside and points to the front of the shop. His exact words were, “Ro Owen?! What the hell?!”
Ro recognized the voice and spun, pulling her automatic pistol, and started shooting at her blood enemy. Switch responded in kind with his 9 mm magnum pistol, ordering his two flunkies to start shooting. This started a shootout down the length of the store (and the chips and soda aisle). Ro took cover by flipping over the sales counter while Switch stepped partially behind a display of canned foods at the end of the aisle.
In the storage area in the back, Grar was talking with his contact (and cousin), working out the details of getting the components he was asked to get. His cousin (and contact) immediately fled the building when the gunshots started ringing out. Grar, curious by nature, moved around and into the cold locker so he could see out through the beer shelves. Seeing that Ro and several unknown assailants were evenly matched, he cautiously moved to a point where he was flanking the guy who seemed to be the leader and waited for an opportunity.
This opportunity came when one of the other customers of the bodega took offense at some of the remarks the flunkies were making and started beating down the flunky trying to flank Ro. Unaware of this, the second flunky moved forward to get a better shot at Ro, leaving Switch along in the back. Grar silently opened the cooler door and squeezed through the shelves, flanking Switch and covering the man with his gauss pistol. In a calm voice he ordered Switch to drop his weapon.
Switch, surprised to find a Low Waldi with a pistol behind him, attempted to push over the display of cans onto Grar. Grar pulled the trigger first, firing multiple flechettes through Switch’s torso, dropping him. Ro, seeing this happen, hopped the counter and ran up to Switch, intent on killing him with the same gun switch killed her last lover – only to find that she had not brought that pistol with her today. So she kicked him in the head and stalked out.
During her run up to Switch, the flunky who was mid-aisle attempted to shoot Ro in the back and missed. When he realized Switch was down and there was another shooter in the store, one who might have killed his boss, the flunky ran out the front of the store. The other flunky was pummeled into unconsciousness by the offended patron, despite having a gun in hand. He would not wake up until the police were there arresting him.
Grar took off out the back, slowing down only long enough to grab the security tapes from the store security cameras. Hopefully there was not a second set of recorders up at the front of the store.
Both Ro and Grar decide to lay low until the ship finishes its maintenance.
Week 4, Day 4:
Cyrano, using other channels, finally acquires the rest of the components he needs to start making Phoenix Salvage-brand McGuffins.
Week 4, Day 6:
Maintenance on the _Just Lucky_ completed and the members of Phoenix Salvage re-board.
*End of Session 3*
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Fragments – Session 2: Guruphon Meltdown
Session 1 happened Friday, August 23, 2011.
This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. They are doing good things, so no hate mail.
PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Nomen Fire-eyes male human hybrid, negotiator)
Oscar Dougray (male human, salvage expert)
Ro Owen (female human, team security expert)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)
NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar (female human, ship’s captain)
Ted Yahn (male human, ship’s navigator)
Albertha Trufin (female human, ship’s engineer)
Quinton Picknell, Doctor (male human, ship’s doctor)
Maresfield Trade Representative
Deadra Pagenkopf (female human, governmental trade liaison)
Week 2, Day 1: Evening
The away team quickly got Max into the medical bay on board the Just Lucky, where Dr. Picknell went to work. The doctor performed some minor surgery on the bullet hole in the thigh and stitched up the foot wound. After that, he applied a set of smart bandages and Max was in functioning condition (if not exactly fully healed).
This was a good thing as Guruphon Station was powering on and Max was the primary sensor technician on the ship. Now that power is running on the station, Max was able to identify the station power plant, the main computer cluster, and locate which cameras and weapon mounts are still active on the station. He also determined that there were three security bots still active, one guarding the power plant and two on the computer cluster level. The power plant was giving off odd readings and the team called in the Ship’s Engineer, Albertha Trufin. Albertha looked over the readings and stated that the power plant is unstable and she’s surprised it has not detonated already.
After some planning, the away team returned to the station on the Iron Pig, while Captain Salazar adjusted the orbit of the Just Lucky to beyond the horizon of Guruphon to protect the ship. The team’s plan is to use the emergency shutdown panel to shut down the power plant and then cut their way through the deck above them into the computer cluster and secure the station computer core. To facilitate this, they bring two cutting lasers with them. To shorten their approach, they are entering the main structure through a breach on the side. Sensors indicate a ship’s boat was rammed into the station here, but it does not reach into the power room. Probably.
Oscar flew the Iron Pig back over to the station and parked it adjacent to the breach caused by the ship’s boat. Ro made her way over into the station and anchored a slip line so the less dexterous members of the team could safely navigate the four meter gap between the station and the Iron Pig. The rear thruster pods were facing directly at the entry point and much of the surrounding structures were somewhat melted. This made the team nervous, but Max assured them the sensors showed the boat was out of fuel. Probably.
Back on the Just Lucky, Ted was running the ship’s sensors, but at this range the best he could do was keep the away team updated on the relative positions of the active security bots. This was good enough for them, initially, but while the team was looking around for a way forward, a security bot showed up and took shots at Grar. One of those shots hit Grar in the head, knocking him unconscious. Max pulled Grar back and applied slap-patches to seal Grar’s suit while Ro agilely moved forward and burned the bot down with her laser rifle.
While Max pulled Grar back to the Iron Pig for emergency medical treatment, Ro, Nomen, and Oscar explored further. They determined the ship’s boat had crashed through the station gravatics machinery, knocking out artificial gravity throughout the station. An adjacent room once housed the station life support plant, but this room and the machinery in it were thoroughly trashed.
Once Grar was patched up with some smart bandages, he and Max returned to the exploration. Deciding to let those more adapted to it explore, the Low Waldi took one of the laser cutting tools and started cutting off rear panels of the ship’s boat. Oscar also jury-rigged one of Nomen’s seismic sensors to detect vibrations in the station hull, providing a form of early warning if either of the two remaining bots started approaching. At the end of this period of time, Gar could see into the cargo area of the ship’s boat and discovered it contained crates. Fishing one out, he found it contained 10 bars of processed red gold! The team took the time to cut off the back of the ship’s boat (the thruster section) and moved it and the eight crates of red gold to the cargo area of the Iron Pig.
Returning to exploring the station, Ro discovered an auxiliary parts storage room. This turned out to be full of repair parts for security bots. The team paused exploring again to salvage the entire room of parts. At this point they had been active for over 16 hours and two of them had gunshot wounds. Exhausted but pleased with the salvage they had acquired, they returned to the Just Lucky. If the station detonated while they rested, the ship would be safely over the horizon with everything they had come to get. If it didn’t, they could return and resume looking for access to the power plant room.
Week 2, Day 2
After some much needed rest, the away team returned to the station in the Iron Pig. Sensor readings taken over night indicated that the power plant was unstable and getting worse. They had maybe four hours to shut it down or get to a safe distance before it detonated. It would take an hour to get to the station from the Just Lucky.
Grar took a quiet moment during the transition to mind scan the planet to verify there were sentient beings on the surface. There were, but the team chose to delay attempting contact.
They were able to gain entry into the power plant room after another 30 minutes of searching. They found that the reactor control panels were damaged from the ship’s boat crashing into their back. The critical emergency shutdown panel was partially ruined. Oscar set to work jury-rigging it to some form of functionality. This took another 30 minutes to accomplish, but was ultimately successful in shutting down the power plant.
With the immediate threat neutralized, the team started cutting through the ceiling to reach the computer cluster. With no power to the station, the security bots maintain the patrols they were last ordered to perform and did not interfere with the extraction of the computer core. The core was returned to the Just Lucky and set up in to test for Virus infection. This took Cyrano the rest of the day. While he did that, the rest of the team returned to the station and salvaged anything of value they could remove from the station. Ro eventually hunted down the remaining security bots, cutting them down with her laser rifle. All of the bot remains were taken back to the Just Lucky for later use.
Week 2, Day 3
The core is tested and it is heavily infected. Cyrano uses the McGuffin to wipe it and reinstall a basic operating system. He does the same to the bot processor cores.
At this point the team decides they have more than enough to make the trip profitable and order the captain to take the ship back to Maresfield. Several hours later the Just Lucky is far enough from the gas giant Guruphon orbits to enter jumpspace and makes the jump.
*End of Session 2*
[I’ve implemented some basic timekeeping in order to provide a better sense of continuity. As this is going to be a short campaign, I’m not getting fancy and I’m just counting from the beginning of the campaign, Month 1, Week 1, Day 1.]
[Also, Cyrano Steel’s player was out of state for a few weeks and he missed this session. This was moderately awkward as he had some needed skills. I ended up subbing in the Ship’s Navigator, Ted Yahn, under the assumption they were skills he could reasonably have. The sequence of him testing the station computer core is something he had stated Cyrano would do if the chance became available, so I ran that for him. It was late and we were looking to wrap things up, so this was just stated and it was done.]
[Guruphon Station let me set player expectations as to what kind of devastation they could expect as they explored the space lanes. It also allowed the securing of a critical piece of material, the red gold. I had quickly realized that making the McGuffins as rare as I had caused significant story issues and there needed to be more of them. I had originally planned on the red gold being available in the crashed ship’s boat, but if the players did not cut into the boat or ignored the station, they could have secured some on planet, it just would have cost them.]
This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. They are doing good things, so no hate mail.
PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Nomen Fire-eyes male human hybrid, negotiator)
Oscar Dougray (male human, salvage expert)
Ro Owen (female human, team security expert)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)
NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar (female human, ship’s captain)
Ted Yahn (male human, ship’s navigator)
Albertha Trufin (female human, ship’s engineer)
Quinton Picknell, Doctor (male human, ship’s doctor)
Maresfield Trade Representative
Deadra Pagenkopf (female human, governmental trade liaison)
Week 2, Day 1: Evening
The away team quickly got Max into the medical bay on board the Just Lucky, where Dr. Picknell went to work. The doctor performed some minor surgery on the bullet hole in the thigh and stitched up the foot wound. After that, he applied a set of smart bandages and Max was in functioning condition (if not exactly fully healed).
This was a good thing as Guruphon Station was powering on and Max was the primary sensor technician on the ship. Now that power is running on the station, Max was able to identify the station power plant, the main computer cluster, and locate which cameras and weapon mounts are still active on the station. He also determined that there were three security bots still active, one guarding the power plant and two on the computer cluster level. The power plant was giving off odd readings and the team called in the Ship’s Engineer, Albertha Trufin. Albertha looked over the readings and stated that the power plant is unstable and she’s surprised it has not detonated already.
After some planning, the away team returned to the station on the Iron Pig, while Captain Salazar adjusted the orbit of the Just Lucky to beyond the horizon of Guruphon to protect the ship. The team’s plan is to use the emergency shutdown panel to shut down the power plant and then cut their way through the deck above them into the computer cluster and secure the station computer core. To facilitate this, they bring two cutting lasers with them. To shorten their approach, they are entering the main structure through a breach on the side. Sensors indicate a ship’s boat was rammed into the station here, but it does not reach into the power room. Probably.
Oscar flew the Iron Pig back over to the station and parked it adjacent to the breach caused by the ship’s boat. Ro made her way over into the station and anchored a slip line so the less dexterous members of the team could safely navigate the four meter gap between the station and the Iron Pig. The rear thruster pods were facing directly at the entry point and much of the surrounding structures were somewhat melted. This made the team nervous, but Max assured them the sensors showed the boat was out of fuel. Probably.
Back on the Just Lucky, Ted was running the ship’s sensors, but at this range the best he could do was keep the away team updated on the relative positions of the active security bots. This was good enough for them, initially, but while the team was looking around for a way forward, a security bot showed up and took shots at Grar. One of those shots hit Grar in the head, knocking him unconscious. Max pulled Grar back and applied slap-patches to seal Grar’s suit while Ro agilely moved forward and burned the bot down with her laser rifle.
While Max pulled Grar back to the Iron Pig for emergency medical treatment, Ro, Nomen, and Oscar explored further. They determined the ship’s boat had crashed through the station gravatics machinery, knocking out artificial gravity throughout the station. An adjacent room once housed the station life support plant, but this room and the machinery in it were thoroughly trashed.
Once Grar was patched up with some smart bandages, he and Max returned to the exploration. Deciding to let those more adapted to it explore, the Low Waldi took one of the laser cutting tools and started cutting off rear panels of the ship’s boat. Oscar also jury-rigged one of Nomen’s seismic sensors to detect vibrations in the station hull, providing a form of early warning if either of the two remaining bots started approaching. At the end of this period of time, Gar could see into the cargo area of the ship’s boat and discovered it contained crates. Fishing one out, he found it contained 10 bars of processed red gold! The team took the time to cut off the back of the ship’s boat (the thruster section) and moved it and the eight crates of red gold to the cargo area of the Iron Pig.
Returning to exploring the station, Ro discovered an auxiliary parts storage room. This turned out to be full of repair parts for security bots. The team paused exploring again to salvage the entire room of parts. At this point they had been active for over 16 hours and two of them had gunshot wounds. Exhausted but pleased with the salvage they had acquired, they returned to the Just Lucky. If the station detonated while they rested, the ship would be safely over the horizon with everything they had come to get. If it didn’t, they could return and resume looking for access to the power plant room.
Week 2, Day 2
After some much needed rest, the away team returned to the station in the Iron Pig. Sensor readings taken over night indicated that the power plant was unstable and getting worse. They had maybe four hours to shut it down or get to a safe distance before it detonated. It would take an hour to get to the station from the Just Lucky.
Grar took a quiet moment during the transition to mind scan the planet to verify there were sentient beings on the surface. There were, but the team chose to delay attempting contact.
They were able to gain entry into the power plant room after another 30 minutes of searching. They found that the reactor control panels were damaged from the ship’s boat crashing into their back. The critical emergency shutdown panel was partially ruined. Oscar set to work jury-rigging it to some form of functionality. This took another 30 minutes to accomplish, but was ultimately successful in shutting down the power plant.
With the immediate threat neutralized, the team started cutting through the ceiling to reach the computer cluster. With no power to the station, the security bots maintain the patrols they were last ordered to perform and did not interfere with the extraction of the computer core. The core was returned to the Just Lucky and set up in to test for Virus infection. This took Cyrano the rest of the day. While he did that, the rest of the team returned to the station and salvaged anything of value they could remove from the station. Ro eventually hunted down the remaining security bots, cutting them down with her laser rifle. All of the bot remains were taken back to the Just Lucky for later use.
Week 2, Day 3
The core is tested and it is heavily infected. Cyrano uses the McGuffin to wipe it and reinstall a basic operating system. He does the same to the bot processor cores.
At this point the team decides they have more than enough to make the trip profitable and order the captain to take the ship back to Maresfield. Several hours later the Just Lucky is far enough from the gas giant Guruphon orbits to enter jumpspace and makes the jump.
*End of Session 2*
[I’ve implemented some basic timekeeping in order to provide a better sense of continuity. As this is going to be a short campaign, I’m not getting fancy and I’m just counting from the beginning of the campaign, Month 1, Week 1, Day 1.]
[Also, Cyrano Steel’s player was out of state for a few weeks and he missed this session. This was moderately awkward as he had some needed skills. I ended up subbing in the Ship’s Navigator, Ted Yahn, under the assumption they were skills he could reasonably have. The sequence of him testing the station computer core is something he had stated Cyrano would do if the chance became available, so I ran that for him. It was late and we were looking to wrap things up, so this was just stated and it was done.]
[Guruphon Station let me set player expectations as to what kind of devastation they could expect as they explored the space lanes. It also allowed the securing of a critical piece of material, the red gold. I had quickly realized that making the McGuffins as rare as I had caused significant story issues and there needed to be more of them. I had originally planned on the red gold being available in the crashed ship’s boat, but if the players did not cut into the boat or ignored the station, they could have secured some on planet, it just would have cost them.]
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Fragments – Things I’ve Learned About My Game
One of the interesting things about starting a campaign is learning things you didn’t know about your own campaign as the players put together their characters.
The population of the starting world (Maresfield) in my Hero Traveller campaign was all human – until the PCs were created. Two of my players created non-humans (a Lante and a Low Waldi) and one created a human-alien hybrid. Suddenly I had to add a viable Lante population (as Maresfield has been cut off for 80-90 years) to the mix and enough Low Waldi that some would still be around when the game started. Plus I needed reasons why these races were on the planet.
As Maresfield was primarily a custom luxury starship manufacturing planet, it made sense that Lante from the technician caste would be on planet, working for the various corporations. The Low Waldi, on the other hand, were a different story. Discussing it with the player, we decided the majority of the Low Waldi in the Maresfield system were working as shipbreakers and salvage specialists. As there was not a lot of this type of work, they were a marginal population and now there are only a couple hundred left. The other Low Waldi were servants of some High Waldi waiting on their ships. What happened to the High Waldi? That’s a secret…
This left me with the human-alien hybrid. One of the other PCs backstory referenced a group doing illegal genetic experiments of an undetermined nature, so I made this character one of the few successes of the experimentation. I also made him blue, as the most likely group for hybridizing are the Lante, who have a blue skin tone. These two backstories also introduced a (currently unnamed) sinister corporation experimenting with malware, something I had not originally envisioned, but liked once the player introduced it.
This brings up the two distinct religious groups on the planet. First are the Owenites, a neo-Quaker type group that espouses simple agrarian living in arcologies. They originally started in a different system, but were persecuted there (or at least that’s the story passed down). The Owenites purchased a station in the Maresfield system and converted it into an arcology, growing their own foods in the station. Around the time of The Crash, the station failed somehow and most of the Owenites died. The survivors were granted refugee status on Maresfield and then stuck there when The Crash stopped all space travel.
The other religious group is a monastic order that prizes the preservation of knowledge. They are mostly human, but accepted an orphaned Low Waldi boy when he showed a knack for memorizing things. When the player presented this in his characters’ backstory, I immediately linked it to a monastic group I had already established in a different system. This was actually handy, as I had not worked out what they were all about and now I had a handle on them. Plus, at least one of the player characters was now motivated to go to that planet and see if the Order still exists.
The last thing I learned about Maresfield is that there is a black market for salvage OldTech. The same PC backstory that introduced the Owenites and the sinister corporation also wanted to introduce space pirates. This was a problem as the campaign baseline stated that there was no space travel for the last 80-90 years until just recently. So we talked and worked out that, while there were no space pirates operating out of an abandoned space station, there are pirates on the seas of Maresfield that hijack supply ships travelling between isolated settlement and scavenging OldTech on the planet from abandoned facilities and deorbited stations.
So I had alien races, religious groups on the fringes, sinister corporations, and pirates on Maresfield where none had existed prior to character creation. I love it.
The population of the starting world (Maresfield) in my Hero Traveller campaign was all human – until the PCs were created. Two of my players created non-humans (a Lante and a Low Waldi) and one created a human-alien hybrid. Suddenly I had to add a viable Lante population (as Maresfield has been cut off for 80-90 years) to the mix and enough Low Waldi that some would still be around when the game started. Plus I needed reasons why these races were on the planet.
As Maresfield was primarily a custom luxury starship manufacturing planet, it made sense that Lante from the technician caste would be on planet, working for the various corporations. The Low Waldi, on the other hand, were a different story. Discussing it with the player, we decided the majority of the Low Waldi in the Maresfield system were working as shipbreakers and salvage specialists. As there was not a lot of this type of work, they were a marginal population and now there are only a couple hundred left. The other Low Waldi were servants of some High Waldi waiting on their ships. What happened to the High Waldi? That’s a secret…
This left me with the human-alien hybrid. One of the other PCs backstory referenced a group doing illegal genetic experiments of an undetermined nature, so I made this character one of the few successes of the experimentation. I also made him blue, as the most likely group for hybridizing are the Lante, who have a blue skin tone. These two backstories also introduced a (currently unnamed) sinister corporation experimenting with malware, something I had not originally envisioned, but liked once the player introduced it.
This brings up the two distinct religious groups on the planet. First are the Owenites, a neo-Quaker type group that espouses simple agrarian living in arcologies. They originally started in a different system, but were persecuted there (or at least that’s the story passed down). The Owenites purchased a station in the Maresfield system and converted it into an arcology, growing their own foods in the station. Around the time of The Crash, the station failed somehow and most of the Owenites died. The survivors were granted refugee status on Maresfield and then stuck there when The Crash stopped all space travel.
The other religious group is a monastic order that prizes the preservation of knowledge. They are mostly human, but accepted an orphaned Low Waldi boy when he showed a knack for memorizing things. When the player presented this in his characters’ backstory, I immediately linked it to a monastic group I had already established in a different system. This was actually handy, as I had not worked out what they were all about and now I had a handle on them. Plus, at least one of the player characters was now motivated to go to that planet and see if the Order still exists.
The last thing I learned about Maresfield is that there is a black market for salvage OldTech. The same PC backstory that introduced the Owenites and the sinister corporation also wanted to introduce space pirates. This was a problem as the campaign baseline stated that there was no space travel for the last 80-90 years until just recently. So we talked and worked out that, while there were no space pirates operating out of an abandoned space station, there are pirates on the seas of Maresfield that hijack supply ships travelling between isolated settlement and scavenging OldTech on the planet from abandoned facilities and deorbited stations.
So I had alien races, religious groups on the fringes, sinister corporations, and pirates on Maresfield where none had existed prior to character creation. I love it.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Fragments – Session 1 – Part 2: Guruphon Station
Session 1 happened Friday, August 19, 2011.
This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. They are doing good things, so no hate mail.
PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Cyrano Steel (male Lante, computer systems specialist)
Oscar Dougray (male human, salvage expert)
Ro Owen (female human, team security expert)
Nomen Fire-eyes male human hybrid, negotiator)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)
NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar (female human, ship’s captain)
Ted Yahn (male human, ship’s navigator)
Albertha Trufin (female human, ship’s engineer)
Quinton Picknell, Doctor (male human, ship’s doctor)
Maresfield Trade Representative
Deadra Pagenkopf (female human, governmental trade liaison)
Ro quickly realized that the ceiling-mounted weapon was inert and not a threat to the away team. While the rest of the team investigated the area, Ro checked out the ceiling-mounted weapon. She found it to be a lightly modified automatic slugthrower with an empty ammunition hopper. She immediately pulled out a small tool kit and started removing the weapon from the mounting.
Max investigated the desiccated body. Based on the condition of the body, he estimated the person was shot dead by the ceiling-mounted weapon before the atmosphere was removed and before the artificial gravity was turned off. Cyrano checked out the spray patterns of the bullets to try and determine if the weapon was randomly spraying or targeted the dead person. Based on what he could see, the weapon was not randomly firing and at one point it seemed to have been targeting someone in armor of some sort.
After learning all they could at the gate area, the team made their way down the main concourse, towards the center of the station. They found scattered evidence that fighting happened all along the concourse, including burned kiosks, damaged ceiling-mounted weapons, and surveillance cameras that had been shot out.
At the hub, the team found the remains of dead station personnel. They also located a map display of the station, but it had no power. The team scavenged the area for personal electronic devices and Oscar rigged the batteries they found together to get enough juice to activate the map display for about a half a minute. This was long enough for Grar and Oscar to memorize the map. [Both characters have eidetic memory.]
Rather than explore the other concourses, the team headed deeper into the station and entered the large, open customs area. Here they found evidence of a major firefight. Behind some improvised barricades, the team finds the remains of off duty marines. [They were in civilian clothes, but wearing dogtags.] Ro secured the weapons the marines were using while Grar removed their dogtags.
A partially obscured door in one corner seemed to lead to the security offices, an area the team wanted to explore. Not having an access badge, Ro and Cyrano worked at bypassing the locking mechanism. When they removed the plate, they recognized a silent alarm being triggered – station security still had some power! [And the players totally blew their Security Systems roll.]
The room beyond the door was a reception area of some sort. The only light active in the small room was on a security camera pointed on the door. The team entered the room and looked around, finding the body of a security guard behind the station desk. Ro was convinced to shoot out the security camera, as it was creeping out other members of the team.
Max decided at this point to go back into the customs area and sketch out some unit patches the team had found on the clothing of the marines. This put him in the perfect spot to observe an active wheeled security bot move into the area and target him. Trying to hide behind the barricades the marines had put up, Max learned why the marines had died here – the bullets from the security bot easily punctured the barricades, wounding Max in the thigh and foot.
The sound of the light machinegun firing alerted the rest of the team, who moved out, using what cover they could (mostly the desiccated remains of some large potted plants). The team cut the bot into pieces with their laser carbines (well Ro’s and Cyrano’s laser carbines) and then checked on Max. Max was seriously wounded and his vacc suit was punctured and leaking air. A few emergency patches sealed the suit, but not Max’s wounds. Ro and Nomen started hauling Max back to the Iron Pig, where there was atmosphere and they could do proper first aid. Along the way, they noticed lights activating on the few undamaged video cameras along the concourse. Ro fixed that problem with her laser carbine, and warned the rest of the team via commlink.
Back in the customs area, Grar and Cyrano decided to push into the security area while Oscar held the customs area and their line of retreat. Through another door in the security checkpoint, they found a cubicle farm. The lights were out, but they could see two active security cameras. Grar had Cyrano shoot out the cameras so he (Grar) could search the area unobserved. Shortly thereafter, two wheeled security bots showed up in the cube farm area. One parked to cover the exits leading deeper into station while the other moved around the outside edge of the cube farm. Grar took cover in a cube and hid. Cyrano closed the door between the cube farm and the entry area and then retreated back into the customs area with Oscar.
The mobile security bot finished a circuit of the cube farm and then exited through the entry area, heading to the customs area. Cyrano and Oscar fired on the bot, with Cyrano damaging it heavily. The bot immediately retreated back into the cube farm area. Grar was able to sneak past it while Oscar took the time to shoot out the now active cameras in the customs area.
The three company men decided a retreat was now in order and headed back to the Iron Pig. There they found Ro and Nomen just finishing patching up Max’s gunshot wounds. Max obviously needed better treatment from Dr. Picknell back on the Just Lucky, so Oscar flew the team back to the ship.
*End of Session 1, Part Two*
This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. They are doing good things, so no hate mail.
PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Cyrano Steel (male Lante, computer systems specialist)
Oscar Dougray (male human, salvage expert)
Ro Owen (female human, team security expert)
Nomen Fire-eyes male human hybrid, negotiator)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)
NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar (female human, ship’s captain)
Ted Yahn (male human, ship’s navigator)
Albertha Trufin (female human, ship’s engineer)
Quinton Picknell, Doctor (male human, ship’s doctor)
Maresfield Trade Representative
Deadra Pagenkopf (female human, governmental trade liaison)
Ro quickly realized that the ceiling-mounted weapon was inert and not a threat to the away team. While the rest of the team investigated the area, Ro checked out the ceiling-mounted weapon. She found it to be a lightly modified automatic slugthrower with an empty ammunition hopper. She immediately pulled out a small tool kit and started removing the weapon from the mounting.
Max investigated the desiccated body. Based on the condition of the body, he estimated the person was shot dead by the ceiling-mounted weapon before the atmosphere was removed and before the artificial gravity was turned off. Cyrano checked out the spray patterns of the bullets to try and determine if the weapon was randomly spraying or targeted the dead person. Based on what he could see, the weapon was not randomly firing and at one point it seemed to have been targeting someone in armor of some sort.
After learning all they could at the gate area, the team made their way down the main concourse, towards the center of the station. They found scattered evidence that fighting happened all along the concourse, including burned kiosks, damaged ceiling-mounted weapons, and surveillance cameras that had been shot out.
At the hub, the team found the remains of dead station personnel. They also located a map display of the station, but it had no power. The team scavenged the area for personal electronic devices and Oscar rigged the batteries they found together to get enough juice to activate the map display for about a half a minute. This was long enough for Grar and Oscar to memorize the map. [Both characters have eidetic memory.]
Rather than explore the other concourses, the team headed deeper into the station and entered the large, open customs area. Here they found evidence of a major firefight. Behind some improvised barricades, the team finds the remains of off duty marines. [They were in civilian clothes, but wearing dogtags.] Ro secured the weapons the marines were using while Grar removed their dogtags.
A partially obscured door in one corner seemed to lead to the security offices, an area the team wanted to explore. Not having an access badge, Ro and Cyrano worked at bypassing the locking mechanism. When they removed the plate, they recognized a silent alarm being triggered – station security still had some power! [And the players totally blew their Security Systems roll.]
The room beyond the door was a reception area of some sort. The only light active in the small room was on a security camera pointed on the door. The team entered the room and looked around, finding the body of a security guard behind the station desk. Ro was convinced to shoot out the security camera, as it was creeping out other members of the team.
Max decided at this point to go back into the customs area and sketch out some unit patches the team had found on the clothing of the marines. This put him in the perfect spot to observe an active wheeled security bot move into the area and target him. Trying to hide behind the barricades the marines had put up, Max learned why the marines had died here – the bullets from the security bot easily punctured the barricades, wounding Max in the thigh and foot.
The sound of the light machinegun firing alerted the rest of the team, who moved out, using what cover they could (mostly the desiccated remains of some large potted plants). The team cut the bot into pieces with their laser carbines (well Ro’s and Cyrano’s laser carbines) and then checked on Max. Max was seriously wounded and his vacc suit was punctured and leaking air. A few emergency patches sealed the suit, but not Max’s wounds. Ro and Nomen started hauling Max back to the Iron Pig, where there was atmosphere and they could do proper first aid. Along the way, they noticed lights activating on the few undamaged video cameras along the concourse. Ro fixed that problem with her laser carbine, and warned the rest of the team via commlink.
Back in the customs area, Grar and Cyrano decided to push into the security area while Oscar held the customs area and their line of retreat. Through another door in the security checkpoint, they found a cubicle farm. The lights were out, but they could see two active security cameras. Grar had Cyrano shoot out the cameras so he (Grar) could search the area unobserved. Shortly thereafter, two wheeled security bots showed up in the cube farm area. One parked to cover the exits leading deeper into station while the other moved around the outside edge of the cube farm. Grar took cover in a cube and hid. Cyrano closed the door between the cube farm and the entry area and then retreated back into the customs area with Oscar.
The mobile security bot finished a circuit of the cube farm and then exited through the entry area, heading to the customs area. Cyrano and Oscar fired on the bot, with Cyrano damaging it heavily. The bot immediately retreated back into the cube farm area. Grar was able to sneak past it while Oscar took the time to shoot out the now active cameras in the customs area.
The three company men decided a retreat was now in order and headed back to the Iron Pig. There they found Ro and Nomen just finishing patching up Max’s gunshot wounds. Max obviously needed better treatment from Dr. Picknell back on the Just Lucky, so Oscar flew the team back to the ship.
*End of Session 1, Part Two*
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Fragments – Session 1 – Part 1: Getting to Guruphon Station
Session 1 happened Friday, August 19, 2011.
This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. They are doing good things, so no hate mail.
PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Cyrano Steel (male Lante, computer systems specialist)
Oscar Dougray (male human, salvage expert)
Ro Owen (female human, team security expert)
Nomen Fire-eyes male human hybrid, negotiator)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)
NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar (female human, ship’s captain)
Ted Yahn (male human, ship’s navigator)
Albertha Trufin (female human, ship’s engineer)
Quinton Picknell, Doctor (male human, ship’s doctor)
Maresfield Trade Representative
Deadra Pagenkopf (female human, governmental trade liaison)
After securing and refitting the Just Lucky (once a gambling ship [based on the Traveller lab ship design]), the partners of the Phoenix Salvage received a list of critical materials necessary for the resumption of starship construction on Maresfield. [As opposed to salvage of abandoned ships in orbit.] Going over the list and a (dated) star chart of the sub-sector, the company folks decided to chart a course to the adjacent system of Guruphon, once a source of “red gold”, a substance necessary for high end electronics and a critical component of the McGuffin [the anti-VIRUS device]. The payoff would be good no matter how much red gold they found and the Just Lucky can carry enough fuel to jump there and back safely. Once supplies and all the crew (and Trade Representative Pagenkopf) were on board, Captain Salazar was given the order to make jump to Guruphon.
After the one week jump, the Just Lucky exited jumpspace on the edge of the Guruphon system. Ship’s sensors detected all the planets records indicated the system should have, but no navigational signals. The scanty astrogational records available indicated that Guruphon was a T-type moon in orbit around the gas giant Symbian (second planet out from the primary). Scanning the area around Symbian, Max was able to detect weak radio transmissions. Captain Salazar was directed to make for orbit around the planet Guruphon.
After an 11 hour flight in-system, the Just Lucky approached Guruphon. At this distance the company and crew could see the ruined starport in orbit, still surrounded by a small cloud of debris. The fuelling facilities had exploded sometime in the past, nearly severing themselves from the rest of the station. The freighter docking area was a jumble of metal, but the small craft hangar seemed to be in reasonably good condition. The administrative structure was obviously damaged, possibly from small boat impacts, and there were no electronic signals coming from the station at all. It was inert.
Tracking down the source of the radio transmissions, Max located them on the surface of Guruphon. He located three clusters of radio transmissions, all of which seemed to be surface transmissions only.
The company decided to scout the ruined station first. If they could find some red gold mined and purified prior to the Crash, they would secure it for return to Maresfield. After that, if they decided to make contact with the surface and things went bad, they could still return to Maresfield successful.
The company suited up and boarded Oscar’s tug, loving referred to as the Iron Pig. It was a sturdy ship’s boat and could push aside debris if the need arose. Oscar took the Pig into the small craft hangar and found a docking port that was not too damaged. The company exited the tug and floated over to the port, manually cycling the airlock. Unsurprisingly, they interior of the station was airless.
As Oscar was the only one with any experience moving in zero-G, the company activated their boot clamps so they could “walk” along the deck. Heading down to a central gate area for several of the dock, they found a body floating against the far wall and a ceiling-mounted weapon deployed and pointing at them!
*End of Part One*
[I ran out of time on my lunch. Part 2 will post tomorrow.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)