This is a continuation of the game I ran before, The Valcyr's Tale, hence "second 'verse". The title doesn't allude to anything special beyond that.
Here is the description I gave the players (old and new) about the game:
Quote:
Description: Take me out, to the Black, tell them I ain't comin' back... 'cept that's a lie, plain and simple. Cuz the Valcyr is gettin' fueled and ready to head out once more to who knows where, anywhere a body can grab a-hold of some decent coin and keep their hands on it without resorting to a little gunplay.
Shame things never run smooth...
Notes: The boat's got a captain (though it's debatable if he's all there) and an engineer (who's also the owner, and hates flyin' in atmo - kwong-juh duh). The pilot's good with the stick but don't rely on him in a firefight (though he might just surprise you). Then there's the hired help... he likes guns and horses, but not as much as he likes getting paid. Thing is, with all the trouble they get into they really need a medic and their last one left under interesting circumstances, so they're hiring.
Are you up for it? Please, provide references. Lots and lots of references....
Here are the slightly unhinged crew of the Valcyr...
Lai Zheng Ho, Captain - A chinese man with an odd way about him and more superstitions than a dog has fleas. He stands out in any crowd with his commanding manner and peculiar idiosyncrasies. Believes he can pilot better with one hand on the controls (he really can't) and that his fists might cause a sonic boom when hitting someone. Don't touch the lucky sunglasses!
Thomas Clarice "TC" Knightford, Owner and Engineer - Scion of a rich Perspehone family with a talent for making mechanical things do his bidding. Owns the Valcyr through his family. Phobic about flying in atmo, would you believe it. He's almost as competent as he thinks he is, and confuses everyone with his adherence to some kind of Norse religion.
Wilks, Pilot - Son of a pair of wandering teachers. Book reading nerd with an absolute gift for flying. The only targets he's good at hitting with his pistol are cans and bottles.... but he might surprise you. There's more muscle on a broom handle and just stubbing his toe would make him cry. But he's like a radar for trouble... most of the time.
Cale, Weapons Expert - Big, tough, none too bright, loves his guns. If you can point him in the right direction he's a powerful asset. Otherwise, watch out. He can be protective of his captain ('specially against livestock) and easily convinced into doing things, if their experience with the previous doctor was anything to go by. Don't make him angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry....
Danni Lynchburg, Doctor - The new addition. A graduate of one of the top Ariel MedAcads, she wanted to travel and see the 'Verse, and traded her skills for passage and rent. Gorram smart, skilled with a scalpel or dermal regenerator alike. Helped set up and run a clinic on the world she's on right now, but now she's interested in seeing more new places.
Something I added to the game was Mandarin prompt cards. Specifically, short phrases (eg Huen Dahn, Jien tah-duh guay or Wuo Duh Tian Ah) with their english translations. Anyone who used one in an appropriate situation would get a Plot Point, as a way to Firefly-ify the dialogue and get folks Plot Points for it.
I also incorporated several of the rules changes from BSG - the roll minimums on Plot Point dice and the new multiple action rules, for example.
Now, on with the show.
__________________
"Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all..."
Our story begins on the Rim world of Ezra. The world's known for three things: farmers, the weak governer, and crime lords. Seems a particular crime lord had a bit of a setback a month back, lost a lot of face, so there's something of a scrabble for power going on just now. Which means there's money to be made ferrying out folk who want to get away from that trouble... and taking in those that profit from it.
{As with last time around, less got done than might of been due to the needs of character creation... fortunately only the one character this time. Plus there was all the in-jokes to wade through...}
Unable to find a decent candidate for a new medic aboard the Valcyr for almost two months, TC and Zheng are still doing 'interviews' on Ezra {judging by their interview technique, it's really not much of a surprise....} But they have a couple more to do before the passengers they have contracted with arrive the next day. So as one leaves (a fat, gruff sort of fellow - a stereotypical Rim doctor type) another arrives.... the impressively skilled Doctor Lynchburg. She was met at the usual cargo door {the starboard one} by Captain Zheng (looking as distinctive and slightly off-putting as usual) and Owner Knightford (inexplicably wearing a spacesuit sans helmet and carrying his sledgehammer on his back). Maybe not the best start...
The interview that followed was probably the most different one the doctor had ever had. Questions such as "are you planning on killing us and stealing the ship?" seemed more important than "how much experience have you had?" - though they did bother to ask where she got her training. This was only so TC could get on the Cortex to check up her background. He only managed a preliminary check {on account of a bad roll} but everything looked in order. Zheng even cut through the go-se and explained their previous doctor had gone a little crazy, which explained their somewhat paranoid attitude.
Wilks was keeping out of the way up in the cockpit (not wanting to scare anyone away with his nerdiness) but Cale was closer, in his bunk. His shouted addition to the interview proceedings was "Is she hot?"
Now came the weirder part. Suddenly Zheng grabbed something from his pocket and hurled it at the candidate! It turned out to be a small spanner... which {despite or perhaps because of the player's awful roll} went straight at the doctor's head! Was it aimed there? Was it supposed to go past? Only Zheng knows... Danni caught it in any case, demonstrating... some such thing or other that satisfied the odd mind of the captain at least.
Last step: shooting. Yep, you heard me. The doc was just as confused, but TC explained they often found themselves in dangerous situations and they wanted to know if she could shoot straight. She took the captain's gun and promptly (one might almost say easily) put a round in the centre of each of the three targets handily hung around the cargo bay. The shooting, of course, attracts Cale, who comes running - only to see the propective new crew member handing a pistol butt-first {that's the pistol, not the doctor...} to the captain.
As all looks well, Cale gives his other contribution to the interview - "I thought you said she was hot?" - and retreats back to whatever it was he was thankfully doing in the privacy of his own cabin.
Having finally (hopefully) found their new medic, there is a bit of haggling over pay {conducted as me saying "she is currently paid an unspecified but decent amount" and them saying "we'll pay that plus bonuses" - nice and simple} and the deal is done! With the job accepted Danni gets a quick tour of the ship - quick as in they took her straight to the infirmary. It looked decent - a bit better than on most boats of this type and age - and it seemed to have acquired some very good quality gear and drugs, more than she'd seen (or owned) for quite a while, what with her being out on the Rim. Maybe her infamous predecessor had left them behind....
They were due to lift tomorrow morning, so the doc had time to get her stuff from the clinic. Cale went with her for protection, as the streets of Ezra's main city were these days ruled even more by the gun than ever. Travelling on the battered old mule, they reached the clinic (which looked not unlike a bunker) in short order and Danni started to gather her stuff together from the small room she had in the back. She did not have much to begin with, but she added to it liberally with minor medical equipment the clinic could probably have done with... When asked by a nurse what was going on, the doctor just explained she was 'going away for a little while' and would be 'back soon'. The nurse seemed to accept that story.
{Maybe Doctor Lynchburg had other reasons for moving on...?}
That evening, back on the ship, TC cooked everyone a passable meal with fresh meat and vegetables, sort of a welcome aboard treat. Amazingly, Wilks looked up from his book long enough (he likes trashy sci-fi novels) to see they had someone new at the table... and that it was a female type person!
Morning came. Wilks got the Valcyr ready just in case they needed to fly out of there ahead of some posse or riot as usual. At TC's suggestion Zheng got his usual take-off ritual out of the way - go out, climb up the side of the boat (using the maintenance crew ladder wells) and kiss the valkyrie on the side. Danni was quite perplexed by this, but when she was told it was 'for luck' she accepted it without question, which suggested she could have a few good luck rituals of her own, as many doctors do.
At which point the passengers arrived, fortunately after Zheng had returned to the ground. Five of them... with one on a horse. Everyone was suddenly worried - were they supposed to take the horse too? No one had said anything about a horse! This seemed to cause the doctor more concern than it did the others... apparently, she just can't stand them. At all. Not a good attitude out on the Rim, but there it is.
Fortunately, another man was hidden out of sight behind the animal and it was he who led the horse away once the rider had dismounted and claimed his luggage from it.
All that was left was for the captain to greet his passengers, who he had yet to meet, and to get underway....
__________________
"Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all..."
The passengers approached, and the captain read out the names from his list.
Mr Sebastiano - a heavy-set man in a business suit, he introduced himself as Mike. He seemed a nice enough chap. His name ticked off, he headed for the stairs up to the middle deck - only to come face to chest with the larger Cale. Standard security measures these days include searching bags (albeit in a cursory fashion) which 'Mike' was not happy about - especially since Cale did it by grabbing his bag off him! Amazingly Wilks was able to defuse the situation somewhat (coming up with a story about a previous crazy passenger travelling with explosives), and his captain did his best to smooth things over with his other passengers (while he still had any). A quick look under Mike's coat revealed he was not carrying anything there either.
Mr Yuland - a skinny guy with slightly buggy eyes, and another friendly sort. He accepted the search (done by the more subtle Wilks from now on) since it was done a little more gracefully this time, but warned them that he had some sensitive business-type stuff in his bags. So far all anyone had was papers, databooks, stationary and clothing, and no obvious cannons strapped to their waists or whatever.
Mr Weitani - polite, Chinese, dressed in that classic chinese jacket and trousers combo folks see in martial art vids. He was deferential and, as I said, polite, and he went straight into Zheng's bad books instantly. Again, nothing exciting in his luggage or on his person.
Ms Geldvard - the oddity, by comparison. A woman dressed all in black with a mourning veil, accompanied by a young, blonde woman with a kinda rounded face. She introduced herself as Miss Saidey, Ms Geldvard's assistant, who was accompanying her employer - her brother had passed, and she was in mourning. There was some confusion as to whether the assistant was included on the roster, since Zheng did not have her name down, but TC (by radio from somewhere in/under the engines) was able to confirm it (after a fashion). The captain called up Doctor Lynchburg to check them over, since it would be better for the doctor to "grope" the women than Wilks. Again, nothing.
{Zheng's player expressed the theory that I chose the names just to force him to pronounce them. All lies, I tell you!}
Then everyone had a quick medical check (eyes, tongue-thing, neck glands, that kind of thing) and a simple inoculation against whatever nasties they might have been carrying from Ezra. The doc found out that Ms Geldvard was an elderly lady with harsh features, probably in her sixties.
That done, it was time to launch! Lift-off went smoothly but Danni was treated to yet another of the dysfunctions of her crew and her employer in particular - the sight of TC in a spacesuit and secured in a seat in the cockpit by many straps, face pale and eyes closed. He really hates atmospheric flying for some reason and thinks being strapped in inside a spacesuit will help. No one understands it, but there you are.
With the course to Persephone set after a quick check-over {due to a really bad Astrogation roll} and the journey set at a nice three and a half days, everyone settled down to the business of being stuck in a metal box with each other, unable to escape.
{...
Cue an extended uphill struggle against the most easily distracted players anywhere!
...}
A couple of uneventful days later (other than Mr Weitani asking for some pain meds for headaches) and Cale found himself in a predicament, and decided that only one of the passengers {in his player's desperate bid to get the game back on track} could help him! 'Mike' Sebastiano was only too glad to help (if confused) and so... pulled the gun barrel off the end of one of Cale's fingers. The big guy had been cleaning his many weapons, as he often does, and, ah, gotten the barrel stuck on there. He's really not the most accurate pistol on the range, know what I mean?
On his way off the top {passenger} deck he happened to notice Mr Yuland talking to Miss Saidey, and whatever he was saying appeared to displease her. When Cale gruffly intervened to inquire what the problem was, he was told everything was fine - and to his eyes, such appeared to be the case.
On the middle deck he encountered Zheng and Wilks and so he demonstrated why he had been up there... by promptly getting the gun barrel stuck on his finger again. It was at that point that the captain heard a scuffle from up above... Suspecting trouble he led and Cale followed - amazingly, Cale was utterly gun-less! Wilks did his usual trick and ran headlong for the cockpit, locking the door firmly behind him. No one was going to try and steal the ship this time!
Danni was in the infirmary, while TC was making engineering look all Norse-y with runes and prayers in some sort of Norse language or other.
At the top of the stairs to the top deck, Zheng saw a worrying sight - Mr Sebastiano dragging Miss Saidey (from behind her, one arm around her neck) into her and her employer's room {the one next to the conference room} with a small gun in his other hand. As the door slid shut the one opposite opened and Mr Weitani leaned out, also wielding a gun! The man fired at the captain, catching him in the side as he tried to throw himself out of harm's way. At which point Cale went thundering along the deck towards Weitani's room, ready for mayhem.
A hasty shot cut a furrow in Cale's neck as he charged and used the momentum to run smack into Weitani's outstretched arm, making him lose the pistol. Zheng meanwhile headed for the hostage stateroom and tried to slide the door open from one side, and got several shots blasted through the door as a result, fortunately missing him entirely.
Cale, now in the room opposite, finds himself going toe to toe with Weitani, Kung Fu Boy. So it's the martial artist versus a big nasty guy with brass knuckles and a knife. They are quite evenly matched in skill, and brawn against agility. Even so it is Weitani who gets the hits in first, before a slash or two with the knife evens the score in Cale's direction.
The off-kilter captain finds himself standing against a man with a gun and a hostage. Sebastiano seems confident that all will go his way eventually (despite the sounds of fighting Zheng casually brings to his attention) and tells the captain that the bounty will be theirs, not his. Zhengs is all "huh?" at this. "Don't you know who you're carrying?" Mikeyboy asks him, laughing.
TC has finally finished his devotions and gets informed of the situation by Wilks. Grabbing his rifle the mechanic heads upstairs, and seeing his captain squaring off against someone and the sound of fighting from elsewhere, he heads for the latter. Passing by the first stateroom he is suddenly knocked off his feet by a blow to the back of the head! Converting a tumble into a roll, he comes back up onto his feet to find himself facing a certain Mr Yuland, who misses him with a blast from the sawn-off shotgun he has somehow produced from somewhere {they really did not do a proper check, did they?}
A snap shot from the rifle drops the man onto his back as the second barrel of the shotty goes off, blasting part of the ceiling apart, right where there is this cute little ceiling window thing. TC follows up with a bash from the butt of his rifle but the guy is still struggling, though only just. Another attempt or two and Yuland is subdued.
Shots ring out and all goes quiet again. Zheng looks at Sebastiano... and smiles. It's the smile of a tiger, or a shark, or a really, really nasty ship's captain {a roll of 20 on intimidate with Intimidatin' Manner and an extra Plot Point powered d10 in there will do wonders...} Sebastiano swallows nervously, and he adjusts his grip on the gun at Miss Saidey's head.
Matters still seem evenly matched between Cale and Weitani. The next flurry of blows could decide it!
TC leaves the cabin with the unconscious Yuland in it and heads towards his captain. Halfway there he hears a creak.... an ominous creak. He looks up... just as the frame around that cute ceiling window blows out and sucks glass, frame and air out with it!
Sirens wail! Lights flash!
Hull breach!
{This session's guest cast includes...
Mr Sebastiano - James Gandolfini
Mr Yuland - Steve Buscemi (correctly guessed from the description by Zheng's player)
Mr Weitani - Jet Li
Miss Saidey - Julia Styles
Ms Geldvard - ????
A simple way of cutting down on pre-written descriptions - pick an actor whose appearance and usual character type matches what you want, and note that down instead. Two words are easier and quicker than many words.}
__________________
"Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all..."
Cue an extended uphill struggle against the most easily distracted players anywhere!
...
Cale found himself in a predicament, and decided that only one of the passengers {in his player's desperate bid to get the game back on track} could help him!
And who'd have thought it'd be Cale getting things back on track? "I mostly just hit things"
Seriously, though, I could see things getting out of hand, so fudged a way to head plotwards. Meta-gaming? Kinda, but at least I came up with a suitably Cale-ish reason for it.
Aside from the obvious distractions, I'm enjoying it so far. My one worry, though, is that I sorta feel obliged to top The Horse Incident this time round. I dunno if that's possible but, if it is, I'm definitely with the right group to attempt it with...
__________________ Playing: Pathfinder: Kingmaker Running: Doctor Who: The Shining Ones On Hiatus:3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars Completed: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: An Eye for an Eye / Remember Tomorrow Prepping: Lacuna: Into the Blue
{After the loss of a session due to having to work extra late last week, we return to the story...}
Lights flash. Sirens wail. Hull breach!
Zheng isn't one to mess around none. The moment it all kicks off he leaps into the room and coolly caps Sebastiano right between the eyes, making a mess of the wall behind him. Miss Saidey is dragged backwards onto his corpse and takes this development rather badly.
Cale sees the shock in Weitani's eyes and nods towards the door, saying "you wanna close that?" The smaller man agrees that this is a good idea and runs over to slide the door shut... only to get a bash on the back of the head from Cale. The blow is not enough to resolve their differences, however, and so the fight continues.
Danni stays where she is, figuring it's safer that way.
TC has only a moment to react and grabs for the small table just a few feet away, which is, fortunately, secured to the floor. He starts to come up with a {none to bright, to be honest} plan to hyperventilate and run into the room furthest from his position {rather than the nearer one - I think he didn't want to miss what his captain was up to} but Wilks activates something and a solid metal shutter type thing slams across the gaping window casement {which probably would've happened anyway}
The captain rescues Saidey from the corpse of her kidnapper and comforts her {now considered by the other players to be a euphemism} before she goes to see how Ms Geldvard is.
Cale's fight with the kung-fu guy seems evenly matched, until he sets the guy up and grabs his ankle (well, his trouser leg really). The big guy then uses Weitani as a stick and the wall as a drum. One big whack and Weitani is out for the count. Of course, at this point Cale does his usual thing and breaks the man's neck {no one was surprised by this - although I was expecting him to use the knife}
It's Tidy Up Time on the Valcyr - the two corpses are thrown out an airlock and Wilks (who has by this point rewritten the passenger manifest because it got 'accidentally ruined' and lost a couple of names in the process) repositions the boat a mite to burn up the bodies with the engines. They like being really thorough. Then, on orders from TC, he sends out a fortunately very brief radio message asking for assistance - something every other member of the crew protests loudly about at high volume! The owner sometimes has problems forgetting how criminal they all are... The pilot also gives the boat a bit of a boost so they'll get to Persephone sooner.
Zheng is surprised to find they still have a live one: Yuland is shot and beaten, but still breathing. The best option, it is decided, is to get him into the infirmary and interrogate him. But that will come later. He would much rather talk with his remaining passengers to find out what the guay is going on. So he summons Ms Geldvard and Miss Saidey to meet with him in the observation lounge.
TC decides that the emergency shutter is not quite good enough for him, so he drags Wilks (who hates EVA) out with him to basically cover the area around the window with sheets of metal and sealant goo - making sure to leave his mark (a wolf's head ego signature) as he does so. He concludes that the shutter-and-patch will definitely hold until they reach Persephone. The mechanic then wants to spy in through the big window to watch what Zheng is up to but the captain waves him away.
In the end only Saidey appears, saying that her employer wants to speak with him in her cabin. Remarkably {for a PC} he agrees and is accompanied by Cale. In the cabin Ms Geldvard (who has now removed her hat and thick mourning veil) is not very helpful, refusing to tell him who she is until they land on Persephone - "and not before!" {in a bad German accent - cue much player laughter at her sudden 'Herr Flick' impression}
She does kind of assure him that they are unlikely to be attacked by another ship before they land, and since she is interested in continuing living Zheng accepts that this is the case. Despite Cale asking if he can hit her yet (his usual conversational role) the captain seems unwilling to push the issue - perhaps Geldvard's promise of a reward for helping her sways him. She promises that he will be repaid for his assistance - and ends her sentence with something muttered in a language they don't know, somewhere between German and Russian perhaps?
Wilks meanwhile has been on the Cortex trying to find out who their passengers really are. He has also been keeping one ear on the radio... no Alliance response yet, thankfully. With just two surnames, their planet of origin (presumably), their destination and some not-so-good pictures he does a search and is able to find.... millions of tangential references to those criteria that are utterly unhelpful {Cortex searches seem to be very much like Google searches today, oddly enough, only much harder what with many more planet's worth of info to look through; also, the Cortex got dubbed AOL - Alliance On-Line}
For some crazy reason (namely Zheng wanting to draw attention away from the targets and onto him and his crew - he is nuts, remember) Wilks also arranges for a picture of Yuland to be distributed anonymously onto several shifty sites on the Cortex in an attempt to kind of say "hey, we got your assassin - come get us!" {players have the weirdest ideas...}
It's time for another fine interrogation. Yuland is strapped to the table in the infirmary and of sufficiently stable health as to be questioned. Doctor Lynchburg seems unfazed by their plans to, uh, "question" their prisoner - maybe there's a really good reason why she's out on the Rim instead of plying her trade in some swanky Ariel hospital... Zheng wakes Yuland with a splash of cold water and just as he is about to complain gets a smack in the chops from TC. All this seems to put the man in a stubborn frame of mind, as he is unforthcoming in response to their first round of questioning. There's talk of using drugs on him, and Danni goes into her office to prepare some - just saline, actually, intended to trick Yuland into thinking it is something more.
When asked if he is a bounty hunter he responds with a "BZZZ! Wrong!" and is halfway through the "BZZZ!" about if he is a cop when Cale slugs him - that is his job, after all. TC hands the captain a nice hot cup of tea {you can see where this is going, can't you?} and he takes a little sip.
{Why is it that all PCs employ torture at the first opportunity? It's like an unwritten rule of RPGs...}
Eventually Yuland admits that he does work, and gets blank looks. He tries again, saying he does 'work'. Still no one gets it, which prompts Zheng to dump the rest of his tea over the prisoner's face. He doesn't like that much, as you might expect, and it's hard to tell if the cold water that follows really helps any. When he recovers from the abuse he is a bit more revealing - "I do 'work'", he says; "that's 'work' spelt W-assassin-R-K!" {definitely the best (and totally improvised) line of the session, though it's quality was degraded by me telling other people about it several times afterwards...}
Finally having got something out of him, it seems they aren't going to get any more, as he refuses point-blank to discuss who hired him. So the crew decides to try another tack - Danni will use her investigative and psychiatry knowledge to attempt to use leading questions to make Yuland reveal more than he intends. She's good, but the previous round of questioning and the intense stares of the other crew members are against her, and Yuland reveals nothing.
It's time for a rest. Cale fixes a sandwich and then reassembles his guns - which only highlights just how hungry he must have been! TC decides to search through the belongings of the dead guys and the prisoner and finds what are probably fake IDs along with lots of innocuous stuff - and personal computers hollowed out to hold and hide guns. Wilks continues his searching, and Zheng does captain-y things.
Danni, meanwhile, has arranged for a more private session with Yuland. She fixes him up some more which, of course, the prisoner recognises as a tactic rather than the doctor just doing her job. However, another session of gentle, leading questions coupled with some actual painkillers reveals a couple more facts anyway. He still wouldn't give up his employer(s) but admitted he did have an idea who his targets really were - however, there was no way he would reveal his suspicions as it would be too dangerous for them all, even now.
The doctor seemed happy with that.
Persephone was now only twelve hours away.
{This session's guest cast...
Mr Yuland - Steve Buscemi
Mr Weitani - Jet Li
Miss Saidey - Julia Styles
Ms Geldvard - Helen Mirren
}
__________________
"Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all..."
{Doctor Lynchburg's player was not present this session, hence her reduced involvement
Also forgot to mention last time that Zheng had put Yuland in the refridgerated section of the upper cargo bay, with the dials turned to "quite cold"}
As morning arrived, TC ended his night shift in the cockpit (and also keeping an eye on the various Cortex searches that were still ongoing) and cooked breakfast for the two remaining passengers before heading for bed.
Zheng took Cale to check on the status of the prisoner and found him to be huddled in one corner of the refridgerated cargo compartment, still and unmoving. Opening the door did not rouse Mr Yuland at all, and they could not tell if he was breathing or not {when I asked how, the player pointed out it was freezing; in other words, they would've been able to see his breath - clever bugger} The swirling clouds of mist caused by opening the door masked any sign of the assassin's breath frosting in the air.
Firing a shot into the room didn't make him move either, but both Zheng and Cale had to move quick to avoid the ricochet! When they finally checked him out close up they found he still seemed to be alive but very, very cold. Dragging him up to the infirmary (where the doctor had cleaned up after the previous evening's 'entertainment') Danni busied herself restoring him from a hypothermic stupor - his weakened state (being shot, beaten and lightly tortured) contributed to his decline.
As the Valcyr neared Persephone and Wilks began re-entry and landing procedures there was some concern as to where they should land - at Eavesdown Docks as planned, or outside the more civilised regions to avoid any trouble they might get when landing? A quick consulation with Miss Saidey indicated that as they had not yet been attacked while in flight it was unlikely they would be attacked before they landed, so the docks would be sufficient. Also, could the captain inform them as to which bay or dock they would be landing in, please? Wilks got onto traffic control to determine just that, and passed on the relevant details.
There was a little turbulance on the way down (which didn't wake TC at all) but otherwise no problems. No interceptors launched, so missiles, all quiet. On the other hand, things got interesting once they had touched down. Zheng opened the side cargo door and watched the bay maintenance types start to do their thing... and then caught sight of a man in a suit, carrying a briefcase... and his four big, tough-looking friends. Cale arrived, fully armed as usual, to back him up, while the captain called up to Wilks to alert him to the situation.
Miss Saidey {who was doing all the communicating for her employer at this point} was asked about it and she asked if they could come up to have a look at them. Reluctantly agreeing, Zheng sent Cale to escort them to the cockpit. Once there, Saidey looked out the windows while Ms Geldvard examined one of the displays for the external cameras. She quickly indentified them as her 'escort'. Collecting their luggage, the two ladies were led down to where Zheng still waited, eyeballing the heavies.
Ms Geldvard went forward to speak with the men, while Miss Saidey stayed with Zheng. She tried to explain that she had stayed behind as a kind of hostage, the idea being that it was thought that Zheng might think that the thugs might not shoot them while Ms Geldvard's assistant was with them, except she {or rather I} did not explain it very well. She also conceeded that she probably wasn't much 'protection' for them anyway, if things went bad...
After a short discussion, Ms Geldvard led the man in the suit back over to the Valcyr. Once there he opened his briefcase (away from the crew) and the eldery passenger took out the remains of the fee she owed the captain... and then a hefty bag of platinum containing the total fee four times over! For their troubles, she explained, and their assistance. They would probably need it to repair the damage to the boat. And finally she promised that if they ever found themselves in any trouble, she would make sure that her husband fulfilled her promise of a favour for helping her.
"Perhaps you know my husband.... Adelai Niska?" she asked.
{Cue some looks of horror from those who knew the name and a few looks of confusion from those who didn't remember who that was}
Then came the matter of the prisoner. Perhaps, Ms Geldvard - uh, Niska - told Zheng, she and her husband's people could take him off their hands? They would be better at extracting information, and he was really their problem to deal with, rather than the captain's. Zheng agreed and sent Cale to fetch him from the infirmary. Yuland was still a bit groggy and very unsteady, but the doctor seemed perfectly happy to let him out of her sight and into Cale's not so gentle hands. During the handover Yuland babbled something about being right about who 'they' were and seemed entirely resigned to his no doubt awful fate.
Thanking the crew once last time, Mrs Niska bid them "how you say, clear skies" and departed the bay with her little entourage. Miss Saidey gave them a cheery farewell wave.
Zheng waited, and then waited some more. Nope, no alarms, no police, no one suddenly trying to kill them. Everything seemed to be good.... which made Zheng more than a little worried {and prompting his player to wonder if they were the bad guys now}
It didn't take them all long to realise, however, that they suddenly had more money than they'd had for quite a while! With the arrival of the various parties who were there to collect the cargo that they had also been transporting (including some slightly illegal cargo packed in a dark corner somewhere) they also had enough to cover the basic running costs, leaving enough for everyone to get paid double as a bonus and, hopefully, just enough to repair the hole in the Valcyr.
Which meant it was time for a celebration!
There was some drinking done, and a bit of fishing for gossip and word of dodgy jobs, and then the captain initiated one of those "I bet my big crewman can out-drink anyone here - what do you bet he can't?" competitions {but we kind of glossed over that bit as it was perhaps best to continue with the scenario at hand instead} Their champion, Cale, won, naturally.
In the mean time, TC had tea with Danni, in the interest of finding out more about his newest crew member {she didn't give much away, though, naturally - her player was absent}
The next day TC called up one of his contacts who had their own repair yard (since it would take more than just the sort of patch-up job you'd get in a docking bay to repair the damage and make the boat safe) and soon the Valcyr was landing on one of the two landing pads at Long's Repair And Salvage, Hattie Long proprieter.
Hattie, short and round with a set of welding goggles that never leave their position atop her head, was busy scathing at TC about his (in her opinion) haphazard repair job. It'll take two, three days max, she insisted. Depends whether or not they want a replacement window or to fill the hole in. Since the deck still had it's observation lounge at the back and a similar window at the front, the decision was made to just block it up {"just stick a binliner over it!" Zheng's player memorably suggested}
Filling it in seemed to add another day to it (it's not just welding sheets of metal over the hole, y'know!) and Wilks' comments only served to add another. This prompted Zheng to take Hattie to one side and basically tell her not to screw with them; there was no need to mess about, keep adding on days for no reason, that kind of thing. Just be straight with them. She said she would be, and that it would be three, four days max. That settled, it was back to looking for more work of the dodgy persuasion.
As something of a celebration the crew all went to lunch at a (relatively) fancy restaurant - and horse was on the menu. Danni was less than impressed when they told her - she threw her napkin at the captain and left in something of a huff {taking the player-less character out of the action once more}
When they left the restaurant, the crew were confronted by a man who was clearly waiting for them - a distinguished looking elderly man with dark skin that Zheng obviously recognised. At the stranger's suggestion they went off a ways for a private conversation - the man had his back to the rest, a fact that confounded Wilks' attempt to read his lips to learn what he was saying. All he learned was that his captain seemed very tense and that he made clear several times that he really, really was the captain.
{I was thinking about adding the details of the conversation under the spoiler code thing, but I knew my players would probably just look anyway - it's what players do!}
When the two rejoined the rest the fellow introduced himself as John Adams, and said that he had a job for them. He wanted them to acquire the contents of a safe for him - a safe that was part of an exhibit in the Stanton Unification War Memorial Museum just outside the nearby town of Stanton. What's more, no one was to know that it had been opened and emptied. As far as he knew, no one had opened it in recent times. They had a couple of days to do the job. He gave Zheng a business card with a Cortex address where they could contact him when the job was done.
Some questions were asked as to who Mr Adams was and why they had to do it, but the captain (mostly) silenced them with a warning not to mess with the guy.
So... how to empty a safe somewhere in a war museum without anyone knowing?
{This week's guest cast includes...
Mrs Viktorija Niska - Helen Mirren
Miss Saidey - Julia Styles
Mr Yuland - Steve Buscemi
Hattie Long - Magda Szubanski as 'Furlow' in Farscape
John Adams - Morgan Freeman
}
__________________
"Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all..."
{The doctor's player was absent again this session, explained by her being in search of more medical supplies. Or something.
Also, several of the players finally questioned me about the "shotgun takes out a window" thing. I'd have thought the matter would've come up sooner with these players, but it took three weeks instead. After giving some reasons about how being in vacuum made it more likely and also made it different to the time (in the previous Serenity game) when the captain set off some dynamite on the outside of the cockpit windows while the boat was landed, it was just written off to dramatic license, thankfully}
The session begins with the crew having taken one of the Valcyr shuttles to the town of Stanton, about a hundred miles away from Persephone City. After it was realised that having the whole lot of them (sans doctor) traipsing around the museum might not be a good idea, Cale and Wilks stayed in the town (in a bar and diner - for the coffee - respectively) while Zheng and TC took the bus just out of town to where the Stanton Unification War Memorial Museum could be found.
The museum (according to the plaque outside) overlooks the site of the last battle fought on Persephone, which these days appears as a large field filled with rows of trenches, bunkers, craters and ruined buildings. The building itself is roughly hexagonal with a pointy roof, and has a 'car park' to the right. It also has a (thoroughly disabled) Alliance light tank sat just outside the entrance {which made TC's player drool in that way only PCs can when confronted with an armoured vehicle} Once inside they were able to secure a pamphlet, which had a map in it...
They bought tickets and began to make their way around, trying to determine where the safe was - and all the while TC was filming it through the glasses of his sparkly NewTech wearable computer rig. The museum had all the usual stuff: dummies wearing replica uniforms, dioramas and informative displays, and even screens displaying animated diagrams or scenes with actors playing the role of people involved in the war. All very interesting. There were a few people milling around reading and looking and taking captures; there was even the obligatory school group.
Eventually they found the safe: right in the corner of the Alliance colonel's office exhibit, which was done as a mock-up of the office of Colonel Clark Heyes as it would have been in his command bunker. So, three walls and a ceiling made up to look like earth shored up by the sort of support beams you see in mine workings, with a desk and chair, some shelves, a filing cabinet, a regimental flag and a picture of the Prime Minister of the time. Strangely, there was also a rusted, crushed lump of metal on the nearby shelf - this was, apparently, the colonel's original radio, much abused by the passage of even just a handful of years. Oh, and the safe - a good example of the Madrigal line of safes from around ten years before the end of the war. In fact, it looked not unlike this:
A plaque by the safe pronounced it had only recently been found buried inside what was presumably the command bunker in question, and no one knew the combination for it.
While trying to think up the best way to ask about the contents of the safe, by luck {and the much prompted use of a Plot Point} the school party happened by, under the guidance of the curator herself (a well-dressed woman with dark hair and glasses, looking not unlike a schoolteacher). One of the more curious young students asked about the contents of the safe and was told that no one really knew what was in there, as no one wanted to break it open for fear of what might happen to those contents. There was also, the curator claimed, something of a standing bet as to what might be found inside.
Meanwhile {in a Clarkson tone of voice} Wilks was reading one of his books over numerous cups of coffee, and Cale was drinking and making friends and, incredibly, not fighting anyone in the bar.
It was about this sort of time that the captain came up with one of his infamous plans. He went and bought a copy of the most in-depth history book he could find in the gift shop {got to love the little shop, they're always near the exit....} and settled himself in the coffee shop. The first stage of his plan - to sit there reading and looking intelligent - did not go quite to plan {due to an awful Persuasion roll} and instead he came off looking confused and, to be fair, a little stupid. As a result his original target, the curator, just ignored him - but he got the attention of a helpful (and sympathetic) staff member instead, a young woman who was only too happy to help. History was her passion, see, and she was a student at the main Persephone university.
Sadly, this just seemed to make her an even better target for Zheng's plans.
The woman - whose name was Helen Willey {a detail no one asked for at the time but which I've supplied now} - helped him pick a better (i.e. simpler) book from the shop and then gave him the guided tour of the museum. All through it Zheng (who has cast himself as a travelling salesman by this time) was friendly, polite and not a little flirty, and she seemed to respond to him.
TC by this time had returned to the town of Stanton and met up with Wilks. Neither of them had any real idea where Cale had gotten to, as the lack of the sounds of a brawl nearby had them confused somewhat.
As his tour was ending Zheng asked what Helen was doing after she finished work - would she like to go for a drink? She said she had some lecture notes to write up, but maybe they could meet up after? That sounded like a great idea to Zheng (for many reasons) so he arranged to meet her when she finished for the day and went outside to wait for a few hours. Maybe there'd be some of her friends there too, maybe not.
This gave Zheng the opportunity to sketch out his plan to his crew (via radio). He would: 1) get Helen really drunk; 2) convince her that getting into the safe would be a really good idea that would make her name in historical circles; 3) 'reveal' that he was an archaeologist with a team good at just that kind of thing; 4) get into the museum that very night to do the deed; and 5) decide what to do about Helen afterwards. Oh, and there's a 6) but we'll worry about that later.
Some of the details were a little vague, and there was no clear idea of how he'd pull off some aspects of it, but it was the best idea they had.
So TC went to buy a few archaeologist 'props' {small paint brushes - archaeologists always have small brushes!} and round up Cale, who was drunk but not belligerent. Unfortunately, they now had to spend some time doing two oddly opposite things: get Cale sober and TC drunk, so he would be able to stand a quick flight back to the Valcyr in the shuttle. In the meantime Zheng and Helen caught the hoverbus back to the city. Zheng had a few hours to kill before she would be ready for going out, so he kept himself busy.
The shuttle party returned to the boat (and got yelled at by Hattie who had insisted that they stay away while she was working) and encountered the doctor, who provided a tranquilliser and stimulant 'antidote' for when they returned to Stanton. TC grabbed some overalls from his overall supply for everyone to use if they wished, and both he and Wilks got a balaclava each (just in case). Only Wilks saw fit to borrow some surgical gloves from the doctor.
For Zheng it was time to drink and be merry at the history student's drinking hole of choice. He did a fairly good job of appearing to drink as much as Helen and her four friends did (though he almost got caught out once) and he managed to survive the barrage of questions they levelled at him and his date - although the one about "the pig thing" confused him. Two of the friends headed off to a party of their own at one point in the evening, and the other two were eventually convinced to go seek out their own entertainment also.
As it turned out, "the pig thing" was the noise she made when she laughed while drunk: a very distinctive and loud snorting noise that she also made at "other times" - cue smirks all round.
When Zheng decided Helen was drunk enough he started to bring up the subject of the safe, and how shiny it would be for her to be the one who got it open. She agreed (slurringly) but laughed uproariously (piggy-style) when Zheng told her that he was, in fact, not a travelling salesman at all, but an archaeologist. And he could help her be famous! He had a team standing by to help open the mysterious safe as soon as he gave the word.
Helen thought that sounded a bit ridiculous and that maybe he was looking to steal stuff instead, but was eventually convinced that it sounded like a swell idea {well, she was very drunk} But, she asked, what about -- and she made a universal gesture for carnal activity, leering like only a drunken student can. Caught in something of a dilemma, Zheng had to make a hard decision - robbery first, the other later. Possibly.
And so the unlikely scheme was set fully into motion... hopefully a motion not destined to end in a crash into a thick wall.
{This week's guest cast...
Ms Pamela Abbott, curator - Mary McDonnell
Helen Willey - Maggie Gyllenhaal
}
__________________
"Come a day there won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all..."
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