Actual Play - 14th Game - 16 Jul 13

Star City/Arden/Kapu (2227 EA766C2-6)  Date:  544-287

Characters in play this night included the returning Tiernan, Zaccheus, D'Arcy, Aggie, Capt Neo, Dionysius, and a new PC, Vladimir.

Two and a half weeks after dropping Watson, the "boy in the metal box" cargo container with the Chief Librarian, he asked the group to return to the Kelrax system for additional salvage, including the main computer core from the station.  They contacted the Peacekeeper, and asked Chief Engineer Zesiro to accompany them on the journey.   As they waited for his arrival, they met a recently arrived exile from Gruvek by the name of Vladimir Alexicov, a retired marine.  He agreed to join their party as well.

Loading into the Arianwyn, they jumped to Tralnor, spent a day refueling, and headed on to Alwuud, where they again spent a day refueling.  Their next jump took them to the Kelrax system, where they quickly headed to the asteroid with the colony station.  After landing, Vladimir scanned the local area and found the remains of quite a few wrecked starships.  Zaccheus used his psionics to scan for life, but found nothing within his range.  Once inside the station, Zesiro inspected the power plant, and told them it was a standard hydrogen powered plant, with tanks capable of storing 30 tons of fuel.  The party made the 5 day round trip to the closer of the two gas giants in the Kelrax system, and were able to fill the station's tanks.  Zesiro brought the power plant online while the party explored the power dome.  They managed to find the main breaker controlling life support in the dome, and brought it online as well.  As air started to fill the power dome, Zesiro turned on power to the central dome, and the Team began to explore it as well.  With power restored to the dome, they were able to use a terminal to pull up maps and locate the main computer room, as well as the program notes for the AI Seed program, which they realized must be Watson, the "boy in the box" they'd "rescued" during their last visit.

In order to salvage the computer core, per the Chief Librarian's request, they left life support off in the central dome, and blew the airlock so they'd have a large enough exit to manhandle the computer to the ship.  This took several days, during which several party members explored the third dome.  This dome held both living quarters and a store-room of personal gear, which they inventoried.  Once the computer core was secured in the Arianwyn's hold, they flew to the gas giant to refuel, then made the journey back to Arden, again stopping for a day in the Alwuud and Tralnor systems to refuel.

Back on Arden, they delivered the computer core and copies of the AI Seed program data to the Chief Librarian.  They asked if any progress had been made with Watson, and learned he'd been moved into a shielded vault after he asked about The Watcher.  Inside the vault, Watson had admitted The Watcher had been asking him lots of questions, but wouldn't tell anything about himself, and that in the vault, he could no longer hear The Watcher at all.

They decided to take a break for a while in Star City, and a week later, Dionysius woke with his first vague memory of what had happened to him on Alwuud.  He recalled using his pickaxe on the concrete in the hole he dug, and he remembered breaking through it.  He couldn't remember how thick the shell was, but knew he'd accidentally dropped his pick into the dark hole and had a clear memory of seeing it fall out of sight in the darkness.  He never heard it hit bottom.

They decided to return to Alwuud to solve the mystery, and brought Ga'a'atak and Fil onboard with them before taking off.  Leaving orbit, they made the jump to Tralnor... but didn't fall out of jumpspace at the end of the week as they were supposed to.  Three more days went by, and they finally dropped into normal space... 17 parsecs from their intended destination, in deep space... without enough fuel to attempt another jump!  Using the astrographic data they'd received from Kearnay, they quickly figured out where they were, an empty area of space (0519) in Hallu Subsector.  They spent a week there, scanning space around them, and found jump signatures indicating the area had been visited recently, and possibly regularly.  They turned on their rescue beacon, hoping another ship might jump into the system and find them, but also began work on splitting hydrogen out of the alcohol Tiernan had on board.  During their second week stranded, Ga'a'atak and Capt Neo entered low berths, hoping to conserve life support and supplies...

(Game Calendar:  544-287 to 545-020).

Actual Play - 10th Game - 1 Mar 13

The Hub/Kearnay/Zaynu (2118 BA69747-A) Date:  542-342

Our cast this game included Chidi, Capt Neo, D'Arcy, Tiernan, Zaccheus, Gildas, Dionysus, Maddoc, Gwayne and Cinnia (via Skype).  Blaine, Lykaios,  and Alec (in cold sleep) were also on board the ship but not represented by players.

The party hung around at The Hub for two more weeks while both Capt Neo and Kojo looked for crew for the Amuar.  Their new crew consisted of 8 Khorred, 5 Vargr and 40 humans.  Fueling up once again, they began their journey back to Arden, taking both Ga'a'atak and Fil with them.  This time, they stopped only to refuel, and didn't make contact in any of the systems they traversed.  The Arianwyn traveled to Sesmiti, then on to Amitola-3, while the Amuar jumped straight to Amitola-3 and waited for them.  After that, they stayed together, jumping on to Mosi, Ryen, Paronu, Rynah, Khdor, Artemis, Prubrea and Abequa in turn before reaching Arden 110 days later.

On Arden, they learned that King Ossian had been elected O'er King of the Ardeni Kingdoms and moved to Alpha Base, and Kyler of Clan Gower had taken over leadership of the Northernmost Kingdom on Arden.  They also learned that three of the Kingdoms of the Great Central Plain had sued for peace, while the rest were still in a state of war.

The party stayed in Star City for three days before flying out to Alpha Base to meet with the O'er King.  While there, they passed on the astrographic data from The Hub at Kearnay, and Ossian welcomed them home.  When he learned they had failed on their initial diplomatic mission to Tralnor, he asked them to go back and try again.  The round trip to visit Ossian took them 5 days.  Back at Arden, Maddoc learned that his Clan (Pryce) was part of one of the Kingdoms that had sued for peace; and he took a few days to recruit 10 Clan warriors in order to form "The Crimson Blade," a group he hoped would help them colonize Libmon.  The party then jumped back to Tralnor.

They spent just over six weeks on Tralnor, finally gaining the Council of Seven's agreement to join the Ardeni Kingdoms.  Returning to Arden once again, we ended the game for the night.

(Unfortunately, I don't recall the details of the Tralnor negotiations... but I know there were some amusing events:  a drinking match with one of the Council, and some weapons-play at the request of another.  Players?  Help me out in the comments!)

A few days later, while the party was relaxing on Arden, they received a call from Capt Diallo, the leader of the crew they'd hired at Kearnay.

She asked, “I have piloted the Amuar, excuse me, the Peacemaker for more than three months now, and have had time to review the ship’s library data.  The technical data about the ship says that it is semi-streamlined, capable of refueling via skimming of gas giants, AND is capable of landing on planet with an atmosphere rating of 0 or 1.  I would like your permission to leave orbit and head to the closest gas giant to practice refueling until you need the ship again.”

The party (via e-mail, since this took place between games) agreed to let her do so.

(Game Calendar:  542-342 to 543-165)

Actual Play - 9th Game - 17 Feb 13

The Arianwyn/Hyperspace Date: 542-121

Our cast this week included one new player, but two new characters:  A Kearnayan pirate named Chidi, and Capt Neo, MD, a retired doctor who'd spent time in the navy and the army, then as a pirate before becoming a doctor.  Returning were D'Arcy, Tiernan, Lairgnen, Zaccheus, Gildas, Dionysus, and Cinnia (via Skype).  Blaine, Lykaios, Maddoc, Gwayne and Alec (in cold sleep) were also on board the ship but not represented by players.

The Arianwyn remained in hyperspace a total of twelve days, finally dropping out into normal space on 542-125.  Immediately, the crew pulled up the ship's maps to determine their location.  They assumed remaining in hyperspace almost two weeks would have moved them the equivalent of a jump-2, so began calling up planetary profiles of the worlds in Kapu subsector that might have been targets.  Luckily, they had emerged in the vicinity of a star system.  A quick scan showed it had six gas giants and 4 asteroid belts, and they used that information to rule out all of the systems they thought they might have arrived in.

Looking over the ship, they noticed three of their low berths were in use.  Tiernan cycled the first, and a short while later, Gildas, whom they'd thought left behind on Arden, emerged unscathed.  A second berth held Blaine, who they also woke up, and the third, Alec, who remained in cold sleep.  Gildas explained that Ardeni medics had wanted to test out some drugs they believed would make cold sleep safer, so the three of them had volunteered as test subjects.  That they were on board was supposed to have been announced as the party left Arden, but the message was misplaced and never passed on.

As they gave up on identifying the star system from their ship's data, they noticed a small craft just a hundred meters from the Arianwyn.  Zaccheus immediately turned on ship's radio to hail them, only to hear cussing and a thickly accented voice tell them he'd been trying to reach them for an hour!  As they explained they were from another star system, he introduced himself as Kojo, and offered to be their agent to The Hub, "the center of all trade in the universe!"  After some discussion, they agreed, and talked him down from 25% to an 18% commission.  They asked about getting an updated star map, and Kojo explained that the Trade Accords required astrographic data to be shared freely, so he sent them data files to update their ship's library.  He then had them follow his ship to the Starbrite, a moving station built into a rocky asteroid that serves as an R&R destination for weary belters, a refueling and resupply station, and a low-cost way to travel around the entire system.

Kojo took them to a nightclub on the Starbrite, where he bought them drinks while they listened to the jazz stylings of Ga'a'atak, a Khorred musician.  

When Ga'a'atak's first performance was over, he back-flipped off the stage, and jaunted away through the crowd to get a drink.  A friend of Kojo's, Capt "Doc" Neo, joined them for drinks.  As the party continued to converse with Kojo, they noticed the room contained not only humans and Khorred, but seated in a dark corner was a tall figure in silvery-grey robes, listening to a loud, overly drunk belter telling stories.  Doc told the party the figure was a Mel, a solitary race that claimed to have been here literally forever.  Thinking he might be like The Watcher from Arden, they approached, and both Tiernan and Gildas noticed they were being studied psionically.  Suddenly the being stood to his full three meter height, bowed to them and said, "My apologies... I did not mean to read your thoughts... that is considered very rude among my people!"  He waved them over, and the old belter suddenly found himself leaving to make room.  He introduced himself as Filistofisarasticallius, "but you may call me 'Fil,'" and he told them he wanted to hear their story.  He bought several rounds of drinks, as the party told him about Arden and Abequa, and their mission to establish both trade and diplomatic relations.  He pointed out, apologetically, that between their story and their appearance, they didn't seem to come from a world that could have produced a starship.  They explained a little about Plan Alpha, and, when asked, explained their form of government.  He told them if they desired, he could show them the location of an abandoned starship from the time humans first arrived in this galaxy.  They were eager to learn more, but decided they needed to continue to The Hub, to sell off some trade goods, and have the Arianwyn looked over at the shipyard.  They told him they'd return.  Before they left, Chidi arrived to talk to Doc, who seemed a little nervous about him.  Chidi and Doc both joined the party.

The next day, Kojo led them as they flew to The Hub, the combination Shipyard and Free Trade zone orbiting the main planet, Kearnay.  He introduced them to Azabop, the Bwap (Newt) currently serving as portmaster.  Azabop scheduled The Arianwyn in the earliest slot avaialable, 6 weeks hence, for two weeks of maintenance.  After the overhaul, they were told several issues with the jump controls were discovered and corrected but the jump drives themselves were left alone since they seemed to be in working condition.

Travelling back to the Starbrite, the party picked up Fil.  Ga'a'atak asked if he could join them, and the party enthusiastically agreed.  After Cinnia gave Ga'a'atak, Chidi and Doc a quick tour, the Khorred went to the forward lounge and began playing his music.  Fil went with Zaccheus to the bridge, and explained they had to jump one parsec to a place without a star system.  He assured them that even without a gas giant, fuel would be available, so they made the jump.

A week later, they came out in deep space.  Sensors detected the ship Fil had promised and three of the party used the launch from The Arianwyn to fly over to her.  The E-Deck Cargo Bay was open to space, and all systems powered down. 

Gildas was able to locate a terminal, power up the ship, and repressurize the Cargo Bay.  He determined there was enough fuel to get The Arianwyn back to Kearnay, but not enough for the Amuar to go anywhere, so they transferred fuel and headed back.  At The Hub, Azabop approached them to ask whether they had the authority to sign the Trade Accords on behalf of their homeworlds.  After discussing their mission amongst themselves, they agreed they did.  D'Arcy signed for Abequa, and Tiernan signed for Arden and the Ardeni Kingdoms as an interstellar organization.  This had the immediate affect of linking their currencies, so that 1 KearnayanCr = 1 AbequanCr = 1 ArdeniCr = 1 (AK)Cr.  Next, they purchased L-Hyd tanks, filling their excess cargo capacity so they could be reused.  They made three trips back to the Amuar in order to give her enough fuel to jump back to Kearnay, and then Gildas managed to jump her back.  The main power plant went off-line as they arrived at the Kearnay system, and Gildas powered down all but the maneuver drives in order to get back to The Hub.  It turned out all of the Amuar's boats:  a shuttle, a pinnace, two lifeboats and an air/raft were all missing... presumably taken when the crew abandoned the ship.  The party scheduled a maintenance check, again with a six week delay, and had the ship repaired.  They had to sell more of their trade goods in order to be able to afford the shipyard fees, but managed to pull it off.  


Meanwhile, back on Tralnor, Lairgnen was transported to the mines for his 15 years hard labor.  During his first month in the mines, he learned that escape would not be easy... the prisoners stayed below, the guards above, and the only way to be fed was to load the daily quota of ore onto a tiny elevator that hauled ore up and food down.  No ore, no food.  He quietly began gathering a group of prisoners to figure out an escape, and found two almost immediately who wanted to know his plan so they could help.  During his second month, he added a third prisoner to his "crew," and they began trying to mine more than their quote each day so they could use the extra in their escape attempt.  Poor nutrition, lots of dust and physical exhaustion led Lairgnen to come down with something during his third month; only a kind guard's lowering medicine for him kept him alive.  In his fourth and fifth months in the mines, he continued to keep extra ore, as did the rest of his crew.  In the sixth month of Lairgnen's imprisonment, about the time the rest of the party was bringing the Amuar back to the Kearnay system, he approached another prisoner about joining the escape plan.  This prisoner, however, took an immediate dislike to him, and punched him in the face.  Lairgnen fought back, but six months in the mines had taken their toll, and Lairgnen lost the fight, and his life.


(Game Calendar:  542-121 to 542-328)