In the morning, freight arrives on the same, or similar, vehicles. There's 190 tonnes of it, all stamped with Imperial registrations, and even with Whangan help the crew need another eight hours to get it fully loaded.
Hands are then shaken, goodbyes are said, and the Issaries takes off for the nearest lake for re-fuelling, then heads up to the jump point.
[no malfunctions, or ship encounters... jumpspace
To avoid a bad reaction (per Solo) 8+ : 2D=5
Who? 1d7=captain,
What? d6=Argument with another PC ; d6=Lluyd
Q: How much does O overhear (on a scale of 1-6): 4, a fair bit
Q: What does he say? UNE:mysterious - conundrum - parents]
Ortance is too tired to sleep, and for an hour after they've hit jumpspace she wanders, lost in vague and unfocussed thoughts, through the quiet ship. Or maybe not so quiet. She hears voices down the passage coming from the galley. It's the Captain and Lluyd. Then they're coming closer. No, not closer, just getting louder. And louder. And louder still. Now Ortance can make them out with absolute clarity, as the Captain lays into Lluyd about some past incident, though never mentioning it exactly as they both know very well to what he is referring. Lluyd's peevish counter-arguments are similarly opaque. The Captain's diatribe devolves into ad hominem remarks about Lluyd's doubtful parentage. And they are louder still. No, this time they are coming closer.
[She needs to roll Dex or less (9-) to duck out without being noticed: 2D=9, just...]
Ortance scurries away round the corner. The captain calls after her, asking her to back up his opinion, but she pretends not to have heard.
[Q: Any fallout? 50/50 (4+): O4 C1 - yes, and...
Q: What? Take / The public]
The next two days sees the argument flare up [d6=3] thrice more, and always when other crew are present. Many take to hiding away in their staterooms
[Q: do any of the other crew approach her? 50/50 (4+): O3 C4 - no, but...]
One night when Ortance has crept out for a snack, she catches Adpl in the galley on a similar sortie.
"Are they always like this?"
"It's not the most unusual occurrence, that's for certain."
"So... do we just hide?"
"It's safer this way. Believe me, you don't want to get involved. It should be nearly over by now."
049-1105
Knorbes E888765–2 Ri
The Issaries comes out of jump at Knorbes near(ish) to a gas giant. But a panic sweeps the bridge when the M-drive won't start. Lluyd runs down to engineering diagnose problem.
[Event: Engineering problem requires all crew to help replace a huge component.
Ship Encounter: 200t far trader - Radio silence, they fear pirates]
As they are waiting for the diagnosis, a 200t far trader appears on the sensors. It doesn't hail them, and refuses to acknowledge any communications. Adpl runs to the turret to stand ready.
All eyes are fixed to the long-range scanner readouts as Lluyd's voice crackles over the intercom. "It's as I feared: the grav field regulator's T-housing is well and truly fucked. We've got the spare, fortunately, but I was hoping not to have to do this until planetfall on Hefry under a complete shutdown."
"What does this mean?" asks the Captain.
"It weighs nearly 500kg."
"Can't we use the grav pods from the cargo bay?"
"Grav pods... on the regulator."
"Oh, ah, right you are! Right, Ortance, you stay here and keep an eye on the sensors. Adpl will remain standing by in the turret. The rest of us, to engineering!"
Ortance is soon bored of watching the sensors blinking. But within the hour, the silent far trader leaves the gas giant's orbit on a jump heading. Adpl says they can stand down, and had probably better join the rest in engineering.
Whatever animosity had been eating at Lluyd and the Captain has been replaced by esprit de corps, as the crew sweat and strain in unison to replace the damaged housing. Ortance is swept up in their élan and is soon laughing and swearing along with the rest like a real spacehand.
052-1105
Having repaired the M-drive and re-fuelled at the gas giant, the Issaries touches down on Knorbes some 68 hours after arriving in-system. [N.B. on the greater continent, not the restricted area covered in The Kinunir!]
[World (non-)Event: Security check. Roll the Law Level or higher (5+) to avoid a complete check of papers and a search of belongings and vehicle. 2D=6.]
Captain Rov meets some imperial functionaries on the landing pad, and they check over the ships papers for about 20 minutes before rubber-stamping a local clearance certificate. Despite -- or rather, because of -- the extremely low technology on the world, it's a popular tourist destination (for those who can afford such extravagance) and not at all the backwater its UWP would seem to indicate.
Ortance feels the need to stretch her legs after a week aboard ship, so when the Captain announces he needs to go into town to arrange the cargo delivery, she asks if she might be allowed to accompany him. Surprisingly, he says yes.
[He intends to bring 1d3-1=2 others.
Reaction roll: 2D=9]
Hal Ushsh will be going too, with a shotgun (in a carry-bag), just in case. All three get cutlasses to wear out of the ship's locker.
[Q: transport into town available? 50/50 (4+): O5 C5 - yes
+Event: Remote event - Communicate / Information = rumour about another system within J2 1d6=Forboldn]
There's a driver with a 6-legged, low-slung orange-skinned beast hitched to [d6=]his wagon who came to loiter by the landing pad ever since the ship was spotted in the sky. The Captain gives him some local currency (square metal coins -- he keeps a box of them in the ship's locker) for the ride.
The driver proves to be excessively garrulous. "I drove some cor-po-rate types inter town not [d6=] four days gone. One them said a-t'other the Lanthy-num deposits what they surveyed on Forboldn wasn't so big like what they putted in their re-port, nor of so much of purity, as they was like to secure more bigger funding for their extracting that-a-ways. They muster thoughted I was too much-like a yokel to understam what they was on about. Vraoksy little zruitins, they was!"
[Reaction roll for the driver was a 10, so I thought a Rumour seemed appropriate.
rumour : specific location, Naturally / Dry
Q: What's it about? Deceive / Benefits
magnitude : ±1 aid/annoyance depending on who they talk to
Q: Encounters in / on the way to town? 50/50 (4+): O2 C5 - no.]
It's getting late by the time they are dropped off in the town square. Rov puts them up in a travel inn. Ortance is taken aback by the primitive conditions in the settlement, especially as they're staying somewhere that caters to off-worlders.
[On a roll of Soc or less (9-), she'll make some tremendous gaffe. DM +streetwise: 2D+1=12]
She's never seen so many wooden buildings before. But she keeps her cool and doesn't do anything to embarrass herself. She doesn't balk at the straw mattress in the room she and hal Ushsh are sharing, and doesn't mind only having an oil lamp for light. And, most importantly, she can guess at the function of the chamber pot under her bed without having to ask -- or using it to store her valuables!
[Q: Are the corp types staying here? 50/50 (4+): O5 C4 - yes, but... not for long
Q: Anyone else? unlikely (5+): O6 C1 - yes, and...]
They are awakened in the morning by Captain Rov knocking at their door to summon them down for breakfast.
"Sleep well?" he asks a yawning Ortance.
"It wasn't quite as comfortable as the ship's ductwork, but not too badly."
When they descend the two flights of stairs (the inn, at 3 storeys, is the tallest building in town), they find the common room filled with offworlders. At one table sit [d6=] five people in expensive and pristine explorers' clothing [Aggressively / Clean]. Nearby are three men clad in outlandish furs and skins [Naturally / Fancy]. And alone in the corner sits a dour woman in the stained uniform of some mercenary battalion or other [Quietly / Horrible].
[Q: Do any take interest in the party? 50/50 (4+): O4 C3 - yes, but... (needs reaction roll)
d3=outlandish
reaction=6]
The ones in the overdone 'rustic' garb (the natives here wear furs, but no more so than do the inhabitants of Regina) keep looking over and whispering to one another.
"They're making me paranoid," says hal Ushsh.
"I'll go order us some more of this, um, tea or whatever it is," says Ortance, "and see if I can't hear what they're saying."
"You must have good ears."
"Not particularly. But eavesdropping over breakfast is the way of my people. How else does one learn what one's friends really think?"
[She must roll under Soc (8-) to overhear anything : 2D=6, ok.
Conversation: scheming - bargain - retainers
Q: Who? (1d6) 1-2 Ortance, 3-4 hal Ushsh, 5-6 both]
Ortance returns with three more steaming cups. "So, it sounds like our friends were very taken with your 'proper military bearing', and were discussing whether or not they could poach you from us to keep them safe from the 'primitives'."
"Ha!" responds hal Ushsh. "I'd like nothing more than to see the 'primitives' rough up that perfumed lot. Tempted to do it myself!"
The Captain wants to get down to business. He says Ortance can come with him or have a look about the settlement on her own, but she's not really ready to be alone on such a world, a fact she confirms when she follows him outside into the square and is visibly shocked to see an air/raft floating by. One of the locals, noticing her surprise, begins to scream, 'a floating wagon! black magic! witchcraft!' until her friend makes her stop, and both devolve into peals of laughter.
"There's a lot of offworld tourism here," offers the Captain. "The, er, rustic character of the world is a major draw amongst the nobility. I'm surprised you've never heard of it."
"I'm not quite as posh as all that."
"Could've fooled me, m'lady," laughs hal Ushsh.
Captain Rov leads them into the commerce centre, which is notable for having electricity and robust, TL8 computer equipment. They also change imperial credits for local coinage - for a fee, and have an in-house broker [admin-1] to facilitate trade with the local government, farmers, and artisans (but there's an additional 3% surcharge, so 8% total). And, of course, things o Knorbes take place at their very own pace.
In the end, they pick up 195t of freight, 2t of silver for speculative trade, 6 high passages and another 9 low. After a quick jaunt out of town in a wagon to finalise some deals and a day to sightsee in and around the settlement, they head back to the ship to help with loading.
next post: action aboard!
[Or keep reading if you want some more mechanics & economics from all the above. There were lots of die rolls for very little adventure...
9 high passengers available
10 low
4 major cargoes: 60,60,30,30
6 minor: 5,5,10,15,15,30
Speculation: 25t silver @cr49,000/tonne (a bargain! but the crew aren't sitting on Mcr1.225!)
quick accounting--
cr100,000 ship's fund
+ 195,000 195t freight
- 98,980 2t silver
+ 60,000 6x high passengers
+ 9,000 9x low passengers
- 26,900 life support
----------
cr238,120 new ship's fund
mortgage & salaries will be due at next planetfall (technically, on 060-1105)
things of course take extra time
Q: Does trading require a visit outside the settlement? 50/50 (4+): O4 C4 - yes, but...
Q: How is the trip? Slowly / Cute - party can't help but gawp at the idyllic scenery & quaint farmhouses
encounter: 2d=5 vigilantes with hand cannons
react=7, neutral (they don't approach the offworlders, just observe them pointedly)
legal encounter (5-): 2D=6, none; the vigilantes let them alone after a while. but they get the idea that the residents don't all love the outsiders
Q: Any run-ins at the inn? unlikely (5+): O2 c1 - no, and...
Q: Did anything interesting happen at the ship? 50/50 (4+): O1 C2 - no, and...
Q: Are any of the passengers from the inn? likely (3+): O6 c6 - yes
+Event: Introduce a new NPC - Travel / Travel = has 1d3+1=4 High Passages, will use them all (wants to go to Jenghe)
Q: Who is new NPC (via Patron table)? hunter, human female
Clanstie Venaodru
A666BA Age 34 Hunter 4 terms
Gravitics-1, Air/raft-1, Hunting-3, Laser Rifle-1, Mechanical-1, Medical-1, Survival-2
Equipment: Laser Rifle
cr50,000
Q: Which group from the inn? d3=the merc]
