She rights herself and addresses the Captain. "I'm sorry, that was unlike me. I'm not used to seeing dead bodies. And certainly not in that state..."
"It's harder when you knew them," offers Elleder. "Shall I have my crew recover them?"
"If you would be so kind."
[Q: Special item still there? 50/50 (4+): O4 C3 - no, but...
Q: Bodies? 50/50 (4+): O5 C4 - yes, but... badly burnt
Q: Does she want to recover them? unknown d6=5: O6 C2 - yes, and...
Party's react=6, one refusal: 1d6=k]
He summons his crew and tells them they need to recover the bodies for the Herrin. Korilu takes one look in the cockpit and balks.
"No! No way! Touching dead bodies is not in my job description! Not when Ms. High-and-mighty isn't going to pitch in herself!"
Tandery slaps her across the face. She looks wild-eyed to Diter for support.
"What?" he says. "She's right. We owe this to our fellow spacers."
[Checking for bad reaction, 8+ to avoid: 2D=3, no. Type? d6=argument (=no further incidents, she's already arguing)]
The bodies are wrapped in survival blanket and stowed in the ATV's hold. The Herrin thanks Captain Elleder, and adds that the safe has already been taken away by the scavengers' fellows. Lin offers them a ride if they will lead them to where the scraps are taken.
[Reaction=10
Q: How many will come? d3=2
Q: Talkative? 50/50 (4+): O2 C6 - no.
driving roll to avoid mishaps: 2D=9, ok]
Two of them agree to go. Korilu drives as one plays navigator. They're a sullen lot, but she's happy for the quiet. She drives forward though the fog as night begins to fall, but driving in the dark is not really any harder than in the daylight thanks to the ATV's instruments. After four hours she wakes Lin to take over, and joins the rest getting a bit of kip in the back.
Their destination is a cliff face, with a sporadic string of lights visible along it, with many more clustered in one spot, illuminating the landscape in a yellow haze. They approach it through a sea of mostly-broken vehicles, including several small starships, and a haphazard assortment of canvas tents. A semi-natural cavern yawns in the cliff face, lit by floodlights. Within is a half-junkyard, half-shanty town.
"This is the place," says the scavenger. "You'll need to ask the dealers about your missing cargo yourselves. Have fun, I guess." The she add her companion disappear into the fog.
"We'll cover more ground if we split up," says Elleder. "Korilu and Harrisumn, you two are a team. If you find anything Effi might need, let me know and we can figure something out. Diter and I will accompany the Herrin. Tandery, you go with Lin. Let's keep it low key; pistols only, and please don't wear them on your hip. and information will probably come at a prince. Anyone short of credits?"
Lin's hand shoots out, palm up.
"Don't spend this all in one place," laughs the Captain.
* * *
"I should'a guessed we'd end up here," says Tandery as she and Lin survey the nest of ramshackle buildings with hand-painted signs and all linked by a mad web of criss-crossing wires.
"You've been before?" asks Lin.
"No, but I served with a guy who told me all about it. Damn, I miss his stories..."
"What even is this place?"
"It's a shipbreakers' camp. Plus all the scrap merchants are here, and the associated hangers-on: gearheads, street racers, off-road enthusiasts, pirates, and anyone else looking to buy second-hand parts on the grey market."
"So it's not... legal?"
"Yes and no. There's no licences here. But it brings enough credits in from offworld that I guess the authorities let it alone."
[To avoid problems with the locals (6+): DMs +carousing, +streetwise, +1 INT 9+; all three groups succeed.
Q: Any significant encounters? 50/50 (4+): O2 C4 - no, but... some other people here eyeing them up
Q: Does anyone find anything noteworthy? unknown d6=1: O3 C8 - yes
Q: Who finds it? d3=K&H
Q: What do they find? Very / Ancient - some weird and very ancient, weather-worn vaguely anthropomorphic stele covered in indecipherable writing. Probably worth more than the cr5000 being asked for it -- unless it's a fake.
Q: Which party finds the dealer? d3= L&T]
Tandery leads Lin through the Labyrinth of meandering walkways. All around them is a cacophony of colours, lights, sounds, and smells: sparks fly from machine shops, strains of discordant music vie with one another for supremacy, barely audible above the babble of voices in an array of tongues and dialects, hawkers scream their wares, arguments and laughter cut sharply across the background din, alleyways reek like de facto pissoirs, the enticing aroma of greasy over-spiced cooking wafts out of a kiosk, and is just as soon replaced by the stench of rubbish and unwashed bodies and cut-rate perfume. Lin has a sudden fit of nostalgia for Precinct Gelb-402b's subterranean market, and wishes she could share it with her crew mate.
* * *
They've been talking to scrap buyers for the better part of an hour. Lin is starting to believe they are chasing after phantoms when their questioning of the Nth merchant of the night bears fruit.
"I might 'o seen a safe like what yer describin'," says the red-eyed man in a thick offworld accent, "but 's not 'ere." [reaction 2D=6, unresponsive]
"Do you know where we could find it?" asks Lin.
"I sold it on, didn't I?"
"Could I ask who bought it?"
"Client information's confidential, luv."
"Perhaps for 500 credits you could take me into your confidence."
[Bribery (LL 8): 2D-2=6, success
Q: Who bought it? Boldly / Small]
"Some o' them lot what's in the Backland Breakers was interested."
"Who are they?"
"One o' the racing clubs. I let them have it for 250. No one 'ere can open the poxy thing, wha'ever's it made of -- at least, not in any way tha' won't obliterate the contents."
"Are any of them still here?"
"Might be a few knocking about. Or they might all be back at the clubhouse."
"Do you know where we might find this clubhouse?"
[Q: On a scale of 1-6, how vague are his directions? 1]
"Sure, luv. You'll wanna go up to the main road out here, goin' south east. 's not more than a few kilometres down, an' off a dirt track. Can't miss it. Unless you don't see the sign."
Tandery notes down the directions in her datapad whilst Lin calls the others with the good news. They realise they'll never find it in the dark, so need to wait for daybreak to set off.
[Q: Anything unusual happen that night? 50/50 (4+): O4 C8 - yes
Q: What? NPC positive - Harrisumn - Guide / Food]
Back at the ATV, Harrisumn is serving something steaming hot from cardboard containers. Their search for spare parts was a wash, but he'd gotten a tip-off about an amazing food stall. Even the good Herrin must admit she enjoys the feast.
094-1105
At first light, they set out. The fog still hasn't burnt off; if anything it's thicker today. Lin feels supremely rested; the bunks in the ATV may actually be more comfortable than her stateroom's. The wait for the fresher is worse, but as she's driving first she gets to go second, after the Herrin. When she settles in to the driver's seat, she notes the date on the dashboard read-out; they've not been here long enough for the 22.631 hour local days to have gotten too far out of synch with her internal reckoning by standard Imperial time.
Looking out the front window shows a sea of fog with diffuse glowing lights, so Lin has to get out to ask directions; they didn't cross any roads on the way in. A helpful scrapper advises driving slowly round the face of the escarpment. Lin drives at a crawl through the breakers' shanty town, past the skeletons of several old ships, which sends shivers up her spine, as in this eerie fog they remind her of nothing so much as that scene in Vampire Fleets III: Navy of Darkness, the one that made her sleep with the lights on for a month when she was 8 years old.
They finally reach the road. Visibility is extremely poor -- "it's worse than gas giant re-fuelling out there," says Tandery, sliding into the navigator's chair -- so Lin proceeds at a crawl. What few vehicles they pass are doing the same. She stops at every junction to make sure they haven't missed the racing club's sign. They find it eventually, and head up dirt track that rises up another plateau. The road is rough, but safe. As the ATV crests the top, their progress is halted by a 3m chain link fence, with an air/raft parked at a diagonal to block the gate. "That looks ominous," mutters Tandery.
Weapons are made ready, and the whole party heads out.
[For exploring the racers' compound, I of course used the Randomised Location Crafting (small area, structure). The descriptors rolled were occupied & dangerous, so I took that to mean the Herrin's enemies had recently arrived.]
T0 : expected - none - expected
They proceed slowly though the dense, bright mist. The dusty ground is strewn with bits of sharp rock, but has been flattened to a level plain. Each step makes a dull crunch, but the sounds are swallowed up by the fog so that one can only faintly hear their crew mate directly ahead or behind them. They pass some half-disassembled racing buggies up on blocks, but there are no signs of life.
T1 : expected - random - random
Encounter: Angry, Miserable
Object: Communication, Bright
[NB the object result is a communicator, but it didn't come up.]
A crumpled form lies against one of the buggies, the dust beneath stained dark. [d6=]She's wearing racing leathers, and is clutching her bleeding gut with both hands. At the sound of footsteps, she raises her head weakly.
"Back to... finish the job?" she hisses through clenched teeth.
"What are you talking about?" asks the Herrin. "What's going on here?"
"Somebody put pressure on that whilst I grab the medkit," orders Harrisumn and runs off.
Lin is already on her knees beside the woman, using her bare hands to staunch the flow of blood. "Someone cut me a bit of cloth or something for a compress. Her shirt's soaked through."
Tandery offers out her sleeve. Korilu cuts it off at the elbow using her blade, then hands it gingerly to Lin.
[Reaction roll: 2D+3=9]
"Some people came in here," groans the racer in between gasps of agony, "got in a fight... with Urdry... started shooting... everyone."
"Don't try to speak," says Lin, "our medic will be back to patch you up. He's saved people in worse straits than this." She hopes the confabulation is comforting. Or that Harrisumn really is that good.
[Q: Does anything occur whilst they wait? unlikely (5+): O4 C1 - no, and...]
They wait in funereal silence for Harrisumn's return, guns pointed in all directions, squinting at the shapes formed by the roiling mist. His crunching footsteps cause all guns to be trained in his direction, then lowered with relieved sighs. He sets to work immediately on the injured racer. Lin stands and does her best to wipe the blood from her hands on her coveralls. Korilu looks a little green in the face.
"Where's the main building?" asks Diter. The racer points a shaky finger.
T2 : expected - random - none
Encounter: Peaceful, Aggressive
Then swift footsteps, a wet thud, and the Herrin cries out and collapses. Diter's rifle cracks. A wild-haired man collapses on top of the Herrin, dropping the tailpipe in his hand, blood spurting from his chest.
[1 round of combat. No surprise, but classic Traveller combat is simultaneous, so the narrative can't always reflect that.
1d7=Herrin is attacked, hit for 2D=6dmg to END (END 4, excess hits to applied to STR : Phys. UPP now 750, KO.
Diter hit for 3D=14 damage to STR: UPP865 to 050 - major wound]
The others snap to a state of readiness, weapons trained in all directions, but silence again descends. The Captain pulls the man off the Herrin, flopping him over onto his back. Then he notices the racing logo on his now-crimson t-shirt.
"Shit! That was one of theirs."
"And now we've announced our presence," says Lin.
"She's not getting up!" says Korilu. "Ma'am? Are you OK? Uh, she's still breathing. Harrisumn, that's a good sign, right?"
He finishes bandaging his patient and gives her something for the pain. Then he examines the Herrin.
"There could be a concussion, but she'll live. I've got to make sure though."
"You stay here with her," says Captain Elleder. "We'll push on."
"Alone?"
"Er, right. Tandery, you stay with him. Keep lookout."
"I wish I had more than a knife," mutters Korilu as the rest walk slowly onwards.
next post: the fog of war is literally fog!
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