The Traveller Adventure - part 20

Cast:

Captain Loyd Kitman, Engineer Tess Daley, Steward Fred Squeaker, Medic Adma Lewes

NPCs: Pilot Kunal Dins, Gunner Gvoudzon, Gunner Egon Trilby, 

Patron: Llinos the Llellewyloly

That was a close-run thing.  Having gone to all the trouble of finding a date folk could manage – even in the middle of August and lots of holiday – episode 20 nearly didn’t happen last night. 

 

I managed to break my finger last week; long story.  Fortunately, if I can say that at all, my little finger on my non-dominant hand as I kept getting told by the seven medical staff I think I’ve seen so far.  And I’m not a concert pianist.  Broken badly enough it probably needs surgery; even longer story.  A second fracture clinic was scheduled for yesterday afternoon at 3pm; a ridiculously long story I won’t bore you with.  Irritatingly, I was now guessing that that clinic might arrange surgery for the next week – when, wouldn’t you know it, I’m supposed to be away on holiday.  However, on Tuesday I’d had a message not to eat after 9am on Thursday implying that they might operate at the fracture clinic.  So, I dutifully followed instructions and realized that there might be no way I could make the pub in Portsmouth and Traveller by 5.15 or 5.30 that evening.  Either because I’d be too late, or because I’d be too groggy/tired/hurt from any operation they had carried out.  Worse, I might well be incommunicado because I was otherwise occupied or, knowing the hospital, out of signal range.  I wouldn’t even be able to get in contact with players to cancel.

 

The only choice seemed to be to arrange with Jane P at work that if she hadn’t heard from me by 4pm, she’d send out an abort message and we’d have to rearrange.

 

Well, I’d already rearranged two fairly vital work meetings that clashed with the clinic and I had a busy morning of filming a lecture which took my mind off the stresses, the pains and the worries, but I eventually got to the clinic 25 minutes early.  Only to find the place absolutely rammed and a nurse saying that there was a 50 minute delay.  Terrific, I thought, it’s going to be very tight.  Might as well put Traveller out of my head and assume it’s not happening – but let’s see what happens.

 

In actual, fact I was seen by a radiologist – for a third set of x-rays – ten minutes early.  But then there was the best part of an hour’s wait to see the surgeon.  As predicted, no joy with a signal to keep Jane up to date.

 

Finally, I get into see the surgeon and now he’s not sure if it is worth doing surgery after all.  However, it turns out he’s a hip specialist not a hand specialist.  So, he goes off to get a second opinion and is back in a moment to report that there are no hand specialists in the clinic today.  He looks again and decides to try phoning one and he disappears again.  I’m left in a consulting ‘room’ with a window, realize it’s two minutes to 4 and that I can get the barest whisper of a phone signal.  Might just be possible as I sit there, to phone Jane after all and tell her not to cancel.  I’m pretty certain that they’re not going to be operating there and then, my holiday is either going to be delayed (at best) or more likely interrupted while I drive three hours back home for an operation, and that I’m irritated enough by the whole thing it would be a shame to  not only  have to go home and explain all that to my wife who has arranged the whole thing, but also miss out on the once every other month excitement of Traveller.

 

Jane answers the phone but the signal is so poor can’t hear a word I’m saying.  I’m pretty sure the surgeon will be back in a second, and my phone is acting up (it’s quite old), and now Jane’s phone is reporting busy.  However, she’s sent a text saying she didn’t hear a word and I try replying to that to say DON’T CANCEL.  Right on the dot of 4 when she’d been about to call two of our number, who have to travel a way to join us, not to bother!

 

Phew!  I finally get done at the hospital and am able to drive into the city to arrive at the pub five minutes early after all that.  Oh, and now I’m waiting on a call mid-morning Friday (I’m writing in the early hours of Friday) to tell me the results of a planning meeting they’ll have at 8 or 9 to decide if I should be operated on at all and if that will be today (Friday) in which case we can just delay our holiday departure a few hours, or if it will be Sunday.  Which will be a pain; literally and figuratively.

 

Anyway, if I’m a tad more terse than usual, that might explain it.  I’m certainly typing a lot more slowly, so you’ll have to forgive any increase in errors.  Still, for all the faults of the NHS, the entire episode has thus far cost me nothing save a couple of hours parking.  (One hospital I could walk to, one had no parking charges for both visits, and the third – which I’ve been to twice – had a broken machine on one occasion and a sign saying parking was free for the duration!)

 

Anyway, very quick catch up: we’re on Junidy, the crew have been out in some distant islands where only Dandelions live.  They are helping deliver cargo on a sailing ship with a Dandy passenger they picked up a world or two back.  In the last session they had discovered some semi-flooded caves where human crew of a small submersible had stashed a vast harness and left some gear and a comm unit.  They’d worked out that the harness was about the size of the massive sea creatures, chagic, they know exist even if they’re rarely sighted, and that maybe the creatures were being used in some way, perhaps as some kind of transport.  They’d connected the submersibles with Kutear, a research company which they’d finally connected with being a subsidiary of Tukera – their nemesis from several previous episodes.  Tess, the engineer, had – with a spectacular roll – hacked the comm unit to notify them of any use of the device and to listen in on any conversations.

 

Now half the crew have headed back to the ’port (small space, and large surface ship) on the March Harrier (Tess and the NPCs), while the rest of the crew are making their way back on the sailing ship their patron, Llinos, owns.  [I found I managed to slip back into her Welsh accent without too much thought after last time.  Well, my nearest approximation of a Welsh accent.  Which can only be described as ‘near’ in my wildest fantasies.  Still, that causes some hilarity.]  On the Harrier, Tess manages to fix a clicking gun turret that’s been causing concern.  But only after a day of taking it apart.  She finds a micro meteorite has got into the gubbins and it’s relatively easy to fix.  The day putting it back together fills in the time while the others enjoy their sail.  Aboard the Astrid, there’s enough swell to cause concerns about seasickness but in fact, after, several days on the ship, everyone seems to have their sea legs and is doing well.  {I had the roll Routine Endurance checks and for once everyone succeeded].  Ex-Army Fred is in the galley cooking up something that doesn’t involve fish, Medic Adma is making sure the medicinal plants he collected with an elderly Dandelion are keeping dry and in between doing a lot of sleeping, Captain Loyd is enjoying being out on deck and chatting to Llinos and Phlo, the Dandelion he’s offered employment to as he’s seen her abilities as a stevedore.  It’s all those limbs, you see.  (You may recall that with the help of the Dandies they unloaded the cargo container they hit (and salvaged) finding it full of little rubber ducks and other bath toys).  At one point Loyd  gets into a conversation about whether the ship is armed and Llinos shows him a weapons locker down in a hold.  Half a dozen TL3 blunderbusses that her regular crew might use (you may recall they’re away at a singing competition they’ve done unexpectedly well at, hence the March Harrier crew filling in while waiting for their broker to find cargo), one ACR Llinos owns, some rather unused looking helmets – but that would only fit Dandies in any case.  [There was a query from our grognard (the others accepted it) as to just what such a helmet was protecting, but I was happy to defend their head/body containing some pretty vital parts].  Oh, and the net gun that Loyd bought in the chandlery before they left.  (And did insist on shooting at a baby forfilod [squid] that was saving them from sinking after they holed the hull hitting the  semi-submerged container.  Fortunately, he was a poor shot.) 

 

Fred takes a breather from cooking and climbs the mast to the crow’s nest to look for forfilod.  No sign of them.  (Tess the player, and I suspect Tess the character, spends five minutes channelling Pythagoras after I happen on the diameter of Junidy (7 thousand and something km) and we take a stab at the height of the mast (20m) to work out the horizon is probably 12km away.  Seems reasonable to me.  No sign of forfilod but Fred [Recon 3] does notice a very small wake following them in a line that’s straight enough to give doubt it’s natural.  Binoculars reveal a periscope.  He tells the others and Loyd – being given an outing at the wheel by Llinos – gets her permission to try tacking and see if it follows.  It does.  They decide to try getting closer and come about so they can use the ship’s depth sounder, sonar, to determine whether they could work out anything more.  The periscope disappears and sonar suggests a vessel submerging.  There’s no more sign of it and the next day gives them a clear run back to port.

 

Back on the Harrier, as the others are nearly back, Tess is notified the comm unit she hacked is being used and listens in on a brief conversation that reports the cave has clearly been found by someone and that two young Dandelions seem to be on watch above the cave’s small land exit.   These are two Dandelions that the March Harrier crew left with promise of payment if they kept an eye on any comings and goings of subs, humans or anything.  “They’re in the way,” the message ends rather ominously.

 

The Astrid docks, unloads and Llinos thanks everyone for their assistance and pays them as promised.  It’s been an experience, she says in her lilt, and if the crew are ever back in this vicinity, they are more than welcome to visit.

 

Fred checks on anything onboard that needs restocking, toilet rolls being in good supply [see write ups past], he wants to be sure nothing else is likely to run out.  Bing’s chandlery is as good a place as any.  He’s also looking for forfilod and chagic fridge magnets [what on earth – or Junidy – is the roll for that possibility?!].  As well as toilet roll holders that stick to the floor (and store two rolls in the base).

 

Loyd browses the shelves and displays as well, Credits seem to be burning a hole in his pocket.  The whole trip seems to have exhausted Adma, he’s headed for his berth and some more sleep.  Anyone would think he was an NPC.

They also check up on their cargo from the islands – 10 tons of dried seastreamers in three grades (and some of it aphrodisiac I’d completely forgotten and had to be reminded).

 

It’s not the last they’ve seen of Llinos however.  Before the Harrier departs for the starport proper [and a return to events you can actually find in The Traveller Adventure], she’s back at the airlock breathlessly wanting to see Loyd.  Back in one of her fabulous hats, she reports that the two young Dandelions left on watch, Strait Asar and Throwthe, have gone missing.  [I don’t think anyone picked up on the vague and obscure pun about Welsh people often being called Dai.]  They’ve not been seen for a couple of days at least.  Loyd is most concerned, they are after all technically his employees.  Kunal the pilot is instructed to file a flight plan out to the islands and they’re soon retracing their steps – although it’s only an hour or so instead of three days.  No sign of the missing Dandies but also, no sign of any occupation of the cave they’d found.  It’s almost as if someone doesn’t want their activities to be found.  Everything has been cleared out.

 

Now, as a complete meta-commentary on all that’s going on, I was struggling a bit at this point.  Having created what I felt was one of Marc Miller’s ‘Rich Decision Making Environments’ and IMO very successfully offered the players a hook to involve them with the disappearance of sophonts they’d employed, I really wasn’t too sure what my next move was.  In between this and the last session two months ago, I’d come across the Bartle test  (http://www.matthewbarr.co.uk/bartle/) and several players had had a go at it.  As had I.  Turns out that most of us score highly on the Explorer scale, particularly me, which may explain the kind of adventures I run.  0% for me on the Killer scale.  Which may explain even more.  However, I was moderately surprised that several of the players scored more highly on the Killer scale than I might have guessed.  So, without much science or understanding, I’ve been mentally preparing to perhaps offer a bit more conflict and perhaps even combat.  Maybe that’s no bad thing as the next chapter of The Traveller Adventure – when we finally get back on track, this little side trip was only supposed to be one evening – is Tradewar and, perhaps, our first ship combat.

 

So, in my head was the idea that Kutear would be a bit more ‘baddy’ than I’d perhaps started with.  Essentially the idea is that they’re researching ways to use the semi-intelligent chagic as a (container) cargo transport option.  As this would be regarded as a ‘bad thing’ either by the law level D government or environmental groups or both, they’re conducting their tests clandestinely and as out in the boonies as they can.  The Dandy island Kutera were using as a refuelling base was ideal in both being very out of the way, little explored by the Dandies themselves, and a who-cares-what-the-Dandies-get-up-to attitude by the general human populace (and government) of Junidy.

 

With this in mind I was inclined to see if perhaps I should up the threat content and offer more opportunities for combat.  I also thought I should make the baddies a tad more proactive.  It wasn’t a plan so much as a thought to keep in mind.  The main problem I was facing however, was that I didn’t really have a plan, I was just going to see where things went.  I’m not really sure I had a great ‘route’ mapped out for the players who I don’t think were very clear on what was going or what they were supposed to do.  A secondary problem I had was that one of my players is a comms specialist in real life and works for a marine electronics company.  I’d kind of forgotten this, or at least if I had remembered had not understood the impact on the game.  Here we were in a maritime environment, with a TL8 sailing ship (Dandies may only usually be TL3 - hence the blunderbusses, but Llinos clearly had enough experience with Imperial culture and enough money from selling up her mining claim back on Feneteman that she could afford a little more), and not only that, we had submarines on the scene and the engineer had hacked a comm unit they’d found belonging to the ‘baddies’.

 

So, we had lots of discussion around what capabilities the March Harrier would have in terms of sonar etc, what capabilities the Astrid sailing ship would have, what they’d be able to detect, and so on.  I’m generally very happy to go with what players feel is ‘right’ but I would have loved some more definition from the rules on this which are very thin in this area.

 

Anyway, I decided that Llinos would report to the captain that the two Dandies they’d left on ‘watch’ above the caves had gone missing and if the players/PCs wanted to move on and ignore that, they could; if they wanted to get involved they were welcome.  Well, good old TTA players.  There wasn’t even a question.  These were technically employees, let’s go find them.

 

No luck at the island, but Tess has the intercepted message saying “they’re in the way” and we decide she’s able to track this to the Kutear base just outside the harbour of the port.  I had a lovely image printed out of a futuristic, spinnaker sail shaped building half in and half above the water, with glass walls etc, that I’d shown them previously.

 

So, Captain Kitman gets onto the authorities to tell them the two Dandies are missing.  He seems to be very insistent that he wants a case number.  Well, they’re really not interested.  A) they’re Dandies and who cares (it didn’t seem to occur to anyone - including me until writing this up - to go to what might pass for Dandy ‘authorities’ - perhaps they don’t have any); B) they’ve only been missing for a day or two and from the port’s point of view, Dandies go off to their islands for days at a time, so what’s new?

 

[Side note: if you’re going to do as much with Dandies as I am here, you should be aware that the Traveller corpus is sadly lacking in much in the way of useful information about them.  What do they eat?  (Burdock leaves?!)  What kinds of things do they do or are they interested in?  With five limbs just how much can they use Imperial gear?  What’s their culture like?  What is the fluffy bit about?  While I like the free rein this gives me, I probably should have done more thinking on this beforehand.  A vague connection with Welsh – thanks to the double ll of their proper name – wasn’t enough.]

 

Loyd’s next action was to get in touch with the Kutear research station and demand the return of the Dandies.  Well, it was easy enough to have them react blankly and feign no knowledge of what he was talking about even if the March Harrier crew were less than convinced.  [Interestingly, having spent any ‘NPC talking’ time as Llinos with my feeble attempt at a Welsh accent, I was now finding it hard to drop the accent!  I suspect I ended up with something from the borderlands which was a bit schizophrenic and weak].

 

Meanwhile, Tess and the others - particularly with the help of Lily (now an NPC) and her explosives skill, have decided to buy a submersible drone, attach explosives to it, and pilot it out to the base and threaten to explode it.  Just a small explosion.  More of a show of intent really.  Now, none of the crew have ‘remote ops’ as a skill, so I was bit dubious, but having said (made the mistake of saying?) that remote ops now comes under Electronics our Engineer, Tess, naturally claimed some ability with her wide range of Electronics skills.  This felt close to the edge, but I guess on a TL11 world they should be able to buy something that would be pretty simple to operate.  Back to Bing’s chandlery where they could source such a drone but it wasn’t necessarily cheap.  They were soon nosing it up against the -3rd floor beneath the water where they’d traced the signal of the comm.  Maybe I’m too generous in allowing them to do that, but Tess did roll very well on a Difficult task.  (My logic for the positioning was that the cave had been cleared out by Kutear ‘researchers’ once they knew it had been found and as well as all the gear - or the comm at least - being brought back to the base, so had the two Dandy watchers.  To be pumped for information on what they’d seen, what they thought they’d seen, what they knew and so on.)  We had all spotted that with the glass walls of the base, they might be able to see in, but I determined that there could well be enclosed inner offices as well.  On the other hand, I rolled really badly for much in the way of security alarms around the base under water and again above water so I gave them that easy approach.

 

I did decide that what was sauce for the goose was sauce for the gander and that if Tess could hack their equipment, they’d have people who could work out it had been hacked and trace that back to the March Harrier.

 

I was just contemplating having some thugs turn up at the Harrier’s berth to warn them off with threats, but I decided it might be more fun to be more direct.  I decided two masked men would break into the berth and plant their own explosives.  I had thought that maybe damaging an exhaust port of the Harrier would be suitably threatening without killing anyone and cause some expensive repair bills.  This time I figured that a TL11 world would almost certainly have some basic security in berths so there was some video footage of the demolitions team flitting in and out.  But once again our engineer - who is an experienced Traveller player - had an idea to thwart my best laid plans… a full power engine test.  She was certain that these kind of things would be pretty standard and that doing such a test would most likely destroy any explosives in the process.  I decided to allow it but the SPA guy only had a ‘slot’ several hours away.  The Harrier crew wanted quicker, and then quicker still, so we had a great scene of bargaining with the guy until he’d ratcheted them up to Cr5000 instead of Cr500.  Perhaps it should have been more.  But meanwhile Captain Loyd was investigating installing additional sensors (i.e. sonar).  Again, no help from the book, so I wildly guessed that if a basic sensor package is Cr50,000 according the book, then such a suite, might be Cr25,000 [I’ve just thought about fitting - I’ll stick them with that bill next time!  What do you reckon?  As much again?!  Short notice… times 10?!]

 

Anyway, the engine exhaust bomb averted, the Captain calls Kutear once again to make his threat.  Once again, perhaps I should have made it harder to get through to anyone of any consequence, but I think my gut was telling me that that wasn’t where the fun lay.  (Or perhaps I’m still remembering Zilan Wine too well).  I still had their contact denying anything - despite the Captain’s crime reference number! - and insisting that they desist in these threats before the authorities were called.  I don’t know, maybe because I knew I was lying through my teeth and they knew I was lying through my teeth I was less than convincing, but I didn’t enjoy role-playing this bit.  Perhaps it was because I had no script and little idea of what I was trying to achieve.  Plus I knew time was getting towards us needing to finish and although I’d been trying to engage the medic player who was still asleep, I’d not had lots for him to do - they hadn’t messed with the blunderbusses, they hadn’t had any mishaps checking out the engine exhaust which I tried to inflict on them, etc etc.  Ah well.  As he was sleeping, presumably he didn’t much care.

 

Despite everything and despite Lily bouncing up and down she was so keen to set off the explosives, they back away from setting them off and retire gracefully having made their point.  “We don’t want to kill anyone” someone said with a straight face - which is kind of ironic as I’d just this week been going through the whole Wolf at the Door incident.

 

I had never meant this Astrid side adventure to go on for more than a session much less three and it seems we may have a bit more left yet, although to my mind the two Dandies will turn up bruised and beaten in a back street somewhere next time.  The crew can pay them off as they see fit and head for the next world and the next adventure.  Whether they actually ever report Kutear for conducting cargo transport tests on semi-sentient creatures is anyone’s guess.  Perhaps I can have a news item catch up with them later when someone else gets the credit for doing so.  Llinos did note that perhaps it was an omission that none of the chagic had ever performed at one of the singing competitions the Dandies like so much!

 

I did have Captain Loyd have a look at the subsectormap and decide on Rugbird as their next destination after making some rolls for passengers and cargo I’d work out for next time.  I wouldn’t necessarily hold them to that but it gives me something to aim at.  Trade War actually needs a few weeks to pass before it really gets going so I’m not sure whether to fill in with more ‘make it up’ or to just allow time to pass which we’ve not really done thus far.

 

Oh, and in case you were wondering (a few days after I wrote the above out of reach of the internet), I’ve just had surgery on my finger and am now typing one handed.  Very slow when you can touchtype 40+ words a minute usually.  But I’ve survived a general anaesthetic (my wife nearly didn’t on another occasion), have a poorly paw, and am generally feeling very sorry for myself!