MRC Serenity Game

Previously on Serenity...

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 20:49:33 GMT

Summary of Sessions Two and Three

Summary of Sessions #2 and #3:

The three meet up with the gregarious yet mysterious Captain Ulysses and his (somewhat dilapidated) Firefly, the Monte Cristo, and his pilot, the maverick and somewhat alcoholic ex-Alliance fighter jock Akkiko. They all head out to a local bar, the Maidenhead, to scrounge up some work. Jebediah uses his “Ariel charm” on a smartly dressed businesswoman, and gets a sweet contract for shipping Fungus chews…as well as, ah, some other sweets, later on in the evening.

Think everything’s going so smooth? Not quite. Selah gets jumped and kidnapped by some mysterious thugs, and the newly formed crew springs into action to try and save her.

(What follows could not properly be called a fight…it involves a lot of missed swings, an attempted wedgie, and Doctor Mathias drugging one of the goons)

When all the consternation finally dies down, Selah emerges from captivity unharmed and seemingly unperturbed, much to the puzzlement of her would-be rescuers. There’s not much time to ponder it, though, as Ulysses orders them to prepare the ship for takeoff.

Great Moment

A montage of Selah repairing the ship, getting a “feel” for its innermost workings and coming to “know” its innards, overlaid (no pun intended!) with Jebediah and the businesswoman in a private suite, um, “sealing the deal” with their own explorations of one another’s, ah, workings. And yes, that’s about as close to we got in the details of the actual session, too – thank the Maker of the ‘Verse!

Meanwhile, Ulysses goes off and makes a secret deal, and Karl is haunted by visions of his past…

…but somehow everyone’s got their game face on as the Monte Cristo heads out to Persephone. It’s only en route that strange puffs and smells from Jebediah’s quarters call the attention of the crew. It turns out he’s trying to synthesize some sort of fake drug, and failing miserably. When pressed, he reveals that the captain has secretly picked up a shipment of illegal drugs for delivery to Persephone – but has no intention of making the deal. Instead, he wanted Jeb to make fake drugs to give the buyer, then dump the real stuff, screwing both parties and making off with the cash. Unfortunately, Jeb “misoverestimated” his chemistry skills, and begs Dr. Mathias for help. The good Doctor is horrified and reluctant, but realizes he has to play along or else he’ll be complicit when the captain is forced to make an actual drug deal.
Selah and Mathias now keenly distrust Jeb, but Jeb reveals his own doubts about Selah, who keeps demonstrating remarkable technological skills for a Companion…

…soon they arrive on Persephone, landing at the private island estate of one Gau Ming Ho. Ulysses insists on staying behind on the ship, and sends his crew out to make the delivery. Unfortunately, the moment they step inside Ho’s estate, they trigger and automated lockdown. Exploring, they discover someone has attacked the place and imprisoned the wealthy socialites within, then turned the estate’s automated defenses upon the hired security, killing them and creating a gauntlet for any would-be rescuers.

Great Moments

What follows includes some great “inspired” ideas of throwing furniture…and corpses…into fields of autocannon fire to try and distract or gauge timing. Best of all, though, is Jebediah and Selah trying to cross a lavish ballroom. After they figure out the pattern of the security cannonfire coming down from above, Jebediah wants to run the gauntlet, but Selah is too scared…so he puts on some music, asks for her hand, and the two waltz the path in-between the cannons’ firing ranges…

The crew eventually finds the captured socialites, shuts up their pompous demands, and Karl manages to get one very shell-shocked young society wife, “Mrs. Lin”, to reveal the secrets of disarming the security system her husband designed. Too scared to brave the cannonfire herself, she stays with Karl and gives instructions via radio to Jeb and Selah once the reach the control room.
Unfortunately, this is the time when the leader of the raiders who set this all up bursts into the ballroom and crushes the transmitter. He attempts to take Karl and Mrs. Lin hostage as he leaves, but Karl is faster than he is and hyposprays him unconscious! A very grateful Mrs. Lin gives him a passionate kiss, then uses the raider’s transmitter to help Jeb and Selah gain control of security. Once they have that control, it is a simple matter to locate the other raiders and send them running by turning the auto-defenses on them.
As Selah and Karl usher the guests out of the house to safety, Jeb locates and frees the bound Mr. Gau Mingo Ho…but on the way there, he discovers secret documents that prove that Gau Ming Ho actually planned this whole thing, hired the raiders, simply to avoid having to pay for the expensive drug shipment once it arrived. Jeb blackmails him into paying Jeb the money instead, and then gives the “proof” to Ho so he can destroy it and escape prosecution.
On the way out, one of the guests swears that Selah is someone else he knows, an assistant to some other companion, but she insists he must be mistaken.
The crew dumps the drugs and returns to the Monte Cristo to find the captain and Akkiko have been off on their own adventure deep in the sewers beneath the island, and are irritatingly cheerful in their refusal to be forthcoming about what the real mission here actually entailed. Their sense of victory marred by a nagging sensation that they are being used, the crew prepares for their next voyage…

A Fistful of Alliance Credits...

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 23:57:50 GMT

Jebadiah hummed to himself, and old ranchers song from his childhood on Shadow. Despite all the near-death and oddness with the Captain and his pilot, the job had gone over rather swimmingly; To wit, a lot of credits in the bank...his bank mostly. And why not? He was the one who had gotten them work, the legitimate kind on this planet, and it was he who had come across the flimsy that helped make negotiating with that mandarin far more pleasant. So now, no moral qualms with having to sell drugs, just like the Captain wanted, and no having to worry about angry bad'uns when they realized they had been swindled. Oh sure, maybe he'd engaged in a little blackmail and extortion, but it was fair and honest; both sides kept their end of the bargin.

Certainly, it wasn't like he wasn't going to share the wealth. He'd made sure to juggle the transfer around a little, and moved some into the ships operating account. Plus a little extra to himself, to put in Selah and Karl's pay envelops in a little while: they had certainly earned it. Perhaps it had been an uneasy working relationship...and he wasn't sure if he was ready to call them "friends" per se, but he'd been through two near-death experiences with them so far, and they'd all each pulled their weight. If nothing else, they'd had his respect at this point. Which was more than he could say about the Captain and the Akikko, still bristling at them heading off like they did, at a critical junction. He had become especially concerned with some of the Captains activies. Was his Alliance? Another faction? Something behind the scenes was heading on there.

But with the 750c he "managed to scrape up from a raid of various guests rooms" (or so his story would go), plus the 750c from the fungus chews deal, nearing a smooth and trouble free completion, it was off to a good start. He made sure to hang on to another 250c, to split between Selah and Karl when no one else was looking, a small token of apology for having kept them in the dark previouly.

The other 4000? His finders fee, of course...

He rose and strode out his door. "Ah! Nothing like a successful mission to work up a fearsome appitite. Some of that jerky might hit the spot." He paused "Odd, that I would be musing upon this out loud, to none but myself." He shrugged, and then headed down into the galley.

At the maidenhead (post here whenever the conversation from last thread concludes)

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 23:11:19 GMT

The maidenhead is less a bar than a carved out cavern all strung and wired for highspeed cortex access and indoor plumbing...and it's anyone's bet which one will be more functional from one day to the next. A crowd of roustabouts and ne'er do wells sips their drinks and pokes at their noodle soups beneath a roiling mix of multicolored floodlights, smoky vapors, neon headbands and blaring music.

Enough people in nice suits hang around in the shadows that Jebediah and Selah won't stand out TOO much here...on the other hand, those folks in the nice suits seem to all be flanked by badass chin xi huas with ripped muscles and bandanas for protection...

The crew starts reporting for duty...

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 00:34:46 GMT

From up in the Black, you’d almost miss the gray ball that’s Beaumonde. If it weren’t for the blinky lights of all the orbiting stations, freighters, and Alliance patrol ships, you’d never see past the thick cloud cover of soot and toxic drudge that Beaumonde’s famous factories pour out into the atmo. Guess mankind figured, when you’ve got hundreds of worlds to live on, maybe you can afford to louse up a few here and there.

Surface-side’s not much better. Most part’s of Beaumonde only see real daylight once a week, and the air, while still breathable, always smells like burning soot. You can tell the rich folk from the poor real easy – the former can afford to keep their cars, clothes, and selves perpetually washed and shiny. The latter look as gray and mottled as the sky.

As dawn breaks over the New Dunismir spaceport, a small, bedraggled Japanese woman makes her way to the dock where the Lucky Dragon is berthed. She's one of the gray, mottled folk, although beneath the soot she's wearing an Alliance navy flightsuit. The rank badges and medals have all been removed, however. She carries herself stiffly, her eyes narrowed, as if making a defiant stand against her own clear fatigue, against the obvious weight of the duffel across her shoulder.

"Ohio Gozaimas?" she calls out half-heartedly. "Zao?" "Hello?" Shrugging, she says, not quite soft enough to not be heard, "that's it, I'm out of languages, someone'd better answer. Akiko Assai, reporting for duty, promise I won't crash the ship too much, neh?" Rolling her eyes disdainfully, she awaits some response.

And so it begins...

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 00:23:13 GMT

Leased, Firefly class transport model XKS-9489, from Kampachi Takahashi to Kwang Hue-Lo.

Vessel name: Lucky Dragon
(new name pending)

Class: Firefly, modified for survey duty
Dimensions: 191 x 128 x 53 ft
Tonnage: 2,700 tons
Speed Class: 4 curise/6 hard-burn
Crew Quarters: 2 double, 3 single cabins
Fuel Capacity: 100 tons (1,000 hours)
Cargo Capacity: 400/460 tons in hold#1, 100/220 tons in hold#2
Gear: One 20-ton shuttle in port#1, One missile launcher in port#2 (Two 10-pound short range missiles, 1 explosive warhead and 1 jammer warhead)
Price: In its current condition, it's worth about 60,000 cr, and that's AFTER Captain Ulysses has sunk quite a bit of money into repairs (the ship was given over to cover a 40,000 cr gambling loss, but he's already sunk almost that much into fixing it)

Stats:
Agi d8, Str d6, Vit d6, Ale d8, Int d2, Wil d2, Init d8+d2, Life 8.
Seen Better Days, Everybody Has One, Aerial Transport Ops/Transport d2, Space Transport Ops/Transport d2, Complexity: Very Low (except for Sensors, which are Low)
Note - Does NOT have "healthy as a horse" benefit, given its former state of disrepair. Note the correspondingly lower Vitality.

Special features/quirks:
-Smuggler’s compartments (2)
-Recurring bugs and glitches, according to GM's sense of sadism at any given time :)

Ship’s history:

- Served as a survey vessel prior to the war, then impressed into service as a surveillance/espionage craft (where its second shuttle port was swapped out for the missile launcher). After the war, decomissioned and sold to a Mr. Xu Fugui, who used it as a personal ferry for him and his associates. Lost in a gambling game to Captain Ulysses.

Chapter One

Sun, 05 Mar 2006 21:16:33 GMT

SUMMARY OF FIRST SESSION

As a bleak yellow sun dawns on the dusty plains of Haven, three travelers, the gentlemanly Jebediah, the exotic companion Selah, and the clean-cut doctor Mathias meet one another as they board the transport PAPER LANTERN which will take them to Beaumonde and their new jobs on a ship there. The travelers are friendly to one another, although tight-lipped about their origins and reasons for signing on. The PAPER LANTERN’s skipper suffers from no such compunctions. Rather, the super-gregarious Cap’n Leo talks his guests to death during the long flight, expounding on all subjects possible while feeding them heaping helpings of homemade gruel.
Yet it would appear even Cap’N Leo has some secrets to hide…while pokinga round on the freighter, Doctor Matthias discovers a cloned gorilla and a military transmitter, neither of which seem like standard equipment. When the gruel wreaks vengeance on the travelers’ stomachs, Matthias determines that some “special ingredients” must have been in it. Selah disassembles the com-box in the hallway to spy on Leo’s communications, just in time to spy on an argument he’s having with some unknown party…right as the ship rocks with the force of explosions!

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Great Moment

Jebediah: “Madam, I apologize but I fear I simply must pry into your affairs here, as I can’t help but wonder how a companion knows such skills.”

Selah: “In the guildhouses, we’re trained in all manner of skills, including electronics.”

Josh OOC: “Hrm, yeah, I suppose I can see how some knowledge of battery operated devices would be included there…”
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With the PAPER LANTERN damaged and making an uncontrolled freefall into Beumonde’s atmosphere, the three travelers find Captain Leo has fled the cockpit and their crash cannot be averted. They race belowdecks to find the escape pods (shooting a rampaging gorilla in the process and fording a miniature lake of reactor coolant…no oxen were lost in the process). Upon reaching the pods, they see a boarding party in spacesuits drag Leo off. Jebediah manages to chase the boarders away before they disable all the escape pods, and the travelers all pile in a lifeboat and make planetfall to the deserts outside Beumonde’s cities.
Bartering there with some local scavengers for passage back to the city, the three wearily check into a hotel, clean up, and order new clothing. Matthias spends some time analyzing their blood and determines that the “gruel” introduced a coded sequence in to their bloodstream, some sort of military cipher that they are now carrying with them. Why would Leo do such a thing, and what message does it hold?
No time to wonder – the local police arrive at the hotel and head right for their room. Matthais and Selah feign a “liaison” in the halls to hide from their pursuers, and thena ll three hop an air taxi to escape.

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Great Moment

The three are being pursued by the cops for quite some time before Josh finally spends a plot point to have his character, Jebediah, point out to Selah that when she had picked up a military transmitter early on in the game, she never declared that she put it down, and so the whole time had been carrying a beacon that alerted the feds to their presence. Her response: “Oh. Um. Right!”
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Having ditched their pursuers for the present, the three of them head for their new job, hoping to sort this mystery out once they’ve put some distance between them and this planet…

- GM

For tonysalieri's summary, read here.