Scum and Villainy in-character (IC) thread.

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(In terms of game mechanics, how much CRED is this exactly?)
 
(In terms of game mechanics, how much CRED is this exactly?)
If you look at the rulebook it's an exponential scale, so it's fairly abstract. I don't have the rulebook to hand but 2 CRED is about a month's salary for a typical working schmoe. 4 CRED will buy a house, so it's more than 2 lots of 2 CRED.

Basically the rules work so that if you have N CRED, you can just buy any item worth less than N CRED without having to worry about keeping track of money. If you buy an item worth N then your CRED drops by 1. I'm just filling in amounts for flavour; there's no hard and fast relationship.

As to the value of the camo net, it would sit somewhere around the 2-3 CRED range. I've pipped it at 2.
 
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Séadna Séadna, Smith Smith, Stan Stan, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Bunch Bunch -

Mr. Patella looks coldly and impassively at you while you read the contract; he is quite unnerving. Andros shuffles from foot to foot.

The clause describing the lien on your starship is somewhat disturbing, but par for the course in this sort of loan agreement. The penalty clauses are remarkably steep.
 
Steevo grits his teeth and says nothing. He hated having others have stuff over him. But at least the camo would be nice to have.
 
Twitch just grins a shit eating grin. He thinks "What the fuck do I care? I get all my shit taken or lost anyway. And this fuck thinks his cold stare is going to impress me? Whatever happens I find a way to keep the party rolling."
 
Twitch just grins a shit eating grin. He thinks "What the fuck do I care? I get all my shit taken or lost anyway. And this fuck thinks his cold stare is going to impress me? Whatever happens I find a way to keep the party rolling."
Séadna Séadna, Smith Smith, Stan Stan, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Bunch Bunch -

Twitch, finding the conversation at the Arabel a bit lacking, has joined the party at Andros's office. He takes a look at Mr Patella and, having dealt with worse arseholes before, leafs through the contract. He strikes out the penalty clauses, writes in a more reasonable figure and initials both copies, offering them to Mr Patella to countersign.

Patella looks impassively at the figures for a moment, then initials them.

Twitch then signs the contract and hands it to Patella, who countersigns it. Patella says "The money will be in your account in 10 minutes.", takes his copy of the contract and leaves the office.

Andros says "It looks like you have a camouflage system. Book a slot at one of the cargo locks on North Bay 2. Message me with the booking time and I will have the system delivered to the lock." He hands you a business card and says "My bank account details are on the back of the card. I look forward to your message."

A few minutes' work on Twitch's hand comp secures a docking slot six hours from now. Shortly later, you see that the funds have arrived in your account and you can pay Andros. After transferring the money to his account and messaging him, you get a confirmation back that the goods will be delivered to the lock.
 
Cargo Lock 2C, North Bay 2

After taking a lighter out to the scaffold-park your ship is moored on (these are considerably cheaper than docking at bays in the station for long periods) you manoeuvre the ship to the cargo lock, which you have a two hour slot booked at.

Andros two other gentlemen wearing stevedore's kit come up pushing a stacker that has several olive crates on it. He gestures to his companion and says "Milo, put the crates in the Tranquility's cargo bay and secure them." Milo sees the cage holding the cargo webbing in the Tranquility's bay. He briefly talks with the other stevedore and unloads the crates off the lift and secures them in the bay with webbing from the locker.

While the stevedores are unloading the cargo Andros hands you a tablet and says "This has the operating and field service manuals. There's also a spares kit in one of the crates."

When they have finished unloading and securing the cargo, Milo hands you a 14C with the manifest on a clipboard and says "Sign here."
 
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Steevo checks the crates to see if they look like they have what they're supposed have - not pulling stuff out, just a quick opening of lids. If everything looks in order, he signs the 14C. He thanks the stevedores and gives them a small tip.
 
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Steevo checks the crates to see if they look like they have what they're supposed have - not pulling stuff out, just a quick opening of lids. If everything looks in order, he signs the 14C. He thanks the stevedores and gives them a small tip.
Séadna Séadna, Smith Smith, Stan Stan, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Bunch Bunch -
The crates look in order. One of the crates has the control unit, and the manual Andros gave you shows how to plug it into the panels and run a self-check. You check the panels against the manifest and the list of modules in the manual and it all checks out. The manual also describes the self-check and diagnostic procedures. With the manual is a log of the tests; the last one was done 18 months ago when the items were received and shows it all running nominally.
 
"Let's get this self check done, don't want to find out the thing has shorted. Full test suite"
 
"Let's get this self check done, don't want to find out the thing has shorted. Full test suite"
Séadna Séadna, Smith Smith, Stan Stan, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Bunch Bunch -

Reading through the manual shows it's a fairly straightforward process. There is a control unit a bit larger than a portacomp and a power and switching unit about the size of a brief case. The instructions show you how to plug them together and plug the switching unit into a power supply. It takes standard 28v, 400Hz AC (widely used in aerospace circles for centuries). Then you can plug the panels into the switching unit and run the diagnostics. One of the crates contains an air-breathing fuel cell generator and two other crates contain portable fuel tanks for the generator.

It takes about half an hour of reading through the manual and frigging to get it all wired together, and the panels all test nominal. You estimate that it would take the crew about 20-30 minutes to unpack the panels, drape them over the ship and start up the unit.

You get a message from the dock traffic controller saying that your booking ends in 15 minutes and the dock is needed after that.
 
"Well!" Kal exclaims enthusiastically, "looks like we have successfully bagged ourselves a camo net! Let's get this job over and done with and put money back into that shark's pocket before he sends any goons after us. Was there anything else they needed for us to do before heading back? I am getting antsy."

Kal heads to the galley and begins looking for any Cyrus Brew he might have forgotten about, but comes up short. Trying to maintain his composure, he clenches his fists for a few seconds to release his tension.
 
Twitch does last minute preflight checks and settles into the pilot seat ready to get into open space again.
 
Twitch does last minute preflight checks and settles into the pilot seat ready to get into open space again.
Séadna Séadna, Smith Smith, Stan Stan, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Bunch Bunch -
The checks all come up green and you get clearance to disengage from traffic control. You feel a bump as the cargo lock disengages and the clamps and umbilicals let go. You're in free fall, the reactor is warm and you have a full tank.

Control gives you a vector to thrust back on and pull away from the station, and a transit orbit to boost off for the jump point.

You're clear to go.
 
Twitch plots a course that's perhaps less direct than it could be but not too excessive on fuel if he can.
 
Twitch plots a course that's perhaps less direct than it could be but not too excessive on fuel if he can.
Séadna Séadna, Smith Smith, Stan Stan, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Bunch Bunch -

Twitch burns into the transfer orbit to the jump point and plots a course for Raquos via Isinor. The trip goes relatively uneventfully and a few days you exit warp in the Rhaquos system. You engage the hull ioniser and do a low-g burn into an orbit that intersects with your destination on the surface - a point in the deep wastes where you can do a powered re-entry and drop below radar out of view of any of the ATC sensors.

You've been given coordinates for Kōshi hold, a Tamura settlement in a deep canyon in the Tantalus mountains. The instructions are to fly at low altitude across the wastes from the re-entry point to the canyon then fly down the canyon to the coordinates given. A landing point will be marked with a visual beacon.
 
Stepping into the cockpit like a newborn foal after entering orbit, Kal's pale face is set with a crazed grin. "Twitch, time to show off. Don't get us caught."
 
"Maybe I shouldn't have had six coffees this morning.." he says shaking a bit. He looks at Kal to see how the comment goes over before adding
"Kidding man! I'm good to go. Sit back and enjoy the ride. "

He lines up the route and sets off to do some fancy flying.
 
"Maybe I shouldn't have had six coffees this morning.." he says shaking a bit. He looks at Kal to see how the comment goes over before adding
"Kidding man! I'm good to go. Sit back and enjoy the ride. "

He lines up the route and sets off to do some fancy flying.
Séadna Séadna, Smith Smith, Stan Stan, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Bunch Bunch -

The avionics package installed on the Tranquility has a pretty solid EW capability and you can see the coverage for the radars on the planet, and track the ephemeris of the satellites. The hull ionisation field absorbs the majority of the energy from the radar pings and from the traffic you're listening in on, it looks pretty much like they haven't spotted you.

You fall into the planet until the point for the powered re-entry, where you need to shed about 10km/sec PDQ. You enter orbit above a vast, uninhabited tract of desert and hit the main engines at about 3G, shedding about half of that on the thrust. The re-entry is a bit hotter than you would have liked but the ZU class ships are built for hot re-entry. G forces slam you into your seats as you hit atmospheric braking.

The Tranquility pulls out of the braking vector at about 5,000m - a near-perfect suicide burn. You drop the ship right down to the deck and fly the 1,000 km or so to your destination through a mix of desert, badlands and canyons carved by long-extinct rivers. Some of the 4G turns and barrel rolls might not have been strictly necessary . . .

Coming up to your destination you see Arch Canyon ahead of you. It's a twisting crack barely wide enough to admit the Tranquility. You fly to the coordinates given and see the base of the canyon widening under an overhang on one side. There's a flat spot there; at less than 50m across it's barely large enough accommodate the Tranquility, but you deftly bring her down to a CG landing with a final 180 for a quick exit.

According to the chrono, the next survey sat is expected in 43 minutes.
 
"Get the net!" Twitch says after executing some perfect flying.
Séadna Séadna, Smith Smith, Stan Stan, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Bunch Bunch - Ping
This is a team effort; if we have a volunteer to lead, the mechanics are described in the rulebook. The cheat sheet here has a summary as well.
  • LEAD a group action. Each participating team member makes an action roll, and you take the best result which applies for all participants. The leader takes 1 stress for each 1-3 result.
For the participants, the default roll is RIG. If you can think of something else applicable, feel free to pitch it.
 
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According to the chrono, the next survey sat is expected in 43 minutes.

ooc: So, in the game, pie charts are called clocks and clocks are called chronos. :wink:

ooc: I can lead. I'll review the rules when I get back from meetings.

Steevo comes opens the cargo hatch and then climbs a ladder to the top of the ship lugging a crate of the netting gear. "Ok, people, a few minutes of working then you can go back to twerking."
 
Twitch sees the others moving indecisively/slowly and says "Fuck do I have to wipe for you guys too?". He heads to the net and starts getting it setup.
(Rig roll 4)
 
Séadna Séadna, Smith Smith, Stan Stan, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Bunch Bunch

4 = Success with HARM. Random character falls off the ship and hurts themselves. Rolling a random character - 4 (on the list above) = RuinZealot RuinZealot. Will falls off the ship while trying to manhandle the net and sprains his ankle. Take a lesser HARM (sprained ankle). You will have trouble walking any distance until it heals, which will take a few days.

After hooking up the control unit, generator and cooling sink, you activate the net. Patterns swirl for a second then it coalesces into a facsimile of the rock texture. The generator unit shows an output of a little over 2kW and notes its fuel usage as having 845 hours left in the primary and 838 hours in the secondary. You have about 70 days left before it needs refuelling.

OOC: Stan Stan, take two stress from tearing your hair out watching how useless and uncoordinated this lot were. In hindsight, it might well have been a good idea to practice assembling the net a few times first.

About an hour after you finish putting up the net a boy who looks about 12 or so rides up on a trail bike and calls out to you: "Excuse me mister, are you the Tranquility?" He has what appears to be a old-style slug thrower slung over his back.
 
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About an hour after you finish putting up the net a boy who looks about 12 or so rides up on a trail bike and calls out to you: "Excuse me mister, are you the Tranquility?" He has what appears to be a old-style slug thrower slung over his back.
Ida looks impressed at the camouflage effect.

"Should have bought one of these a long time ago"

She turns to the boy.

"Yes, we're the Tranquility. You from Stel's clan?"
 
Ida looks impressed at the camouflage effect.

"Should have bought one of these a long time ago"

She turns to the boy.

"Yes, we're the Tranquility. You from Stel's clan?"
Séadna Séadna, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Stan Stan, Bunch Bunch, Smith Smith -

The boy replies "Yes, miss." and hands you a letter. "This is from Fath-Stelios."

You open it and find a handwritten note.

Greetings to the crew of the Tranquility. I hope you had a pleasant journey.

Unfortunately Hubba has been less than subtle and rumours of the find have reached the authorities, who are actively investigating the possibility of the find. Lar and Okon are now persons of interest and must also assume that other parties could be looking to find them. We must therefore maintain effective operational security. I must ask you maintain radio silence until you reach the hold and do not activate any devices that use satellite or cellular comms. It is important that we leave no clues that suggest anyone has been here.

The boy's name is Marten, my youngest son. He will bring some pack animals that you can ride to the hold on, and some Xente clothing that will protect you from the wastes. The hold is 70km distant and the ride will take about two days.

We will post some trusted sentries to watch the entrance to the canyon. There is little reason to come up the canyon as it is blind and leads nowhere, so I do not expect anybody to come through. If you have made the re-entry undetected the ship will remain unnoticed here.

Yours faithfully,

Stelios Garr

Marten sees you have finished the note and pipes up.

"I'll be back in about four hours with the metasaurs, miss. Get your stuff packed and be ready to travel when I come back and we can be at Sarawak Hold in a couple of days."

He looks at Will. "Splint that foot up and you'll be able to ride. There's a doctor at the hold if it's not healed up by the time we get there."

The boy looks wise beyond his age.
 
As the boy rides away, Kal kicks a scuff of dust from underfoot. "I can't say I am excited at the prospect of two days ride in this place." Squinting up at the sunny mesa, he grimaces. "Truly, truly not looking forward to this. Why can't it be so much easier?"

With a deep and regretful sigh, Kal mopes into the ship to collect the belongings he'll need.
 
Séadna Séadna, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Stan Stan, Bunch Bunch, Smith Smith -

OOC: Metasaurs are big enough to carry you and any reasonable personal equipment you might want to bring along. I won't make you list what you're taking - we can deal with that in flashbacks as and when.
 
Ida laughs in Kal's direction.

"I'm excited. A desert, an ancient civilization. The romantic adventure of it all. Mesa looks rough I'll give you that"

She heads back to the ship to pack her stuff.
 
Ida laughs in Kal's direction.

"I'm excited. A desert, an ancient civilization. The romantic adventure of it all. Mesa looks rough I'll give you that"

She heads back to the ship to pack her stuff.

jar-jar-binks.jpg
 
Twitch packs up assuming it will be a good while before we are back at the ship. "Better to have it and not need it than to be cursing the lack of it when you do." He says when asked why he's bringing the kitchen sink.
 
Séadna Séadna, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Stan Stan, Bunch Bunch, Smith Smith -

Marten comes back a few hours later with a train of the most evil looking creatures you've seen. You've heard of metasaurs - genetically modified reptilian pack animals - but up in person they're something else. At nearly a ton each they are huge, standing over 2m at the shoulder, and have the most vile smelling breath you've ever had the misfortune to stand downwind of.

He shows you how to pack the saddle bags and avoid getting bitten or kicked by the 'saurs. They are just as foul tempered as their reputation suggests; their only saving grace is their legendary sloth.

He also shows you the shelter robes worn by the Xente (this appears to be the Sand Folk's name for themselves) and how to wear them. The saddle bags can be loaded with all manner of cargo - 'saurs can carry a few hundred kilos.

The 'saurs can be told to lie down and let you get on, much like camels. Then they lurch up and nearly throw you off as they get to their feet.

Marten leads off on his 'saur and the others follow it, plodding along at slightly more than walking pace. The caravan treks out of the valley and through broken badlands that you would get lost in if you didn't have a guide who knew the country. Marten seems to be thoroughly familiar with the lay of the land and guides you through the badlands, pointing out blind canyons, routes to water and routes to other locations that don't make a lot of sense to you.

He turns into a canyon that twists round a couple of bends. He halts the caravan and says "We'll make camp here tonight. There's nobody about." He shows you how to hobble the 'saurs and feed them some dry rations. "The 'saurs are cold-blooded, so they eat far less than a camel, but they take a few hours to warm up in the morning."

Then he shows you how to pitch the shelter tents. They come with bedrolls that are at least warm. You sit around, watching him get out a stove heated by some vile-smelling petroleum compound. He cooks a basic dinner of rice and beans with some vegetables, which is actually fairly edible, and folllows that up with some Wedang, a tea-like drink.

Then he gets a box and takes out several objects that you recognise as screamers. Hes says "I'll go set up a perimeter, back in a few minutes"

You're all pretty stiff and sore from exercising muscles riding the metasaurs that you didn't know existed. Sleep comes easily.

In the morning Marten wakes you up with a cheery "Time to go!" As you get up you see he's gotten the metasaurs, and the sun is well up into mid-morning. Marten says "The 'saurs are warmed up now."

OOC: Forgot to mention: Correia spent the downtime at freeside recovering in hospital and in a hotel for convalescents. He's back in good shape and he has come with you. He seems to know how to handle a metasaur.
 
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"So, Mr Correia," Kal says, wincing as he is shifted around uncomfortably with each of the 'saur's lurching steps. "How'd you get into this line of business?"
 
Steevo didn't have to worry about the public eye looking at suspicious bulges so he has brought everything he can think of. He's also managed to find a place for the automed given how things have gone so far.

He's sore in the morning as he is much more used to machine transport instead of animal transport. But he doesn't complain as the locals seem to know what they're doing. He admires people who have managed to find a niche despite what those above have have thrown at them.

He makes a note to find a way to bring some wedang back to the ship. Its surprisingly bright flavor is a highpoint of the trip so far.

ooc: heavy gear load.
 
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"So, Mr Correia," Kal says, wincing as he is shifted around uncomfortably with each of the 'saur's lurching steps. "How'd you get into this line of business?"
"Well, I first worked on the Dobachan site for quite a few years - I was lucky enough to land a post-doc there, then around other precursor sites. There I met Jenel Elgin, Lovejoy Elgin's niece. We married but ... - " he pauses for a second - " she was killed in an accident on a dig site about 20 years ago. " You see a look pass over his face for a brief moment, then he continues. "I actually met Lovejoy a few times, a couple of years before he died. After Lovejoy died, Bill [his brother and Jenel's father] had all of Lovejoy's materials and showed them to me. The fragments of the statue were what sealed it. It proved that the whole thing was real.

Then I got in touch with Sutra Mishra, and she confirmed that they still had samples that Lovejoy had sent them for assessment. Apparently Professor Arkady, who had done the original assessment for Lovejoy, had just sat on them when the big scandal blew up. When Arkady died they found the samples in his office. Nobody got around to telling the ministry.

"I moved to Rhaquos about 20 years ago and started looking into Amarantin sites to piece together what happened on the extinction event, and try and vindicate Lovejoy's name. I've been mainly working as a broker and running occasional digs ever since."

"Then we got in touch with Hatten, who could bankroll the search we really wanted to do, and we found it. We found it. It's real. Then it turns out that Hatten sold us out to Hubba to clear some debt, and Hubba's been trying to muscle in on it since. Hatten's disappeared now, but we were careful to make sure he didn't get the location of the site."

Steevo didn't have to worry about the public eye looking at suspicious bulges so he has brought everything he can think of. He's also managed to find a place for the automed given how things have gone so far.

He's sore in the morning as he is much more used to machine transport instead of animal transport. But he doesn't complain as the locals seem to know what they're doing. He admires people who have managed to find a niche despite what those above have have thrown at them.

He makes a note to find a way to bring some wedang back to the ship. Its surprisingly bright flavor is a highpoint of the trip so far.

ooc: heavy gear load.
It looks like there several types. One had a definite taste of ginger in it, and the other one you tried had cinnamon, cloves and something else you didn't recognise, but was probably local.

The ship has a small armoury with a couple of assault blasters and a couple of blaster pistols in it, plus some spare power packs and other accessories. I'm assuming that you've brought those along. Lar has bought another Sparin and is wearing it on a gun belt that he must have purchased at Freeside.
 
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"I moved to Rhaquos about 20 years ago and started looking into Amarantin sites to piece together what happened on the extinction event, and try and vindicate Lovejoy's name. I've been mainly working as a broker and running occasional digs ever since."
"What did you conclude about the extinction event?"
 
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