The Lamia's Labyrinth: Solo Test Game Part 1

 I decided I could run myself through my planned next game (which may be a ways off for the Fantasy Trip group as they are even more paranoid than we are about getting sick. Both our families have immuno-compromised spouses and we need to be careful). So, first thing is start grabbing tiles and set up room #1. After putting together a close enough approximation, I realize without walls it is a bit harder to imagine this as a room. Of course, that may be because I am anticipating some walls to show up at some point from a Kickstarter, Ramparts. And while I have some fantasy doors (which you can barely see in this picture I think) I have no fantasy floors yet, so it is more of a grate to be able to hold that door. Of course, I also have doors showing up that will better match. But I digress. 

So the party is dropping into room number one, a 20 foot drop from the shifting sands above. The room is described as:

The entrance is through a hole in the ceiling, dropping down about 20 feet to the sand covered floor below. The 6 sided room has a closed door to the south and an open door to the east. Sand is piled up under the hole and you can see footprints in the sand going to the east door. The room is cool and dusty, with the whispery sound of the air over the hole in the roof in the adventurers ears. The walls and ceiling have frescoes of human, animal and magical figures cavorting about. Remains of what appear to be kneeling benches are crumbled against one wall. Small alcoves on the northwest wall are empty except for one with a gold statue of a cockatrice. For statue, 4D/INT to notice trap, 2D with detect trap skill. Normal save roll against poison needles that will do 1d6 damage. For the frescoes, INT roll vs 4D, 2D if they have history or priest skills to recognize that these are from the local pantheon but are representing what looks to be gods and goddesses amongst regular beings. Amongst them is a animal goddess.

In reading part of this out loud, I think I need to make the room a bit more spooky (of course I am writing this on Halloween, the power just flickered [fortunately I my computer system is on battery backup so no disruption there!] so perhaps some of that is creeping in!). I need a short but better way of the initial impression of the room. Something more like:

You drop to the sand-covered floor, faint moonlight shining against the pile of sand beneath the hole in the ceiling 20' above. The air is cooler and you hear the whisper of the desert winds above you.  Your torches give frescoes on the walls the appearance of life as the shadows flicker across paintings of humans, animals and magical creatures cavorting about. Against the walls are the rotting remains of benches, and you can see the glint of what appears to be a small gold statue in a niche on the wall.

That does seems a bit better maybe. The room otherwise is pretty barren, just the one trap, and nothing to signify any connection to anything other than those frescoes. I am also going to use a picture from one of the artists I patronize on Patreon, CCJ Ellis. She does Welsh mythical art among other things, and has some really cool stuff. I think this image is another good way of looking at Tona, the Goddess of Lesser Creatures.

I also grabbed 4 random character cards from the Fantasy Trip Deck, and paired them with 4 cards that expand on the basic character to something approaching an actual player character.

Which does help, especially if I go through the Death Test again! But other than that 1 trap next to the gold cockatrice statue, there is nothing much going on in this room. Should there be more? A random treasure? I'll probably leave this as is as other rooms do have a lot more, and this room has been open for a bit at least to the desert above. However, I think there does need to be a more active encounter, more of one of those nuisance creatures. So maybe a small number of scorpions or spiders. Nothing to hurt anyone with armor, but an active enemy to get things warmed up.

So our master thief eyes the gold statue, and manages to do well on her roll to avoid the trap. So she now has one gold statue. I probably need to establish a cost, but when I play this, unless the character has assess value, they will only know that it is a small gold statue.

And that is as far as I really got: took longer for the set up and finding doodads for scatter terrain. In fact, I forgot my cheap rocks and may add them as well. Hopefully tomorrow I can go through more rooms.

Anyway, this adventure is pulling things in from a few Kickstarter zines, a couple of my Patreon feeds, and my own imagination as well as all the Fantasy Trip stuff I managed accumulate. I am going to rewrite that 1st paragraph as above though. The revised version seems more evocative.

More info on Tona here.

SOLO - League of Planets: Krim 245-1106 (part 3)

 Well, we've not gotten too far after redoing our ship a great deal. And, to make things work, I've decided to throw in a bit of subterfuge to help with the payments: the No Refunds often makes trips back and forth between the Imperium and the League. Part of that is information gathering, and our Captain Lynwood Laux is not above scoring information as well as cargo. However, he is a part of the Antares Ship Builders and Trade Speculators, which is an Imperium corporation. So not exactly a spy but open to passing along information. Not sure there is a a secrets part of Solo (could not find it) but our good Captain and the rest of the crew possibly are always on the lookout for information about the League. Another aspect of playing solo is that I've picked a different character than the captain to be the main character. 

But, back to the game! With Cr91,800 in our balance, we spend the 1st two days searching for cargo near the busy and quite large port. Using Mongoose 2e rules, we are at a class B port (though I am wondering if it should be bumped to an A, being one of the gateways to the Imperium plus having the technology to build jump drives. Something to think about, perhaps the ISS files are out of date. Or the League is hiding manufacturing capacity?) Regardless, using the Mongoose rules (which are very similar to Classic) we roll d66: and common industrial goods. Well, we are on a high population industrial world. For some reason that makes the purchase higher (+5) and getting the lot at 80%, the 70 tons would cost Cr560,000. So we don't even have the credits for this. We also need to look at the systems around us, as that also affects the resale value. 

This is one of the big issues with trade in Traveller: you need credits to make credits. And while Cr91,800 sounds like a lot, for purchasing goods it is not enough more often than not. Which is why we have the side adventures!

After hitting the ferrocreate a couple of days, the only thing that may have been worth our while was some pumps. Who would need 70n tons of pumps is not something I know anything about! So Ewo and I decide to head out into some of the smaller outland communities: we've heard some rumors about other industries that are not ted as tightly to the port. Looking at the map, there are tubes above ground that hit most of the major cities. Looking at the maps, we see that Leahogstein City, one of many sunken cities, has some autonomous vehicle manufacturers. Getting back in touch with Captain Laux, it seems we're heading to Tryonas next. A non-industrial rich world, we'd get a good price there, However, pricing is still outside of our available funding. Ewo thinks that we may be able to persuade one of the manufacturers to start a more direct selling to Tryonus. We may be able to set up that connection. We have a bit of an issue getting a passport to exit the port [law level 8, rolled a 5, which indicates there is some contact with officials; we'll make this a simple task. With Ewo's skills in admin, advocate and diplomacy, give it the +1. Going with a s solid play so we need 8+ (7+ with her skills factored in: roll a 10, so success in getting our passports. And having good consequences from the success, we somehow find a useful or valuable piece of kit. So, lets make that a League passport, valid for all worlds within the League. We'll each have our own League passport (yay, a chance to make up an ID card!)] With our new passports in hand, we board the tubes and head to Leahogstein City, a tube ride of about 6 hours.

Gotta love old science fiction! And I wish I kept better track of where I find things, though pretty sure this was found in a search for underground cities. a high-tech tube transport will have all the bells and whistles. And could look like this:

A two deck surface transport system. Think Krim is going retro-futuristic. Andhere's where we roll on the world encounter table, and when we get to Psziz Industries, we find that there is another trader that apparently has the same idea as we do. What will happen?

And our Krim visit has gone on already for a few sessions, mostly because I am also going back to updating various things. I do have the character sheets written at least, so those are now on paper. But I am also getting myself into a corner with the lack of funding for a real trade game, which is why we're trying to set up a trade deal that we can broker without tying us down. So, let's make an other plan, though this one may have things that can go wrong as we may not make the deal. Still sticking with the +1 for Ewo's skills, and another +1 for our nifty passport. Apparently the other trader does not have that and is here on a temporary visa, or perhaps is native to the League. But is this a shaky or solid? As we're dealing with a lot of factors, I will go with shaky. And Ewo failed to make our case, and that deal falls through. Now there are consequences to this, but injury for a failed business deal seems a bit harsh. But to make lemonade out of lemons, the executive, impressed by Ewo's plan but preferring to go with a League citizen to broker the deal, has something a bit on the shady side side that may help out (hey, this is a role playing game, not economics!) Malik feels that the exec, one Vax Datas at least seems okay. Apparently, a rival company has been doing some corporate espionage. If we could investigate their systems to find proof, he would continue to make a deal with us.

And now to pause to figure out the plan, and all that. Ewo and Malik may bring in the rest of the crew to make this somewhat risky adventure. But we're sort of cornered, so off to adventure.

I do need to add Vax Datas as a contact now on Krim. I've not been good at tracking the contacts per world so will have to go back through the posts to find them.

Pantheon: Tona, Goddess of the Lesser Creatures

 Daughter of Tionnia, God of All Living Things, and Blizria, Goddess of All Demons, Tona inherited part of her father's gifts with the animal kingdom. She is also the goddess that most female warlocks, witches and mages align with, regardless of race.  

There are a lot of similarities with Freyja, the Norse Goddess:

Freyja, the Norse goddess of witchcraft, death, love, and fertility, was later condemned by Christian missionaries as the “Queen of Witches.”

I did not actually know that when I wrote my pantheon back in the 80s college days, but in looking for some images that portray her, I found this image by irenhorrors, and rolling with the queen of witches (and perhaps I had been reading some Norse mythology or just got really lucky by coincidence):

info and image from this blog

Tona's animals include a wide variety of the "lesser" creatures, so does not include dragons and other sentient creatures of a similar ilk. She is often portrayed as a healer, from the abada whose magic horns is the antidote to all known poisons . This creature is originally from Central Africa and in my part of Cidri, exists in the plains and mountains. Read up on that from Cryptids, Creatures and Critters by Rachel Qunney. Another Kickstarter book that looked interesting, and I thought I could use it for an inspiration for gaming. And I am :)

And going through the Lesser Key by Psychoda Press, another Kickstarter book for generating religions in fantasy worlds. Written more for DCC, it requires dice I do not have. Yet. May have to see about a DCC dice set to get a d24 and d30. So I am faking some of the rolls. and re-rolling or picking what sounds better. And I apologize for this being more of a stream of consciousness than it should be. At some point I may collect my pantheon postings and try to get them ordered a bit. Not that I've 

Tona's heralds are usually in the form of various creatures, though they may be larger or smaller than typical. Additionally, there is a 50% chance that the Herald will also be covered in flames, a gift from Blizria that Tona sometimes has difficulties with. The animal will always be native to where the Herald is encountered. One that is hunted or killed will often bring down her wrath with another Herald in a much larger form. Fortunately, her Heralds are easy to detect as not a normal creature on 2d6 versus IQ. That and they will talk, as well as possibly being enveloped in flames. Her Heralds will often come upon wounded travelers, and will exchange healing for a quest. Her quests are usually to aid those who are victims: witches being persecuted, animals being abused, fay being attacked. 

Upon the appearance of a Herald, there is a silence that extends from the Herald. Animals are frozen, even birds in flight are frozen in place. The Herald's voice is in the characters heads and speaks their native tongue. Afterward, other than the quest given, little can be recalled of how it sounded. Upon leaving, the Herald will bound away, returning to what appears to be a normal version of that creature. The sounds start back up and birds continue their flight. It is as if time has paused for all but the Herald and the adventurers. 

There are often shrines and temples for Tona, found in all sorts of environments. The temples usually house 2-12 clerics and have statuary of various creatures. Often inside the statues are vials of healing and antidotes, used by the clerics to help heal their flock. More often than not the clerics are women but men are equally welcome in most temples. Some, however, are often all female, and can be actually belligerent to men for a variety of reasons. Temples tend to be a bit serpentine with some central chamber approached via a curving corridor. For Tona and her adherents, life is never a straight path. Her temples often carry her symbol: a mace on an octagonal base, and an animal engraved on the mace. The animals vary by location, usually depicting a local magical creature, but may often be something simple as a rabbit or turtle as well. The symbols are usually made of bronze. Clerics have a sort cape made of cloth, and the symbol is often embroidered on this cape in bronze threads.

Services are held using percussion instruments as the background with singing predominating the service. Sacred texts are usually inked on linen sheets. There are a few high services held at mid-solstice, and prayers sent to renew protections for the community. The community could be the native animal population, or any group that needs protection. High services last for a week, starting on Thursday and starting at midnight. Regular services tend to be sporadic and when enough people come together to want to share a service, or if the cleric determines that a service is needed. 

There are no relics for Tona. Saints are usually those who have served her by saving or rescuing those in need, be they creatures or beings.  They are usually depicted bowing, holding a mace with an animal carved into it, wearing a loincloth and guarded by a Herald. A small bowl to hold gems is the usual offering; these are often used to build the temples and feed those in need.

And I've reworked by little adventure a bit, incorporating a bit of this info. PDF should be below.

Microlite Fantasy Game

 So we've had 3 sessions so far with Sir Zay getting transported from the D&D world of Ravencroft to the homebrew world we're in. And we're having a lot of fun. I am also really enjoying being able to learn more about my character via play: just writing a background up gives be a basis for who the character was, but playing a character you can see who the character is. And who he is becoming. In college, some of our longer game arcs allowed this sort of thing. And the other group I play with, though I am the GM, we've played the same characters (well, except for that 1 PC death! And actually, if the player wants to bring him back, there could be a death quest. I have the Spiral Islands from Kickstarter which is the land of death with the way back. So if they really wanted to bring him back, we could try that. Or they all end up stuck on the Spiral Islands....)

So it is a lot of fun. We may be bringing another player on-board, and I sent the GM & him the following recap. I've read that the players should let the GM do the recaps, but our GM is a first line person working way too many hours and yet manages to give us a very entertaining game. He is my current role model for how I want to run games: fun, mostly a sandbox with overriding plans, but fast on his feet with characterizations and handling what we throw out there. 

Anyway, here is the recap, just a copy/paste from the email. I did give the group the random table for mutant telepathic rats from  Tales of the Smoking Wyrm, another Kickstarter of some gonzo things I need to read & use. While I don't think Bill the Rat is more than the best of poor Bill, the previously possessed clerk, one never knows! Hopeully the DM is okay with me publishing this, but as I've not many readers outside the group, think this is okay.

Session 1: Background: The War of Shadows started 4 years ago in an ancient city in what is now known as the Warlands (previously known as the Middlelands). In the Free Nations, the high ranking nobles were killed off at some time to shake up the power structure in what is called the Night of the Bloody Stars. Their missives were received and they were killed off as well. The Warlands started burning, and troops emerged from the great chasm known as the Scar. The Free Nations started building a standing army at Bastian. Surrounded by a lake, it is now a fortified city built up rapidly over the last 4 years. The last major battle was horribly lost to the Forces of the Shadow. Bastian power structure is lead by the High Wardens, a group of 5, then the Wardens who are the leaders of the Free Nations, and Yeoman who are heroes of the battles. The island to the West is the Galon Empire, all humans, and where Sir Zay (my character) found himself transported to a few weeks prior to our game. He travelled with Sea Wolf , their leader, who was gravely injured in our last combat. While Sir Zay still somewhat confused, knows that this place has not heard of Pholtus but does have a Peltos, Father of Light. There were many philosophical discussions, but after Sea Wolf's injury, the laying on of hands seemed to do more harm than good. Something repeated later, yet Sir Zay is a true believer...
Bastian is known as the last light against the darkness, and has about 20 thousand people. The guards are known as the Gargoyles. Grey Wolf is the leader of the Gargoyles.
Our group met up at one of the notice boards: the Wardens were looking for a few good men (and women). Sir Zay the Paladin (me), Stern the Demon Hunter (Jonathan), Flick, the (rogue?) Elf (Scott) and Father Tobias of the Lady of the Hills, the Argent Lady, the cleric NPC played by Danny take the notice & head to the castle up high. Introduced to the high wardens: the Arch Warden is a scary Elf, Suthiel (sp?), along with a heavy Dwarf (Amish?) wearing heavy leathers and tattooed serpents, a huge grey skinned human 7'8" tall, a human from the far south, and Erin (sp?) Knight of Elom Holt. We are given a view of a great beast pounding the walls via a telescope and tasked with finding the missing manticore venom, the only thing they think can kill the magic-created beast. Unfortunately the cask with the poison was stolen by clerk Bill who is now in the deepest dungeon. We get down there, and when I do a detect evil poor bill screams that he has been cursed. And oddly we smell pears, not a common fruit in Bastian.


Session 2 Bill is in the dungeon with the most dangerous of criminals, 6 of the 8 cells are occupied. There was some discussion between Flick, Father Tobias and another prisoner, and they left to get something from an alchemist (and this may have been session 1, as I think Scott could not make it to session 2). So while the party splits up (hee-hee), Sir Zay and Stern decide to see what possesses the poor Bill. Stern creates a devil trap so that whatever evil is there cannot escape, and as Sir Zay crosses that boundary to try a laying on of hands he is filled with light and warmth, so pretty sure the trap will be effective. Sadly, not having learned from Sea Wolf, the laying on of hands goes horribly wrong: the guard watch from several steps back turns to ash, nothing left but armor and smoking boots. Unfortunately the paladin and demon hunter both failed their mind roll, and turning to one another, see demons. So of course we attack. And damage each other prior to finally making saving rolls. Looking back at Bill, we see him stretched out really oddly, with black shadow wings. His left hand is ash from reaching through the demon circle, the rest of him clad in midnight shadows. A voice from the darkness addresses Stern: I am Malkeous (sp?), he who slew your parents. Then Bill turns to ash. Malkeous is a vengeance demon, and apparently in this world Dwarves do not believe in magic, so it may kill them when they see it. I may be a tad confused about this point. The Dwarf Creator Goo-Dwa<something....> (obviously sp?) cannot see demons. Dermus, a guard and another guard peek around the corner with wide eyes, trying not to notice the smoking boots. There is a rat holding a large ruby in the cell, and Stern gives it a bit of food and takes the gem: apparently what is left after a demon is vanquished. We are led back up, and we discuss the room where the poison was taken from. Apparently in looking over it, we find a coal chute with kegs of oil, spears and other store room detritus around it. And a trace of pear smell. And the rat we saw in the cell, but not acting rat like. Stern recognizes that this is all that is left of Bill, his essence left over from his possession. And apparently Bill the Rat has a good sense of smell, so we follow the pear smell down the Mount of the castle and after 2, 3 hours of wandering through, under and around Bastian we end up in the Grand Bazaar, a 20 block area where you can buy or sell anything.


Session 3 Flick, following the hints from the prisoner from episode 1, is at the bazaar to get a special mushroom, often used for poison. Meeting a Dragonborn trader (not sure what else to call her) and told to meet in about a gong or so, which is about an hour. This lizard folk may know where to find pears in Bastian, and is willing to trade information for exchange for a building inspection. The warehouse, a couple of blocks away, would give better traffic and less worry about goods getting stolen from her mostly open stall. The owner of the warehouse has been singularly unhelpful about the current occupation of the building. The merchant would trade information for an exploration of the building to see if it is safe.
At this point we get both groups back together. Father Tobias remarks on the rat on Stern's shoulder, but also mentions we've been followed. Being a gregarious story teller, Father Tobias starts a sermon / story while the rest of us dart around a corner alley. We are confronted by what looks to be some serious thugs, though Flick has climbed up the drainpipe and is on the roof above us, somehow hiding in the late afternoon shadows Apparently Sir Zay's religious symbols are an affront, and we are the blasphemous group that needs a lesson in what gods to worship. While Stern immediately attacks and Flick gets ready to leap down from the roof, Sir Zay first attempts to merely parry any attacks, hesitant to attack clergy of any non-evil faith. The attackers apparently to not share that concern. The Devoti of Adament Dawn (sp?) continue their attacks, with Flick killing those on the rooftop with her (along with some good acrobatic rolls, so she is like Robin or Nightwing fighting). Stern just killing left & right, and Sir Zay effectively if late in killing his opponents. Having killed 4 of th 5 attacking us, we discover that they are indeed clerics, but fanatics and not well liked in Bastian. Their leader, Barnabus Hale, has a jade figure of a hawk about 3-3" across, and Flick "checks" the bodies as Stern lays them out and Sir Zay does a quiet prayer for their souls (sorry, did not think of that at game time but in hindsight...) About then some Gargoyles (city guard) come around to see what is happening, and that's where we hear about the fanatics recently coming into the city. The guards were impressed, and will take the bodies to the furnaces. They take some additional notes, Stern mentions Suthiel (sp?), and they leave. Father Tobias is finishing up is amazing story / sermon, and Bill picks up the scent of pears heading north again. He sadly loses the scent a couple of blocks away from the Greenery. It's around 2, 3pm in the Grand Bazaar, and heading north just past the Bazaar and heading towards the Mount (where the Wardens rule) and entering the Jumble, the pricy part of town. Back at the Greenery we see our merchant friend, Kellian Greyscale (sp?) The Sauren (okay, not Dragonborn) is on the verge of saying something but then holds back. But did notice surly men entering the warehouse he is interested in, and they looked formidable. We work out the details of what the merchant is looking for: is the building intact and sound and if it looks to be a good place to move to. A brief view of the building does not show any markings or religious symbols. We also see (I think unless this was a repeat of earlier) 4 or 5 surly, leather men entering the buildings, with bladed weapons.
Eating at a nearby rummary facing the warehouse, Sir Zay gets a clay pot of good ale for a gold (more than the rum was worth, but as a noble we don't pay attention to the little things). The warehouse sits about 10-15 feet above the street, with large loading doors in the front as well as along one of the sides. These 10x10' doors are large enough for wagons to fit through and are covered with metal eaves. The building is about 60x180'. We see some dark garbed men enter, using a key. Robert, our ale seller, knows that the building was owned by old man Cole (sp?). About 2 stories high.

Sunday Painting - Zombicide:Invader Alien

 The primary reason I backed Zombicide:Invader was the minis. Turns out that my son also enjoyed the few games we had, so hopefully there will be some more games to play. Being a lazy Sunday afternoon, I decided I wanted to try & paint something as it has been a few weeks since I've managed to break out the paints. 

So, washed and dried the model, a sort of Alienesque creature that will work for fantasy and SF (and maybe horror, so a monster of all trades!)

A base coat of Nagul Green goes on next. Want him darker but this can work for a base coat. In hindsight I may have tried the cheaper acrylic as I do have a darker green, but this is only the 1st layer.

A few spots were missed but they will get caught up later. So next a bit of red for that tongue, then a 1st sort of dry brushing to get some of those chitin plates a bit darker.

So we have a blushing Xenomorph :)  Next I want to fill in the nooks and crannies so out comes a dark wash to spread about where it needs to go. It also helps with the chitin plates, though I am going to have to see about getting some matte duller to make things not so shiny after some of those washes.

I'll be doing some darker green in some spots, and a lighter green highlighting the edges and raised areas. Not sure if I want to make some of those areas a darker red. And I am also not using a lot of different colors. I know several miniature paint suppliers often will collect a trio of colors for this sort of shading, so you can start with each layer as is. I may eventually look into that - I do have a few wish list item in my Reaper account, but I need to try some other paints as well.  But the wash takes a bit longer to dry out, so taking a break. 

SOLO - League of Planets: Krim 245-1106 (part 2)

 After the inspection crew left, we got a pip from the Port to let us know to dock at Bay 11B. Next to main hub C - apparently the port is spread out over several major and minor hubs. Acknowledging and passing the info on to Captain, a course is plotted to the purplish world below us. With barely a trace of atmosphere, the flight to the Port is all gravatics with very little of the roar of atmosphere that still manages to get through ship hulls sometimes. As with our approach to Krim, grav drives make most landings a straightforward affair. As we get within the 100 diameter limit, traffic is heavier: Krim is one of the major interfaces between the League and the Imperium and a lot of traffic goes through here. Keeping to our flight lane, we approach the sprawling port: looking via external cameras with smart overlays, I can see us approach Hub C, a large, half-hexagonal structure with spokes of travel tubes leading to various concourses covering several square kilometers of the harsh surface. We are transferred from the main Port tower to Hub C's control tower, and we make our final approach to the landing area. With barely a transitional bump, we go from hovering above the tarmac to landing, our port airlock facing the automated docking platform. After a quick conversation with the local tower, the dock connects to the port airlock. Monitoring the sensor deck, I okay connections and feel the ship's atmosphere slowly starting to adjust to Krim standard. It will take only a few minutes as we started the process on the way down. Krim's atmosphere in the various habitable spaces is a bit thinner than I am used to but should not cause any issues. 

I am also going with the autoconnecting airlock systems, very similar to the airport systems but of course air-tight, radiation resistant, also carry connectors for power, atmosphere and other processes. While it cannot refuel the ship, it does, if allowed, power the ship and supply an atmosphere. In MTU the fusion plants don't turned off so are generating power. But this would also allow for some replenishment of atmospheric necessities. 

By the SOLO rules, at this point we approach (done), land (rolled an 8, so nothing exciting came up), unload (to be done), cargo sale (to be done) and arrange for accommodation for the week. 

Ewo was on the comms as we were approaching Krim ,looking into the various brokerages and buyers in-system. She did not seem overly excited, but I can't easily read Aslan expressions - entirely alien to me despite spending the last several weeks with her on the No Refund. As we landed she indicated she was going to take me to the various brokerage houses, looking for both a place to off-load our textiles and see what was available at the port. She figured on two days in-port, and if nothing came up, we'd explore further afield. 

Rolling on the actual value table I rolled an 8 on the way down, and yet another 8 as Ewo and Malik cover the local broker houses. And if we use the flux version in Traveller, that is 5-3 for a roll of 2, 120%. Looking at the Classic, we're at 110% but as I really prefer Classic mechanics (the T5 rules seem so dry, no personality. Everything is the same based on the world it comes from in terms of cost per ton). So I will take the lower. By the stats, Krim is an Industrial, High Population world, so no bonuses there. But at 110% we'll still make profit, but is it enough to cover costs? Sadly Ewo only has Broker-0 so nothing to add there either. Digging back (and this is why I am slowly putting this to paper and in a notebook) And it turns out I forgot we also had 2 tons of crystals, which I did manage to sell for 120%, then the +3 for an industrial world gives us 170%):

• 55 dTons of Textiles (base Cr3000), purchased at 40% for Cr55,000, sold for Cr$181,500 (profit Cr126,500)
• 2 dTons of crystals (base Cr20,000), purchased at 80% for Cr32,000, sold for $cr68,000 (profit = Cr36,000)

For a total of Cr162,500. You may think that is a lot but starships in Traveller are so freaking expensive. And I need to greatly update the ship: it is almost twice the size I was estimating, so our costs will be affected obviously. So let is figure for 650 dTon ship instead of the 300 ton ship I was thinking it was (see https://traveller-ct.blogspot.com/2020/08/of-spaceships-and-volume.html for the calculations needed; and the Lakata class ships are 3,100 ton displacement). Meaning we may really need more crew but I'll worry about that later. So our cost is going to be higher.  Reworking quickly on a 650 ton ship instead of the 300 I erroneously estimated before (and this only seems to further my argument that I am horrible at estimates!)

• 650 ton custom craft, needle/wedge (streamlined) +20%: MCr 7.8
• Jump 2 drives (20 dTons): MCr80
• Man 2 drives (33 dTons): MCr23.1
• Power 2 (26dTons): MCr78
• Computer: Model 2fib (B) (4Dtons): MCr14

Giving us at this point MCr202. We'll round up to MCr225 as there are are few other bits in there. We also now actually have more cargo space: 110 tons in the main hold, and 35 still in the forward vehicle hold. As a reminder, this ship is designed as a fast courier / light cargo. And we'll also adjust it so that Captain Laux managed to get it after it has been in service for 30 years already, so 3/4 paid for. Giving us MCr38 or so he is paying off. 

So back to costs:

• Monthly
• Mortgage = 1/240 Cr158,333
• Maintenance = .1% of ship cost, Cr225,000. Hmm, that seems REALLY high. But this is per year, so per month Cr18,750. 
• Salaries = going with ship shares, so we can ignore this
• Per Trip (week assuming a jump)
• Fuel (there is a fuel filter system so unfiltered is fine)
• Jump 1: 65 tons x Cr1000: Cr65,000
• Jump 2: 130 tons x Cr1000: Cr130,000
• Life support: 6 double staterooms: Cr18,000

Looking at the costs, there is no way this ship can make it on trade alone. Of course, that is the premise for Traveller, to get the characters into doing more than just trying to make a living by trade alone. 

We just did a jump 1, so looking at Cr65,000 for the fuel, Cr1000 for the 1st week for sitting at the port. Leaving us now with Cr96,500. And we'll also do 1/4 of our monthly maintenance for another Cr4700 leaving us with Cr91,800 for new cargo. 

So while all that is going on, we'll see if we can find a reasonable cargo while here.

And as this post took a bit longer than expected, we'll see how the cargo search and the other solo aspects work in the next post!