Traveller: Day 19 of 31: Ael Yeal

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Day 19 of 31: Ael Yeal

Li Chayiyaeyilaeyae, Ael Yeal Scout

678BB5 4 Term Scout

Electronics-2, Engineering-1, Medical-1, Navigation-1, JoT-1, Body Pistol-1

Cr10,000, Body Pistol, Hunting Blade

Growing up on Jaevelya, Li more often looked up to the stars than down upon the Glittering Plains like many of his young brothers and sisters of the currents. Easily accepted into the Scouts, he spent the next dozen and more years exploring the worlds beyond. Despite his years of experience on other worlds, he shares the same distrust of merchants and corporations that most of his race do. Despite an almost 4 meter wingspan, he is flexible enough to get into the bridge of even the typical Scout Courier, though he can be a bit awkward at the controls. He has learned basic medical knowledge for a number of races, including Humaniti, but he most enjoys messing with electronics and in his engineering "eyrie", an oddly shaped hammock/perch slung up near the ceiling on larger ships. There are always bits of wires, components and soldering dust near him. He is also a proponent of standing desks, finding the flight couches are quite uncomfortable with his tail. He often speaks of taking the long view down to see how things are, and how one must learn to fly to learn to learn. Sometimes the folk sayings just do not translate well.

Where you may find Li

If you need an engineer or navigator, he's your Ael Yeal. Eager to continue exploring the world, he also sends 90% of his pay to the Planetary Development fund. He does carry a small body pistol, but in fights tends to leap up in the air and shoot wildly. It is just not in their nature to hide and shoot: they are used to swooping down to attack their prey, not hiding behind things.

Deciding to forego the random rolls to what to generate, as I'd like to bring a Ael Yeal to life. Stats are the same as normal humans but -1 to strength, and not likely to join any military or merchant type of thing. With a likelihood of joining the treacherous Scouts, he may not live long enough! From the Traveller Wiki:

Adults stand about 1.5 meters tall, and mass approximately 50 kilograms. Their forelimbs have evolved from gliding surfaces to quite serviceable wings, spanning about 4 meters. Their pair of midlimbs are used for manipulating objects.

Strength 8 (-1) = 7
Dexterity: 8
Endurance: 9
Intelligence: 11
Education: 10
Social: 5 note that social indicates not Imperial social ranking but how much they've been off-world. While this one has been off-world a couple of times, his prejudices will still be fairly strong.
gender: 3 (okay, I still seem to be rolling predominately male characters for some reason)

And this extension of this morning's rolls means I got a lot of good rolls in there as well. Note that they can still fly on smaller worlds with thick enough atmospheres. And I'd allow for a grav belt and give them possibly an automatic grav-1 if they get off-world and access to tech. Way back I remember some Star Wars book I read where there was an avian alien and they were the best pilots, having an innate sense of depth perception and being natural flyers.

Found an actual language generator for Ael Yeal here - it is simply amazing to me how much Traveller stuff is available online! Why, back in my day, pre-internet, we had to go to actual stores and hope something would be there! Anyway, using that I grab a few syllables for a name: Li Chayiyaeyilaeyae, where Li is his personal name and Chayiyaeyilaeyae is familial name, which goes back three generations and indicates he is also from Jaeyelya. Anyway, Scouts!

Term 1

Rolling a 6, Li gets in quite easily (he gets a +2 due to being an Ael Yeal, and a +1 for his intelligence. Rolling a 6, he gets a +1 for his endurance so barely manages to survive his 1st term! Rolling a 5 on Scout Service table, he gets Electronic-1, and a 3 on the Advanced Education (edu 8+) he gets Engineering-1. Not sure how he fits into the engineering spaces! Rolling a 7, he can re-enlist and does.

Term 2

A survival roll of 6 +1 means again, it was a very close thing for Li! I'll pick the 2 tables I did not pick last time, and personal development gives him more education for a UPP of 789BB5. He is both smart and very well educated. On the advanced education table a 5 gives him Gunnery-1. Reading that the Ael Yeal do not really like that, I'm going to re-roll as Li would be very adverse to shooting at things from far away. A 6 gives him Medical-1. Sometimes you have to invoke Rule 0, or in this case, adjust for species. If I had rolled another 5 I would have kept the gunnery skill. Rolling an 8, he can, and will, re-enlist.

Term 3

A 12 on survival means he was quite safe after the last 2 terms of barely making it! Service skills and the advanced, advanced education table: 6 on service skills does give gun combat, and with the previous adjustment mentioned, I'll re-roll. 4 = Navigation-1. And a 6 on the advanced table gives Li Jack-of-All Trades-1. Quite handy for this flying Ael Yeal out of his element. Deciding that 3 terms is pushing my luck for a Scout, I was going to exit the service. However - I actually rolled a 12 which means he HAS to stay in! Not what I was looking to do this time. However, Li is just such an excellent Scout that they want him to stick around.

Term 4

Rolling a 7 + 1 gives me an 8, so I survive but again, it was a close thing. Personal development, a 6 gives me gun skill. Again. This time I'll go ahead & take it. Classic Traveller you had to pick a specific gun to be proficient in, rather than the more broad categories that later editions used. Li will take Body Pistol-1,as it is smaller, lighter and possible to carry. Rolling on the service skills table he picks up Electronics-2.

Sadly Li ages quite a bit, losing one each of his physical stats. Current UPP: 678BB5. Perhaps mustering out he may pick a couple back up. Fortunately, I did not roll a 12, so he can muster out this term. I'll pick 2 cash and 2 material benefits; he can only keep 10% of the cash as 90% goes to the Planetary Development Fund.

Cash: 5 = Cr50,000 (Cr5,000)
Cash: 5 = Cr50,000 (Cr10,000)
Benefits: 4 = Blade, a large hunting blade which he usually uses to peal fruit. He will be at a -2 to use this as it is a human designed blade
Benefits: 5 = Gun, and he takes his favorite body pistol which is made for his grasp.