We started the session with the Mistios (their ship they just joined) parked at Mars. They were with the mercenaries that Carter Burke runs as COO. They also met the rest of the mercenaries as introductions were made and they signed the contracts. Which are for 1 year. They spent the evening carousing and there was a bit of chitchat as we kinda felt out various characters. They did meet specifically Quantum Sentinel which my mind is part of the Sentinel series of combat bots. He has a Cockney accent as the company that makes them is in what was once Britain (and that accent is due to me listening to the Disney soundtrack on the way home, even though Dick Van Dyke has horrible version of such an accent. I am sometimes nostalgic about movies I watched growing up and we had that on vinyl way back when). They also met the head of the mercenaries, Kai, who challenged Mugwart to a practice fight tomorrow on board the ship to see how the new recruits stacked up.
Our players consist of the rat brothers, Skabbs and Fingers. They are Scritch, and brothers who followed the criminal career in the game. Though Fingers got through all 4 terms, Scabbs got caught and was in prison for two years. Where he met up with Geran, a human who was court-martialed from the Navy after 2 terms and sent to prison for, oddly enough, 2 years as well. And finally Mugwart, the Toadian. The player wanted to play a battle toad so we made it up:
The Toadmen of Venus arrived during the early terraforming days, quite surprising the Terran engineers. Being in a deep hibernation, they are the lost colony of a long-forgotten alien race. Their technology is similar to humans, and while they can use human equipment, it is at a disadvantage unless it has been modified for them specifically. In the same way, their own equipment or modified equipment runs at a disadvantage to non-Toadmen.
The remaining Toadmen were a warrior caste, and generally prefer fighting over diplomacy. Seeing as they are close to 7’ tall, they do tend to be intimidating.
As a Toadman, you gain the following benefits:
+1 Strength and Will
Talent: Gunslinger (+1d4 damage with handguns)
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Toadman of Venus
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| the Scritch |
Anyway, they get to their ship before launch at 04:00 Mars time. I am using the
0-Hr Atlas as an old colony ship as the bottom half is all cargo bay (and I liked it enough I actually got 2 minis!). They get a tour of the ship and meet the pilot,
Helene, They share one of the bunkrooms on the ship with Viktor, a huge Russian.
The practice fight was over quickly - it was really an attempt to test the melee combat rules for to the 1st hit. Mugwart won in 2 rounds. It was simple enough I think - basically roll a d20 against your target's defense score (aka armor class) and add in your coordination bonus and any brawling skill. Though I may have picked strength bonus... Anyway, Geran is now the ship's medic and patched up Kai from the punch.
Fingers and Scrapp then fix the ship's fabricator. The players helping another player and giving advantage to the test worked well, and Scrapp fixed the broken fabricator. A Traveller 5 Maker, or just a really advanced 3D printer/Assembler thing that can craft items. They used it to craft fittings to make one of the bunks in their barracks to be combined so that Mugwart's feet do not hang over the edge of the bed.
4 days later (it is a quick transit from Mars to Jupiter) they are approaching the mining station floating in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. There are no responses to their hails, so they approach carefully. Helene horribly failed her pilot roll - a 1! So Geran, who has pilot, took the pilot seat and managed to dock successfully with the quiet station. The lights were on but no one appeared to be home.
Their squad, which are the players and Viktor, get armored up, gas masks as they are concerned about pathogens or plague, and enter the docking tubes. Safety systems and a small airlock only allows 2 to go through at a time. Fingers has to unlock the interior door with a hacking talent he has as the station inner airlock was locked. The red warning light was flashing as well.
There was much discussion and much hesitation, but eventually all 5 of them manage to crowd into the security section. I had the entire map out for them of this level as they do have the plans for the station. Assuming nothing has changed! Viktor checks out the bathroom as he is at the front of the group. There was still no one there, and they break into the security office, and find footage of what happened 2 days prior: some alien ship, which no one in the group recognized, was approaching the station. There were 4 security guards at the ready then the feeds all stop. Looking back at the airlock, they now see that there are las burns on the walls and air lock door.
It was quite alarming, so radioing back to Carter and Kai, they are told the 2nd squad was suiting up. Then they hear some skittering in the air system (yay - I had made random encounters! And there were 12 so I had a player roll a d12). Mugwart lifts Scabbs up to the vents (they are about 6x12") and he can hear something approaching through the air system. With claws. He drops back down as a small, armored little alien bursts through the vent. Mugwart swings with his Jolt fist and smacks it, and Scabbs swingers his spanner on it. The creature is killed - it had missed its attack on Mugwart. But Scabb's spanner and the deck is sizzling: the blood is very acidic!
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| attack at the security station |
And this is where we left the game. One of the players had been up for 30+ hours, so, just like my Saturday game, I had people falling asleep! They assure me that my games are not that boring!
Thinking we probably have 2 more sessions for this space dungeon crawl. And the players do have a scanner that should indicate where their target device is located.
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