Corsairs Session 3 - Map Heist

 We were down one player, but up another player who can rarely show up (as I've said way too many times already - adulting is hard!) I had a jump scene basically, and bringing in an NPC to be played by a player is a heck of a lot better than me trying to play one!

He does have a background to fit into the game:

A citizen of the Alderil Empire, you became disturbed by its legal use of slaves. While you are a citizen, you've had people you know arrested and, depending on the crime, slavery was a valid penal experience. And the mines on the surface world are dangerous with a high rate of lethality. 

The last few years you have provided both information and clandestine aid to Repencarres Domain, a much smaller empire west of the vast Alderil Empire. Your contact, Lady Addrienne Pennyworth, Repencarres Domain Factor of Trade Station 412, has recently reached out to you to help the Windrazor, a small corsair with a letter of marque, to find a mine under the Dulcet Spire. You have a map of the mines, smuggled out by one of your fellow anti-slavery compatriots.

Essentially a way in and out of the Alderil Empire, a citizen who actually has valid papers and all that. But helping out. 

The session starts with everyone other than Henry in Lady Addrienne Pennyworth's office on Trading Station 412. Henry was ill from some bad rum (our missing player) so was aboard the Windrazor near a bucket. 

The Factor has tea served (actually Shou Pu'er tea, though the tea set was technically a cappuccino set but hey, it matched! Pastries were also served at the meeting, though in real life a bit later). After introducing Matthew Robards of the Alderil Empire, her Ladyship and Henry, her secretary excused themselves as to not get involved and have plausible deniability.  The crew are wary at first, but Matthrew presents a map of the mines where Batrina's siblings may have been. It was rolled up in his cane - apparently a good place to store documents. And Matthew has seen Captain Penny's father, about a year ago, in a prison (there was a very excellent lore roll). But where he is now is unknown, though probably moved to a mine somewhere.

However, the issue is now where is that mine - they know it is under the Dulcet Spire, a 2-day trip past the Empire's borders, about a week away in total. But somewhere within a few hundred square miles does not lend itself to a quick in and out trip in what is essentially enemy territory. Realizing they need a map, the convene the meeting to see about visiting the map office. Being a neutral trading station, there are commercial map libraries available that may have information and maps such as mine locations. Normally kept under lock and key but available to those who have the correct paperwork, these maps would greatly increase their chances of finding the mine before the Alderil Navy finds them.

Scoping out the map office, it is a building not too far from the air wharves, readily available for ship captains and Sail Masters. Inside was the principal clerk and another clerk, cleaning the shelves. There were also a couple ship crew members, copying a map. Maps and supplies lined the walls, and at the back of the office were 2 doors, both with "Private - Authorized Personnel Only " plaques on the door. 

Captain Penny takes some rum, splashes a bit of it and gargles. He veers into the mapmaker, who now has a giant streak of ink across the map. "Excuse me miss!" our captain slurs, further upsetting the map copier. Leaning and knocking over a map case, he has all attention on him while Matthew checks the back doors. The first is not locked to his surprise. Darting in, he sees a stairwell leading to the 2nd floor, and an office desk covered with some papers. Upstairs a quick check shows a storeroom: reams of paper, ink pots and various supplies. Back downstairs and, with the scuffle still going on, he tries the 2nd door. Which is locked. And after 2 or 3 failed attempts, decides the risk is too high as there is only so long that the captain and his crew can keep attention from the clerks and crew. 

Now, I probably have a pre-made map from one of those Kickstarters I backed that would work but I really did not think that far ahead, so did things the old-fashioned way: wet erase markers!

And as I really have no minis that match, and this was pretty abstract anyway, dice worked as markers. Because of course we have plenty of dice!

Deciding that the best time to see about that secret locked room as 2 hours before dawn, the crew relaxes and then heads out. While Captain Penny is at the corner of the alley and main street to keep an eye on the guards that come by, Batrina, Lionel & Matthew head to the back, rope & hook from the ship ready to go. Sadly, apparently the smell of Henry's cick bucket was still in Lionel's nose as after 3 attempts, he still did not manage to get the hook attached to the gutter. Trying to get Tibs to fly up, he tossed a pasrty to the roof hoping the dragonette would fly up. Apparently, he was too sleepy and did not. Frustrated, Batrina just climbed the wall - her prehensile toes for climbing trees are also good for climbing walls. Lionel and Matthew climb up, Lionel barely making it while Matthew climbed like a spider money (note that this game has exploding successes, and unlike myself, this player gets good rolls most of the time). 

Around this time two guards are coming around the front, and Captain Penny again plays the drunk. There is some play back and forth as Penny keeps the guards busy. Batrina is on the roof keeping an eye on things, and Lionel and Mathew break into the private map room. Using the card catalog* (which most of us have used, but we had to explain it to the 18-year-old gamer), they do find a map relatively up to date that gives the mine location. Apparently, Empire ships sometimes need the map and can get access here as the Trade Station is neutral to all countries. 

They make their own copies of the map and skedaddle back, and they all meet back at the Windrazor. I did not make Lionel roll to get down the rope - I was worried more dice would go into the already overloaded dice jail!

And that is pretty much where we stopped for the day. I was originally going to go ahead and just plop the group at the mine, but with one of the players missing, figured I could play the Rogue One thing to show how they got the maps they needed (that I need to create as well!) At least no Bothans died getting the maps out!

setting up a mine

temporary usage

But all was not lost - another friend came over Sunday morning, we generated some deep gnome characters in OSE and used the mines as a random dungeon crawl. Met 4 adventurers, the water fiend above and almost drowned, and managed to walk our way past 8 wererats (as I decided to get us started at level 3 but as we have no silver weapons, we would not be able to hurt them. Note to self: maybe start off games with silver weapons. Just in case!)

Hopefully people had fun, and it was a busy game weekend. Next weekend probably no gaming: I am on call for work and sadly I take responsibility far too seriously. And my Sunday friend we alternate games and working out - I met him at the gym years ago and managed to get him into gaming). But hopefully a bit more work on the Traveller system generator as its been a bit since I've had time for that.

* To be honest, I thought I'd be a librarian growing up. I love books, worked as a page in a public library for 3 years in high school, and the university I went to I picked because it had a library science degree. But I liked computers even more and have been very lucky in that career. So, guess it all worked out okay, though I do wonder what would have happened had I gone into libraries instead? Wonder if I'd ever end up a feral librarian?