An Uninvited Guest

I'm certain you've noticed I haven't mentioned Cole in the last Stars Without Number entry. That's specifically because Cole's player was absent during that seesion and, as such, we left out his shenanigans on the ship out of the narrative.

An inevitable consequence of going after the Players

As our fight in a pub rages on, we instead turn our attention to the ship and, more specifically, the captain's quarters. An intruder alarm causes Cole to pull his trousers back on, leave said captain's quarters and search for the intruder by shouting out if anyone is anywhere on the ship. He stealthily made his way to the cargo hold while using all his special abilities to negate his failed Stealth rolls. When he finally ran out of options, he had to accept the failed result of not noticing someone sneacking up behind him with a pistol to his head.

Meanwhile the fight rages on in the pub. This time we were missing Yannick's player so Cole's player graciously offered to take control of him for the duration of the fight scene. He mainly supported Ian in taking out the armed mooks while Jokkenson took on the sword wielding brute. When Ian shot down the last enemy soldier, Jokkenson was on his last breath but instead of giving up, he gave his opponent an offer. He gave his word he would let his opponent go provided he would tell them who sent this group after them. He made a very convincing case but his opponent simply opened his mouth to show he had no tongue... so Jokkenson chopped his head off.

At the conlusion of the fight, Jokkenson was very close to falling down and bleeding to death so he looked through the men's bodies for any medical equipment he could use. Cyrus was in a more immediate danger. Although he was our main medical professional, Ian's combat training included field medicine. A quick look at Cyrus showed he suffered internal bleeding from the gun shot wound and we were about to lose him. He had only enough time to roll three times to stabilise him. Keiran assisted him by putting pressure on key points of his anatomy, which provided Ian with a bonus to his roll.

For a moment there,
I thought he'd be a goner

The first dice result was a failure.
The second dice result was a failure.
The third dice result was a success.

We were relieved to see that Cyrus regained consciousness after some of his wounds were taken care of. He quickly put his mind to work, focing his own body to accelerate the healing process and doing the same for Jokkenson. It did put considerable strain on both of them.

Keiran received a message from Cole about an uninvited guest on board. It was about time we left before any authorities were to arrive but not before Jokkenson found the proprietor of the pub and handed him a compad with more than enough credits to cover the damage cause... which he found on the men we defeated.

As the fight was still going on, Cole managed to distract and annoy his assailant enough that when he lost his concentration, he went for his gun. He overpowered him, threatened the guy who didn't want to say anything... so he shot at the guy's knee. He didn't know the weapon he was holding had plasma rounds which burned his knee right off. Unfortunately, he refused to be questioned any more about his motives by screaming in pain until he lost consciousness. That was the point when Cole contacted Captain Keiran.

Upon our arrival, we transported our uninvited guest to the medbay where we restrained his remaining limbs. We recognised the man as the same one from the pub Jokkenson was talking to and who most likely sent the group that we've only just eliminated. Ian stayed with him to monitor his lifesigns and make sure he'll eventually recover enough to be questioned while Cyrus went off to go over the security footage to find out how he got on board our ship. The rest of the crew, especially Jokkenson, needed a moment of downtime to recover from our most recent ordeal.

The Classic Bar Brawl

Our story continues on two fronts.

Firstly we've got Jokkenson, Keiran and Cyrus enjoying a not-so-quiet drink at a local pub while waiting for Keiran's contact to arrive. Eventually he notices someone at the bar discreetly peeking at them and tapping away on his data-pad. The man didn't fit the description of his contact mainly by not appearing to be female so he glimpsed into the future and saw an assortment of armed men led by a huge dangerous looking fellow. They glanced around the place until their eyes locked in with theirs and they approached with ill intent.

Jokkenson asked for a fancy drink last session

He informed his two companions of the vision. As captain, he decided they would stand their ground but also contact Ian and Yannick to join them in a counter-ambush. In the meantime, Jokkenson had to relieve himself in the lavatory. On his way back he came up to the suspicious looking man at the bar to warn him of having made a horrible mistake. Jokkenson wasn't fooled by the man playing dumb. He simply told him that he may lie as much as he likes but now Jokkenson knows his face and will eventually come for him. Jokkenson finished the man's drink and let him leave unmolested.

In a different part of the city, Ian helped Yannick get out of the pile of rubble that he found himself under. Fortuitously, the collapse revealed some parts that Yannick thought would be useful to add onto the ship. Together with Ian they bargained a price that included delivery to the ship's location. Shortly after, they have received a message from Keiran informing them of the situation. They received the location and orders to wait by the entrance to engage the enemy after they show their intent.

I wouldn't be surprised if it had been raining
all this time on this planet

On their way they were approached by a one-eyed woman by the name of Rulan Lee claiming she heard they were looking to buy ship parts to buy but Ian reminded Yannick that they had no time to waste right now. Yannick took the woman's contact details and they continued on their way to the pub. When there, they took a few empty glasses, put them on a table by the window nearest to the entrance, sat down and started to play cards.

Utilising their comlinks, Ian informed the rest of the party that an armed group was approaching the pub. Upon hearing this, Jokkenson headed over to the entrance to make sure he would accidentaly bump into the group as they entered. While he expected them to open fire on his sight, instead, they let him pass. His plan not working out, he tried to walk back in only to find the door to be locked from the inside... so he kicked it down, the door slamming into the closest assailant.

Seconds before this, one of the men looked around the place only to point a rifle at Keiran and demanded him to go with them but he was interrupted by the ensuing fight. When the door slammed into one of their number, someone shot Cyrus, taking him down and out of combat.

Yannick took out his weapon when the window they were sitting by was smashed by an invisible force, Ian jumped through it, landed inside and shot the nearest assailant with his newly acquired thermal pistol that shot plasma, leaving a cauterised would in his intended subject. As the battle progressed, Ian took out more of the enemy's number while Jokkenson engaged their biggest and toughest fighter in a one-on-one chain-axe versus sword brutal melee. Yannick used the window frame as cover for his shots while Keiran looked through the ever-shifting threads of probability for a possible future that he could grab onto.

We had to finish the session there with most of the party fighting and Cyrus bleeding out. Hopefully, someone will eventually notice that we were a party member down.

Enjoying the Local Sights

We continued on course to the planet Gograpaty after our random encounter in space. There was some talk between Cyrus and Captain Keiran about updating the crew log after the allegation that Cole's actual identity might be that of one Donald Watson but it was decided that changes won't be needed. Cole might have a shady past and is constantly trying to make a profit every step of the way but we're always glad to have him on board as pilot. A fact which was evident as we entered Gograpaty's atmosphere and he flew SS Second Chance avoiding a massive hurricane that raged on a significant portion of the planet.

so much H2O

We landed in the city of Chifeng and were greeted by the city's delegation composed of female warriors. As we made our way to the planet, Cyrus looked through the database to gather information on the planet and its inhabitants so we were familiar with their tribes being matriarchies. Open brandishing of weapons wasn't frowned upon but Jokkenson's large chain-axe raised a few eyebrows. Fortunately, Captain Keiran quickly explained that Jokkenson was honour-bound to carry the weapon of his ancestors by him. The tribes of Gograpaty took honour quite seriously so the delegation allowed it but warned us that they'll be keeping a watchful eye on us.

We decided to split our group. Captain Keiran took Jokkenson and Cyrus to socialise in a tavern, Ian and Yannick went into the merchant district to look for parts for the ship while Cole was left in charge of SS Second Chance until the Captain's return. Our session narrative switched around between these two groups, leaving Cole's player to exchange notes with the GM.

The first group was mainly enjoying drinks. At one point Jokkenson got drunk enough that he issued a challenge to arm wrestle which was first taken up by Captain Keiran who quickly admitted defeat as he had a premonition of his hand getting broken by Jokkenson's brute force. Next up was Cyrus who easily won the match despite his scrawny looks. He may have used his telekinesis to help him win in this particular case.

Meanwhile, Ian and Yannick ventured into the merchant district where they got a fairly good idea of how the city was built. It was clear from the state of the buildings that the locals utilised anything they could find to build their floating city, as not having any land mass on the planet meant they didn't have easy access to building materials. We could see pieces of ships fashioned into walls or repurposed to be used in various other ways. Eventually, Yannick's explanations of what sort of parts he was looking for led us to a scrapyard where fate decided to bury Yannick in a pile of rubble. He failed his roll to get out of the way and Ian failed his roll to help him so it took a while to get him out.

We had to end the session before finding out what Cole was up to during our absence.

Snakes on a Spaceship

I went to Amsterdam for a week instead of attending our regular gaming session but I was given a quick rundown of what happened after our ship's alarms went off.

Apparently, the incoming ships were some form of 3 small fighters from the ACRE Corporation that demanded the return of stolen merchandise. They threatened to board our ship so we engaged them in combat. I'm told that starship combat is quite dangerous and after several hits, we decided to play dead, let them board us and fight hand-to-hand.

I do not come in peace

A single pilot came on board our ship looking for Donald Watson. He didn't believe us when told that no such individual is part of our crew. He identified Cole as the person he was looking for, who quickly made a break for the fighter ship but was stopped by a single arm swipe. After a few hits from an axe and some fireballs being thrown at him, we realised this guy was an android. He didn't last long Cole pulled a single critical wire our of the back of its neck just before Jokkenson chopped its head right off.

Shortly after, it came to light that this android wasn't a seperate entity from its ship so Jokkenson charged into the fighter docked to our ship only to see the last surviving fighter disappear into the distance.

The fighter began a countdown type sequence in the meantime.
Our sessions keep ending on cliffhangers!

We start this session trying to figure out what to do with a fighter ship attached to our ship that might be counting down to self-destruct. As players, we're not ones to back down on a challenge so it's only natural we would attempt to override the fighter's system to stop the self-destruct sequence.

Cole and Cyrus were elected to plug themselves into the fighter's system and hack their way through to the control core. Their consciousnesses found themselves in a white corridor with buttons numbered 1 to 10. While some of the buttons did nothing and pushing them only wasted time before the denotation would trigger, one offered a ladder leading up to a similar corridor with numbered buttons. A similar selection of numbers through guesswork allowed them to find another ladder, which they took but at one point Cole pressed a button that opened a trap door underneath him that transported him back a few levels. It's around this point that they realised they were in some form of Snakes & Ladders puzzle.

It's that sort of game, all right

Cole's player succesfully rolled for the use of his Unique Gift Focus which allowed him to recall trivia with uncanny accuracy. The Game Master ruled this would allow him, as a player, to search for the board online... so everyone at the table took out their phones, did an image search and compared notes to the several different boards that we found. It was great seeing everyone work in tandem to figure out this puzzle thrown at us.

Meanwhile, Ian tried to establish communications with codename Bob's ship to check on their status. As he lacks the necessary skills to attempt the task, I had some fun roleplaying his inability to make sense of the controls that Cyrus usually uses. We've learned that Bob's ship took some heavy damage and he clearly wasn't in the mood for small talk while he was dealing with the damage caused by the fighters' attacks.

Only a few seconds were left before the fighter ship would self-destruct. While Cyrus and Cole were hacking away in virtual reality, Yannick was working on a way to seal the explosion and minimise the damage while Jokkenson stood on the ready holding a rope tied to our two programming specialists. Soon after Cyrus entered the last sequence which deactivated the self-destruct routine, Jokkenson pulled on the rope, ejecting them both from the ship and its system. We found out they were successful only after the lack of the expected explosion.

In the ensuing calm, we contacted Bob's ship once more with the offer to sell him the fully functional fighter. Although keeping the ship was a tempting prospect, logistically it offered too many issues to be a viable option. We gained some credits after a lengthy negotiation over its price and handed it over to Bob... but not before we made a copy of the data the ship's systems held.

Upgrades Galore

We started this session a few minutes early to give ourselves time to go over Character Advancement. The previous mission our characters were given was intended to give us a feel for the rules and how the game plays, after which we were told that we would gain two levels for our characters. This means more Health and more Skills.

I like to use what goes on in-game as an explanation of how my character sheet improves and since I roleplayed interactions with Cyrus and Yannick, I thought it appropriate to give him a point in Know to reflect the knowledge Ian took out of these conversations. Naturally, I've improved his Shoot to the maximum possible as that's his main specialty. As a Partial Psychic, I'm also required to progressively improve my psychic skill, Telekinesis in Ian's case, which allowed me to gain the ability to walk on vertical and overhanging surfaces as if they were horizontal. In a way, this gives Ian the ability to ignore gravity.

Gun Kata anyone?

We also got to the point where we could gain another Focus or improve an existing one. While I was tempted to improve Gunslinger (Ian's other Focus is Alert), I found Close Combatant more inspiring in a combat situation. While another level of Gunslinger would allow Ian to deal 1d4 damage on a miss with a gun, Close Combatant allows me to ignore penalties from using pistols in a melee fight. I can't wait for a scene where this becomes relevant.

When everyone was done assigning points to their characters, it was time to return to our in-game adventures. It was approximately half a year since our initial assignment during which time we got to know each other better as a team. We were called in to the briefing room where we were told that the fugitive we caught at SS Aurelia, Arthur Smith, has finally started talking. We were given information about arms dealing proceedings taking place on a planet called Gograpaty. It was a planet with no land mass due to terraforming incidents, leaving it covered in an ocean, forcing people to live on floating cities made out of any salvageable parts. The communities there were organised in a tribes which prohibited selling weaponry. As these weapons were being sold to rebel factions, our mission was to stop their operations.

At the end of the briefing we were told we were being assigned a new ship, an upgrade from the previous one, but we stayed at the table after our superior officer left the room to discuss our strategy. We went through several suggestion and settled on posing as buyers so we can amass enough evidence to either allow the local authorities to deal with the smugglers or have reason to blow them up with a clear conscience.

In order for this plan to work, however, Ian suggested we'd need better weaponry so we can present ourselves as serious buyers who aren't interested in any low-tech equipment. Cole informed us that he might be able to reach out to a contact who would be able to provide us with above standard weaponry for a reasonable price. With that in mind we went off to the docking bay to inspect our new ship. As it turned out, it was SS Aurelia which we were inspecting on our very first mission. Captain Keiran re-christened it SS Second Chance before we got our entire crew on-board and flew off into space.

Our first stop was the meeting Cole set up with a merchant, codename Bob, who would provide us with sufficiently flashy and effective weapons. Bob requested Cole (similarly codenamed Bob) to come on-board his ship with no weapons to browse his wares and make a deal. Captain Keiran didn't want Cole to go alone and as Ian without his pistols would have been less effective in a fight, Cole was accompanied by Jokkenson who, quite literally, is a weapon.

This does not bode well

They both went through scanners that checked for weapons on-board the ship, inspected the wares, reached a financial agreement, transfered the funds and left with their purchases. Jokkenson was especially happy with the thunder gun he was carrying, a large two-handed weapon capable of disintegrating its target. They also came back with a sniper rifle and two pairs of thermal and mag pistols.

We were about to distribute the wares among ourselves when our radars picked up incoming spacecrafts approaching our position.

Slaughter on a Spaceship

After we got to the bottom of the situation with the missing crew, it was up to Yannick to set everything up and Cole to remotely steer the vessel into and out of interdimensional space. This time, without any pre-tech artifacts interfering with the engines.

As the work was taking place, Jokkenson had the brilliant idea to revist one of the storage rooms we walked pass on our first venture through the ship. Mainly, the weapon storage. After a quick look for Encumberance rules, it turned out that he was capable of carrying nearly every single weapon in storage. We witnessed a cybernetically enhanced barbarian armed to the teeth, quite literally, walking back to our ship at a comfortable pace. A typical example of the things roleplayers will get to.

Just before SS Aurelia re-entered and left interdimensional space, Keiran once more looked into the future to see if the entirety of the ship would turn violent after our attempt at solving this problem. He did not see any danger on a large scale so we proceeded with our plan. The ship reappeared shortly after being remotely steered by Cole and we boarded it once more. As we entered, Keiran started to act weird.

From the perspective of his crew, we had the impression he was having a conversation with someone but we could only hear his side of it. Cyrus confirmed our suspicions when he saw there was some kind of telephatic link established with the captain. When his conversation ended, he explained that whoever he was talking to, didn't want them on board and took our presence here as an act of aggression. We were not ones to balk at threats so we moved deeper into the spacecraft.

You get the idea

Suddenly, a woman materialised in front of Jokkenson, grabbed the rifle he was holding and disappeared. This enraged him to such a degree that he ran off towards danger. Moments later, as we ran after him, we were in the midst of combat. Unknown to us, the crew of SS Aurelia seemingly developed psychic abilities and we found ourselves in a strange fight. Ian and Cyrus had to avoid fire being thrown at them while one SS Aurelia's crewmember disappeared from Ian's and Jokkenson's sight. We had the advantage however, Jokkenson cut in half two crewmembers, including their captain, while Ian and Cyrus wounded some with a gun and mind respectively. Although Keiran tried to reason with the other crewmembers to lay down their arms, they did not care to listen. They attacked us with intent to kill so we had no choice but to defend ourselves.

Cole rejoined the rest of the group as soon as the coast was clear.

Investigating the Ghost Spaceship

Figuring out how to board a ship that's unresponsive proved to be quite tricky. A brainstorm erupted between our engineer, pilot and programming wizard as to how to proceed. Around a middle through the conversation, they were interrupted by Jokkenson who looked like he was trying to focus his eye-sight on a fly. We had no flies on board.

As it turned out, other than a full cybernetic arm, Jokkenson also had cybernetics in his skull and on part of his face, one of his eyes was inorganic, in fact. Keiran asked what was going on with him to which he replied that the ancestor spirits are giving him a beautiful vision of the ship all in blue but with two red dots. We took it as some form of scanning device and asked him to point to where those red areas were. As it turned out, the areas were the engine room and the cooling system which made us think it showed heat signatures. Logically, there would be more heat signatures on a manned flight but the ship appeared to be deserted inside.

We had no more time to stand idly by. It was clear at this point that something had happened to the crew and the refugees. We had to board and investigate. Cyrus managed to hack remotely into the SS Aurelia's systems and bypass security to open a cargo hold area which would allow us to enter but first Cole had to match the ship's speed and align ours to match trajectory. We connected both ships but before we opened the door, Keiran zoned out for a few seconds. Cyrus noticed this with his psychic senses and asked about the spell the captain has just cast.

We didn't want to get into the discussion over semantics between our respective cultural terms for psychic abilities so Keiran just explained he had a quick look into the future to see if anything dangerous will happen to the team that will enter the ship. When Keiran was assembling a team, Cole made it clear that he would remain on the ship just in case... until he realised that the captain saw nothing unwarranted would happen to the people entering SS Aurelia, at which point he joined the rest of the team.

Empty spaceship? Not spooky at all!

Our first obstacle was the door to the cargo hold. Jokkenson's attempts at opening by force didn't work, as did Keiran's attempt to guess the code but Cyrus opened it with ease. The ship's corridors were the right size for people to walk through but they couldn't accommodate Yannick's mech which he had to leave behind. During our exploration of the inside of the ship, Jokkenson was given another vision which showed him where the ship's bridge was located. We followed his direction and upon arrival noticed he didn't lead us through the shortest route.

On our way we noticed signs of life. There were blankets lying around in some areas, mugs left on the table and personal effects scattered on the floor. It seemed as if the crew and refugees simply vanished. At one point, Cyrus's psychic senses allowed him to see silhouettes of people around the ship. When we stopped the ship and went through its recent logs, we concluded that something caused a malfunction in the engine room which caused the ship itself to leave interdimensional space but leave the people behind.

We needed to investigate the engine room but couldn't leave the bridge unattended so we did the unthinkable and split the party. It is an age old roleplaying tradition that one is not supposed to split the party for this draws the attention of evil. Fortunately for us, the Game Master must have been in a good mood because he didn't use this opportunity to menace us with random threats. Keiran ordered Cyrus and Ian to stay behind as the rest would go to the engine room.

Although we were in the exact same room physically as players, our characters were not, and since both me and Cyrus's player sat next to each other, we decided to engage in friendly banter between our characters while the rest had their own scene going on. Cyrus started talking about his life on his home planet and his studies as a wizard, talking about the various disciplines there are and his experience studying it. Ian isn't a talkative person but as someone who had to hide his abilities, he started to develop a kinship with and, perhaps, an admiration for Cyrus. He still didn't like the out-dated terminology Cyrus employed but he spoke of what it is like to be a psychic on his and Keiran's planet and why he followed Keiran as he had to leave the planet.

I wouldn't try breaking it

We were interrupted by a message from the captain who requested Cyrus's presence in the engine room. While we had our chat, the other part of the team found a black box that Yannick noticed was entirely out of place next to the engine. Within it, they found an unearthly white sphere and needed Cyrus to have a look at it. Unlike the rest of us, he saw the globe emmanate a white light and refused to touch it. Mocking his concern, Jokkenson took the spehere out and simply tossed it over to Cyrus. He caught it out of reflex and felt his psychic abilities being enhanced while Jokkenson got a stern talking to from Keiran for his handling of dangerous equipment.

After a moment of deliberation, Cyrus decided it must be a piece of pre-tech, a technology that dates back to the Golden Age of the setting where technology and science were focused on psychic phenomena more than anything. Cole noted that it would fetch a very good price at the black market, even though he certainly wouldn't know anything about it, and that someone must have been trying to smuggle it onto the planet.

It made sense and reviewing footage from the ships time in interdimensional space showed that there was an individual hurriedly walking into the engine room shortly before the ship returned to this dimension. This person left the box with the pre-tech close enough to the main engine that it interfered with its function which, we assume, is what caused everyone on board to remain in interdimensional space.

Before the seesion came to an end, Cyrus and Yannick decided that the best course of action would be to make a short jump into and out of interdimensional space in order to properly synchronise the ship and its crew with the regular dimension.