Fragments – Session 5: What Ever Happened to the Acojah?

Session 5 happened Friday, November 4, 2011, and was the last session of this story arc.

This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on.  I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games.  Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller.  Mongoose is doing good things, so no hate mail.

PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Cyrano Steel (male Lante, computer systems specialist)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)

NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar, Ship’s Captain (female human)
Ted Yahn, Ship’s Navigator (male human)
Albertha Trufin, Ship’s Engineer (female human)
Dr. Quinton Picknell, Ship’s Doctor (male human)

Maresfield Trade Representative:
Deadra Pagenkopf, Maresfield Trade Liaison (female human)

The Passengers:
Brother Kurts of the Order of the Sacre Illuminae
Sister Gunita of the Order of the Sacre Illuminae


Week 7, Day 5:
While the away team was making contact with the locals, Deadra Pagenkopf took the time to go through the Acojah records taken from the dead ship (see Session 4, Part 2 for details).  At the morning briefing, she informed everyone that the Acojah ship had been carrying escaping Acojan colonists in its cargo bay when the nuke hit it.

This led to discussions on whether or not any Acojah might still be alive on Krakatoa.  While Grar and Max had been able to determine there were sentients on the planet (loosely speaking), they had not checked to see if they were all humans.  This would require smaller search areas for any chance of success.  Brother Kurts was asked to perform a planetary survey to determine which areas would be best to search.  [They were bemoaning the lack of a planetologist in the ship’s crew until I pointed out that Brother Kurts was a planetologist – that’s why he came with them.  They had forgotten that.]  The survey would take a day to perform and Brother Kurts promised a preliminary report the next day.


Week 7, Day 6:
After spending the previous day (and much of the night) performing a quick survey of Krakatoa, looking for habitable areas that might house Acojah, a very tired but pleased Brother Kurts made his report.  He reported five areas that were habitable and large enough to support viable populations and three areas that were possibly habitable but sub-optimal (either desert, downwind from an active volcanic region, or barely large enough for a sustainable population).  Each of these areas is isolated from the others by volcanic badlands.  He was able to locate seven large-scale strip mines in the volcanic regions.  Finally, he also located five irradiated crates located in one of the otherwise habitable zones.

Based on Brother Kurts’s findings, the PCs decided that one of the mines near(-ish) to a crater might be a good place for Acojan refugees to hide and concentrated mind scans in that area.  They found no sentient minds in the area.  Concentrating the ship’s sensors on the nearby radioactive crater, they could detect the ruins of a city.  Brother Kurts estimates that, based on the levels of radiation still present and the size of the crater, the weapon used was either a poorly made home-made bomb or a purposely-made dirty bomb.  He leaned towards it being a dirty bomb.

Suspecting that there were no living Acojah left on Krakatoa, the PCs shifted their focus to a different mine and decided to go down and investigate, hoping for some sort of surviving records.  Parallel to this effort, an additional salvage run on the Acojan ship was made.  [This moved PCs whose players were not at the game off stage.]  With Oscar taking the Iron Pig and the captain not wanting to risk the ship’s boat (with the only fuel scoop the ship has), the investigating away team took an air/raft down from orbit.  As the vacc suits also provide radiation protection, this did not bother the PCs.  They also took one of the repaired security bots from Guruphon Station and Grar established a mind link with Sister Gunita.

It was a long, elevator-like trip down.

Once on the surface, Grar landed the air/raft adjacent to a small cluster of buildings near the edge of the strip mine, on one of the highest terraces of the mine.  In the distance, they could see an immense excavator (example).  It was inert, but it made the PCs wary.  Of the buildings they were near, one was obviously a holding area for ore, one was three stories tall and had windows on the upper floors, and one was much taller and larger but had no windows.  All of the buildings showed signs of receiving weapons fire in the past and the windowed building had (empty) sandbag emplacements around the doors.  The PCs decided to investigate this building first.

This building seemed to have been used as a barracks, but was re-purposed from something else.  The outer walls of the building were quite thick and made of a strong form of concrete.  The inner corridors showed signs of combat, with a scattering of bullet marks.  The ground-floor rooms were large (possibly conference rooms?) and had been converted to barracks.  The next two floors seemed to have been offices originally, but were converted to individual quarters or gun positions, probably machine guns of some sort based on the occasional cartridge shells found.  Based on the anti-Acojah graffiti found all over, the PCs surmised that the human populace had held out here against Acojah attackers.

The roof held two sand-bagged anti-aircraft positions (minus the weapons now).  Looking around from the roof, the PCs noticed what was likely the wreckage of a downed aircraft and made note of it for later investigation.  They also verified the excavator was still where they last saw it and still immobile.

Having finished their investigation of what was likely the administration building for the strip mine, they headed over to the next building, expecting it to be a smelter of some sort.  There were three immense doors on the front side of the building (facing the admin building), one of which is not quite closed.  Looking around carefully before opening it any further, Grar locates a tripwire connected to an explosive charge wrapped in ball bearings.  He disabled the trip wire and inspected the explosive charge.  The charge had degraded to the point where it might fizzle at best.  Checking further, Grar found booby traps on the other two doors as well.

The inside of the tall (5-6 stories equivalent) building was mostly made up of smelting and processing equipment (making this a mill), with catwalks and equipment on suspended tracks still filling the upper area.  This front area took up two-thirds of the front of the building.  In the back could be seen rolling doors blocking off three smaller areas.  There was a heavy layer of dust and/or bird droppings on everything.

Investigating the machinery in the front area, the PCs worked out that the machinery was designed for sorting out types of ore, for processing iron ore, and for milling iron into steel.  Checking the back area to the right, they found the machinery damaged but not irreparably so.  The equipment seems to have been stopped mid-process.  Grar and Cyrano jury-rigged a crane to safely lower the six-foot tall cup it still had suspended.  The cup was found to be mostly full of gold.  Several characters did a happy dance at this point.

[At this point my notes ran out, so the rest is from memory.]

With this indicator that the back areas were processing areas for valuable metals, the PCs eagerly moved to the center area to see what it processed.  They instead found the center area mostly destroyed and full of mine tailings.  Confused by this, they exited the building and circled around to the back side.  There they found a large shipping container [think four times as large as a modern shipping container in all dimensions] standing on its end, partially embedded into the back of the building.  Looking away from the building, they could see other piles of mine tailings in strange, low rises.  It occurred to the PCs that someone had been dive bombing the mill, using cargo containers full of tailings as kinetic bombs.  When the last one hit the building but failed to destroy it (or even really damage most of it), they must have stopped.  Or got shot down (thinking about the downed flyer spotted from the roof of the admin building).

Returning to the interior of the building, the PCs checked the last back chamber.  This room was more damaged than the first one, but not as completely damaged as the middle one, which had taken a mostly direct hit from the tailings bomb.  The smelting cup in this area was on the floor, partially crushing some other machinery.  Inside was metal, filling about half the cup.  After some quick field testing (Max is a field geologist, among other things), it was determined to be Berynium, approximately 1.5 cubic meters (50 cubic feet) of it!  [Another happy dance may have happened here.]

With two sources of precious metals located, the PCs decided to finish searching the mill, locating the offices.  These were on a raised platform with a commanding view of the main work area.  The walkway around the offices had solid sides instead of just railings and seemed to have hardpoints for mounting weapons.  Climbing the stairs to the office platform, the PCs noticed that the single entrance area was heavily bullet-ridden.  The two rooms that made up the offices themselves were heavily vandalized and shot up.  One room appeared to have been a conference room with a large table, now on its side and full of bullet holes and the skeletal remains of a humanoid sophont, minus its head, slumped in front of it.  The walls and scraps of things mounted on the walls were covered in anti-Acojah graffiti.  The other room was an office with storage cabinets, all looted.  Looking through the wreckage of the storage cabinets, Grar located two data crystals in the bottom, under the lowest drawer.  There was nothing else of interest here.

Grar used his mind link with Sister Gunita to request that the Iron Pig fly down to the surface and pick up the gold and Berynium the away team had located (it was too large and much too heavy for the air/raft to lift).  While the away team waited for the Iron Pig to arrive, they investigated the downed flyer.  The wreckage showed signs of being burned long ago and was now mostly overgrown with grasses.  In the remains of the cockpit were skeletal remains, which Max’s medical training allowed him to identify as Acojan.  Eventually the Iron Pig arrived with gear to pull the cups holding the metals out of the mill, a multi-hour process.  The Iron Pig returned to the ship very late in the day and everyone retired for the evening, tired but much wealthier.


Week 7, Day 7:
After a good night’s sleep, the two data crystals were checked for the presence of the VIRUS (they were clean) and then the data was reviewed.  The first crystal contained HR records of the mine prior to the Crash, covering a period of eight years.  The second was in Acojan and covered the running of the mine some time after the Crash was known to have happened, covering a period of six years, starting after the seizure of the mine and ending roughly 70 years prior to the present.  The Acojah records clearly stated that the human workers were now slaves.

With the materials secured from the planet and possible evidence of a hostile power operating after the Crash, the PCs decided it was time to head back to Maresfield and report what they had discovered.  Captain Salazar was given the order to make for the nearest jump point and make jump to Caraturth.  She gladly set the crew to doing just that.


Week 8, Day 7:
The Just Lucky arrived in Caraturth system and made for the nearest gas giant to start re-fueling operations.  Once those were complete, the Just Lucky headed to Caraturth.  There they landed Brother Kurts and Sister Gunita, picking up a small delegation in their place.  They also provided the Order a copy of all the data they collected in Krakatoa.  At the end of the day they left Caraturth and (reaching a jump point) jumped to Maresfield system.


Week 9, Day 7:
The Just Lucky arrived in Maresfield.

*End of Session 5*

[By the end of the exploration of the mill offices, it was getting late, so we just kind of hand-waved the trip back to Maresfield.  This was also the last session of the campaign, or at least this part of it.  I needed time off as a GM to work on some other writing projects and just had to step away from running a weekly game to do so.  In several months I will resume running, possibly returning to the Fragments campaign, but several years down the timeline.

I think one of the mistakes I made with this campaign was running what should have been a long-term exploration game in the short time I was still willing to run.  I should have had a definite storyline ready for the players to interact with rather than putting together a sandbox campaign.  I should have also run a more standard background rather than a “picking up the pieces again” background.  Running an adventure happening during the Crash with the PCs trying to get to some sort of haven as the VIRUS wreaks havoc in the background would have been better suited to the time I had available.  Then running the Fragments campaign after my hiatus would have had extra meaning for the players.  Something to thinks about.]

Fragments - Session 3: Maresfield Shootout

Session 3 happened Friday, September 30, 2011.

This campaign uses the Hero System, 5th Edition, with much Traveller material grafted on. I am making use of the Hero Traveller books published by ComStar Games. Sadly, these books went out of print when Mongoose Publishing purchased the rights to produce all things Traveller. Mongoose is doing good things, so no hate mail.

PCs:
The Company:
Maxwell Sloan (male human, communications and sensors specialist)
Nomen Fire-eyes (male human hybrid, negotiator)
Oscar Dougray (male human, salvage expert)
Ro Owen (female human, team security expert)
Braddock Grar, Lector (male Low Waldi, archivist)

NPCs:
The Crew:
Echo Salazar, Ship’s Captain (female human)
Ted Yahn, Ship’s Navigator (male human)
Albertha Trufin, Ship’s Engineer (female human)
Dr. Quinton Picknell, Ship’s Doctor (male human)

Maresfield Trade Representative:
Deadra Pagenkopf, Maresfield Trade Liaison (female human)


Week 3, Day 3:
The Just Lucky arrived in Maresfield system. After properly identifying itself to the Maresfield orbital authorities, the ship received an updated System Map for the Adab subsector and J2 System Survey Report from the Maresfield Scout Service. Most of the day is spent moving from the jump point to planetary orbit.

Week 3, Day 5:
Phoenix Salvage [the players] receives payment from Maresfield government for shipment of red gold made by the Just Lucky. Phoenix Salvage decided to keep 2 bars of red gold for their use. With a great deal of credit in the company’s accounts, the Just Lucky was put into dock for routine maintenance.

Week 3, Days 6 and 7:
Phoenix Salvage starts purchasing items they found they needed on their first outing. Orders were placed for 4 body sleeves, lightweight armor with some environmental support capabilities. Ro was also able to secure a fiber optic intrusion camera for Grar’s use.

Grar also requested updated body armor (to ballistic cloth) from the Order of Sacre Illuminae. While talking with his superior in the Order, Grar related that the Just Lucky would next travel to the Caraturth system. In exchange for the armor upgrade, Grar was provided a pile of scrolls containing the history of the Order on Maresfield over the last 90 years and asked to deliver it to the Founding Monastery on Caraturth.


Week 4, Day 1:
Cyrano compiled a list of components he needs in order to start building McGuffins for Phoenix Salvage’s use. In order to avoid the notice of the Maresfield government, he needed the other members of Phoenix Salvage to secure several of the items. Ro, Grar, and Oscar agreed to help.

Oscar located sources for several of the more technical components and secured a supply of them. Grar went to his Low Waldi contacts while Ro, taking the single mundane item on the list (several spools of fiber optic circuitry) simply went shopping for it. After checking a few places, Ro ended up in a technically-oriented bodega where few questions were asked if payment was in cash. She waited at the front counter while the owner was putting together her order (the FO circuitry was kept behind the counter). Waiting in the back of the bodega for his contact to show, entirely by coincidence, was Sherwood Switch, head of a pirate gang and sworn enemy or Ro. As far as he knew, Ro Owen died on the island he marooned her on several years ago.

Imagine his surprise when one of his flunkies pulls him aside and points to the front of the shop. His exact words were, “Ro Owen?! What the hell?!”

Ro recognized the voice and spun, pulling her automatic pistol, and started shooting at her blood enemy. Switch responded in kind with his 9 mm magnum pistol, ordering his two flunkies to start shooting. This started a shootout down the length of the store (and the chips and soda aisle). Ro took cover by flipping over the sales counter while Switch stepped partially behind a display of canned foods at the end of the aisle.

In the storage area in the back, Grar was talking with his contact (and cousin), working out the details of getting the components he was asked to get. His cousin (and contact) immediately fled the building when the gunshots started ringing out. Grar, curious by nature, moved around and into the cold locker so he could see out through the beer shelves. Seeing that Ro and several unknown assailants were evenly matched, he cautiously moved to a point where he was flanking the guy who seemed to be the leader and waited for an opportunity.

This opportunity came when one of the other customers of the bodega took offense at some of the remarks the flunkies were making and started beating down the flunky trying to flank Ro. Unaware of this, the second flunky moved forward to get a better shot at Ro, leaving Switch along in the back. Grar silently opened the cooler door and squeezed through the shelves, flanking Switch and covering the man with his gauss pistol. In a calm voice he ordered Switch to drop his weapon.

Switch, surprised to find a Low Waldi with a pistol behind him, attempted to push over the display of cans onto Grar. Grar pulled the trigger first, firing multiple flechettes through Switch’s torso, dropping him. Ro, seeing this happen, hopped the counter and ran up to Switch, intent on killing him with the same gun switch killed her last lover – only to find that she had not brought that pistol with her today. So she kicked him in the head and stalked out.

During her run up to Switch, the flunky who was mid-aisle attempted to shoot Ro in the back and missed. When he realized Switch was down and there was another shooter in the store, one who might have killed his boss, the flunky ran out the front of the store. The other flunky was pummeled into unconsciousness by the offended patron, despite having a gun in hand. He would not wake up until the police were there arresting him.

Grar took off out the back, slowing down only long enough to grab the security tapes from the store security cameras. Hopefully there was not a second set of recorders up at the front of the store.

Both Ro and Grar decide to lay low until the ship finishes its maintenance.


Week 4, Day 4:
Cyrano, using other channels, finally acquires the rest of the components he needs to start making Phoenix Salvage-brand McGuffins.


Week 4, Day 6:
Maintenance on the _Just Lucky_ completed and the members of Phoenix Salvage re-board.

*End of Session 3*

Pre-Crash Player Knowledge 5

System Name: Maresfield (Adab-0605)
UWP: B767544-12 Ga Ht
Yellow Star

Planets
Name      |Dist| Type       |Moons|
Walik     |   1| rocky      |    1|
Maresfield|  10| Terrestrial|    3|
Aesir     |  19| Gas giant  |    4|
The Belt  |  37| asteroid belt    |
Vanir     |  73| Gas giant  |    2|
Pescete   | 145| Ice        |    3|
Distances are measured in light-minutes (LM).

Pre-Crash
Maresfield is home to three custom starship design houses, dozens of custom parts designers and luxury manufacturers, and a minor luxury hotel industry.  It maintains a small but well educated population of employees and their families. 

Post-Crash
Population: ~90,000 Human, ~35,000 Lante, <1,000 Low Waldi
Once home to manufacturers of luxury starships, Maresfield stayed relatively unified after the collapse despite (or rather because of) its sparse population.  The generally favorable weather and a cultural gardening hobby allowed the populace to establish a sustainable food supply quickly after The Crash and avoid any major starvations.  In the last 12 years Maresfield has reactivated the orbital spaceport and begun refurbishing/repairing the starships abandoned in-system in the last days of The Crash.  This was made possible by the invention of The McGuffin.

The wealth of proprietary data and artisan starship designs led to a modular and semi-isolated planetary compnet, which incidentally keeping the VIRUS at bay long enough to safely preserve a great deal of engineering data past the end of the war.  The hodge-podge of ship and subsystem manufacturers pooled their talents to find a way to defeat the VIRUS as it attacked their livelihoods by destroying the market for luxury and custom starships.  Fifteen years of halting research eventually resulted in the McGuffin, a device containing software able to purge a system of the VIRUS and load a rudimentary operating system in its place.  There were two limitations to the McGuffin.  The first is that the action of purging a system of the VIRUS also wiped out all previous data housed on the system in question.  The second is that some of the components in the McGuffin require some exotic elements not available in the Maresfield system.  The existing
McGuffins were built using spare parts on hand after the Crash, but the previous "just-in-time" supply train no longer exists and the original source world has been beyond contact for decades.  Locating a new, closer, supply is a priority for all explorer ships leaving Maresfield.

Government
Maresfield is a representative democracy, as long as you or a member of your direct family are employed by a Voting Corporation.

Notes
About the corporations on Maresfield:
Imaging a world where the colonists are the employees and dependants of Maseratti, Lamborghini, Porsche (before becoming part of VW), West Coast Choppers, Orange County Choppers, the companies that make stretch limos, and all the specialty companies that supply those companies high-end or custom vehicle components.  Make that starships instead of cars and bikes and you have an idea of who was on Maresfield before the Crash.