Campaign Notes

Traveller Module: High and Dry

Session 1

Session 2

 

Session 1, Wednesday 4/5/17

Players: Fish (Jace Warden), Skum (the Custodian), V (Meandra), and Amy (Doc)

GM: Markus

 

This was the inaugural session of our Traveller campaign, with Markus running the rest of the group through the High and Dry module.

 

The crew got together on the planet Flammarion where Meandra was to meet an official of the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service to arrange a mutually beneficial deal. They all met Anders Casarii at his office in Flammarion Highport, where he spelled out the deal: the previous lessors of an Imperial scout ship on detached duty left their damaged ship behind on the nearby world of Walston. All our group had to do was to go to Walston, get the ship back in working order, and bring it back to Flammarion for overhaul. If they did that, they’d get a total of Cr2000 each and have use of the ship for a year, most likely the with the option to lease it for the next year. They would need to take notes of places of interest that they visited in the meantime, as well as maintain the ship properly. The IISS would provide equipment to fix the vessel, as well as book passage to Walston.

 

The group agreed to these terms and started trying to find out as much as they could about Walston, though there wasn’t much information. Apparently, one of the duties of the previous crew of the scout ship was to bring back information on Walston!

 

They got some basics; Walston was chilly and had a relatively thin atmosphere (they’d need breather masks). No captains or crews they spoke with knew of any piracy in the area, but advised the group that the government of Walston is a dictatorship and has a strict weapons policy.

 

The next day, they boarded the ship, Autumn Gold, under captain Michelle Corelli, which was chartered to bring them to Walston.

 

Walston was a 2-jump (so, a 2-week) trip away. The first week, the group got to know one another a bit more. While they had all met one another in previous years, this was the first time that they were all together in one group (well, all except the scientist; he was apparently held up by bounty hunters hounding him). They also went through their equipment and prepped for taking possession of the scout vessel, which was surely awaiting them a the Walston spaceport.

 

A week after they left Flammarion, they arrived at 567-908, where the Autumn Gold was chartered to deliver some freight. The ship landed and our travellers disembarked to a drab, grey-brown world with a couple of dozen temporary human inhabitants. They were employees of the Scout Service, doing their rotation supporting this small research and scout refueling post. The doctor and custodian spent time at the observatory, listening to the scientists there excitedly explain high-concept jump dynamics and its relation to gravity waves while drinking the scientists’ very good coffee.

Meandra and Jace spent their time at the local “bar” (actually half of an administrative office), talking to the workers there. While these locals knew little of Walston, they had lots of alcohol.

 

The group  was happy to leave this dreary planet once the Autumn Gold was finally refueled at the end of the day.

 

A week later, the ship arrived at Walston, where the Autumn Gold, having spent a bit longer in jump space than intended, drops them and their belongings off at Startown and takes off immediately. The group goes through customs, checking in their weapons there. When they ask the custom official about their ship, the official thinks for a moment and recalls the scout ship, and especially the fact that the crew were a bunch of jerks. He also recalls that when they left, it was chartered passage on a different ship, so the scout ship must be around here somewhere. It’s not here at the spaceport, though. When pressed, he suggests that they go ask the Port Authority, across the street.

 

When they get to the Port Authority, they learn that the ship was chartered by the world government for something “in-system”, but there’s no more detail than that in the records. They’d have to go to the capital city to get more information. The only way was by rail, and they’d have to wait until the next day for the next train to leave.

 

Thus, the group had the chance to wander around Startown, where they notice that most of the population is vargr rather than human. They rent a couple of hotel rooms and head to a restaurant to sample the local cuisine.

 

Everyone but Jace gets sick from the main course, but all but the custodian like their dessert.

They retired to their rooms to sleep, intending to catch the train to the capital the next day.

---

 Session 2, Wednesday 5/3/17

Players: Fish (Jace Warden), Skum (the Custodian), V (Meandra), and Amy (Doc)

GM: Markus

   

The group awoke in their hotel rooms in Startown, gathered their belongings, and headed to the train station. Meandra stopped at a pub, plied one of the few patrons with alcohol (a vargr, as it happens) to get some information on how the government works; is it bureaucratic? Violent? Etc? She learned that it’s relatively efficient, though this particular citizen thought that the current ruling Dictator was being foolish with regard to resource exploitation rights for off-world companies.

   

Equipped with this knowledge, they boarded the train for the ride to Central Lake, the planetary capital.

   

About an hour later, they arrived. This “city” is, if anything, perhaps smaller than Startown, though it’s on the coast of the eponymous central lake.

   

They headed down the street to the aspirationally-titled palace and waited at the reception desk for a clerk to notice them. When she (another vargr) did, she heard their story and offered them some food and drink while she went to fetch Alan Greener, Minister for Offworld Affairs, Public Relations, and Fisheries.

   

The group presented their papers and told their story to minister Greener. As the documents appear genuine and an aide came in, looking at Meandra while whispering in Greener’s ear, he became less cautious. He informed the group that he was happy to help them get to the ship but needed them to carry out the task which he had hired the previous crew to, and he offered them a flat fee of Cr3000 to do it. Sadly, when Meandra tried to negotiate up, that’s all he had available after the previous crew left with their pay.

   

All the group has to do is take a few days and carry out a survey of a dormant volcano on the southern end of the island. A few tremors in recent years have the populace concerned, and Greener would like an estimate on the chances of an eruption in the next decade or two.

   

The only real problem, and it’s nothing major at all, is the location of the disabled ship.

It’s in the crater of the almost certainly extinct volcano.

   

The group agreed to this, picked up a last few supplies, and headed out to the volcano in rented truck, as there were no aircraft available.

   

Our plucky adventurers headed out on the 2-hour drive to the 1500 meter-high mountain and were actually able to get a third of the way up in the truck. They then trekked up the side of the mountain by foot, taking their time and being careful. Meandra set up her heated tent where most of the group, sans Jace, spent the night.

   

The next morning, they at and broke camp and continued up the mountain. Nearing the top, even with breathers and, in the doctor’s case, taking occasional hits of oxygen, Doc and The Custodian (new band name) fell ill with a mild case of altitude sickness. However, the others were able to help them to the crater rim. There, they gazed out to a magnificent sight of the southern tip of the island and the small community there, and the vast ocean beyond.

And, turning around and heading in towards the crater, they finally saw their goal; on an island in a lake located in the center of the 1-2km wide crater, was the distinct triangular shape of an Imperial Scout Ship.

   

Jace and The Custodian each pulled out their binoculars to get a better view of the ship, and they were struck by all the garbage that appeared to have been tossed from the ship. The Custodian was certain that he also saw some brief movement around the garbage and foliage by the ship.

  The group now needs to prepare for the descent into the crater and to their new ship.