Aslan Route 12: The Uninvited Guests

You may not recall the moment that you asked me
But your invitation was clear
You'll pretend you've never met me but it's far too late
Now I'm here
- Marillion, The Uninvited Guest

Fast Travel, 246-1105 to 267-1105

Escaping the vargr corsairs raiding the House of Shrouded Mirrors on Pourne, the crew of the Macavity carry the monks they were able to rescue, including the abbot and the Sage, back to Sink via Paal. They use the trip to discuss their options.

Nobody much fancies dealing with the Fury on Torpol and Drinax through a combination of stealth and violence, trusting to the psionic shield helmets they bought on Tech-World to protect them against mind control. There's an Imperial agent involved, so it's not entirely clear if the Imperium is pro- or anti-Fury, assuming they even know about it. Vila points out that nobody is paying the crew to deal with the Fury, so he is against doing so. Dr Matauranga, although curious, wants some time to do more research; besides, he has a new toy, a curious spike made of precious metals and engraved with who-knows-what, which he grabbed on the way out while Vila was picking up more fenceable loot.

So, they decide to return to trading along the Aslan Route, dropping in on Cordan to report to Mazun's handler and receive further orders. That might include handing off the whole Fury thing to the Navy or Marines, or they might go after the Fury later, when they're better prepared.

The first step of this plan is to drop off the assorted monks on Sink.

Sink, 268-1105 to 275-1105

When the Macavity arrives back at Sink, Ahoakhi informs them that Clan Htyowao has sent a small group of ihatei to disrupt Prince Hteleitoirl's settlement plans. As yet, his allies have not joined him - they must first complete their security contract on The World - so it falls to the crew of the Macavity to deal with the situation. For the moment, she says, there is a warrior called Iroioah with five males and a dozen females, but if this is not nipped in the bud, more will come.

The abbot informs them that he would like them to deal with the situation; one set of ihatei is bad enough, but two groups that hate each other can't end well, and he and the Sage need to focus their attention on how to deal with the Fury. Vila gets a codicil appended to their contract so that in addition to hauling cargo, the Macavity may also "carry out such other missions as the abbott may from time to time propose".

Vila argues forcefully that the Macavity should flatten the new ihatei camp from orbit, and Dr Matauranga builds on this by suggesting they dump the bodies in the Swamp, which would surely be pleased with the new input; but as they are associate members of Clan Iuwoi, this is bound to get them talked about and would probably be dishonourable behaviour, leading to a new Enemy for the crew. The Macavity locates the ihatei camp by making a high-altitude pass; the new neighbours are about 100 km away and seem to be settling in for the long term.

After much discussion, the crew decides against "nuking them from orbit" (dishonourable), setting wildfires to burn them out (dishonourable and obvious), and engineering a flash flood to wash them away (impractical). Rex suggests a duel; if the party wins, the Htyowao ihatei must leave and never return, while if they win, they gain the right to settle permanently. No-one can think of a better plan, so they propose this to Prince Hteleitoirl. He approves, thinking it a fine and calculated insult for Rex to challenge the newcomers' leader, Iroioah, on his behalf; but counsels that Iroioah is an experienced duellist, with five victories in duels to the death. This suggests to the crew that he is no simple ihatei, rather a clan troubleshooter, and the situation has been engineered by Clan Htyowao to revenge themselves for the damage to their reputation.

Vila negotiates terms with the ihatei females, agreeing the stakes and settling on a duel to third blood. The stakes are a little asymmetrical, as if the newcomers are allowed to claim land, they become part of their clan again and establish a foothold for it on Sink, while if they are expelled, that doesn't bind other members of their clan; but it's the best Vila can manage.

The duel begins with Rex and Iroioah circling, each trying to intimidate the other. The exchange of threats continues throughout the duel, which lasts less than a minute; Iroioah trips on something unseen and sprawls at Rex's feet, and although he manages to recover, Rex cuts him at each exchange of blows while dodging everything aimed at him. At length, Iroioah is too bloodied to continue, and Rex claims victory.

As agreed, Iroioah and his companions pack up and head back to the starport to await passage offworld. The Macavity's crew realise they haven't heard the last of this; Hteleitoirl asks them to pick up his boon companions from The World to make his position more defensible, as their contract is coming to an end.

GM Notes

I didn't have a suitable scenario prepared, so I created one using The Scheme Pyramid. I decided that the Prince's enemies ought to come and have a word with him, then drew cards as usual. When using The Scheme Pyramid as written, you draw the cards openly and the players decide what skill to use, as if it were a Quick Encounter; when I use it to come up with a scenario, I draw the cards secretly in advance, decide on suitable skills, and build the scenario around that. It's entirely likely that the players will come up with a different way of overcoming the obstacles, and if so, I let them; the object of the exercise is to create the obstacles in the first place, no more than that. Here's the draw for this scenario and my reasoning. Creating the scenario in this way took me just under an hour. As it turned out, the group only activated three of the seven cards, but everyone had fun and something to do, so that's okay.

Bottom Tier (one card per PC, i.e. four):

• 4 of Diamonds. Something to do with Smarts; find the ihatei camp using Electronics, Survival, etc. Dr Matauranga, Vila and Rex had the skills for that.
• Red Joker. Any skill, but what's the obstacle? Had this been drawn on the top tier I would've drawn until I got a face card, so I do that and get a Jack of Hearts; the opposition is a group of Extras, let's say five ihatei warriors. They didn't come into play.
• Ace of Spades. A Wild Card opponent with a d12, that ought to be the leader. He gets a name, Iroioah, and a Ally Personality - 5, experienced. There are now six male aslan in total, and there can be anywhere from no females to two per male; I decide to go high, suggesting to the crew that this is an officially sanctioned mission rather than a bunch of males having a laugh. The obvious way to deal with him would be a duel between him and Rex, which is what happened.
• 9 of Hearts. Something to do with Spirit. That's some sort of interpersonal skill used to avoid or limit the fighting. This was Vila negotiating the terms of the duel.

Middle Tier (half as many cards, i.e. two; none of these were invoked):

• 7 of Hearts. A Spirit skill; interpersonal skills to negotiate a settlement. I made a mental note that this could be a Social Conflict if we had time. That could've been Mazun or Vila.
• 5 of Diamonds. A Smarts skill; how about Battle to resolve a Mass Battle between the forces of the two clans, which rock up at the same time, spoiling for a fight. That would have given Mazun a chance to use his unique skill, but his player couldn't make the session.

Top Tier (cards halved again, now there is only one, and it didn't get used):

• 5 of Spades. Agility skill. How about Stealthing into the leader's tent and Thievery on his luggage to acquire something? I left figuring out what that was for later, and as it turned out, I didn't need this encounter.