Previously, on the Aslan Route... the crew of the Macavity have carried Prince Hteleitoirl of Clan Iuwoi triumphantly back from exile on his landhold on Sink, and as his boon companions they are naturally invited to his wedding to Elehasei of Clan Aftei. This suits Captain Ashran's handlers in Imperial Intelligence very well, and they're now so far from Imperial space that the Shugaka crime syndicate has lost track of them. Probably. Unfortunately, the Prince has offended Okheai the Alley Cat and her local organised crime ring, the Rea’a Hrilkhir. Thus it is that once again, the course of true love doth ne'er run smooth...
Tyokh, 1106 Week 21
Elehasei contacts the crew of the Macavity to say that her sister has gone missing. In addition to simply being worried about her sister, Ellie needs her as maid of honour at the wedding. Perhaps they could discreetly find her and bring her back, in case the reason for her disappearance is something the clan would rather not know about? The sister is the rising commercial brain of Clan Aftei, and likely to be able to connect them with lucrative work later.
Ellie gives the crew a holo of her sister, Troisei, and a quick description of her; she's is a huge fan of gladiatorial combat, persuasive, reasonable, rigidly honourable, and a stickler for the aslan code; she's also a close friend of the local fteirko, a guru of the code who rules on its finer points.
The Macavity’s crew search for clues leads them to learn that one of Troisei’s favourite duellists was in a bout at a rural restaurant called the Bloody Claw the night before. Acquiring video footage of the fight – destined to be sold offworld to afficionados who couldn’t see it in person – they analyse this and find a short clip of Troisei being escorted into a back room. Troisei is a highly skilled negotiator, and the crew are unable to tell from her poker face whether she has been kidnapped or merely has some inconvenient gambling debts to discuss.
Leveraging Ellie’s contacts in the local communications operators, they learn that Troisei’s commlink is still in the Bloody Claw and hasn’t moved for the last 24 hours.
Captain Ashran digs deeper and learns that the Bloody Claw is a money-laundering front for the Rea’a Hrilkhir, or as the crew calls it, the Unpronounceable Mafia – a criminal syndicate they have crossed paths with before. This poses a problem for any covert approach, as they must either hire guides and interpreters – all of whom are also fronts for the Rea’a Hrilkhir – or openly carry their Clan Iuwoi ayloi to indicate they are under the clan’s protection.
Mazun slips a stunner into a presentation box as a backup, having realised that any attempt to open it or scan it without his permission would be an insult to him, the Prince, and Clan Iuwoi; to him because it implies he is breaking the law and therefore dishonourable, and to the others by implying that they are so incompetent or dishonourable themselves as to have such a person on their staff. Hopefully, he will not have to draw it and thus demonstrate his lack of honour.
At Dr Matauranga’s suggestion, they book a table and enter blatantly, eating and watching a duel or two before making their move. Dinner, consisting as it does of hunks of raw meat thrust onto the spikes of small, randomly dodging robots which simulate prey animals, is a lively affair, with everyone except Dr Matauranga managing to grab a morsel; his attempt is stymied by a simultaneous dive from two of the others. Rex, famous since his first duel on Tyokh incapacitated a highly-ranked opponent, is approached for his autograph, and revels in his fame; just as well the crew didn’t try to sneak in.
Etiquette thus satisfied, Mazun summons a waitress and says he and his companions have a message from her sister, which they are charged to deliver to her privately and in person. At length, the waitress reappears and leads them to a back room where four aslan, two male and two female, are sitting with Troisei, who seems none the worse for wear.
Vila reiterates that the message is private and to be delivered in person, and after looking at each other, the Bloody Claw aslan step outside, as do Rex and Mazun, since clearly this is a female matter and it would be inappropriate for them to eavesdrop.
Vila verbally conveys details of wedding preparations, expecting the room to be under surveillance, while slipping a note to Troisei asking if she is hurt, and if she is here of her own free will. Troisei replies “No” to both. Vila updates the note asking if she wants to leave with the crew, which she does, and with no further ado Vila, Dr Matauranga and Troisei slip past the gaggle of aslan, Rex, and Mazun, who are all jostling in the corridor. The three “females” move at a brisk walk towards the exit, although it would be unseemly to run, so they do not.
As it is improper for the two aslan females to engage Mazun and Rex, they shuffle back further up the corridor and the males push through. Mazun has been waiting for this, and strikes one with the intention of stunning rather than wounding; he succeeds better than expected, and his opponent goes down. Rex has no such compunctions and slashes away with abandon, getting several strikes in before the enemy can move. The two male aslan disabled, Mazun and Rex fall back into the hallway, dashing past Vila and Troisei.
Vila notices a group of three aslan entering, one female and two male, but the furries all look alike to him in the heat of battle and he turns to face the two female bruisers moving to contact behind him; so it’s left to Dr Matauranga to recognise Okheai the Alley Cat, boss of the Rea’a Hrilkhir, and two of her bodyguard as he squeezes past on his way to the door.
The time for subtlety is past, with Rex and Mazun each taking out one of the bodyguards as the crew and Troisei make best speed towards the door; but then Okheai calls for a parley, telling her people to stand down, and the crew are intrigued enough that a few of them stop to listen while the rest head for the car park to start up their air/raft and Troisei’s. Okheai tells them that the manager of the Bloody Claw has overstepped his authority in this matter, and it was not her intent to hold Troisei hostage. An internal disciplinary hearing will be held later, but for now, Troisei and the crew are free to leave. Which they do.
Troisei is reunited with her sister, but Macavity’s crew leaves Troisei to explain matters; this whole affair is above their pay grade, and they are decidedly outranked.
Tyokh, 1106 Week 22
With the wedding fast approaching, Elehasei asks Rex if he would be prepared to duel someone to first blood as part of the entertainment, and he agrees somewhat too eagerly for the rest of the crew’s comfort.
The crew decides that gifts are in order, and it would be appropriate for the males (Rex and Mazun) to give the Prince something and the “females” (Vila and Dr Matauranga) to give Elehasei a present. Rex and Mazun decide Vila should artistically decorate Rex’s ayloi, which they put in a suitable box with the note that these are the claws which restored the Prince’s honour when he first returned to Tyokh, and Dr Matauranga genetically and surgically modifies a local bird of prey as a gift for Elehasei.
It’s now only days to the wedding; dozens of fractious and heavily-armed aslan overeating and getting inebriated on dust-spice, and the crew of the Macavity in the middle of it. What could possibly go wrong?
GM Notes
As an experiment, this scenario was worked up using the random tables in Stars Without Number. I began by deciding that Tyokh had the tags Trade Hub and Ritual Combat, rolled a random plot seed, randomly selected a Place and a Friend for each tag and merged them, and rolled a personality for the Friend. The party have recently offended the local crime syndicate so they are the logical Enemy. None of the dice rolls individually were very inspiring, but I trust the process; the human brain looks for patterns, and once you have enough dice rolls going on, it will find a pattern for you. The fact that in this case, what I came up with diverged from what the dice were telling me doesn't matter, the objective is to get a scenario framework and the approach did that regardless. What I made of it, you see above.
Much of the actual play was dominated by the Not-Kansas factor; aslan law and culture are very different from the Imperial equivalents, but some of the players are getting the hang of that now, hence the stunner-in-a-box and the blatant approach to the Bloody Claw; so long as you stay within the Aslan Code, even criminal outcastes will play ball.
I fumbled several of the detailed combat rules, but fortunately the Deadlands GM is one of the players and was able to correct me. For this and other reasons, I think I need to start shifting solo play back towards more combat-oriented scenarios, and broaden the range of statblocks I use. Perhaps some gladiatorial combats would be useful for this, and would also let me work on the NPC combat AI. For further study.
Meanwhile, I need to figure out some interesting events for the wedding. Everybody knows it's not a proper wedding without a fight...
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