Previously, on the Aslan Route: The crew of the Macavity have rescued most of the crew of the Cash Cow, all bar the ship's doctor who is being held hostage on Inurin by Captain Hroal Irontooth of the corsair Meatgrinder. They decide that the Meatgrinder will have to be dealt with, but not by them, and make for Byrni, where they intend to sell Irontooth's location to GeDeCo pirate hunters. Now read on...
Byrni, 1107 Week 04
While Troisei goes off to look for a suitable cargo, the crew of the Macavity descend en masse on the office of the GeDeCo branch manager, and try to sell him the location of Hroal Irontooth and the Meatgrinder. Their arguments are that piracy is bad for GeDeco, and a branch manager who suppresses it should find his next bonus and promotion chances improved; that Irontooth's ship is damaged and low on crew, so now is a good time to strike; and that they know where he is going to turn up and have recognition signals which will allow the pirate hunters to get close.
The branch manager agrees to spread the word among the pirate hunters, but comes up with some cock-and-bull story about not being able to pay them a finder's fee until the location checks out, which will take a minimum of two months. Vila is extremely disappointed, but the others accept it as the cost of doing business; taking out Irontooth is valuable to them on its own.
Troisei returns with news that she has obtained a great deal on some good cargo for Ergo, their next port of call, but there is a catch; her interest in duelling came out, and is apparently shared by the broker she was dealing with, Ftaia of Clan Hkaaiheir. The discount is contingent on her champion duelling Ftaia's bodyguard, Iroioah. Once Rex learns this there is no stopping him, and a duel to first blood is arranged for first thing the next morning.
Troisei, Ftaia, Mazun and Vila observe from an elevated gallery while Iroioah and Rex face off in an arena below. Dr Matauranga is watching from the sidelines at ground level, ready to offer medical aid if needed.
After a series of tentative passes from both duellists as they assess each other's capabilities, Rex strikes for effect - and hits one of the statues adorning the arena, breaking the strap on one of his ayloi and dropping it.
Iroioah calls a time-out to the duel, observing that he would not have it said he only won because Rex had lost a claw. There is polite applause at this honourable behaviour, and Mazun tosses Rex one of his own ayloi. In return, Rex insists Iroioah makes the first attack when they recommence, and he, too, hits something and dislocates one of his dewclaws. Rex stops the fight, and calls Dr Matauranga over; the good doctor does something quick and uncomfortable, and pops the dewclaw back into place.
The fight restarts, and after a few more exchanges of blows Rex lands an unexpectedly brutal swipe which drops Iroioah in his tracks, and will leave an interesting scar. His opponent is at his mercy, but Rex stays his hand as the fight is to first blood only.
Honour is contagious, and the Macavity's crew thus begin to build a reputation among the Hkaaiheir as well as the Iuwoi and the Ahroay'if.
Next stop: Ergo...
GM Notes
A short session this week, as I was feeling a bit under the weather and called it early. We were also one player down, which means the group chews through plot even faster than usual for SWADE.
The negotiation with the branch manager was handled as a Social Conflict, led by Mazun (who is optimised for that kind of thing) and supported by the others. The duel was a means to give Rex's player the combat he craves without distorting the narrative too much; it's more dangerous than it seems, because Rex has the Berserk Edge and is quite likely to go off the deep end if hurt. Killing his opponent would have been very awkward. The byplay around broken claws came out of consecutive critical failures from both duellists - most PCs run by Rex's player have a surprisingly high incidence of crit fails. Dr Matauranga's player tends to roll ridiculously high on one skill for each PC he runs, and this time it's Healing; I don't think he scored below 20 on a Healing roll all night.
I must come up with something more creative for Ergo, although everyone seemed to have fun, and as we age, a more relaxed pace of play seems to come more naturally to us. After all, we're not ending world hunger here, we're just having a laugh.
I often feel that the main purpose of our games is to give us an excuse to talk, and a shared topic to talk about.
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