“Flee if you can, for it is wicked to injure. Strike down hard if you cannot escape, and kill.” - Michael Hundt, 17th century fencing master
New Hope, Early May '01 - Confrontation
Late night in the Pub & Rec District, and Makavan is making his way back from an unsuccessful round of looking for work. A figure is moving towards him, and flicks a glance at the inside of its left forearm; that makes Makavan suspicious, and he lengthens his stride to pick up speed without it being obvious, heading for a side alley he can vanish into. The figure draws a laser pistol and fires, hitting him square in the chest but failing to penetrate the body armour he wears constantly; he returns fire, missing, and they both duck into cover, using the corners of buildings to conceal themselves as best they can while still keeping an eye on their opponents.
After a few inconclusive exchanges of shots, Makavan looses off one last bolt, then moves as quickly and quietly as he can down the alley and turns right, hoping to flank his enemy. It turns out she has the same idea, but he sees her first and manages to score a hit before they both duck behind their respective buildings again. Judging by the swearing, that did not bounce harmlessly off the armour, but if there is still swearing going on, it wasn't a decisive strike either.
When he sticks his head and gun arm around the corner again, she's waiting for him, and although she doesn't hit him, her bolt is close enough to spall pieces of building into his face, drawing blood. Now, it's his turn to curse, but he snaps off a couple of unaimed shots to keep her head down; the power pack has enough for fifty shots and he can recharge it back at the ship easily enough, no point conserving ammo.
Makavan decides there's nothing to gain by keeping the fight going, and melts away into the night.
Later, back at the ship, he replays the encounter in his mind. The glance at the forearm bothers him; his assailant seemed to be looking at a device rather than the arm itself. He wonders if she was looking at a picture of him; if so, this was no chance meeting, she had been looking for him, specifically. He knows he's not on the bounty board - he checks for that regularly - so this has to be a private commission. The attacker was human, and seemed to be a woman. He tries to think of people he has offended badly enough to want to kill him; it's a short list, and consists mostly of House Cardenas, and in particular its matriarch, Sabine. There are a couple of hishen criminals on the list, but they would want to enslave him so they would have used stunners. Ribeiro might want to silence him about her trip, but to keep that quiet she'd have to silence several people in Traffic Control and an unknown number of xeogs; not likely.
That's good, because it means he can ask Guzman for advice.
New Hope, Late May '01 - Chillin'
"Any ideas?" Makavan asks, having described his encounter to Guzman over drinks in the Green at the west end of Pub & Rec. Guzman takes another sip of hot brown fluid and creases his forehead thoughtfully.
"It might be House Cardenas," he said. "Although I'd expect them to want a show trial; trying to kill you suggests you know something they want kept quiet. Do you?"
Makavan shakes his head. "I never bothered about politics. I wish I'd paid more attention, now. If I do know something, I don't know that I know it."
"It could be someone sending Ribeiro a message," Guzman mused. "But it's a bit unsubtle for her circles. Have you offended anyone else recently?"
"Not badly enough for them to kill me."
"I know a couple of bounty hunters. I'll ask around."
"Thanks, man. Let me get these."
"No, I think it's my turn. It all evens out in the end anyway. Don't go anywhere, I'll be back in a minute."
Curious, Makavan waited. Shortly, Guzman returned with a woman who turned all the heads in the diner until Guzman's thousand-yard glare quelled them and they went back to their meals. Makavan was disappointed to see she was wearing a wedding ring, although it was hard to see under the gems overhanging it from the engagement ring further up the finger. That ring might not stop her dallying, but it would stop him.
"Captain Makavan, this is Ms Miya. She needs an escort into the desert. I thought you might be able to help her. Why don't you get acquainted while I get us all something to drink."
"Delighted to meet you, Ms Miya. How may I help you?"
"Have you heard of the Taraneh Shrine?"
"I'm afraid not. My education was more scientific in nature."
"I'm sure that wasn't your fault." Makavan didn't rise to the bait, and she continued. "Taraneh was an ancient xeog goddess of melody, and she had a major shrine here on New Hope, or Amid Jadid as the xeogs called it during the Shikar Empire period."
"It must be thousands of years old, then."
"Indeed. For reasons of my own, I want to visit it discreetly, and Mr Guzman tells me you are a trustworthy fellow who has been helpful to the Ribeiros. I understand there will be certain expenses involved; would six IRD be adequate?"
"That they would, Ms Miya. And please, call me Simon."
"Simon," she acknowledged. "And you may call me Victoria."
They exchanged smiles.
Status at End May '01
- IRD/DRD: -2 ("leave the battle board in defeat"), -3 (ship upkeep), +2 (successful further interaction).
- 5150 Stats: Rep: 5. Month IRD: -3, roll 445 so no loss. Lifetime IRD: 14.
- SWADE Stats: Bennies: 3 Wounds: 0. Advances: 1. Wealth: d8.
It occurs to me that SWADE already has Advances to handle character development, permanent injuries which could represent loss of Rep, and Edges such as Filthy Rich to represent improving standards of living. So, I don't really need to track Rep for my Star in this particular campaign. I shall ponder what to do instead.
GM Notes
The random roll for early month involuntary encounters gives me a daytime Confrontation (5150NL p. 34) with one Exotic, a female Basic Bounty Hunter with Rep 5 packing a P-1. This is nothing personal, the dice say, Simon is just in the wrong place at the wrong time; but I think it's more interesting if his Enemies catch up with him.
I like to shake things up a little to maintain my interest, so this time I used a tweaked version of the Mass Battle rules for the fight; it's the only part of the game with morale checks, and while abstract and emphasising the Battle skill, it does allow for both sides taking damage, and the odd blaze of glory.
- Force Tokens are based on Wounds. That means Simon has 10 (Wild Cards have three Wounds) and the Bounty Hunter has three (Extras have one Wound).
- Battle Modifiers: Simon gets +7 for the Force Token advantage (ouch). BH gets +1 for better weapon skills and another +1 for being a professional bounty hunter. She also has a much better Battle skill - d10 against Simon's d4w-2. They have identical gear, so neither gets anything for that, and it's a meeting engagement so neither is prepared or has a plan.
- A battle round represents an indeterminate length of time, a few seconds to a minute.
Off we go!
- Turn 1: Simon Battle d4w-2+7 = 8; BH Battle 1d10+2 = 5. BH loses one Token; Spirit check 1d10-1 = 3, but I spend a GM Benny to reroll; 4. Battle continues.
- Turn 2: Simon (10 Tokens) Battle 14, BH (2 Tokens) Battle 17; Aces on both sides there. Simon loses a Token, Spirit d6w-1 = 3; I don't want to Benny that so far from a refresh, so Simon retreats in good order.
Well, that was fast.
With all his advantages, I expected Simon to either massacre the bounty hunter brutally or force them into a rout; but as is often the case, the dice had other ideas. That worked pretty well, so it's worth a few more tries; it would work better with more figures on each side. The regular Spirit checks to test morale are good, and align nicely with 5150. Maybe swap out Battle for Shooting for individual gunfights?
The meeting with Guzman is classic Networking; Simon rolls Persuasion d6w = 8 (thanks to Aces), a Raise, which I interpret as getting what he needs but Guzman pays for the drinks this time, and a "successful further interaction" under 5150. I gave Guzman a couple of Common Knowledge rolls to know something useful. I also decided this would be a 5150 Chillin encounter, the dice gave me 4 PEFs and I decided to use one for Guzman and the other three for job offers. I haven't bothered writing up the ones I ignored; the one I took was to Escort a Rep 4 Mover (Trophy Wife) somewhere for 6 IRD. As I often do, I forgot there should be PEFs on entering and leaving a location as well as the ones inside.
Space Corsair's site gave me the name for Sabine Cardenas, who by my usual trick of looking up the meaning of names should be honest, wise, blue or purple, and possibly a thistle or a goldfinch. I'll stew on that for a bit. Maybe she's a xeog? That could be fun.
Likewise it gave me Victoria Miya, who should be victorious and possibly a shrine, a temple, or just beautiful and relaxed, depending on who is translating the Kanji. I decided the shrine was something she was looking for, and the post mostly wrote itself after that.
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