T20 Traveller - The Kursis Charter (complete Aug 8th 2005)

Morte

Explorer
Library Data

Broccli_Head said:
Nice detective work on the part of Silea!

Not really detective work as such, she's just read and remembered the library data for each system on their mail schedule. INT 16 EDU 16, our Silea. Here's what the ship's computer turned up on Miip:

Miip 0819 E999546-3 Ni 300 IU F1 V

Decoding the system database line:

Miip orbits a yellow-white main sequence star. The system has no belts and no gas giants. The starport is class E. The large, 1.125g mainworld is 90% covered in water and has a dense, tainted atmosphere. Population is about 30,000. The representative democratic government imposes a moderate law level of 6. Tech level is 3 (gunpowder and wagons). Miip is non-industrialised and it is designated an Imperial Ursa World.

For flavour text, the ship’s library data on Miip comes up with the following:

Miip is an entry point into the Linkworlds cluster from the Reaching Arm, but most traffic goes to Kerin’s Tyr instead since there is little reason to visit Miip.

Miip Downport is essentially a marked landing area. The adjacent village is populated by humans who will occasionally trade for a few minor luxuries but have little interest in offworlders. They will provide meals and lodging for a modest price, however.

Although Miip is 90% covered with water it is a very large world, so the other 10% provides plenty of land for the small population. The air is dense but breathable. It does, however, carry a taint in the form of radioactive dust particles which mandate simple filter masks as protection.

The weather is incredibly violent, especially in coastal areas. Travellers should beware of severe rainstorms, leading to flooded streams and mudslides in uneven areas. The rain is complemented by frequent lightning, since strong solar radiation ionises the atmosphere. The rainstorms can last for up to a week but this is rare. Strong winds also play across the planet’s large and fairly flat surface. Many dwellings are built partly underground in consequence.

The planet’s entire population of 30,000 live on one large island, part of a northern chain where the weather is less violent than the rest of the planet. Two thirds are human and one third Ursa. The humans are mostly lowland farmers and craftsmen with a pre-industrial society. The Ursa mostly live in the uplands, where they herd a hardy domestic quadruped and hunt game with rifled muskets.

Government is a system of village and town representatives who occasionally meet to settle larger issues. Law enforcement is informal. The Ursa and the humans get along, trading at times. The Ursa do not generally care to receive visitors in their upland homes, but some humans have befriended them at times and there are a few mixed villages.

The remainder of Miip is mostly unexplored. There are the usual rumours of ruins on distant islands, and a variety of hardy wildlife awaits the bold traveller. The reason for the radioactive taint is unknown – a nuclear bombardment in the distant past has been suggested.
 

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Renfield

Explorer
This is a great story, and I haven't seen a post in weeks, I'm going through withdrawls!!! I'd check out Sonellion but there's just too much for me to read, here I'm caught up, and this guys writing skills are damn good, so hear me whine for this story to continue: WAAAAAAAAAAH WAAAAAH :p :cool: :D
 

Morte

Explorer
Look at me ma, I'm getting bumps. :)

OK, I'm working on an update and there's a new PC to come soon. Meanwhile, how much XP do you folks figure they earned for the stuff that's written so far? Half a level (average) sound reasonable?
 

Morte

Explorer
Act III: Miip - They Sent a Whole Freighter?

Date: 163-993 to 164-993 Imperial.
Location: Miip system (0819), aboard the free trader “Avarice Rewarded”.

Sentry had been lively but uneventful. They unloaded their cargo, delivered the first set of starport records, and did a bit of shopping on the bustling, high-tech commercial hub. The ship now owned a very swish tech level 14 vacc suit, and the crew had been taking turns to show Luan how to use it. They’d also beefed up the collection of weatherproof gear in the ship’s locker.

And here they were, a week later, just out of jump at the Miip system and trying to get the starport on radio. The ship had no passengers, and there was nothing in the hold apart from forty tons of fuel in blisters to replenish that used on the jump in. It looked like there’d be no fuel for sale on Miip.

“They may not keep a continuous comm watch” said Sir David in the astrogator’s position.

“I… suppose not” said Silea. “I haven’t been to a port like this for a while.” She consulted the computer. “It should be early morning down there. We’ll land in the evening, if we just punch in a 2g transit. We can hail them every hour.”



Starships obviously didn’t visit Miip very often. The first sign of recognition they got was when workers in the fields south of the starport looked up to wave as they coasted in at a polite 200km/h, checking out the scenery. They flew up a valley and found a village at the top of a saddleback ridge. The low buildings were wood and stone, with turf and log roofs. Everything was obviously built to last, and the village was surrounded by an earth embankment.

The landing area was a couple of hundred meters away. It featured the only expanse of concrete in sight, sat in a sunken pit, and surrounded by another twenty foot earth embankment.

“The weather must really be something here” said Silea. It was clear for the moment.

She put the ship down in the landing pit, and they started to disembark.



The four of them headed down a vestigial track to the village, leaning into the wind. By the time they got to the embankment a reception committee of eight or so locals was waiting. They were all in natural fibre clothing, with bright cloths over their faces to filter the tainted air and weather-beaten skin around their eyes. As the Avaricious approached they saw muskets and a couple of modern carbines, but they were all resting easy on shoulders. The villagers’ body language seemed friendly enough, they were clearly just being careful of strange spacers. As they arrived one man, who stood at the front, moved forward a little and spoke.

“Hello folks. I’m Andrew Karrilane, the elected Elder here in Arodu village. Glad to see you’ve got your masks on already. Welcome to the village, what brings you here?”

“Rampant bureaucracy” Sir David grinned around the edges of his facemask. “We’re here instead of the mail ship to collect your quadrennial starport records”.

“They sent a whole freighter?” there was general amusement and bemusement. “Did you bring any mail? Was there any?”

“Oh no,” said Sir David, “it takes a five ton safe welded to the ship to carry mail. You can’t just put it in the hold.”

Karrilane shook his head ruefully and turned to one of the other villagers, a man in his fifties or sixties who was wearing a Marine NCO’s ceremonial cutlass on a gleaming belt. “Do we keep such a thing as quadrennial starport records, Garren?”

Garren seemed to grow 5cm as he replied. “Of course we do, this is a proper starport. I’ve submitted four sets of records before and they were all fine. I’ll check them over tonight and you can have them in the morning.”

Karrilane turned back to the Avaricious and, with one eyebrow bent knowingly, asked “So, do you want to sample the local cuisine then?”



The local cuisine was pleasant enough, and the villagers friendly. The crew stayed the night in a couple of village houses. They enquired after Ursa, but none lived in Arodu since they liked to stick together and their herd animals ate the vegetation at higher altitudes. There was an Ursa village about 4km away, uphill, so they decided to pay it a visit next day if the weather was amenable.

Karrilane advised them against taking the ship up to the higher ground – there was always the risk of a mudslide taking away whatever area they decided to land upon. He also warned them that the Ursa of this village liked to keep to themselves, and they were liable to just ignore humans who hadn’t earned their trust over time. Sir David tried to find out what the Ursa wanted or needed, i.e. anything he could offer in payment for translation services. Karrilane couldn’t think of much, and nothing that the humans of Miip didn’t trade to them already. He didn’t actually say that he didn’t want the Avaricious cutting in on his trade, but…



In the morning the weather was clear but windy. They collected the starport records – fourteen handwritten sheets of paper – and “stowed” them aboard ship. An hour later, clad in heavy weather gear, they stood and looked at the hill leading up to the Ursa village.

“If we’re going to make a habit of this”, said the Fish, “we should buy a ship’s jeep.”
 
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Morte said:
“If we’re going to make a habit of this”, said the Fish, “we should buy a ship’s jeep.”

Jeep? Oh come now, this is Traveller! Surely you mean a fine ATV! Who wouldn't want one of those big, blocky, go anywhere monsters. Granted, the last time I checked they did take up 10 tons in cargo, which might be a bit distressing for a merchant crew, but how could you pass up driving around in a big tired beast that looks like it came out of the B-movie Damnation Alley*?

Sure, you could have a tracked one, but go with the classic Wheeled ATV.

Great to see the Traveller story continuing.



*Excepting that strange three tires on each side of the axle bit, which somehow improved handling and provided propulsion in the water. I daresay the vehicles in that movie made a huge impression on my young mind at the time.
 


Broccli_Head said:
Or an air-raft!

True, but Morte already mentioned in a previous discussion about the various incarnations of the A2 that he was making a special effort for our heroes to not have an Air/Raft. While an ATV provides you with many benefits, it still cannot fly, which means you're still stuck with lots of interesting challenges on low tech worlds. Be it terrain or otherwise - you simply can't fly over or around the obstacle as the case may be.

Not to spoil anything, but the weather on Mip is going to be pretty important very shortly, and an Air/Raft would either short circuit everything or be utterly useless, depending on a Referee's decision.

Go lower tech. Go ATV!
 

Morte

Explorer
Damnation Alley!!! Ye gods, I've seen that film and read that book and I never connected one to the other until you mentioned it just now. What a travesty the film was.

Yep, I started them with no vehicle in the hope that it would cause a bit of fun. There is also the small matter of money. Using the samples in the T20-Lite booklet, a jeep is Cr2580, a wheeled ATV Cr52880, and an air/raft Cr273200. Sir David just bought one Cr8000 vacc suit instead of two, and made do with a 45kg environment suit retrieved from a corpse...

I'm hoping that lacking little luxuries like jeeps and vacc suits will encourage them to entertain any opportunities to make a buck which come their way. Why railroad 'em when you can starve 'em into submission?
 

Morte

Explorer
Act III: Miip - The Lab Sample's Affection for the Geneticist

Date: 164-993 Imperial.
Location: Miip system (0819), mainworld, uplands.

“So, you don’t do much walking up hills in the merchant game then?” Sir David grinned at the Fish, who was obviously suffering.

“Don’t these people have grav taxis at the starport?” he shot back.

Silea smiled. She was quite fit, in a gym/pool sort of way. Luan said nothing, preferring to suffer in silence. Sir David finished the conversation with his other spare breath. “It’s getting flatter. We must be near the plateau, the village can’t be far.”



A few minutes later, two Ursa emerged from the scrub beside the trail. They made to turn uphill, then changed their minds and ambled down to meet the Avaricious. They carried long, heavy muskets and the older looking one had a bag tied to his back with game-like bulges showing.

“Greetings, sophonts” called Sir David. “We’d like to visit the village.” The Ursa exchanged unreadable looks. He went through introductions, and explained that they were looking for help with a translation.

The Ursa were Termeigh, an adult male, and his nearly adult daughter Yvonne. They spoke Galanglic well enough, and gave simple answers to direct questions, but they just didn’t seem interested in getting into a conversation. Sir David ran out of steam after a couple of minutes. “Can you… Do you have any idea who might help in your village?” he finished a bit lamely.

“We will take you if you want. But everybody will be busy” said Termeigh.

“Busy?”

“Busy.”



“This is the village. We will return to hunting now.” And with that Termeigh and Yvonne were heading back down the hill, as Silea called “Thank you” after them. The Avaricious were left standing in the middle of the village, with a few villagers ignoring them and going about their business.

It was not so different from the human village of Arodu, except the doors were wider and the hunting-to-agriculture ratio was obviously higher. There were a few places of business like a carpenter and a smithy. Sir David shrugged and started to ask around, beginning with the more commercial villagers.

He got nowhere fast. Everybody was busy, nobody was interested in doing a little work for hire. The few human villagers spoke and acted just like the Ursa, except they were perhaps a fraction more forceful in their rejection. When he offered one of them some tech level 12 cordage from the ship’s stores – 3mm diameter, with a breaking strain of two tons, the best trade goods they could think of – he could tell that they wanted it but were rebuffing him anyway. He motioned the rest of the group aside.

“They’re stonewalling us. They’re not just busy, they’re discouraging outsiders. It’s some sort of policy thing.”

“Maybe if we stand here like lemons for long enough they’ll help us to get rid of us” said Fish.

“Or take pity on us…” Luan made one of her rare interjections.

“Well, I’m eating lunch. Something’s bound to happen if we start eating.” The Fish was a firm believer in something he called “Sod’s Law”, he’d brought loads of wet weather gear to ensure good weather for the trip. He dug into his backpack for trail rations. Since he obviously wasn’t going anywhere, the others started eating too.

Whoever Sod was, he appeared to originate from Miip. Within a few bites, the wind had dropped to nothing then started blowing harder from another direction. The temperature fell noticeably in a matter of minutes. All around them, urgency kicked in – shutters slammed home, breakables were carried indoors, and villagers scurried to and fro.

“I don’t like the look of this” said Silea, reaching for her pack.

An older-looking Ursa female came up the steps out of out of a large building with a cleared area out front, which looked like some sort of village hall. She strode up to them purposefully. “You’d better come inside” she said, in the thickest accent they’d heard so far.



They’d just about had time to move into a corner – “Wait there” they were told – when a huge, but low, rumble of thunder shook the shutters. And then the rain came, hammering what little of the building stood above ground. The thunder got closer and higher in pitch as they took in the scene. The hall was about ten meters by five, sunk into a stone-lined pit three meters deep, with only the shallow roof above the ground. The floor was suspended, and Fish made out stonework for drainage channels in the corners.

The villagers had let them in, but they were still not interested in talking. When the storm hit they had been working to get the hall ready for some sort of festival. They carried on in a subdued fashion, making stools and building a small stage at one end of the hall. They did answer a few direct questions: sudden storms were not unusual but this one was especially bad, there would be a heavy toll of damage.

The rain got harder and the wind louder. After forty minutes the door flew open and a fountain of wind and water flew down the steps into the hall, propelling a human couple and their pitifully howling baby. It took two big Ursa to get the door closed behind them. From what was said, the wind had lifted the roof off their house. They weren’t the last; an hour and a half later an enormous Ursa came in low to the ground, with two human children about ten years old crawling behind on short ropes.

Time wore on. Work stopped on the festival. The hall became a grim place, with children blubbering and adults snapping as the rain found its way through the turf roof. They’d already heard about two other houses failing in the storm when the second roof beam from the door started to creak every time there was a gust. It dropped a spray of water into the room every time it settled. The human children would stop grizzling and stare at it in silent fear.

After a few hours Fish poked a length of cane he’d found through the cracks in the floor. He spoke quietly to the others. “If it comes to it, there’s room for the children in the crawlspace down there. It’s very well drained, and this floor will be the last thing to go.”

They were still mulling over that when the door opened once more, and the same huge Ursa who’d towed the human children in earlier staggered in with another Ursa male on his back. The passenger was Turmeigh, the hunter they’d met earlier. He sank in a heap, smearing blood and mud on the floor. Everyone moved towards him. Most of the blood was coming from his paws, and they could see that all his claws had been snapped off or wrenched out. He gasped out his tale, speaking Galanglic as he hazily made out the humans (villagers and travellers) before him.

He and his daughter were caught on a steep hillside when the storm hit. They tried to find shelter, but Yvonne lost her footing and slipped down into a river where she was swept downstream a short way. She got swept against a boulder along with a floating log, which jammed her in place. Termeigh tried to free her, but he lacked the strength and he knew that he could easily get swept away himself which would be no use to Yvonne. So he came back to the village to look for help, and the big Ursa who was patrolling the village in the storm brought him in.



Every villager in the room swept forward to mount a rescue, all clamouring at once. The big Ursa held up one paw to stop them, and they immediately fell silent and waited for him to speak.

“Family people stay” he said. “I’ll need a rope and tools…” He walked over and grabbed a coil of rope which had been meant for the decorations, and a bag of carpenter’s tools. By the time he got back to the door, three Ursa were waiting. As were the Avaricious, who hadn’t said a word.

“This is not your affair” he rumbled.

Silea held up her webbed hand. “If she’s in the water, I can help.”

“I’m with her” said the Fish.

Sir David said “I was trained as a rescue worker in the Scouts, maybe I can help. Do you have a block and tackle, here, and a heavy pegs with a mallet?”

Luan, who looked like she would blow away in a stiff breeze, said nothing. But she didn’t move away.

The big Ursa measured them for a moment. “I am Thomas Arheim. We are glad of your help.” He reached for the door.

“Before we go, tell the village your names.”
 

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