Ao the Overkitty
First Post
alwaystoast said:
Edited the picture into the synopsis.
[Firefly] Ruthless Bastards of the 'Verse (Completed 3/6/09)
- Thread starter Ao the Overkitty
- Start date
Edited the picture into the synopsis.
Ao the Overkitty
First Post
“Episode 8 – Wanted Men” - Second Session
Synopsis of 7/10/06 session -subtitled Oh Dear God! It’s…
As Campan tries to direct the other two towards where he believes the next sentry will be, Daniel wanders around to find the other two Mort thought he saw. Campan notices the covered hole a bit too late to give warning as Daniel plummets from view. Hurrying over, they see a smooth, slightly slimy hole dug rather deep. Campan was unsure as to the purpose of the hole, but figured it was a trap or a well or a latrine or something. They did hear a slight splash when Daniel hit the bottom. While Campan determined if Daniel was okay or not, Mort went looking for a stick.
Alex: Going to club him unconscious?
Paul: (laughing) No. I’d be looking for rocks if I was going to do that. I want a stick so I can poke the ground in front of me. I don’t want to fall in a hole too.
Mort told Daniel they’d be back for him and that Daniel could explain the hole situation to Take after they’d broken radio silence.
Campan: Shouldn’t we spend a good half hour trying to get him out?
Mort: No.
Campan: Okay. You were very persuading.
They moved off to where the next one should be and decided to try the turkey call again. Mort set himself up closer to Campan, since they no longer had a second person to jump the lookout.
Campan: Gobble Gobble Gobble. Whiney. Neigh. Moo.
The guy up in the tree drew his pistol and looked around for the turkeys from his perch. Once he had located which bush Campan was making animal sounds from behind, he aimed and fired.
Campan: Gobble Gobble Gobble. Ow! Mother
er!
As Campan flopped out from behind cover, Mort saw their cover blown. He ran over to the guy’s tree and leapt to grab the guy’s legs. Bringing his full weight down on his decent, Mort dragged the guy out of the tree. As he came down, the lookout whacked his chin on the tree branch he was standing on and a rock on the ground, leaving him unconscious. Mort waited until Campan had had his fill of kicking the guy before slitting the lookout’s throat and stringing him up in the tree like the last one.
Mort then tended to Campan’s minor hole. He took the clean bandage Asta gave him and tied it in place with some strips of cloth from the lookout’s shirt. He figured Asta could fish out the bullet later.
Campan: Does it have to be so tight?
Mort: Suck it up. Here. Have an aspirin.
Liz: That’s right. Blood thinner. That’ll help him stop bleeding.
Paul: Note, I gave him a aspirin. Not two, but one. I don’t like him that much.
With his wound covered, they headed over to the last place Campan thought there would be a lookout. They repeated their plan, but Campan stood behind a tree this time.
This time, the lookout hoped out of the tree, pulled his pistol and ran over to the tree. Mort slipped out behind him in a stealthy manner. As he raised his knife, it caught on his belt, slicing it. His pants dropped to the ground, confining his legs and sending him off balance. Mort gave a startled yell as he stabbed his knife into the tree (about six inches from Campan’s head) to steady himself, but continued his forward motion. Mort lost his grip on the knife as his head moved to connect with the tree. As Mort finally hit the ground, his hand came to rest hard on a rock.
Campan stepped out from behind the tree and smacked the lookout in the forehead with the butt of his rifle. The poor guy crumpled as his skull cracked, falling on top of Mort.
Mort took the guy’s rope belt and put it on before slitting his throat and hanging the guy upside down, like the others. Mort made sure to grab his own belt so he didn’t leave evidence behind.
While Mort was doing this, Campan listened for sounds of others coming. He heard a horse neighing, but no hoof beats. When he relayed this to Mort, Mort wondered if these guys were using their own trick back at them. Campan didn’t think the guys were smart enough for that. They circled around so they weren’t walking right up to a guy making horse noises. They took a wide arc, leaving the forested area and moving up onto a rocky ledge. Mort was very careful to not knock any rocks. Campan was less careful.
Mort laid down and inched up to the ledge to get a look around. Below him he could see a small camp area. Off to the left along the bottom of the ledge he could see a group of ten horses off to the left with a tracked mule past them. He also saw a small creak past the horses with a clothesline hanging over it, laden with dirty garments. In front of him, out away from the ledge, he could see a guy tending a metal pot hanging over a fire.
Liz: I really need a violent criminal character. When I heard fire I thought ‘oooh. I could throw a bomb into that!’
Paul: Violent criminal isn’t necessarily what you’re looking for. Pyromaniac is what you are.
Mort wanted to find the cave and thought it was probably under him, but wanted to wait till the guy by the fire wasn’t looking to check. As they waited, they got a whiff of some yummy smelling barley soup coming from the fire. A few minutes later a guy came walking from underneath them towards the fire to chat with the guy cooking.
Since it was getting on towards dark, they decided to wait for dark. They were occasionally tortured by the smell of soup.
Campan: (whispering) If we kill them, we can take their soup!
Mort: (whispering) If we kill them, we can have haggis.
As it got darker, the two guys by the fire dipped their metal bowls into the pot to get some soup. They sat down on rocks near the fire and began to eat. A third guy came out from below Mort and Campan, got a bowl of soup, and headed off into the forest.
Mort’s ninja ancestors smiled favorably upon him as he snuck into the cave. He found the cave fairly dark except for a small light farther in. As he stealthily moved farther in, Campan made his way down and into the cave in a much less ninja-like manner. Luckily for him, no one seemed to notice. He decided to stay at the cave entrance and keep a lookout.
As Mort got closer to the light, he could see that it was a small lantern set next to a bedroll. Sitting next to the lantern was a largish man cleaning a small gun. As Mort approached, the guy got very jittery as he looked around for something. Mort stopped in his tracks and pressed up against the cave wall. The guy put down the small gun and drew a very big pistol. Picking up the lantern, he stood up to look for what was around.
Seeing the bedrolls weren’t full of people, Mort decided to lunge with his knife at the guy. As the guy was swinging around, Mort caught the shadow of some people hunched in the corner. The guy brought his lantern around to shine on Mort as he lunged. As he saw the gun train on him and fire, the light of the lantern revealed the guy looked a lot like Jasp. Then Mort felt a lot of pain as the bullet ripped a huge hole in his vest.
Mort finished with his lunge, slicing at Mad Michael. His first slash missed, but he followed up with a slash across the guy’s wrist to cut tendons. Mad Michael screamed out in pain as he dropped his gun. Campan knew the guys outside were coming, but wanted this guy who looked like Jasp taken down before they all died. Campan pointed Bessy at Mad Michael’s head and fired. As brains and gore splattered all over Mort and a good chunk of the back of the cave, Mad Michael dropped the lantern and hit the ground himself a few seconds later.
As the guys by the fire got up to react to the gunfire, Campan trained his gun and blew one of them away. The other guy ran for the horses.
Campan: (over comm.) Echo, Charlie. Come in and kill people.
Daniel: (over comm.) I’m still stuck in the hole!
Mort: (over comm.) Oww!!
With some prodding from Asta, Take put down his game and responded.
Take: (over comm.) Where would you like me to shoot?
Mort: (over comm.) Camp. Anything outside the cave.
Mort picked up Mad Michael’s large pistol and stamped onto the lantern to put it fully out. He then moved further into the cave and darkness. Campan switched sides of the cave mouth and picked off the guy that was fleeing for the horses. Then they heard silence. Well, they heard trickle of someone peeing themselves, but otherwise, silence.
Campan: Do you give up?
*Gagged response*
Campan: Hostages!
Paul: I’m glad you said that. I was making some assumptions.
Campan ran out, collected a burning log from the fire and brought it back into the cave for a light source. This allowed them to see three tied up and gagged guys dressed like farmers.
Mort then radioed to Take that he could hold off on killing people in camp, since they were mostly dead. He then told him to make a nice landing spot for the shuttle with the Korv’s plasma cannon.
Campan: (over comm.) Mort seems to have a big hole in his stomach. Someone may want to take care of that.
Mort: How are we going to collect the reward for his head when you blew it off?!
Campan: Did you not see he looked just like…
Mort: Yeah, I saw that!
Campan: Yeah, well, I see someone looking like that, I’m going to blow hising head off!
Mort: Neck! Neck!
Daniel: (over comm.) Anytime, Gentleman.
Take: (over comm.) Looked like what?
Campan: uh, we saw a ghost. From a former crew member.
Take: (over comm.) Kenny?
Mort: (over comm.) We don’t need to talk about this now. In public. And we are in public.
Mort walked over to the hostages and pulled the gag out of one of them. He quickly interrogated him to find out the guy was George from town. Then the guy’s face went ashen.
Mort: Come on. Chop chop. Make it snappy. What are you worth? Why are you tied up? I’ve been shot today. That makes me irritable.
George then peed himself. Mort just rolled his eyes and sat down to take care of his own wound.
George: (to Campan) Don’t let him kill me!
Campan: He probably won’t, unless he’s got a good reason. (pause) I won’t kill you.
George: (to Campan) I have kids!
Campan: Oh. Sorry.
George: They’re not tasty!
Campan: (to Mort) Does he know stuff that I don’t know. About you?
Mort: No. Oh that’s right. Take. Don’t blow up camp. We want dinner.
Campan then remembered the barley soup and ran outside to get some. Mort shoved George’s gag back in and pulled out the next one’s. He found out they were here tied up because they found the camp and worked for Alma.
Mort sent Campan off to kill the one guy in the woods while he looted through the camp. Mort pulled the vest off of Mad Michael’s corpse and put it on.
Mort: (over comm.) Campan. Don’t respond to this. We found some booze, but no beer.
Take made a landing spot for the shuttle and them one for the Korv.
Campan: (over comm.) The last one is dead out here. You want me to hang him too?
Mort: (over comm.) Yes, please.
Campan hung the guy upside down and naked, so his guy was a little different.
Mort talked to the hostages about his good friend Campan for a little bit. Asta asked for a damage report. Mort relayed that Campan had a small hole in him and he had a large hole in him, but they were both okay for now. He then started hauling stuff to the shuttle to have them sent back to the ship.
They took the next while to collect gear together and make plans for the items. Campan tied the horses in a train to the back of the mule. The hostages were brought out to the mule, but left tied up and gagged. What was left of Mad Michael was plunked down on the mule with the hostages. Asta inspected the hostages for injuries. While checking George for a concussion, she found it hard to get his attention off of Mort. She finally decided to give George a sedative and told another hostage not to let him go to sleep.
Campan: (gesturing to Mad Michael) You think there are any more of those?
Mort: God I hope not. We need to find out who his father was. We need to find the source, and stop it.
Take flew the Korv back to the Orasca while Asta flew the shuttle back.
Mort and Campan got the job of driving blindfolded farmers back on the mule while leading the horses back to the Orasca. They made a detour to the hole where Daniel was. Mort made a rope out of clothing from the farmers then tied the rope to a tree so Daniel could haul himself out. They then went to sleep for the night.
Once at the Orasca, they took the time to set up the cargo hold for the horses and put them inside.
Once it was late at night, Mort and Campan took the mule, and the people upon it, into town.
Mort: (to farmers) If anyones with us while we’re in town, you die first.
This had the affect of the third one peeing himself.
As they drove into town, they actually noticed lights being doused in houses. They drove over to the gallows and deposited the three farmers. Mort then took down the Mortcrow and set it in the passenger’s seat of the mule. He then hung Mad Michael from the noose by his feet.
Mort: (yelling) Hey Alma! You’ve got your boys back! What’s left of them.
They then high-tailed it back to the ship. They had a hard time fitting the mule into the cargo bay, but they managed it. They made sure to section it off with crates.
Asta gave Jenny the broken guitar they had procured before taking care of Mort. Mort was slowly losing his tattoos, the hard way. Once Mort was done, she dug the bullet out of Campan and sewed him up.
Take swung by the asteroid where they were supposed to drop off the payment to Niska’s crony. They turned down any future job offers. They then flew to Ezra and talked with Niska about arranging a deal to get rid of the horses they had procured. He offered to set them up a deal for fifty percent of the take. They agreed to the terms and made sure they were properly armed down on Ezra when they met the buyers.
Once off planet again, the crew, minus Daniel for some reason, sat down to discuss what they were going to do next. Mort tried to get Take to bring it up, but found he had to do the talking.
Mort explained that they were going to take a year off, laying low and doing ‘honest work’ to pay for new Ident cards for false identities.. During this time, they would also make lots of acquaintances that knew them by their false identities, thus solidifying them. After they had the cards, they could rob lots of banks then have false identification if/when the Alliance stopped them. They argued about this A LOT. The arguments were very long and complicated, so I’ll synopsize further.
Campan and Asta didn’t think that they could sufficiently fund themselves during that time on honest work, let alone save money for such expensive things as functioning false Ident cards. They also felt that this year off would allow their enemies all that time to get organized. Campan said if they were going to spend a year doing honest work, he’d want to do this very near to the Core, which wouldn’t exactly work with the plan. Mort talked about moving from planet to planet, having Asta and Jenny doctor for money and taking as much time off as necessary to amass enough money for the Idents. Campan proposed taking legit jobs now to pay for the cards, but Take said that they were wanted and Mort said they’d just up the jobs. Mort felt that they should be able to figure out where it was most optimal to be at any given time and where they’re least likely to get caught. He talked about sticking to the border worlds instead of fringe, since the border planets actually had some cash. He then talked about his plans for ship and shuttle modifications for their false IDs.
The conversation somehow got onto the subject of Campan’s skills for negotiation and bartering and how he possibly got so far into debt. Campan said that he made that small amount of debt go a long way, but Mort figured that Campan just drank all of the money away. Asta talked about Campan being good with money, unless he was near a bar.
Alex: He puts the bar in barter?
Campan: You know… I can… never mind. Fine. Believe I am a drunk who will give all his money away to the first bartender that comes by.
Mort: I hate to point this out to you, but all evidence seems to point that this is all completely true.
Asta; Unless you mention something that might suggest to the contrary, yeah.
Mort: I can’t think of when you have walked by a bar without going in.
Asta: We’re wondering what you might have bought with all your fine bartering skills.
Campan: Okay. Fine!
Campan reached under the table, yanked on his right leg a few times then lifted it up and placed it on the table.
Campan: That’s what I spent all of my money on!
Asta, salivating greatly, immediately snatched up the leg and started poking at it. She continuously spouted off compliments about it. Mort looked shocked.
Mort: What? You couldn’t use a peg leg?
Campan: Have you ever seen me fall behind? When we were running?
Asta continued to rattle off compliments, saying he probably got it cheap.
Campan: Yeah. They aren’t cheap.
Mort stood up and wandered off.
Campan: And now do you believe that I’m not some stupid drunk who gives all his money away?
Mort & Take: No!
It took some work for Campan to pry his leg away from Asta. As Campan was finishing reattaching his leg, Mort stormed back into the room.
Mort: Why weren’t you better at kicking the grenade?
Campan: Having a fake leg does not make you better at kicking things. It usually makes you worse!
Mort: You said it was a techno-leg.
Campan: Yes! That’s why I don’t suck at everything!
*Take mutters something about that not being true*
Campan: Usually, if you have a fake leg, that means you’ll wobble and you’re slow.
Mort: Yes, but then we’d know that about you. But you have a SUPERIOR leg, so you should be better at kicking.
Campan: (sarcastic) Your logic astounds me. You’re absolutely right. I’ll do better next time.
Roll Credits
Synopsis of 7/10/06 session -subtitled Oh Dear God! It’s…
As Campan tries to direct the other two towards where he believes the next sentry will be, Daniel wanders around to find the other two Mort thought he saw. Campan notices the covered hole a bit too late to give warning as Daniel plummets from view. Hurrying over, they see a smooth, slightly slimy hole dug rather deep. Campan was unsure as to the purpose of the hole, but figured it was a trap or a well or a latrine or something. They did hear a slight splash when Daniel hit the bottom. While Campan determined if Daniel was okay or not, Mort went looking for a stick.
Alex: Going to club him unconscious?
Paul: (laughing) No. I’d be looking for rocks if I was going to do that. I want a stick so I can poke the ground in front of me. I don’t want to fall in a hole too.
Mort told Daniel they’d be back for him and that Daniel could explain the hole situation to Take after they’d broken radio silence.
Campan: Shouldn’t we spend a good half hour trying to get him out?
Mort: No.
Campan: Okay. You were very persuading.
They moved off to where the next one should be and decided to try the turkey call again. Mort set himself up closer to Campan, since they no longer had a second person to jump the lookout.
Campan: Gobble Gobble Gobble. Whiney. Neigh. Moo.
The guy up in the tree drew his pistol and looked around for the turkeys from his perch. Once he had located which bush Campan was making animal sounds from behind, he aimed and fired.
Campan: Gobble Gobble Gobble. Ow! Mother
er!As Campan flopped out from behind cover, Mort saw their cover blown. He ran over to the guy’s tree and leapt to grab the guy’s legs. Bringing his full weight down on his decent, Mort dragged the guy out of the tree. As he came down, the lookout whacked his chin on the tree branch he was standing on and a rock on the ground, leaving him unconscious. Mort waited until Campan had had his fill of kicking the guy before slitting the lookout’s throat and stringing him up in the tree like the last one.
Mort then tended to Campan’s minor hole. He took the clean bandage Asta gave him and tied it in place with some strips of cloth from the lookout’s shirt. He figured Asta could fish out the bullet later.
Campan: Does it have to be so tight?
Mort: Suck it up. Here. Have an aspirin.
Liz: That’s right. Blood thinner. That’ll help him stop bleeding.
Paul: Note, I gave him a aspirin. Not two, but one. I don’t like him that much.
With his wound covered, they headed over to the last place Campan thought there would be a lookout. They repeated their plan, but Campan stood behind a tree this time.
This time, the lookout hoped out of the tree, pulled his pistol and ran over to the tree. Mort slipped out behind him in a stealthy manner. As he raised his knife, it caught on his belt, slicing it. His pants dropped to the ground, confining his legs and sending him off balance. Mort gave a startled yell as he stabbed his knife into the tree (about six inches from Campan’s head) to steady himself, but continued his forward motion. Mort lost his grip on the knife as his head moved to connect with the tree. As Mort finally hit the ground, his hand came to rest hard on a rock.
Campan stepped out from behind the tree and smacked the lookout in the forehead with the butt of his rifle. The poor guy crumpled as his skull cracked, falling on top of Mort.
Mort took the guy’s rope belt and put it on before slitting his throat and hanging the guy upside down, like the others. Mort made sure to grab his own belt so he didn’t leave evidence behind.
While Mort was doing this, Campan listened for sounds of others coming. He heard a horse neighing, but no hoof beats. When he relayed this to Mort, Mort wondered if these guys were using their own trick back at them. Campan didn’t think the guys were smart enough for that. They circled around so they weren’t walking right up to a guy making horse noises. They took a wide arc, leaving the forested area and moving up onto a rocky ledge. Mort was very careful to not knock any rocks. Campan was less careful.
Mort laid down and inched up to the ledge to get a look around. Below him he could see a small camp area. Off to the left along the bottom of the ledge he could see a group of ten horses off to the left with a tracked mule past them. He also saw a small creak past the horses with a clothesline hanging over it, laden with dirty garments. In front of him, out away from the ledge, he could see a guy tending a metal pot hanging over a fire.
Liz: I really need a violent criminal character. When I heard fire I thought ‘oooh. I could throw a bomb into that!’
Paul: Violent criminal isn’t necessarily what you’re looking for. Pyromaniac is what you are.
Mort wanted to find the cave and thought it was probably under him, but wanted to wait till the guy by the fire wasn’t looking to check. As they waited, they got a whiff of some yummy smelling barley soup coming from the fire. A few minutes later a guy came walking from underneath them towards the fire to chat with the guy cooking.
Since it was getting on towards dark, they decided to wait for dark. They were occasionally tortured by the smell of soup.
Campan: (whispering) If we kill them, we can take their soup!
Mort: (whispering) If we kill them, we can have haggis.
As it got darker, the two guys by the fire dipped their metal bowls into the pot to get some soup. They sat down on rocks near the fire and began to eat. A third guy came out from below Mort and Campan, got a bowl of soup, and headed off into the forest.
Mort’s ninja ancestors smiled favorably upon him as he snuck into the cave. He found the cave fairly dark except for a small light farther in. As he stealthily moved farther in, Campan made his way down and into the cave in a much less ninja-like manner. Luckily for him, no one seemed to notice. He decided to stay at the cave entrance and keep a lookout.
As Mort got closer to the light, he could see that it was a small lantern set next to a bedroll. Sitting next to the lantern was a largish man cleaning a small gun. As Mort approached, the guy got very jittery as he looked around for something. Mort stopped in his tracks and pressed up against the cave wall. The guy put down the small gun and drew a very big pistol. Picking up the lantern, he stood up to look for what was around.
Seeing the bedrolls weren’t full of people, Mort decided to lunge with his knife at the guy. As the guy was swinging around, Mort caught the shadow of some people hunched in the corner. The guy brought his lantern around to shine on Mort as he lunged. As he saw the gun train on him and fire, the light of the lantern revealed the guy looked a lot like Jasp. Then Mort felt a lot of pain as the bullet ripped a huge hole in his vest.
Mort finished with his lunge, slicing at Mad Michael. His first slash missed, but he followed up with a slash across the guy’s wrist to cut tendons. Mad Michael screamed out in pain as he dropped his gun. Campan knew the guys outside were coming, but wanted this guy who looked like Jasp taken down before they all died. Campan pointed Bessy at Mad Michael’s head and fired. As brains and gore splattered all over Mort and a good chunk of the back of the cave, Mad Michael dropped the lantern and hit the ground himself a few seconds later.
As the guys by the fire got up to react to the gunfire, Campan trained his gun and blew one of them away. The other guy ran for the horses.
Campan: (over comm.) Echo, Charlie. Come in and kill people.
Daniel: (over comm.) I’m still stuck in the hole!
Mort: (over comm.) Oww!
!With some prodding from Asta, Take put down his game and responded.
Take: (over comm.) Where would you like me to shoot?
Mort: (over comm.) Camp. Anything outside the cave.
Mort picked up Mad Michael’s large pistol and stamped onto the lantern to put it fully out. He then moved further into the cave and darkness. Campan switched sides of the cave mouth and picked off the guy that was fleeing for the horses. Then they heard silence. Well, they heard trickle of someone peeing themselves, but otherwise, silence.
Campan: Do you give up?
*Gagged response*
Campan: Hostages!
Paul: I’m glad you said that. I was making some assumptions.
Campan ran out, collected a burning log from the fire and brought it back into the cave for a light source. This allowed them to see three tied up and gagged guys dressed like farmers.
Mort then radioed to Take that he could hold off on killing people in camp, since they were mostly dead. He then told him to make a nice landing spot for the shuttle with the Korv’s plasma cannon.
Campan: (over comm.) Mort seems to have a big hole in his stomach. Someone may want to take care of that.
Mort: How are we going to collect the reward for his head when you blew it off?!
Campan: Did you not see he looked just like…
Mort: Yeah, I saw that!
Campan: Yeah, well, I see someone looking like that, I’m going to blow his
ing head off!Mort: Neck! Neck!
Daniel: (over comm.) Anytime, Gentleman.
Take: (over comm.) Looked like what?
Campan: uh, we saw a ghost. From a former crew member.
Take: (over comm.) Kenny?
Mort: (over comm.) We don’t need to talk about this now. In public. And we are in public.
Mort walked over to the hostages and pulled the gag out of one of them. He quickly interrogated him to find out the guy was George from town. Then the guy’s face went ashen.
Mort: Come on. Chop chop. Make it snappy. What are you worth? Why are you tied up? I’ve been shot today. That makes me irritable.
George then peed himself. Mort just rolled his eyes and sat down to take care of his own wound.
George: (to Campan) Don’t let him kill me!
Campan: He probably won’t, unless he’s got a good reason. (pause) I won’t kill you.
George: (to Campan) I have kids!
Campan: Oh. Sorry.
George: They’re not tasty!
Campan: (to Mort) Does he know stuff that I don’t know. About you?
Mort: No. Oh that’s right. Take. Don’t blow up camp. We want dinner.
Campan then remembered the barley soup and ran outside to get some. Mort shoved George’s gag back in and pulled out the next one’s. He found out they were here tied up because they found the camp and worked for Alma.
Mort sent Campan off to kill the one guy in the woods while he looted through the camp. Mort pulled the vest off of Mad Michael’s corpse and put it on.
Mort: (over comm.) Campan. Don’t respond to this. We found some booze, but no beer.
Take made a landing spot for the shuttle and them one for the Korv.
Campan: (over comm.) The last one is dead out here. You want me to hang him too?
Mort: (over comm.) Yes, please.
Campan hung the guy upside down and naked, so his guy was a little different.
Mort talked to the hostages about his good friend Campan for a little bit. Asta asked for a damage report. Mort relayed that Campan had a small hole in him and he had a large hole in him, but they were both okay for now. He then started hauling stuff to the shuttle to have them sent back to the ship.
They took the next while to collect gear together and make plans for the items. Campan tied the horses in a train to the back of the mule. The hostages were brought out to the mule, but left tied up and gagged. What was left of Mad Michael was plunked down on the mule with the hostages. Asta inspected the hostages for injuries. While checking George for a concussion, she found it hard to get his attention off of Mort. She finally decided to give George a sedative and told another hostage not to let him go to sleep.
Campan: (gesturing to Mad Michael) You think there are any more of those?
Mort: God I hope not. We need to find out who his father was. We need to find the source, and stop it.
Take flew the Korv back to the Orasca while Asta flew the shuttle back.
Mort and Campan got the job of driving blindfolded farmers back on the mule while leading the horses back to the Orasca. They made a detour to the hole where Daniel was. Mort made a rope out of clothing from the farmers then tied the rope to a tree so Daniel could haul himself out. They then went to sleep for the night.
Once at the Orasca, they took the time to set up the cargo hold for the horses and put them inside.
Once it was late at night, Mort and Campan took the mule, and the people upon it, into town.
Mort: (to farmers) If anyone
s with us while we’re in town, you die first.This had the affect of the third one peeing himself.
As they drove into town, they actually noticed lights being doused in houses. They drove over to the gallows and deposited the three farmers. Mort then took down the Mortcrow and set it in the passenger’s seat of the mule. He then hung Mad Michael from the noose by his feet.
Mort: (yelling) Hey Alma! You’ve got your boys back! What’s left of them.
They then high-tailed it back to the ship. They had a hard time fitting the mule into the cargo bay, but they managed it. They made sure to section it off with crates.
Asta gave Jenny the broken guitar they had procured before taking care of Mort. Mort was slowly losing his tattoos, the hard way. Once Mort was done, she dug the bullet out of Campan and sewed him up.
Take swung by the asteroid where they were supposed to drop off the payment to Niska’s crony. They turned down any future job offers. They then flew to Ezra and talked with Niska about arranging a deal to get rid of the horses they had procured. He offered to set them up a deal for fifty percent of the take. They agreed to the terms and made sure they were properly armed down on Ezra when they met the buyers.
Once off planet again, the crew, minus Daniel for some reason, sat down to discuss what they were going to do next. Mort tried to get Take to bring it up, but found he had to do the talking.
Mort explained that they were going to take a year off, laying low and doing ‘honest work’ to pay for new Ident cards for false identities.. During this time, they would also make lots of acquaintances that knew them by their false identities, thus solidifying them. After they had the cards, they could rob lots of banks then have false identification if/when the Alliance stopped them. They argued about this A LOT. The arguments were very long and complicated, so I’ll synopsize further.
Campan and Asta didn’t think that they could sufficiently fund themselves during that time on honest work, let alone save money for such expensive things as functioning false Ident cards. They also felt that this year off would allow their enemies all that time to get organized. Campan said if they were going to spend a year doing honest work, he’d want to do this very near to the Core, which wouldn’t exactly work with the plan. Mort talked about moving from planet to planet, having Asta and Jenny doctor for money and taking as much time off as necessary to amass enough money for the Idents. Campan proposed taking legit jobs now to pay for the cards, but Take said that they were wanted and Mort said they’d just
up the jobs. Mort felt that they should be able to figure out where it was most optimal to be at any given time and where they’re least likely to get caught. He talked about sticking to the border worlds instead of fringe, since the border planets actually had some cash. He then talked about his plans for ship and shuttle modifications for their false IDs.The conversation somehow got onto the subject of Campan’s skills for negotiation and bartering and how he possibly got so far into debt. Campan said that he made that small amount of debt go a long way, but Mort figured that Campan just drank all of the money away. Asta talked about Campan being good with money, unless he was near a bar.
Alex: He puts the bar in barter?
Campan: You know… I can… never mind. Fine. Believe I am a drunk who will give all his money away to the first bartender that comes by.
Mort: I hate to point this out to you, but all evidence seems to point that this is all completely true.
Asta; Unless you mention something that might suggest to the contrary, yeah.
Mort: I can’t think of when you have walked by a bar without going in.
Asta: We’re wondering what you might have bought with all your fine bartering skills.
Campan: Okay. Fine!
Campan reached under the table, yanked on his right leg a few times then lifted it up and placed it on the table.
Campan: That’s what I spent all of my money on!
Asta, salivating greatly, immediately snatched up the leg and started poking at it. She continuously spouted off compliments about it. Mort looked shocked.
Mort: What? You couldn’t use a peg leg?
Campan: Have you ever seen me fall behind? When we were running?
Asta continued to rattle off compliments, saying he probably got it cheap.
Campan: Yeah. They aren’t cheap.
Mort stood up and wandered off.
Campan: And now do you believe that I’m not some stupid drunk who gives all his money away?
Mort & Take: No!
It took some work for Campan to pry his leg away from Asta. As Campan was finishing reattaching his leg, Mort stormed back into the room.
Mort: Why weren’t you better at kicking the grenade?
Campan: Having a fake leg does not make you better at kicking things. It usually makes you worse!
Mort: You said it was a techno-leg.
Campan: Yes! That’s why I don’t suck at everything!
*Take mutters something about that not being true*
Campan: Usually, if you have a fake leg, that means you’ll wobble and you’re slow.
Mort: Yes, but then we’d know that about you. But you have a SUPERIOR leg, so you should be better at kicking.
Campan: (sarcastic) Your logic astounds me. You’re absolutely right. I’ll do better next time.
Roll Credits
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Ao the Overkitty
First Post
“Episode 9 – Laying Low” - First Session
Synopsis of 7/17/06 session -subtitled Daddy’s Girl
Mort walked out of the galley a second time, heading for the engine room. He was a little surprised to come upon Daniel lurking in the corridor.
Mort: Buggs? (pause) Campan has a fake leg. Apparently this doesn’t make him better at kicking grenades.
Daniel: What kind of leg is it?
Mort: It’s some kind of bio-techie thing. Asta is real excited.
Daniel: He’s in trouble.
Mort explained that Campan had taken off his leg and placed it on the table. Daniel asked how he disconnected the leg.
Mort: I don’t know. He played with himself for a little bit and it fell off.
Mort said he was going to go off to the engine room to tinker and sew up another hole in his coat. Daniel suggested Mort change his face as well. Mort told Daniel that he needed a place to get parts to build his latest improvement to the ship; a name plate changer. Daniel said that he knew of a company town on mining asteroid X61, which was nearby.
Mort: You need to go look at the leg.
Campan: (off screen) I’m not a god damn peep show!
Mort: I’m pretty sure Asta is still looking at it.
When Daniel walked into the galley he found Asta kneeling down on the floor in from of Campan with Campan trying to bat her away from his leg.
Daniel: Asta, when you look at it again, can I see it?
Campan: Jesus.
Asta: Sure!
Campan grumbled as he took his leg off again and handed it to Daniel. Daniel found it had a good heft to it. He tested holding it at different points.
Daniel: You ever think of using it as a club?
Campan: No!!! It’s expensive!
Campan eventually got his leg back.
Daniel: You guys decide anything in your debate?
Campan: Yeah. Mort is an. And apparently I’m a drunk who can’t deal with money. It was very productive.
Daniel: That didn’t solve any of our problems.
Campan: No, it didn’t!
Asta: I think we should fake our deaths. And the Orasca’s death.
On that note, Daniel walked out of the galley and headed for the cockpit. He talked to Take and suggested they land on Asteroid X61. He said it was a fairly quiet place where they wouldn’t care about outsiders landing and it would be a good place for Mort to do some work on the ship. Take concurred and set course.
Walking through the galley, he noticed Asta was no longer there, so he headed down to the Med Bay. There, he saw Asta searching through the Cortex for all the information she could find on prosthetic limbs.
Daniel: We’re not going to be able to drag you away from that for a while, are we?
Asta: I’m just looking at things for a tune up.
Daniel: Does he know this?
Asta: I think so. He mentioned something about needing to take it in for servicing.
Daniel relayed that they were going to be making a stop sometime soon and he’d like her to keep an eye on the local comm. traffic to make sure no one reports their presence. He then headed up to the engine room. He let Mort know their plans for landing. Mort brought up needing parts and methods of acquiring them.
Daniel: Yeah, I was going to have Campan buy them.
Mort: That’s not much fun.
Daniel: Well we’re avoiding fun right now.
Daniel finished his tour back in the galley to let Campan in on the immediate plan. He told Campan that his job was going to be procuring supplies legally. He also told Campan to keep an eye out for people messing with the ship while they were there.
Campan: I think if someone messes with the ship they’ve got Mort problems.
Daniel: Well, we’ve got to start avoiding trouble from now on.
Campan: Yeah, well, are we dropping Mort somewhere?
With an exasperated slump of his shoulders, Daniel wandered off to his bunk.
A day later, they landed without any fanfare at all. They weren’t even asked for their identification. They landed near the company town, which was fairly small. It consisted of a bar, a junkyard, some barracks for miners and a company store. A mining plant and some mining shafts were off in the distance.
After ‘asking dad’ for the money, Mort and Campan headed off to procure parts and beer.
Feeling he needed it, Daniel brewed himself a cup of his real coffee. This led to Asta wandering around the ship trying to find where that wonderful smell was coming from.
Campan tried to stop into the bar first for a beer, but Mort wouldn’t let him. The junkyard was your standard cast-off place for mining equipment. Thankfully this meant they had a lot of hydraulic presses and pumps, which is largely what Mort wanted. Mort picked out the best stuff that looked the worst, so they could argue better prices for it. Campan got the price down very low with Mort’s offer to fix up some parts so the junkyard guy could sell the working equipment back to the Mining company. Mort then explained to Campan that Daniel had better get the savings from the parts back or there would be trouble.
Leaving Mort at the junkyard, Campan headed on for the part of the mission he was enthused about beer purchase. The bar was mostly empty. It seemed to be the right time when most of the miners were either working or sleeping. There were maybe five miners scattered around the bar in drunken hazes and a portly bartender behind the bar, none of whom looked properly washed. There was also a rather pretty young woman in her early twenties with reddish-brown hair and wearing a long, flowing skirt sitting at the bar. She had the distinction of having bathed recently. She was the only clean person besides Campan in the bar.
Campan negotiated for portable beer with the barkeep. He opted for payday beer over regular beer, bartering five kegs of beer for the cost of three. He also got the bartender to throw in a free bottle of payday beer for the pretty young thing down the bar.
After receiving her beer, she nodded thanks to Campan and moved down the bar to sit next to him.
Young woman: I can see your clean.
Campan: That’s what Asta tells me. (pause as Campan adopts his cheesy leisure suit pick up attitude and grin) Were you impressed by my bartering?
Young woman: Oh yes.
Campan: It is impressive. (adds another cheesy grin for good measure) You wouldn’t happen to have a mule, would you? You see, I have all this beer and need to get it back to my ship.
She shook her head.
Campan: Oh. (over comm.) Uh, Daniel, I need a pick up. I bought too much beer.
Mort: Too much beer? (pause) Too much beer that you need another person to help carry or too much beer that you need a mule?
Campan: Uh, mule would be good.
Campan could hear Mort cracking his knuckles through the comm. He could almost feel the glare.
Mort: I’ll be there shortly.
Campan: Uh, there’s lots of change!
Mort: There’d better be.
Daniel chose not to respond, just looked at Take while sipping his coffee and shook his head. Asta traced the smell of coffee to the bridge.
When Mort arrived at the bar with the mule, Campan greeted him.
Campan: Hi Mort. This is, umm…
Mort: You haven’t even found out her name yet, have you?
Campan: I was getting there. I impressed her with my beer bargaining skills.
Mort: (complete lack of enthusiasm/belief) I’m sure.
The young woman offered that her name was Ezmerelda. Looking at her, Mort found she reminded him of someone. It was not a bad association, but recognizing anyone is enough to make him a little worried.
Ezmerelda: So you fellahs have a ship, huh?
Campan: (looks at Mort) Yeah? (sees Mort glaring) No?
Mort: Why do you ask?
She said she needed to get somewhere. Campan asked Mort not to kill her. Mort glared, then said that they don’t kill paying passengers. Mort called up Daniel on the comm., calling him Buggs, and asked him if they were taking on passengers and to come talk to someone in the bar.
Mort: (to Ezmerelda) Our XO will come talk to you once I bring all thising beer back. (to Campan) You’re going to help me load.
Once the mule was loaded, Mort gave Campan his order.
Mort: Okay. You stay here with the potential customer while I drive this back.
Campan: Aye Aye, Mortain.
Daniel discussed with Take where they were heading next. He suggested a planet called Leyla, which was near Paquin. He felt it’d be a good place to hole up for a little while.
When Mort got to the ship, he talked with Daniel briefly.
Mort: We managed to trade my services for the parts, which means Campan should have change for you. If he doesn’t have change for you, I’ll discuss it with you later.
Daniel: He bought five kegs of beer?
Mort: I don’t know. Apparently he got the bar man drunk.
Mort explained he be working on the junkyard for a day, but it would take two weeks to build and install the name plate changer. Daniel decided they might as well stay here for the two weeks. He asked Asta to check out the local shipping schedules to make sure there weren’t any big shipments going out that they might get noticed by the shippers. Asta muttered something about coffee then agreed.
Daniel: Oh. I expected this from Campan, but why did you call me Buggs over the comm.?
Mort: Because Daniel is a wanted name?
Daniel: Yeah, he called me that. They know me as Buggs too. You should have called me Jack. I told Campan about that name.
Mort: Okay. Sir. Just because you told Campan doesn’t mean everyone knows. (pause) Oh, and the passenger looked familiar. I can’t place her. Not familiar in the Jasp kind of way, but familiar.
Daniel made sure he stored Hammer, his sawed off shotgun, in the back of his jacket, just in case. He also asked Take to keep watch on the people around.
Campan: It’s a good ship. Practically all new parts. It’s almost a new ship at this point.
Ezmerelda: Sounds great. What kind of ship is it?
Campan: It’s a Firefly.
Daniel: (over comm.) Campan? I’m going to go have a beer there and check her out. I’ll probably be pegged as an outsider the minute I walk in there but…
Campan: ( cutting Daniel off over comm.) Are you bathed? Then I’m pretty sure you’re right.
Daniel: (over comm.) Aww crap. Okay. I’ll just walk up.
As Daniel walked into the bar, he saw Campan sitting next to Ezmerelda. She definitely looked like someone he knew, though he wasn’t quite sure who. He gave her an odd look as he walked up to the bar. He flagged down the bartender and ordered a payday beer. He then asked the bartender about coffee and ended up buying a small bag of medium grade beans, saying it was a gift.
Meanwhile on the ship, Asta broke into Daniel’s room and ransacked it for coffee. She took it up to the galley to brew a pot.
Now with a beer, Daniel nodded to Ezmerelda.
Daniel: How is it going?
Ezmerelda: (smiling brightly and batting eyelashes) Hey. I want to ride on your ship.
When asked where, she said anywhere but here. As Daniel took a drink of beer, Campan asked how it was.
Daniel: You didn’t have a beer?
Campan: I was told to bring back change so I’ll probably get shot if I don’t have every single dollar.
Daniel ordered Campan a payday beer.
Talking to Ezmerelda, he found out she just happened to get stuck here. She said she didn’t have a lot of money, but she could cook and brew. From this point on, Campan was a staunch supporter in her coming onboard. Daniel was weary of taking on any stragglers at the moment. He did figure out where he recognized her from, though. Mostly, she reminded him of himself, but also a woman he knew about twenty or so years back. This, of course, intrigued him enough to entertain the idea of taking her onboard. He explained that they weren’t leaving for two weeks. She said she could make due until then. She also commented that it’d be good to get away from all these unwashed men.
Daniel tried to find out more about what she was doing here, but she just said that her ship left her behind and didn’t appear to need her anymore. She said she’d been working at the bar for the past week. He found out where she was from, which happened to be where he met the woman she reminded him of. He asked her if she was in trouble.
Ezmerelda: Only a little bit.
She explained a couple people in the past caught her doing things she wasn’t supposed to do, but they were small potatoes and weren’t actively pursuing her. She smiled warmly and Daniel thought she was being truthful.
Daniel: Well, it doesn’t do a spot of harm to take someone on this ship. Doesn’t do any harm to take someone where we’re going. Like I said, we’re gonna be here another two weeks. I’ll tell you when we’re shipping out to when we’re on route.
Ezmerelda: Sounds great.
Fade to Black
Synopsis of 7/17/06 session -subtitled Daddy’s Girl
Mort walked out of the galley a second time, heading for the engine room. He was a little surprised to come upon Daniel lurking in the corridor.
Mort: Buggs? (pause) Campan has a fake leg. Apparently this doesn’t make him better at kicking grenades.
Daniel: What kind of leg is it?
Mort: It’s some kind of bio-techie thing. Asta is real excited.
Daniel: He’s in trouble.
Mort explained that Campan had taken off his leg and placed it on the table. Daniel asked how he disconnected the leg.
Mort: I don’t know. He played with himself for a little bit and it fell off.
Mort said he was going to go off to the engine room to tinker and sew up another hole in his coat. Daniel suggested Mort change his face as well. Mort told Daniel that he needed a place to get parts to build his latest improvement to the ship; a name plate changer. Daniel said that he knew of a company town on mining asteroid X61, which was nearby.
Mort: You need to go look at the leg.
Campan: (off screen) I’m not a god damn peep show!
Mort: I’m pretty sure Asta is still looking at it.
When Daniel walked into the galley he found Asta kneeling down on the floor in from of Campan with Campan trying to bat her away from his leg.
Daniel: Asta, when you look at it again, can I see it?
Campan: Jesus.
Asta: Sure!
Campan grumbled as he took his leg off again and handed it to Daniel. Daniel found it had a good heft to it. He tested holding it at different points.
Daniel: You ever think of using it as a club?
Campan: No!!! It’s expensive!
Campan eventually got his leg back.
Daniel: You guys decide anything in your debate?
Campan: Yeah. Mort is an
. And apparently I’m a drunk who can’t deal with money. It was very productive.Daniel: That didn’t solve any of our problems.
Campan: No, it didn’t!
Asta: I think we should fake our deaths. And the Orasca’s death.
On that note, Daniel walked out of the galley and headed for the cockpit. He talked to Take and suggested they land on Asteroid X61. He said it was a fairly quiet place where they wouldn’t care about outsiders landing and it would be a good place for Mort to do some work on the ship. Take concurred and set course.
Walking through the galley, he noticed Asta was no longer there, so he headed down to the Med Bay. There, he saw Asta searching through the Cortex for all the information she could find on prosthetic limbs.
Daniel: We’re not going to be able to drag you away from that for a while, are we?
Asta: I’m just looking at things for a tune up.
Daniel: Does he know this?
Asta: I think so. He mentioned something about needing to take it in for servicing.
Daniel relayed that they were going to be making a stop sometime soon and he’d like her to keep an eye on the local comm. traffic to make sure no one reports their presence. He then headed up to the engine room. He let Mort know their plans for landing. Mort brought up needing parts and methods of acquiring them.
Daniel: Yeah, I was going to have Campan buy them.
Mort: That’s not much fun.
Daniel: Well we’re avoiding fun right now.
Daniel finished his tour back in the galley to let Campan in on the immediate plan. He told Campan that his job was going to be procuring supplies legally. He also told Campan to keep an eye out for people messing with the ship while they were there.
Campan: I think if someone messes with the ship they’ve got Mort problems.
Daniel: Well, we’ve got to start avoiding trouble from now on.
Campan: Yeah, well, are we dropping Mort somewhere?
With an exasperated slump of his shoulders, Daniel wandered off to his bunk.
A day later, they landed without any fanfare at all. They weren’t even asked for their identification. They landed near the company town, which was fairly small. It consisted of a bar, a junkyard, some barracks for miners and a company store. A mining plant and some mining shafts were off in the distance.
After ‘asking dad’ for the money, Mort and Campan headed off to procure parts and beer.
Feeling he needed it, Daniel brewed himself a cup of his real coffee. This led to Asta wandering around the ship trying to find where that wonderful smell was coming from.
Campan tried to stop into the bar first for a beer, but Mort wouldn’t let him. The junkyard was your standard cast-off place for mining equipment. Thankfully this meant they had a lot of hydraulic presses and pumps, which is largely what Mort wanted. Mort picked out the best stuff that looked the worst, so they could argue better prices for it. Campan got the price down very low with Mort’s offer to fix up some parts so the junkyard guy could sell the working equipment back to the Mining company. Mort then explained to Campan that Daniel had better get the savings from the parts back or there would be trouble.
Leaving Mort at the junkyard, Campan headed on for the part of the mission he was enthused about beer purchase. The bar was mostly empty. It seemed to be the right time when most of the miners were either working or sleeping. There were maybe five miners scattered around the bar in drunken hazes and a portly bartender behind the bar, none of whom looked properly washed. There was also a rather pretty young woman in her early twenties with reddish-brown hair and wearing a long, flowing skirt sitting at the bar. She had the distinction of having bathed recently. She was the only clean person besides Campan in the bar.
Campan negotiated for portable beer with the barkeep. He opted for payday beer over regular beer, bartering five kegs of beer for the cost of three. He also got the bartender to throw in a free bottle of payday beer for the pretty young thing down the bar.
After receiving her beer, she nodded thanks to Campan and moved down the bar to sit next to him.
Young woman: I can see your clean.
Campan: That’s what Asta tells me. (pause as Campan adopts his cheesy leisure suit pick up attitude and grin) Were you impressed by my bartering?
Young woman: Oh yes.
Campan: It is impressive. (adds another cheesy grin for good measure) You wouldn’t happen to have a mule, would you? You see, I have all this beer and need to get it back to my ship.
She shook her head.
Campan: Oh. (over comm.) Uh, Daniel, I need a pick up. I bought too much beer.
Mort: Too much beer? (pause) Too much beer that you need another person to help carry or too much beer that you need a mule?
Campan: Uh, mule would be good.
Campan could hear Mort cracking his knuckles through the comm. He could almost feel the glare.
Mort: I’ll be there shortly.
Campan: Uh, there’s lots of change!
Mort: There’d better be.
Daniel chose not to respond, just looked at Take while sipping his coffee and shook his head. Asta traced the smell of coffee to the bridge.
When Mort arrived at the bar with the mule, Campan greeted him.
Campan: Hi Mort. This is, umm…
Mort: You haven’t even found out her name yet, have you?
Campan: I was getting there. I impressed her with my beer bargaining skills.
Mort: (complete lack of enthusiasm/belief) I’m sure.
The young woman offered that her name was Ezmerelda. Looking at her, Mort found she reminded him of someone. It was not a bad association, but recognizing anyone is enough to make him a little worried.
Ezmerelda: So you fellahs have a ship, huh?
Campan: (looks at Mort) Yeah? (sees Mort glaring) No?
Mort: Why do you ask?
She said she needed to get somewhere. Campan asked Mort not to kill her. Mort glared, then said that they don’t kill paying passengers. Mort called up Daniel on the comm., calling him Buggs, and asked him if they were taking on passengers and to come talk to someone in the bar.
Mort: (to Ezmerelda) Our XO will come talk to you once I bring all this
ing beer back. (to Campan) You’re going to help me load.Once the mule was loaded, Mort gave Campan his order.
Mort: Okay. You stay here with the potential customer while I drive this back.
Campan: Aye Aye, Mortain.
Daniel discussed with Take where they were heading next. He suggested a planet called Leyla, which was near Paquin. He felt it’d be a good place to hole up for a little while.
When Mort got to the ship, he talked with Daniel briefly.
Mort: We managed to trade my services for the parts, which means Campan should have change for you. If he doesn’t have change for you, I’ll discuss it with you later.
Daniel: He bought five kegs of beer?
Mort: I don’t know. Apparently he got the bar man drunk.
Mort explained he be working on the junkyard for a day, but it would take two weeks to build and install the name plate changer. Daniel decided they might as well stay here for the two weeks. He asked Asta to check out the local shipping schedules to make sure there weren’t any big shipments going out that they might get noticed by the shippers. Asta muttered something about coffee then agreed.
Daniel: Oh. I expected this from Campan, but why did you call me Buggs over the comm.?
Mort: Because Daniel is a wanted name?
Daniel: Yeah, he called me that. They know me as Buggs too. You should have called me Jack. I told Campan about that name.
Mort: Okay. Sir. Just because you told Campan doesn’t mean everyone knows. (pause) Oh, and the passenger looked familiar. I can’t place her. Not familiar in the Jasp kind of way, but familiar.
Daniel made sure he stored Hammer, his sawed off shotgun, in the back of his jacket, just in case. He also asked Take to keep watch on the people around.
Campan: It’s a good ship. Practically all new parts. It’s almost a new ship at this point.
Ezmerelda: Sounds great. What kind of ship is it?
Campan: It’s a Firefly.
Daniel: (over comm.) Campan? I’m going to go have a beer there and check her out. I’ll probably be pegged as an outsider the minute I walk in there but…
Campan: ( cutting Daniel off over comm.) Are you bathed? Then I’m pretty sure you’re right.
Daniel: (over comm.) Aww crap. Okay. I’ll just walk up.
As Daniel walked into the bar, he saw Campan sitting next to Ezmerelda. She definitely looked like someone he knew, though he wasn’t quite sure who. He gave her an odd look as he walked up to the bar. He flagged down the bartender and ordered a payday beer. He then asked the bartender about coffee and ended up buying a small bag of medium grade beans, saying it was a gift.
Meanwhile on the ship, Asta broke into Daniel’s room and ransacked it for coffee. She took it up to the galley to brew a pot.
Now with a beer, Daniel nodded to Ezmerelda.
Daniel: How is it going?
Ezmerelda: (smiling brightly and batting eyelashes) Hey. I want to ride on your ship.
When asked where, she said anywhere but here. As Daniel took a drink of beer, Campan asked how it was.
Daniel: You didn’t have a beer?
Campan: I was told to bring back change so I’ll probably get shot if I don’t have every single dollar.
Daniel ordered Campan a payday beer.
Talking to Ezmerelda, he found out she just happened to get stuck here. She said she didn’t have a lot of money, but she could cook and brew. From this point on, Campan was a staunch supporter in her coming onboard. Daniel was weary of taking on any stragglers at the moment. He did figure out where he recognized her from, though. Mostly, she reminded him of himself, but also a woman he knew about twenty or so years back. This, of course, intrigued him enough to entertain the idea of taking her onboard. He explained that they weren’t leaving for two weeks. She said she could make due until then. She also commented that it’d be good to get away from all these unwashed men.
Daniel tried to find out more about what she was doing here, but she just said that her ship left her behind and didn’t appear to need her anymore. She said she’d been working at the bar for the past week. He found out where she was from, which happened to be where he met the woman she reminded him of. He asked her if she was in trouble.
Ezmerelda: Only a little bit.
She explained a couple people in the past caught her doing things she wasn’t supposed to do, but they were small potatoes and weren’t actively pursuing her. She smiled warmly and Daniel thought she was being truthful.
Daniel: Well, it doesn’t do a spot of harm to take someone on this ship. Doesn’t do any harm to take someone where we’re going. Like I said, we’re gonna be here another two weeks. I’ll tell you when we’re shipping out to when we’re on route.
Ezmerelda: Sounds great.
Fade to Black
Ao the Overkitty
First Post
“Episode 9 – Laying Low” - Second Session
Synopsis of 7/24/06 session - subtitled A Different Definition of Laying Low
Asta finally realized that Jenny was living in her med bay, so she decided to move jenny into Kenny’s old room. Jenny was more than happy with her new accommodations, since they were slightly more spacious than the passenger dorm she had been living in before it got smashed, and much more spacious and comfy than a med bay table.
Mort had several jobs during the next two weeks. He worked on the name plate changer, cutting a large hole in the ship to do it. He worked with Asta to get the transponder connected to it and programmed to change when the name plate changed. Mort traded his services to the junkyard once again in exchange for some sheet metal and other parts for the passenger dorms. Asta and Mort, with some help from Take, also worked on repairing the passenger dorms, combining two former rooms into one. They decided to leave the upper dorms alone for now, since they didn’t feel they’d need them. They discussed for a while about whether or not to label the Brig as something like biohazard waste. Take vetoed the decision to do so.
Campan got to sit out in front of the ship in a lawn chair with a beer to attract passengers. He asked whomever walked by if they wanted a ride. This got him several strange looks and the bartender of the bar telling Campan that he wasn’t his type.
Eventually a miner actually walked up to Campan.
Dirty Miner: Where ya goin?
Campan: Uhh…. Off this rock.
Dirty Miner: You don’t know where you’re goin?
Campan: Where do you need to go?
Dirty Miner: Jiangyin.
Campan: I’m betting we can do that. Let me check with, uh, the people that actually run the ship.
Dirty Miner: What are you charging for passage?
Campan:ed if I know.
Dirty Miner: You’re not very good at this, are you?
Campan: I never said I was. They just put me out here with beer. You want a beer?
Dirty Miner: Yeah!
Campan: Okay. Follow me.
Campan led him up to the galley and gave him a beer.
Campan: (over comm.) We got a potential passenger here. I’m giving him beer. I don’t know what all to tell him, so I offered him booze.
Mort: (over comm.) Make sure he pays for it.
Campan: (to the Miner with his hand still on the intercom) If Mort asks, tell him you paid for that beer.
Dirty Miner: Which one’s Mort?
Campan: (to the Miner with his hand still on the intercom) You’ll know.
Daniel: (over comm.) Campan. You’re supposed to take your hand off the intercom switch before you say that.
Daniel wandered on down to the galley from the cockpit.
Dirty Miner: Mort?
Campan: No. Daniel.
Dirty Miner: Should I tell him I paid for the beer?
Campan: No.
Daniel sized the man up. He looked like a miner, with shabby clothes and unwashed. He did, however, look less dirty than the other miners he’d seen around and his clothes looked a little nicer, so Daniel surmised that this man was a foreman. So Daniel figured the man might have the money to get off this rock.
Daniel: Sunday best?
Dirty Miner: No. Just work clothes.
The miner relayed where he wanted to go and Daniel confirmed that that was close to one of the possible ‘safe’ routes they could take to Leyla. Daniel assessed that, if they were using regular shipping lanes, Jiangyin would take them a week to a week and a half off their course. So he decided the price of the fare was four hundred and fifty platinum for the trip. The miner’s eyes bugged a little and then he looked dismayed. He told Daniel that he didn’t have that much money. Of course, Daniel already knew this and used it to try and get the guy to drum up more passengers to lower costs. The guy said he’d try to drum up another passenger, but he wasn’t hopeful they’d have that kind of cash either. He looked a little disheartened as he left the ship.
Campan escorted the guy out and offered him another beer. He found out that the guy was two hundred short of Daniel’s price. Campan said he could probably squeeze up half of that, since he had an interest in going in that direction. The guy thanked him and said the help would probably be needed.
After the guy had left, Daniel mentioned to Campan not to lead potential passengers into the galley and offer them beer.
The miner came back a couple of days later.
Campan: (over comm.) Sir, he actually came back. You didn’t manage to scare him off. Want to try again?
Mort offered to do the scaring, but Daniel declined.
The miner let Daniel know that he had found a second passenger. Daniel stood around doing math in his head for a little bit.
Daniel: Aww hell. You would know this. You’re on a mining asteroid. What is the current price out there on fuel?
The miner went bug-eyed for a few seconds.
Daniel: Never mind.
Daniel et him know that the cost of passage would be 225 platinum a piece. He asked the miner if they were in any kind of trouble.
Dirty Miner: Nope.
Daniel: You telling the truth?
Dirty Miner: Nope. I’m lying.
Gabe: I meant is he telling the truth.
After Daniel had determined that the guy was telling the truth, he let him know when they were shipping out. The miner let them know that was payday.
Daniel went to Campan and told him to clean up Kenny’s room so that they could put the other passenger in there.
Campan: Uh, sir. Jenny is in there.
Daniel: I thought she was living in the Medbay.
Campan: Asta moved her in there. She’s been in there for most of the week, sir.
Daniel: I thought she was living in the Medbay.
Daniel told Take that they had another passenger besides the miners and asked about putting her in Kenny’s room. Take said Jenny had kind of been living in there.
Daniel: You didn’t do anything about this?
Take shrugged.
Daniel: She was perfectly happy in that Medbay.
Take: Yeah, but apparently Asta wasn’t perfectly happy with her in there. And you know…
Daniel: Maybe we could put Asta in the Medbay.
Take: That’s probably not a good idea. It is for the best if no one sleeps in the Medbay. (pause) Unless they’re full of holes.
Daniel called Asta up to the bridge. He let her know that they had three passengers and he had been planning on putting on in Kenny’s old room. But, since that wasn’t an option, since Jenny was in there, they needed a third passenger dorm. She let Mort know that they needed another dorm room. He grumbled.
Daniel went on into Jenny’s room and let her know that while she was okay in there for now, should they be taking on another crew member, she’d be vacating back to the passenger dorms.
Jenny: More crew?
Daniel ignored her question and left.
A bit later, Mort got a hold of Daniel while they were alone.
Mort: You ever figure out where that new passenger was familiar from?
Daniel: Yes.
Mort: Anything we need to worry about?
Daniel: No. I got the feeling she’s in trouble somewhere but it isn’t anything we need to worry about.
Mort: Not related to Jasp, is she?
Daniel: Not at all.
A couple of days later, Take brought up that they it would be helpful if they could acquire some more space suits. Daniel went about trying to figure out how they could acquire them discretely. He figured the best possible way would be to pay someone off, but he was unsure of whom he should pay. Mort took it upon himself to hatch a plan to steal the suits. Mort cased the offices, deciding that was the most likely place they’d have good, fairly new and unused suits. The offices had minor security, but enough that they’d need a key in to not be noticed.
On the day they were scheduled to leave, he and Campan went to the bar to hang out. They made sure they were covered in filth so that they wouldn’t stand out. The place was hopping with all the miners spending their money on payday beer. They looked around for a office types, but couldn’t find any. Mort then looked around for janitors. He found a rather old looking man of around eighty-three years old. He had a wrinkled, kindly face topped by well kept white hair. He sat at a table nursing a beer with his janitor cart parked next to him. The cart looked well maintained to Mort. It had all the usual janitor equipment stashed in side and a large sign on it that read Frank’s Cart.
Campan wandered over to the table.
Campan: How ya doin, old timer?
Frank the Janitor: Hi! I’m doing good, how bout you?
Campan engaged the man in conversation. Mort came over and inspected the cart. He found a wobbly wheel and fixed it. While he was down there one noticed Frank had a ring of keys attached to his belt. Frank thanked Mort for fixing his cart as Mort sat down.
Campan felt this conversation required beer, so he waved at the bartender to come over. The bartender kind of glared at him, slumped, and walked around the bar and out to the table.
Bartender: (unmasked annoyance in his voice) Yes?
Campan: Payday beer?
The bartender walked back to the bar, leant over it and filled a mug.
Mort: (to Campan) I think you walk up to the bar in this establishment.
The bartender walked back and clunked the beer on the table a bit messily.
Bartender: (unmasked annoyance in his voice) Would you like anything else?
Campan: No. I’m good. Thanks.
The bartender walked back to the bar muttering and shaking his head.
Ryan: We already can’t come back here. We’ve pissed off the bartender.
Talking with Frank, they found out that Frank couldn’t afford payday beer anymore. Mort grabbed Campan’s beer before he could drink it and handed it to Frank. Campan was rather shocked by this action, not sure what to say. Frank thanked Mort for the beer and began drinking. Campan took Frank’s partially drank beer and finished it off. Amazingly enough, the watered down beer wasn’t very tasty. While they sat there, Mort stealthily stole Frank’s keys and left.
Frank the Janitor: Thanks for the beer!
Campan: (fake enthusiasm) Yeah. Thanks for the beer… (to Frank) Who was that?
Frank the Janitor: I don’t know.
Campan: You get a lot of weird people like that around here?
Frank the Janitor: Ehh. They’re usually mechanics. Too much grease.
Campan left shortly after and caught up to Mort and they went into handkerchief’d mode. They entered the office building by a back door using the keys. They quickly found a closet marked For Emergency Only – Alarm Will Sound. Mort used his tools to keep the alarm from going off while Campan went into the room. Inside he found a lot of nifty emergency stuff inside, including some space suits hung up on the wall. He grabbed two suits off the wall and plunked them on the floor outside the room. He then plunk the other two off the wall and dragged them out so Mort could shut the door. Walking around carrying two very bulky suits was far from easy. They dragged the suits back out the back entrance where Mort and Campan both noticed a little, red alarm light above the door was flashing.
Take parked the mule near the offices discretely. While watching the front of the office building, he noticed a guard run to the front door from the inside, opening it up to look around outside. He held a walkie-talkie up to his face and started talking into it.
Take: (over comm.) Yeah guys. It doesn’t look good. Might want to be ready to high-tail it, Daniel.
Mort and Campan got to the mule and stashed the suits on it under a tarp, telling Take to take off. Take drove back to the ship, avoiding a group of guards heading for the office building. Once there he stashed the suits in the secret compartment.
Mort and Campan then went back to the bar and stashed the handkerchiefs and keys on some drunks in the alley. After returning to the ship, Mort closed up the airlocks.
Mort: Time to leave.
Daniel checked to make sure all the passengers were on board before they took off.
Once back in the black, Campan and Mort washed off all the grim from posing as miners before working on modifying the space suits. Campan painted the suits a different color to hide the Property of Corone Mining Consortium markings. Mort selected one of the suits to be his and fixed Mad Michael’s bullet-proof vest to the outside of the suit. Asta took the remains of Mort’s old suit and made a suit for Maxx.
After having painted the suits, Campan went and got two beers, bringing one to Ezmerelda.
Campan: You’re sane, right?
Ezmerelda: Yes. I’m probably the most sane person you’ll ever meet.
Campan: Good.
Over the next few weeks of travel, Daniel spent a lot more time in the galley than usual. The crew just assumed he was changing his lunch schedule. He occasionally asked Ezmerelda questions about her home planet and her family, Disa. He explained to her that he had spent some time on her planet a long time ago and wanted to know what had changed. She said she was from a farm, that wasn’t near anything big, except the Asterix mountains. Daniel was rather evasive to her questions about his interest beyond his previous statement.
About two weeks into the trip, Campan received a wave from a muscular man in his mid thirties in a wheelchair. Take figured this wasn’t one of Campan’s sick grandmothers, so he let Campan know someone wanted to talk to him. The crew proceeded to take up their usual monitoring positions with Mort in the engine room, Take on the bridge, Daniel in his bunk and Campan in his own bunk.
Turning on his screen, Campan immediately recognized the guy as Logan, the holder of one of his big loans.
Campan: (nervously chipper voice) Hi Logan! How are you?
Logan: Ah. Hello Campan.
Campan: I’d offer you a beer, but…
Logan: That’s quite alright. I figured I would have a chat with you, since you have a payment due in a couple of days.
Campan: Oh. I seem to have lost track of time. I swear I just sent you a payment.
Logan: Yes. That was two months ago.
Campan: I’ll have to scrape some things together. Doing legal work and all.
Logan wheeled back from his desk and around it to get closer to the camera.
Logan: Well, if you are having problems scraping together your payment, I do have a job you may be interested in, but it is not exactly an easy one.
Campan: I can definitely bring it up with those who make the decisions around here, but I can’t say whether or not we’d take it without talking to them. We like work so long as we don’t get out pictures on the cortex.
Logan: Well, how low profile you do this job is entirely up to you. I know of a large sum of cash being delivered out into the area. It is going to a depository on Regina
Campan: Are we talking Alliance credits here or…?
Logan: I am unsure of the type of currency beyond it being physical money, but it is being shipped from an Alliance bank.
Campan: This is going for what purpose?
Logan: The money is being set up to be picked up by a specific individual from the Core. It is being funded by some big time gambler that comes out here. Apparently he feels he needs more money to spread around.
Campan: Is it anyone we’d know?
Logan: No. He is rich enough to avoid needing to borrow money.
Campan: I just don’t want to be stepping on any toes. You’re not the only sick grandmother I have. So, if it isn’t anyone we know, what’s the gambler’s name?
Logan: Jack Leland.
Campan: Are we going to swoop in and try and take the armored car or try to get it once it gets there?
Logan: I would suggest actually taking it from the depository as opposed to taking it from the armored car. I seem to have heard something about that going bad for your crew recently.
Campan: Well, not all jobs go as expected, you know?
Logan: You might fair better on hard ground.
Campan: Yes, um, we can get shot there too.
Logan: The take is about seventy thousand platinum.
Campan: What is your cut?
Logan: I’d like twenty of that.
Campan: I like those numbers. Let me pass this on and I’ll get back to you. Anything else I should know?
Logan: Just where you can drop off my payment within two days time.
Campan: Ah. Yes. Of course. Uh, how much time do we have on this?
Logan: You have a couple months. I just caught wind of it being shipped out.
Campan: Then I’ll make sure you get your payment and I’ll get back to you.
Having completed the wave, Campan left his room and headed up to the galley to see if Daniel was there, but he only found Jenny. Daniel called an officer’s meeting through their screens and headed up to the bridge. While sitting in the galley, Campan watched Mort walk past him and head up to the bridge, closing the door behind him.
Daniel, Take and Mort discussed Campan’s wave for a few minutes before calling Campan to the bridge.
Campan: Is this what an officer’s meeting is usually like?
Mort: Usually there is beer.
Campan: Really?
Take: Yeah, but usually you’re not here.
Campan asked them if they had been watching. They evaded the question. Mort asked Campan how much he owed this person. Campan said somewhere in the high teens. When asked what it was spent on, Campan replied that it was used to fund the parts needed for the ship when they bought the Orasca. Mort was thrilled by that revelation, but hardly shocked.
Daniel: So, the wave.
Campan: The wave was A, to make sure I paid my payment on time and B, that he had a job we might be interested in.
Campan then proceeded to explain the job in a rather confusing manner. Lucky for them, they had heard the information straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
Campan: Anyway, apparently this place should be stocked to the gills with money.
Take: Ah. Money. We need some of that.
Campan: Yes. I believe he said something around seventy thousand platinum. He said he wanted twenty.
Daniel: Twenty percent or twenty thousand?
Campan: He didn’t say. I’m assuming he meant percent.
Daniel: Is there any chance he might be out to catch us in a trap with this?
Campan: Doubtful. There is the fact that I owe him a lot of money and, well, he’s not going to get that money posthumourously. He knows he’s not the only one with a number over my head and will probably anger a number of people if he pulls something.
Mort: So your big value is that you owe other people money?
Campan: Yeah. Frankly, I don’t want to piss off Pearl Parker. I don’t want to be in the sameing room as her.
Mort: She wasn’t that scary!
Campan: She’s Mort level scary.
Mort: She didn’t seem that bad!
Campan: Did you owe her any money?
Mort: No.
Campan: Did you anger her at any point?
Mort: No.
Campan: Then you didn’t see her scary face. I was a day late.
Mort: Is she the reason you’re missing your leg?
Campan: No. Oh, and he mentioned something about knowing about our last job. Just saying, someone might be talking.
Take: Maybe. It could also be because of our faces on the Cortex.
Daniel: From what I remember of Regina, it is a whole bunch of mining towns that the Alliance don’t care too much about protecting, just the ore. There are still some holes in this plan. We’re lacking a lot of information.
Campan: Well, I’m guessing he just gave us a taste and is holding back information to see if we actually take the job.
They then discussed how this would affect their current plans. The conclusion was greatly.
Campan: I know this is an officer’s meeting and all, but one of us has a very marketable skill that she can do without getting shot at. I don’t think we should point that out, cause she might not come back.
Daniel: I see.
Mort: See, the problem is she doesn’t ask for payment as often as she should, so it’s not as profitable. She needs someone to go around behind her and ask for the payment.
Mort wasn’t thrilled about running into the high likelihood of getting shot again.
Mort: I’ve almost gotten shot more times taking jobs here then I did during the war. And I got shot a lot during the war.
Campan: Well. I know there’s money. At the depository. It’s all for one person. It’s all for gambling. I imagine it isn’t going to be missed too much.
Mort: Is he going to go pick it up?
Campan: They’re bringing it to him.
Mort: Crap. There goes one of us impersonating him.
Campan: I’m betting, if he’s receiving this money, he’s got a private holding ship of his own. And they aren’t going to have a little popgun that pushes on your ass.
*Group Breaks Out in Laughter*
Ryan: You know. The Alliance had those force guns. Watch theing show!
Take: We’re taking the job.
Daniel: You know, what the hell. Long as you’re not too offended to go there and find out we can’t do it, I say we take this job and sweep the Alliance of this good and bad so we can get back on our feet without spending a year of our lives working odd jobs and get out there in the galaxy again.
Campan: So, what you’re saying is Yee-Ha?
Daniel: Pretty much. We’re going to take a look at this facility and go from there. Make sure we’re not about to get Mort shot full of holes. Well, shot full of more holes.
Mort: I think that’s inevitable, sir. Anyway. Fifty thousand split five ways is still only ten thousand a piece.
Take: Still enough to get good fake Ident cards.
Fade to Black
Synopsis of 7/24/06 session - subtitled A Different Definition of Laying Low
Asta finally realized that Jenny was living in her med bay, so she decided to move jenny into Kenny’s old room. Jenny was more than happy with her new accommodations, since they were slightly more spacious than the passenger dorm she had been living in before it got smashed, and much more spacious and comfy than a med bay table.
Mort had several jobs during the next two weeks. He worked on the name plate changer, cutting a large hole in the ship to do it. He worked with Asta to get the transponder connected to it and programmed to change when the name plate changed. Mort traded his services to the junkyard once again in exchange for some sheet metal and other parts for the passenger dorms. Asta and Mort, with some help from Take, also worked on repairing the passenger dorms, combining two former rooms into one. They decided to leave the upper dorms alone for now, since they didn’t feel they’d need them. They discussed for a while about whether or not to label the Brig as something like biohazard waste. Take vetoed the decision to do so.
Campan got to sit out in front of the ship in a lawn chair with a beer to attract passengers. He asked whomever walked by if they wanted a ride. This got him several strange looks and the bartender of the bar telling Campan that he wasn’t his type.
Eventually a miner actually walked up to Campan.
Dirty Miner: Where ya goin?
Campan: Uhh…. Off this rock.
Dirty Miner: You don’t know where you’re goin?
Campan: Where do you need to go?
Dirty Miner: Jiangyin.
Campan: I’m betting we can do that. Let me check with, uh, the people that actually run the ship.
Dirty Miner: What are you charging for passage?
Campan:
ed if I know.Dirty Miner: You’re not very good at this, are you?
Campan: I never said I was. They just put me out here with beer. You want a beer?
Dirty Miner: Yeah!
Campan: Okay. Follow me.
Campan led him up to the galley and gave him a beer.
Campan: (over comm.) We got a potential passenger here. I’m giving him beer. I don’t know what all to tell him, so I offered him booze.
Mort: (over comm.) Make sure he pays for it.
Campan: (to the Miner with his hand still on the intercom) If Mort asks, tell him you paid for that beer.
Dirty Miner: Which one’s Mort?
Campan: (to the Miner with his hand still on the intercom) You’ll know.
Daniel: (over comm.) Campan. You’re supposed to take your hand off the intercom switch before you say that.
Daniel wandered on down to the galley from the cockpit.
Dirty Miner: Mort?
Campan: No. Daniel.
Dirty Miner: Should I tell him I paid for the beer?
Campan: No.
Daniel sized the man up. He looked like a miner, with shabby clothes and unwashed. He did, however, look less dirty than the other miners he’d seen around and his clothes looked a little nicer, so Daniel surmised that this man was a foreman. So Daniel figured the man might have the money to get off this rock.
Daniel: Sunday best?
Dirty Miner: No. Just work clothes.
The miner relayed where he wanted to go and Daniel confirmed that that was close to one of the possible ‘safe’ routes they could take to Leyla. Daniel assessed that, if they were using regular shipping lanes, Jiangyin would take them a week to a week and a half off their course. So he decided the price of the fare was four hundred and fifty platinum for the trip. The miner’s eyes bugged a little and then he looked dismayed. He told Daniel that he didn’t have that much money. Of course, Daniel already knew this and used it to try and get the guy to drum up more passengers to lower costs. The guy said he’d try to drum up another passenger, but he wasn’t hopeful they’d have that kind of cash either. He looked a little disheartened as he left the ship.
Campan escorted the guy out and offered him another beer. He found out that the guy was two hundred short of Daniel’s price. Campan said he could probably squeeze up half of that, since he had an interest in going in that direction. The guy thanked him and said the help would probably be needed.
After the guy had left, Daniel mentioned to Campan not to lead potential passengers into the galley and offer them beer.
The miner came back a couple of days later.
Campan: (over comm.) Sir, he actually came back. You didn’t manage to scare him off. Want to try again?
Mort offered to do the scaring, but Daniel declined.
The miner let Daniel know that he had found a second passenger. Daniel stood around doing math in his head for a little bit.
Daniel: Aww hell. You would know this. You’re on a mining asteroid. What is the current price out there on fuel?
The miner went bug-eyed for a few seconds.
Daniel: Never mind.
Daniel et him know that the cost of passage would be 225 platinum a piece. He asked the miner if they were in any kind of trouble.
Dirty Miner: Nope.
Daniel: You telling the truth?
Dirty Miner: Nope. I’m lying.
Gabe: I meant is he telling the truth.
After Daniel had determined that the guy was telling the truth, he let him know when they were shipping out. The miner let them know that was payday.
Daniel went to Campan and told him to clean up Kenny’s room so that they could put the other passenger in there.
Campan: Uh, sir. Jenny is in there.
Daniel: I thought she was living in the Medbay.
Campan: Asta moved her in there. She’s been in there for most of the week, sir.
Daniel: I thought she was living in the Medbay.
Daniel told Take that they had another passenger besides the miners and asked about putting her in Kenny’s room. Take said Jenny had kind of been living in there.
Daniel: You didn’t do anything about this?
Take shrugged.
Daniel: She was perfectly happy in that Medbay.
Take: Yeah, but apparently Asta wasn’t perfectly happy with her in there. And you know…
Daniel: Maybe we could put Asta in the Medbay.
Take: That’s probably not a good idea. It is for the best if no one sleeps in the Medbay. (pause) Unless they’re full of holes.
Daniel called Asta up to the bridge. He let her know that they had three passengers and he had been planning on putting on in Kenny’s old room. But, since that wasn’t an option, since Jenny was in there, they needed a third passenger dorm. She let Mort know that they needed another dorm room. He grumbled.
Daniel went on into Jenny’s room and let her know that while she was okay in there for now, should they be taking on another crew member, she’d be vacating back to the passenger dorms.
Jenny: More crew?
Daniel ignored her question and left.
A bit later, Mort got a hold of Daniel while they were alone.
Mort: You ever figure out where that new passenger was familiar from?
Daniel: Yes.
Mort: Anything we need to worry about?
Daniel: No. I got the feeling she’s in trouble somewhere but it isn’t anything we need to worry about.
Mort: Not related to Jasp, is she?
Daniel: Not at all.
A couple of days later, Take brought up that they it would be helpful if they could acquire some more space suits. Daniel went about trying to figure out how they could acquire them discretely. He figured the best possible way would be to pay someone off, but he was unsure of whom he should pay. Mort took it upon himself to hatch a plan to steal the suits. Mort cased the offices, deciding that was the most likely place they’d have good, fairly new and unused suits. The offices had minor security, but enough that they’d need a key in to not be noticed.
On the day they were scheduled to leave, he and Campan went to the bar to hang out. They made sure they were covered in filth so that they wouldn’t stand out. The place was hopping with all the miners spending their money on payday beer. They looked around for a office types, but couldn’t find any. Mort then looked around for janitors. He found a rather old looking man of around eighty-three years old. He had a wrinkled, kindly face topped by well kept white hair. He sat at a table nursing a beer with his janitor cart parked next to him. The cart looked well maintained to Mort. It had all the usual janitor equipment stashed in side and a large sign on it that read Frank’s Cart.
Campan wandered over to the table.
Campan: How ya doin, old timer?
Frank the Janitor: Hi! I’m doing good, how bout you?
Campan engaged the man in conversation. Mort came over and inspected the cart. He found a wobbly wheel and fixed it. While he was down there one noticed Frank had a ring of keys attached to his belt. Frank thanked Mort for fixing his cart as Mort sat down.
Campan felt this conversation required beer, so he waved at the bartender to come over. The bartender kind of glared at him, slumped, and walked around the bar and out to the table.
Bartender: (unmasked annoyance in his voice) Yes?
Campan: Payday beer?
The bartender walked back to the bar, leant over it and filled a mug.
Mort: (to Campan) I think you walk up to the bar in this establishment.
The bartender walked back and clunked the beer on the table a bit messily.
Bartender: (unmasked annoyance in his voice) Would you like anything else?
Campan: No. I’m good. Thanks.
The bartender walked back to the bar muttering and shaking his head.
Ryan: We already can’t come back here. We’ve pissed off the bartender.
Talking with Frank, they found out that Frank couldn’t afford payday beer anymore. Mort grabbed Campan’s beer before he could drink it and handed it to Frank. Campan was rather shocked by this action, not sure what to say. Frank thanked Mort for the beer and began drinking. Campan took Frank’s partially drank beer and finished it off. Amazingly enough, the watered down beer wasn’t very tasty. While they sat there, Mort stealthily stole Frank’s keys and left.
Frank the Janitor: Thanks for the beer!
Campan: (fake enthusiasm) Yeah. Thanks for the beer… (to Frank) Who was that?
Frank the Janitor: I don’t know.
Campan: You get a lot of weird people like that around here?
Frank the Janitor: Ehh. They’re usually mechanics. Too much grease.
Campan left shortly after and caught up to Mort and they went into handkerchief’d mode. They entered the office building by a back door using the keys. They quickly found a closet marked For Emergency Only – Alarm Will Sound. Mort used his tools to keep the alarm from going off while Campan went into the room. Inside he found a lot of nifty emergency stuff inside, including some space suits hung up on the wall. He grabbed two suits off the wall and plunked them on the floor outside the room. He then plunk the other two off the wall and dragged them out so Mort could shut the door. Walking around carrying two very bulky suits was far from easy. They dragged the suits back out the back entrance where Mort and Campan both noticed a little, red alarm light above the door was flashing.
Take parked the mule near the offices discretely. While watching the front of the office building, he noticed a guard run to the front door from the inside, opening it up to look around outside. He held a walkie-talkie up to his face and started talking into it.
Take: (over comm.) Yeah guys. It doesn’t look good. Might want to be ready to high-tail it, Daniel.
Mort and Campan got to the mule and stashed the suits on it under a tarp, telling Take to take off. Take drove back to the ship, avoiding a group of guards heading for the office building. Once there he stashed the suits in the secret compartment.
Mort and Campan then went back to the bar and stashed the handkerchiefs and keys on some drunks in the alley. After returning to the ship, Mort closed up the airlocks.
Mort: Time to leave.
Daniel checked to make sure all the passengers were on board before they took off.
Once back in the black, Campan and Mort washed off all the grim from posing as miners before working on modifying the space suits. Campan painted the suits a different color to hide the Property of Corone Mining Consortium markings. Mort selected one of the suits to be his and fixed Mad Michael’s bullet-proof vest to the outside of the suit. Asta took the remains of Mort’s old suit and made a suit for Maxx.
After having painted the suits, Campan went and got two beers, bringing one to Ezmerelda.
Campan: You’re sane, right?
Ezmerelda: Yes. I’m probably the most sane person you’ll ever meet.
Campan: Good.
Over the next few weeks of travel, Daniel spent a lot more time in the galley than usual. The crew just assumed he was changing his lunch schedule. He occasionally asked Ezmerelda questions about her home planet and her family, Disa. He explained to her that he had spent some time on her planet a long time ago and wanted to know what had changed. She said she was from a farm, that wasn’t near anything big, except the Asterix mountains. Daniel was rather evasive to her questions about his interest beyond his previous statement.
About two weeks into the trip, Campan received a wave from a muscular man in his mid thirties in a wheelchair. Take figured this wasn’t one of Campan’s sick grandmothers, so he let Campan know someone wanted to talk to him. The crew proceeded to take up their usual monitoring positions with Mort in the engine room, Take on the bridge, Daniel in his bunk and Campan in his own bunk.
Turning on his screen, Campan immediately recognized the guy as Logan, the holder of one of his big loans.
Campan: (nervously chipper voice) Hi Logan! How are you?
Logan: Ah. Hello Campan.
Campan: I’d offer you a beer, but…
Logan: That’s quite alright. I figured I would have a chat with you, since you have a payment due in a couple of days.
Campan: Oh. I seem to have lost track of time. I swear I just sent you a payment.
Logan: Yes. That was two months ago.
Campan: I’ll have to scrape some things together. Doing legal work and all.
Logan wheeled back from his desk and around it to get closer to the camera.
Logan: Well, if you are having problems scraping together your payment, I do have a job you may be interested in, but it is not exactly an easy one.
Campan: I can definitely bring it up with those who make the decisions around here, but I can’t say whether or not we’d take it without talking to them. We like work so long as we don’t get out pictures on the cortex.
Logan: Well, how low profile you do this job is entirely up to you. I know of a large sum of cash being delivered out into the area. It is going to a depository on Regina
Campan: Are we talking Alliance credits here or…?
Logan: I am unsure of the type of currency beyond it being physical money, but it is being shipped from an Alliance bank.
Campan: This is going for what purpose?
Logan: The money is being set up to be picked up by a specific individual from the Core. It is being funded by some big time gambler that comes out here. Apparently he feels he needs more money to spread around.
Campan: Is it anyone we’d know?
Logan: No. He is rich enough to avoid needing to borrow money.
Campan: I just don’t want to be stepping on any toes. You’re not the only sick grandmother I have. So, if it isn’t anyone we know, what’s the gambler’s name?
Logan: Jack Leland.
Campan: Are we going to swoop in and try and take the armored car or try to get it once it gets there?
Logan: I would suggest actually taking it from the depository as opposed to taking it from the armored car. I seem to have heard something about that going bad for your crew recently.
Campan: Well, not all jobs go as expected, you know?
Logan: You might fair better on hard ground.
Campan: Yes, um, we can get shot there too.
Logan: The take is about seventy thousand platinum.
Campan: What is your cut?
Logan: I’d like twenty of that.
Campan: I like those numbers. Let me pass this on and I’ll get back to you. Anything else I should know?
Logan: Just where you can drop off my payment within two days time.
Campan: Ah. Yes. Of course. Uh, how much time do we have on this?
Logan: You have a couple months. I just caught wind of it being shipped out.
Campan: Then I’ll make sure you get your payment and I’ll get back to you.
Having completed the wave, Campan left his room and headed up to the galley to see if Daniel was there, but he only found Jenny. Daniel called an officer’s meeting through their screens and headed up to the bridge. While sitting in the galley, Campan watched Mort walk past him and head up to the bridge, closing the door behind him.
Daniel, Take and Mort discussed Campan’s wave for a few minutes before calling Campan to the bridge.
Campan: Is this what an officer’s meeting is usually like?
Mort: Usually there is beer.
Campan: Really?
Take: Yeah, but usually you’re not here.
Campan asked them if they had been watching. They evaded the question. Mort asked Campan how much he owed this person. Campan said somewhere in the high teens. When asked what it was spent on, Campan replied that it was used to fund the parts needed for the ship when they bought the Orasca. Mort was thrilled by that revelation, but hardly shocked.
Daniel: So, the wave.
Campan: The wave was A, to make sure I paid my payment on time and B, that he had a job we might be interested in.
Campan then proceeded to explain the job in a rather confusing manner. Lucky for them, they had heard the information straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
Campan: Anyway, apparently this place should be stocked to the gills with money.
Take: Ah. Money. We need some of that.
Campan: Yes. I believe he said something around seventy thousand platinum. He said he wanted twenty.
Daniel: Twenty percent or twenty thousand?
Campan: He didn’t say. I’m assuming he meant percent.
Daniel: Is there any chance he might be out to catch us in a trap with this?
Campan: Doubtful. There is the fact that I owe him a lot of money and, well, he’s not going to get that money posthumourously. He knows he’s not the only one with a number over my head and will probably anger a number of people if he pulls something.
Mort: So your big value is that you owe other people money?
Campan: Yeah. Frankly, I don’t want to piss off Pearl Parker. I don’t want to be in the same
ing room as her.Mort: She wasn’t that scary!
Campan: She’s Mort level scary.
Mort: She didn’t seem that bad!
Campan: Did you owe her any money?
Mort: No.
Campan: Did you anger her at any point?
Mort: No.
Campan: Then you didn’t see her scary face. I was a day late.
Mort: Is she the reason you’re missing your leg?
Campan: No. Oh, and he mentioned something about knowing about our last job. Just saying, someone might be talking.
Take: Maybe. It could also be because of our faces on the Cortex.
Daniel: From what I remember of Regina, it is a whole bunch of mining towns that the Alliance don’t care too much about protecting, just the ore. There are still some holes in this plan. We’re lacking a lot of information.
Campan: Well, I’m guessing he just gave us a taste and is holding back information to see if we actually take the job.
They then discussed how this would affect their current plans. The conclusion was greatly.
Campan: I know this is an officer’s meeting and all, but one of us has a very marketable skill that she can do without getting shot at. I don’t think we should point that out, cause she might not come back.
Daniel: I see.
Mort: See, the problem is she doesn’t ask for payment as often as she should, so it’s not as profitable. She needs someone to go around behind her and ask for the payment.
Mort wasn’t thrilled about running into the high likelihood of getting shot again.
Mort: I’ve almost gotten shot more times taking jobs here then I did during the war. And I got shot a lot during the war.
Campan: Well. I know there’s money. At the depository. It’s all for one person. It’s all for gambling. I imagine it isn’t going to be missed too much.
Mort: Is he going to go pick it up?
Campan: They’re bringing it to him.
Mort: Crap. There goes one of us impersonating him.
Campan: I’m betting, if he’s receiving this money, he’s got a private holding ship of his own. And they aren’t going to have a little popgun that pushes on your ass.
*Group Breaks Out in Laughter*
Ryan: You know. The Alliance had those force guns. Watch the
ing show!Take: We’re taking the job.
Daniel: You know, what the hell. Long as you’re not too offended to go there and find out we can’t do it, I say we take this job and sweep the Alliance of this good and bad so we can get back on our feet without spending a year of our lives working odd jobs and get out there in the galaxy again.
Campan: So, what you’re saying is Yee-Ha?
Daniel: Pretty much. We’re going to take a look at this facility and go from there. Make sure we’re not about to get Mort shot full of holes. Well, shot full of more holes.
Mort: I think that’s inevitable, sir. Anyway. Fifty thousand split five ways is still only ten thousand a piece.
Take: Still enough to get good fake Ident cards.
Fade to Black
Ao the Overkitty
First Post
“Episode 9 – Laying Low” - Third Session
Synopsis of 8/07/06 session - subtitled Campan refuses to bring joy into Mort’s life
A few days later Daniel got Take alone on the bridge. He brought up the possibility of taking on Ezmerelda as crew. He suggested sending her down to Jiangyin with the passengers to see if she had skills in that area. Take tried to route out what Daniel’s reasons for keeping her around were, but he was unhappy with the answers he received (mostly since Gabe wasn’t there to give the answers).
Take called Asta up to the bridge. Since they had already discussed her flying down to drop off the passengers, Take brought up taking Ezmerelda along to help with that. Asta asked if she was being dropped off as well. Take then realized that he needed to talk to Ezmerelda first, so he dismissed Asta and called Ezmerelda up to the bridge.
Ezmerelda found Take sitting in the pilot seat waiting for her and Daniel in the copilot seat piloting the ship.
Take: Are you looking for work? I mean, we just kind of ripped you off that planet. Were you looking for some kind of work or were you just planning to, you know, get off and wander around a lot?
Ezmerelda: What kind of work are we talking?
Take: Well, we’re going to Jiangyin to drop off the other passengers. I’d like you to go with Asta to do that and help out.
Ezmerelda: I could do that.
Take: Okay. That’s all I wanted to talk to you for right now.
Take then called Asta back up to the bridge. He explained that Ezmerelda was going to be helping her acquire new passengers for the trip to Regina, since they were going to kind of be necessary to defray costs a bit.
Asta: Is there anything in particular we’re looking for in passengers? Like no psychotics?
Take: Yeah. That’s good. People with money who want to go in the direction we’re going.
Asta asked what the price was going to be. Take decided to go with roughly four hundred platinum each, but said they could pay partially in food, since he was planning on selling crops and the like on Regina for a better price. Asta asked if there were any convenient stops on the trip where she could say they could drop people off. Take said no. Asta wandered off back to the medbay.
Campan: (over comm.) Hey Take? (long pause) That’s you!
Take eventually responded, once he realized Campan was talking to him. Campan asked how long they were pausing on Jiangyin, to which Take responded as little time as possible and a day at most.
Campan: Can I get some shore leave?
Take: Why?
Campan: I’ve got family. (pause) No, real family. Like mother and such.
Take told him to keep it short.
Campan wandered up to the bridge to get some money from Daniel. Daniel told Campan to go to Take for money, then handed the cash over to Take.
Campan: If at all possible, I’d like my share, as I need to make a payment. Plus, apparently I’m getting parts for something Mort and Asta are talking about.
Take gave Campan his share, plus extra for whatever parts Mort was talking about.
Once at Jiangyin, five people piled into the shuttle. Asta looked a little surprised when Campan showed up to go down as well, but okayed it with Take. Campan directed Asta where would be a good place to land.
The flight down was rather bumpy, since Asta wasn’t as skilled a pilot as Take or Daniel.
Campan: More with the anti-puking pills. Did you bring those?
The shuttle veered to the right and went into a dive as Asta turned around and fished through her bag with one hand.
Campan: I’m not liking this. I’ll drive on the way back.
She grabbed a syringe and jabbed Campan with it. Leaving the needle in him, she went back to driving two handed and leveled off their decent.
The two miners kissed the ground as they got out of the shuttle. Or maybe they just stumbled out and fell over. The end result was the same. They crawled/stumbled off as fast as they could.
Campan stumbled out, saying he’d be back in a couple hours. Ezmerelda looked around the rather tiny and poor looking town.
Ezmerelda: Do they have a bar here?
Campan: Course they have a bar. There are two that went out of business since I left.
Campan pointed it out before heading off. Asta and Ezmerelda wandered to the general store to talk to the proprietor. Asking about moonshine, he directed them to the Lar farm. She started making a long list of all the places they needed to go for their shopping list.
After a mile or so out of town, Campan arrived at his family farm. It looked more run down than he had last seen it. No crops were planted and a small number of horses were out in the fields grazing. One of the fences was missing a few rails. The farmhouse itself looked weathered, but standing. He entered the house, clunking along through the place. There was lots of clutter about, looking like no one had cleaned in many, many months. He then heard the tell-tale sounds of a shotgun being cocked.
Campan: It’s Campan! Don’t shoot!
Heading through doorway into the next room, he saw his mom sitting in a cushioned chair with a shotgun raised at him. She was a tiny, sixty or so old woman of only 4’10” with short grey hair. Her right leg was braced and resting on a stool while the other was resting normally with its foot planted on the floor.
Campan: What happened, ma?
Campan’s Ma: You’re not looking for money, are ya?
Campan: No, no! I brought some.
She uncocked and lowered the shotgun.
Campan’s Ma: Oh. Good.
Campan: You weren’t gonna shoot me even if I was looking for money, were ya?
There was a short pause before she responded.
Campan’s Ma: No. No. Of course not.
She explained that a horse had kicked her a season back. He pulled out his bag of money and extracted a hundred platinum and handed it to her.
Campan: We ended up on planet, so I was able to stop by. I wish I could be more help, but here.
She commented that she hadn’t seen him in a few years. He said it had been a bad couple of years and explained about his leg. She asked if he had a spare. He said no. He explained that he owed money to a lot of people because of it. She said she owed some herself, since not much was going on with the farm. Since she broke her leg she couldn’t do much around the farm. She said she was supplementing income with booze from a still. With the help of her crutch, she hobbled out to the barn to show Campan the still.
He thought the still looked good. She said it was pretty much all she could do lately. She said she just had the horses out to pasture and some of them had gotten stolen. When asked about the shotgun, she explained that people came into the house on occasion to steal as well, since they knew she wasn’t mobile.
Campan’s Ma: It’s rough, but I get by.
Campan said he couldn’t stay long. She asked him if he could tend to Bessy’s grave. The two of them went out to the grave and tended it for a while.
Back in town, Asta decided they should wait for Campan to do the shopping, since he knew the area and could get a better deal. So Asta and Ezmerelda headed over to the bar. The bar itself was empty at the moment, a rather small dingy place. When she asked the bartender for beer, he asked her if they had brought her own glasses. She wandered back to the shuttle and got two clean specimen containers. Ezmerelda talked to the bartender for a while about people who might be interested in heading to Regina.
Before leaving the farm, Campan bought a jug of moonshine at Asta’s request. When he arrived at the bar, he pulled out a tin cup.
Bartender: Campan!
Campan: Hey George. One beer please.
George inquired if he’d been out to see his Ma yet. Asta asked Campan how his family was.
Campan: Same and worse.
She asked if there was anything she could do.
Campan: Yeah, probably, but we’ve got other stuff we’re supposed to do.
She said they could take a detour while shopping, since she likely wasn’t going to be needed. After handing Campan the list, he looked down it and noted the people he knew and the ones he didn’t.
Asta: If you drop me off with your Ma, I can see what I can do for her while you go off shopping and don’t have me frightening off potential customers.
After they had finished off their beers, they headed back to the Lar farm. Entering the house, Campan once again heard the shotgun being cocked.
Campan: No Ma. It’s me again! It’s okay. I’ve got a friend. One of thems a doctor.
Campan’s Ma: Where’d you meet a doctor?
Campan: On the ship. Apparently they conned one, I mean the HIRED one. Mom, this is Asta.
Campan’s Ma: Howdy.
Campan: This is Asta and this is Ezmerelda. Asta is our doctor and Ezmerelda is our pretty thing.
Campan’s Ma: Howdy. My name is Trixie.
Asta inspected Trixie’s leg and found out what happened with it. Trixie said that they didn’t have a doctor around to look at it when she broke it, so she just had to make do. Asta found that the leg had set wrong and would have to be rebroke and set. Asta told Campan this and asked him to do the job.
Campan: You want me to break my Ma’s leg?
Asta explained that she’d never walk on the leg again the way it was. Trixie took a couple good swigs of moonshine before they set her up on the kitchen table and tied her down with straps from the barn. When they were good and ready, Campan broke the leg and Asta reset it. Trixie passed out during this.
Campan: (to Asta) you hurt my Ma!
Asta: No, the damn horse hurt your Ma.
She then set the leg up in a cast and asked Campan who could look in on her. Campan said that George the bartender could, so she made up instructions for him. They then set her back in her chair so she could rest.
Asta: Weren’t we supposed to buy something from your Ma?
Paul: Well, right now she’s in a good state to haggle.
Campan told her he had already taken care of the moonshine. Asta said that his mother owed her a favor sometime, since she had been told she should do her services for free.
Campan: Did you see the farm?
Asta: Oh, I’m going to go take a look at the horses.
Campan ushered her out and away from the farm. He figured it’d be better if she disturbed the people and not the horses. The three of them then went on a long trek all around town collecting the supplies they needed for a still, among other things. Campan ended up carrying the bulk of the stuff and carting it back to the shuttle, since they didn’t have a mule with them to do so.
Ezmerelda got a lot of bug-eyed looks when she told people the price of passage. They got much more receptive responses when Campan pitched in that they could pay partially in food.
One of the larger farmer families tried to pay in livestock. They had a long discussion/haggling session with them as the farmer tried to convince them that chickens made good pets. He wasn’t terribly convincing, but he tried his best. Ultimately, Asta vetoed the live chickens as payment, but said that they could take some dead chickens for dinners. Asta was a little shocked at the farmer’s quick agreement to killing his pets. They then haggled out the going rate of chicken and duck dinners.
Once they had agreed upon payment, the farmer took the chicken he was holding into a shack. They heard a bawk and a loud thump a minute or two later. When the next chicken slaughtered ran out the shack with it’s head cut off, Asta thought that was very neat and went in to assist/learn. She later came out with a chicken head on her pointer finger like a finger puppet.
Campan: No. No. That is not cool at all! Someday, when I find your decapitated head, I’m not going to stick my hand up it and go (falsetto voice) ’Hey, look at me. I’m Asta.’ (normal voice) Cause that is not cool. (pause) I don’t know her.
The farmer asked if they wanted them gutted and plucked. They said yes.
Back up on the ship, Mort was really bored, so he decided to play with Maxx. He went into Campan’s room and found a sweater. He then took it out of Campan’s room and unraveled for yarn to play with the cat.
At the end of their shopping and passenger searching, they ended up with five passengers. Asta then realized that it might be a good idea to tell Mort that they were going to need more rooms, since there were going to be three passengers without beds.
Mort: (over comm.) We’re going to need some wood, can you pick some up down there?
Asta: (over comm.) Well, there is a forest here.
Mort: (over comm.) So there are trees we can steal?
Campan: (over comm.) I don’t think it is stealing if no one owns them.
This made Mort sad. He said they were going to need some feathers for some pillows, so Campan talked to the fowl farmer for some duck down.
Once the shuttle was back onboard and unloaded, Mort and Campan went back down to the planet and cut down two trees for wood. They cut them up into manageable pieces and loaded them onto the shuttle.
Campan: Oh boy. Can we do this everyday, Uncle Mort?
Mort: Shut up, I have an axe.
Once they brought them back up to the ship, Mort drank some Mort coffee and stayed up all night making rustic furniture. He set up tarps for walls in the remaining wrecked room and camping cots for furniture. He only made up one down pillow for three people.
The next day, Campan went down to pick up the passengers. When he brought them up to the ship, he let them fight it out who got the actual beds and who got the one pillow for the beds.
Paul: Sadly, Mort will never learn of chicken finger puppets. Because Campan will never tell him. Because Mort would like it, and Campan refuses to bring joy into Mort’s life.
Ryan: Yeah. It’s safer that way.
Liz: Would Reaver ships be useful for harvesting parts?
Paul: Sure, if you could handle there being irradiated parts around the ship. I’d be okay.
Ryan: And this is why I blow up the ship. Cause some days it’s just not worth living. Cause of people like Asta and Mort.
Roll Credits
Synopsis of 8/07/06 session - subtitled Campan refuses to bring joy into Mort’s life
A few days later Daniel got Take alone on the bridge. He brought up the possibility of taking on Ezmerelda as crew. He suggested sending her down to Jiangyin with the passengers to see if she had skills in that area. Take tried to route out what Daniel’s reasons for keeping her around were, but he was unhappy with the answers he received (mostly since Gabe wasn’t there to give the answers).
Take called Asta up to the bridge. Since they had already discussed her flying down to drop off the passengers, Take brought up taking Ezmerelda along to help with that. Asta asked if she was being dropped off as well. Take then realized that he needed to talk to Ezmerelda first, so he dismissed Asta and called Ezmerelda up to the bridge.
Ezmerelda found Take sitting in the pilot seat waiting for her and Daniel in the copilot seat piloting the ship.
Take: Are you looking for work? I mean, we just kind of ripped you off that planet. Were you looking for some kind of work or were you just planning to, you know, get off and wander around a lot?
Ezmerelda: What kind of work are we talking?
Take: Well, we’re going to Jiangyin to drop off the other passengers. I’d like you to go with Asta to do that and help out.
Ezmerelda: I could do that.
Take: Okay. That’s all I wanted to talk to you for right now.
Take then called Asta back up to the bridge. He explained that Ezmerelda was going to be helping her acquire new passengers for the trip to Regina, since they were going to kind of be necessary to defray costs a bit.
Asta: Is there anything in particular we’re looking for in passengers? Like no psychotics?
Take: Yeah. That’s good. People with money who want to go in the direction we’re going.
Asta asked what the price was going to be. Take decided to go with roughly four hundred platinum each, but said they could pay partially in food, since he was planning on selling crops and the like on Regina for a better price. Asta asked if there were any convenient stops on the trip where she could say they could drop people off. Take said no. Asta wandered off back to the medbay.
Campan: (over comm.) Hey Take? (long pause) That’s you!
Take eventually responded, once he realized Campan was talking to him. Campan asked how long they were pausing on Jiangyin, to which Take responded as little time as possible and a day at most.
Campan: Can I get some shore leave?
Take: Why?
Campan: I’ve got family. (pause) No, real family. Like mother and such.
Take told him to keep it short.
Campan wandered up to the bridge to get some money from Daniel. Daniel told Campan to go to Take for money, then handed the cash over to Take.
Campan: If at all possible, I’d like my share, as I need to make a payment. Plus, apparently I’m getting parts for something Mort and Asta are talking about.
Take gave Campan his share, plus extra for whatever parts Mort was talking about.
Once at Jiangyin, five people piled into the shuttle. Asta looked a little surprised when Campan showed up to go down as well, but okayed it with Take. Campan directed Asta where would be a good place to land.
The flight down was rather bumpy, since Asta wasn’t as skilled a pilot as Take or Daniel.
Campan: More with the anti-puking pills. Did you bring those?
The shuttle veered to the right and went into a dive as Asta turned around and fished through her bag with one hand.
Campan: I’m not liking this. I’ll drive on the way back.
She grabbed a syringe and jabbed Campan with it. Leaving the needle in him, she went back to driving two handed and leveled off their decent.
The two miners kissed the ground as they got out of the shuttle. Or maybe they just stumbled out and fell over. The end result was the same. They crawled/stumbled off as fast as they could.
Campan stumbled out, saying he’d be back in a couple hours. Ezmerelda looked around the rather tiny and poor looking town.
Ezmerelda: Do they have a bar here?
Campan: Course they have a bar. There are two that went out of business since I left.
Campan pointed it out before heading off. Asta and Ezmerelda wandered to the general store to talk to the proprietor. Asking about moonshine, he directed them to the Lar farm. She started making a long list of all the places they needed to go for their shopping list.
After a mile or so out of town, Campan arrived at his family farm. It looked more run down than he had last seen it. No crops were planted and a small number of horses were out in the fields grazing. One of the fences was missing a few rails. The farmhouse itself looked weathered, but standing. He entered the house, clunking along through the place. There was lots of clutter about, looking like no one had cleaned in many, many months. He then heard the tell-tale sounds of a shotgun being cocked.
Campan: It’s Campan! Don’t shoot!
Heading through doorway into the next room, he saw his mom sitting in a cushioned chair with a shotgun raised at him. She was a tiny, sixty or so old woman of only 4’10” with short grey hair. Her right leg was braced and resting on a stool while the other was resting normally with its foot planted on the floor.
Campan: What happened, ma?
Campan’s Ma: You’re not looking for money, are ya?
Campan: No, no! I brought some.
She uncocked and lowered the shotgun.
Campan’s Ma: Oh. Good.
Campan: You weren’t gonna shoot me even if I was looking for money, were ya?
There was a short pause before she responded.
Campan’s Ma: No. No. Of course not.
She explained that a horse had kicked her a season back. He pulled out his bag of money and extracted a hundred platinum and handed it to her.
Campan: We ended up on planet, so I was able to stop by. I wish I could be more help, but here.
She commented that she hadn’t seen him in a few years. He said it had been a bad couple of years and explained about his leg. She asked if he had a spare. He said no. He explained that he owed money to a lot of people because of it. She said she owed some herself, since not much was going on with the farm. Since she broke her leg she couldn’t do much around the farm. She said she was supplementing income with booze from a still. With the help of her crutch, she hobbled out to the barn to show Campan the still.
He thought the still looked good. She said it was pretty much all she could do lately. She said she just had the horses out to pasture and some of them had gotten stolen. When asked about the shotgun, she explained that people came into the house on occasion to steal as well, since they knew she wasn’t mobile.
Campan’s Ma: It’s rough, but I get by.
Campan said he couldn’t stay long. She asked him if he could tend to Bessy’s grave. The two of them went out to the grave and tended it for a while.
Back in town, Asta decided they should wait for Campan to do the shopping, since he knew the area and could get a better deal. So Asta and Ezmerelda headed over to the bar. The bar itself was empty at the moment, a rather small dingy place. When she asked the bartender for beer, he asked her if they had brought her own glasses. She wandered back to the shuttle and got two clean specimen containers. Ezmerelda talked to the bartender for a while about people who might be interested in heading to Regina.
Before leaving the farm, Campan bought a jug of moonshine at Asta’s request. When he arrived at the bar, he pulled out a tin cup.
Bartender: Campan!
Campan: Hey George. One beer please.
George inquired if he’d been out to see his Ma yet. Asta asked Campan how his family was.
Campan: Same and worse.
She asked if there was anything she could do.
Campan: Yeah, probably, but we’ve got other stuff we’re supposed to do.
She said they could take a detour while shopping, since she likely wasn’t going to be needed. After handing Campan the list, he looked down it and noted the people he knew and the ones he didn’t.
Asta: If you drop me off with your Ma, I can see what I can do for her while you go off shopping and don’t have me frightening off potential customers.
After they had finished off their beers, they headed back to the Lar farm. Entering the house, Campan once again heard the shotgun being cocked.
Campan: No Ma. It’s me again! It’s okay. I’ve got a friend. One of thems a doctor.
Campan’s Ma: Where’d you meet a doctor?
Campan: On the ship. Apparently they conned one, I mean the HIRED one. Mom, this is Asta.
Campan’s Ma: Howdy.
Campan: This is Asta and this is Ezmerelda. Asta is our doctor and Ezmerelda is our pretty thing.
Campan’s Ma: Howdy. My name is Trixie.
Asta inspected Trixie’s leg and found out what happened with it. Trixie said that they didn’t have a doctor around to look at it when she broke it, so she just had to make do. Asta found that the leg had set wrong and would have to be rebroke and set. Asta told Campan this and asked him to do the job.
Campan: You want me to break my Ma’s leg?
Asta explained that she’d never walk on the leg again the way it was. Trixie took a couple good swigs of moonshine before they set her up on the kitchen table and tied her down with straps from the barn. When they were good and ready, Campan broke the leg and Asta reset it. Trixie passed out during this.
Campan: (to Asta) you hurt my Ma!
Asta: No, the damn horse hurt your Ma.
She then set the leg up in a cast and asked Campan who could look in on her. Campan said that George the bartender could, so she made up instructions for him. They then set her back in her chair so she could rest.
Asta: Weren’t we supposed to buy something from your Ma?
Paul: Well, right now she’s in a good state to haggle.
Campan told her he had already taken care of the moonshine. Asta said that his mother owed her a favor sometime, since she had been told she should do her services for free.
Campan: Did you see the farm?
Asta: Oh, I’m going to go take a look at the horses.
Campan ushered her out and away from the farm. He figured it’d be better if she disturbed the people and not the horses. The three of them then went on a long trek all around town collecting the supplies they needed for a still, among other things. Campan ended up carrying the bulk of the stuff and carting it back to the shuttle, since they didn’t have a mule with them to do so.
Ezmerelda got a lot of bug-eyed looks when she told people the price of passage. They got much more receptive responses when Campan pitched in that they could pay partially in food.
One of the larger farmer families tried to pay in livestock. They had a long discussion/haggling session with them as the farmer tried to convince them that chickens made good pets. He wasn’t terribly convincing, but he tried his best. Ultimately, Asta vetoed the live chickens as payment, but said that they could take some dead chickens for dinners. Asta was a little shocked at the farmer’s quick agreement to killing his pets. They then haggled out the going rate of chicken and duck dinners.
Once they had agreed upon payment, the farmer took the chicken he was holding into a shack. They heard a bawk and a loud thump a minute or two later. When the next chicken slaughtered ran out the shack with it’s head cut off, Asta thought that was very neat and went in to assist/learn. She later came out with a chicken head on her pointer finger like a finger puppet.
Campan: No. No. That is not cool at all! Someday, when I find your decapitated head, I’m not going to stick my hand up it and go (falsetto voice) ’Hey, look at me. I’m Asta.’ (normal voice) Cause that is not cool. (pause) I don’t know her.
The farmer asked if they wanted them gutted and plucked. They said yes.
Back up on the ship, Mort was really bored, so he decided to play with Maxx. He went into Campan’s room and found a sweater. He then took it out of Campan’s room and unraveled for yarn to play with the cat.
At the end of their shopping and passenger searching, they ended up with five passengers. Asta then realized that it might be a good idea to tell Mort that they were going to need more rooms, since there were going to be three passengers without beds.
Mort: (over comm.) We’re going to need some wood, can you pick some up down there?
Asta: (over comm.) Well, there is a forest here.
Mort: (over comm.) So there are trees we can steal?
Campan: (over comm.) I don’t think it is stealing if no one owns them.
This made Mort sad. He said they were going to need some feathers for some pillows, so Campan talked to the fowl farmer for some duck down.
Once the shuttle was back onboard and unloaded, Mort and Campan went back down to the planet and cut down two trees for wood. They cut them up into manageable pieces and loaded them onto the shuttle.
Campan: Oh boy. Can we do this everyday, Uncle Mort?
Mort: Shut up, I have an axe.
Once they brought them back up to the ship, Mort drank some Mort coffee and stayed up all night making rustic furniture. He set up tarps for walls in the remaining wrecked room and camping cots for furniture. He only made up one down pillow for three people.
The next day, Campan went down to pick up the passengers. When he brought them up to the ship, he let them fight it out who got the actual beds and who got the one pillow for the beds.
Paul: Sadly, Mort will never learn of chicken finger puppets. Because Campan will never tell him. Because Mort would like it, and Campan refuses to bring joy into Mort’s life.
Ryan: Yeah. It’s safer that way.
Liz: Would Reaver ships be useful for harvesting parts?
Paul: Sure, if you could handle there being irradiated parts around the ship. I’d be okay.
Ryan: And this is why I blow up the ship. Cause some days it’s just not worth living. Cause of people like Asta and Mort.
Roll Credits
Ao the Overkitty
First Post
Glad you're enjoying their antics, Sidekick.
We just had a session on monday, so I'll be working on the next installment over the next couple of days. Had to get last week's exalted synopsis done first. I've gotten about a week behind on synopses (got lazy and had rock concerts to attend).
No Mutants and Masterminds this week, so I should have some extra free time the next three afternoons/evenings. Hopefully I'll have it up somewtime between saturday evening and tuesday evening.
We just had a session on monday, so I'll be working on the next installment over the next couple of days. Had to get last week's exalted synopsis done first. I've gotten about a week behind on synopses (got lazy and had rock concerts to attend).
No Mutants and Masterminds this week, so I should have some extra free time the next three afternoons/evenings. Hopefully I'll have it up somewtime between saturday evening and tuesday evening.
Ao the Overkitty
First Post
“Episode 10 –It’s Never Simple” - First Session
Synopsis of 8/21/06 session - subtitled A New Hire
With the Orasca just about ready to be on its way, Daniel sat down with Take and Mort on the bridge. Daniel inquired about how the drop off and pickup went. Mort said they went fine and went into detail about payment from the new passengers.
Daniel: Were any livestock taken as payment?
Mort: No. The concept of live animals was rejected.
Daniel: Good.
Mort: There was some kind of incident involving chicken heads, I don’t know much about it. You might have to ask Campan.
Mort let Daniel know that Ezmerelda had collected the platinum they received as partial payment. He then talked about their hold being filled to the brim with food and needing to devise some more freezing units or something to make sure it all kept, at least till the halfway point. Daniel then inquired where the halfway point was. Take told them that it was way out on the edge of the rim on a planet named Dodge.
Mort: Cause nothing could go wrong on a planet named Dodge.
At this point the entire group broke out into laughter when someone noticed that Arianne had knitted little chicken head finger puppets and was playing with them.
Daniel wanted to know what they needed from Logan to determine if they were going to take the job and what information they needed. Mort stressed that they needed to find out what Logan’ cut was, because 20 was not a valid payment amount.
Mort: When we asked Campan if it was twenty percent or twenty thousand, Campan asked if that wasn’t the same. Clearly he has issues with math. Next time we should just tell Campan his cut of the job is 10.
Mort expressed that, for twenty thousand, he’d better have good information. He put out the possibility of killing Logan and canceling some of Campan’s debt.
Mort: Oh, and out of curiosity, why are we bringing Ezmerelda along with us? To a place where we’re likely going to commit some horrible crime?
Daniel: Another face would be helpful. Do we have to have this conversation before we have that one?
Take: Yeah, cause it comes down to no more charity cases. Cause you know what you told me before wasn’t going to pass mustard.
Daniel: With that being said, Jenny is far more of a charity case than Ezmerelda.
Take: Yeah, I know. Doesn’t make Ezmerelda acceptable.
Mort: Yes, but the charity case that is Jenny is currently keeping Asta happy. And I like Asta happy, cause I get shot a lot. I’m not entirely sure why we’re taking on Ezmerelda, as she appears to be competent in the world.
Daniel: That about actually sums it up. I figured we needed another person to do the talking on Jiangyin who’s face isn’t plastered across half the known galaxy.
Mort: Okay. That’s a reasonable theory. Okay. Why this person.
Daniel: I have some suspicions about her ancestry.
Mort: What the HELL does THAT mean?! You think she’s a Navajo, what?
Daniel: I meant to ask her about this before anything came up but I think we’re already looking to ship off planet and I wanted to see how she did down there. How well DID she do down there?
Mort: ]You’d have to ask Asta or Campan, sir.
Daniel: But my thoughts were to have her pay her way with this on this planet.
Mort: So, are we dropping her off at the waypoint or do you intend to get more information out of her before the waypoint? Because I’d like to have a firm decision on why we’re taking her on before we commence the violent and possibly dangerous crime. Can’t we just give her the standard paper work, blood tests, physical, pysch tests, etcetera?
Daniel: We could.
Mort went over to the filing cabinet and pulled out the Organic Chemistry text book sized employee application questionnaire and thumped it down on the console.
Mort: It’s like this thick.
Take: We do have SuperDoctor. I mean, a simple DNA test should help with your questions of ancestry, right?
Daniel: You keep that on the bridge?
Mort: Sure. There’s a locker. Hold on. What kind of questions do you want answered? I’m sure we could just blend them in on here. They are mostly handwritten notes anyway. Who is your momma? Is that one you want? That’s like on page one.
Take: Are you at all related to the Wee family?
Mort: That’s already on there.
Daniel: What name did Campan give for us to Logan?
Mort: he didn’t, sir. He just referred to ‘my bosses.’ I’m sure it was an accident sir. We have to rely on happy accidents for him to remember our fake names.
Daniel: Do you remember my current name?
Mort: Don’t think you’ve told me, sir.
Daniel: Jack ‘Dogleg’ Horner.
*Take and Mort start laughing*
Daniel: Dogleg is a nickname. Jack Horner is the name.
Mort: Yes sir. I’ll remember to call you Dogleg from now on.
Daniel: Maybe I shouldn’t create denigrating nicknames for my other identities.
Mort: Gee, ya think? Shouldn’t Campan be Dogleg?
Take: No, no. We can call him Eileen.
Daniel decided he had put it off long enough and sent Logan a wave. Mort and Take stayed off to the side with signs in case Daniel forgot something.
While Daniel was on the bridge, Asta left the bottle of moonshine outside his room as a peace offering for the coffee. Campan walked past the unattended jug later, but knew better than to take it. Down in the med bay, Asta and Ezmerelda were discussing killing chickens and chickens heads. The manner of this conversation weirded Jenny out enough that she was off hiding in her room. The two of them didn’t notice.
Daniel set himself up in front of the screen and put in a wave to Logan. Telling Logan’s subordinate that he was a friend of Campan’s got his call put right through.
Logan: (grumpy voice) I take it you would be the one in charge?
Daniel: Yep.
Logan: (grumpy voice) How is Campan? Healthy, I hope.
Ryan: He was jolly when I talked to him.
Daniel: He’s been healthy. Drinks a little much, but I suppose that can be understood, given the number of fiduciary concerns he has.
*Mort holds up a sign saying ‘Fiduciary?’*
Logan: (raises eyebrows in a ‘what is this guy smoking’ manner) Quite. (slight pause) So, have you thought over my business proposal over this past week?
Daniel said he had, but he wanted to hear the information straight from Logan before he made a decision. Logan explained that the job was a bank heist. A Core World gambler was having stakes shipped in to a depository on Regina. The stake was rather sizeable, to the sum of 70,000, in some form of currency.
Daniel asked why the Core worlder was having it shipped out here. Logan responded that the man gambled out here, as well as in the Core. Upon questioning, Logan said that the shipment should be arriving in about two months and he did not have the exact information about when it was being picked up. He explained that this was a depository for the Corone Mining Consortium for their dealings on or near Regina.
Daniel: He’s a friend of theirs, I take it.
Logan: More they have the means to hold such a sizeable amount. They are not the type to take in any deposit from anyone, but he has connections.
Daniel asked what other parties were interested in this take, to which Logan did not have the answer. As far as he knew, he was the only one that had heard wind of it.
Daniel asked why Logan was contracting out on this job.
Logan: Think of this as a favor to Campan. I know he has fallen on hard times recently and I want to see him continue to be capable of paying his debts on time.
*Mort holds up a sign saying ‘Can you provide us with any more information if we take the job.’*
Daniel: If we take this, what kind of cut are you looking for?
Logan: Twenty thousand.
Daniel: With such a sizeable cut, we’re going to need significantly more information than that. Without spoiling the pot, what other types of information will you provide us with if we take it?
Logan: Location of Depository. Depository schematics. Where the take is likely held. Their security and number in employ. Contact on planet.
Daniel accepted the job. Logan sent over the schematics and other information. They depository had a dedicated security force of mostly ex-Alliance grunts that were housed off site and used the line to get to work. The depository itself was on one of rail lines, but past the passenger line. Noted was that there was an Alliance camp about twenty miles further down the rail line. The depository itself was used to hold the earnings of the miners in the area. The main vault was noted as a decoy for anyone looking to steal from the facility. There were thirteen concealed vaults spread out through the building. The building itself was three stories high plus basement and of a decent size (reference made was the size of UAlbany’s main library, so compare to any large state university’s library). Majority of the facility was devoted to office work.
Daniel asked Logan if he had local Alliance schedules, to which he said no. Daniel asked where they were to drop off his share. Logan listed several places they could, each along a different escape vector. Daniel got the information about their on planet contact.
Having gotten everything he felt he could out of Logan, Daniel ended the call. They then had an officer’s meeting about how they were going to handle the money. Daniel was pretty sure that just splitting up the fifty thousand between them wasn’t the way it was going to go. They discussed how they were going to break in, Daniel saying they could impersonate one of the little old ladies in the cafeteria crew. Well, they could dress Campan up as one, at least. He felt that they could conceivably impersonate someone from an outside contractor like the cafeteria who could have had someone call in sick.
With the officer’s meeting concluded, Daniel left the bridge. When he saw the jug of moonshine outside his room, he ignored it and kept going. It stayed outside his room for a couple of days before he brought it in.
Mort and Daniel headed down to the med bay to get a report from Asta about how thinks went on planet. She said Ezmerelda did a good job.
Daniel: I’ve been noticing there have been some skittish people onboard today, namely Jenny. What happened?
Asta: Oh, uh, I made a joke, uh, involving chicken heads. It didn’t go over well.
Mort: I can see that.
Daniel: She hasn’t met that many chickens before?
Asta: I don’t know. I would assume she has, having grown up on a border world and all.
Daniel: What kind of joke?
Asta: Finger puppets, sir.
Daniel: Was this a living chicken?
Asta: Oh, no. Not anymore.
Daniel: I can see now why Jenny might have taken offense.
Asta: Well, you know, at Medical school, we don’t always realize that civilians have a more squeamish sense of humor than a doctor has.
Daniel: And how did Ezmerelda find that?
Asta: She found it funny, actually.
Asta noted that she should probably spend more time on her piloting skills, since she made people sick on the way down and up. Daniel commented that that was quite a feat, since autopilot usually takes care of landing pretty well.
When Campan got to his room that day he found one of the sweaters his mother had knitted him half unraveled and laying on his bed.
About two weeks into the journey, Daniel decided it was a good time for Ezmerelda’s interview. Mort pointed out that they could skip the group interview, since she had already met them and didn’t need to be intimidated.
Mort: Do we want to talk to Asta so she can do the whole physical? She likes that.
They decided to inform Asta so she could play doctor with Ezmerelda after the application was finished.
Mort: I have a feeling this is going to go better than that Leeroy person or whoever.
They called Ezmerelda up to the bridge.
Daniel: Ezmerelda. What exactly do you do?
Ezmerelda: I work in a carnival, or, at least, I did.
Daniel: Why did you leave?
Ezmerelda: A couple of reasons. They left me behind. There were some people who weren’t necessarily happy with me.
Daniel: Financial irregularities? Little slips into your pockets? You did this on a mining asteroid or they just happened to find out about it then?
Ezmerelda: Found out about it.
Daniel went into a spiel about she was the passenger paying the least on board and she did a good job down on Jiangyin and wondering if they could make use of her skills again. Daniel then nodded to Mort.
With a loud thud, Mort dropped the phonebook sized application in front of her.
Mort: This is our standard test. If you could just fill that out fully and completely, we’ll know what kind of crew member you would make.
Take: And consider your employment.
Daniel: Unless you’d prefer to wander the galaxy doing odd jobs and getting stranded on mining asteroids.
Ezmerelda: I think I’ll fill out the form.
Take, Mort, and Daniel read and discussed her answers amongst themselves after each page was completed.
Some of the questions included
Ezmerelda wrote that she didn’t believe in aliens. She said she hadn’t committed any of the listed crimes or tried PCP/Sugar. They figured she was lying about the PCP/Sugar, but at least they knew she could lie. She said she was too young for the war, so she was a civilian. She then said she would have been a browncoat. They figured this meant she didn’t need glasses and had some brains. She said the chain of command was there was a captain and people below him and they all followed in line. Mort liked that answer. She said she could lie to an Alliance officer. She said she was willing to associate with those accused of those crimes listed. She listed her home world as Disa and her mother as Pansy Glass. She didn’t know who her father was, he was just some guy who stopped by the planet for a night. Daniel remembered that one time he stooped so low as to associate with a woman named Pansy.
Mort grabbed the last sheet of the test, scribbled down the question Do you have any cybernetic body parts? and handed it back to Ezmerelda. She wrote no.
Daniel: As I’m sure you are quite aware, the galaxy is not a very nice place for those of us who don’t like the Alliance. It is also a hell of a place to earn a buck. So we have taken to a few liberties in the ways we earn our money. How do you feel about that?
Ezmerelda: I’m certainly fine with that.
Mort: How do you feel about the possibility of getting shot while acquisitioning things in this way?
Ezmerelda: I prefer not to get shot.
Daniel: Why don’t you like sugar?
Mort: No, sir. She said she hadn’t tried it. I think she lied, sir.
When asked if she could use any weapons, she said she had used a knife a couple of times and a frying pan once.
Daniel: She’s not for the front line.
Mort: No, but that’s not where we’re hiring her for, sir.
Daniel: How do you feel you fit in here?
Ezmerelda: I think I’ve fit in pretty well so far. I’ve gotten along with everyone pretty well. Asta and I found we both like chickens.
Daniel: I’m not so sure that’s a good thing.
Mort: It’s not so bad. Where do you think you’ll fit in on the chain of command?
Ezmerelda: Umm, at the bottom right now, until I work my way up.
Mort: Acceptable. I’d prefer if she started above Campan. Alright. Currently, the chain of command is the captain, the XO, myself the mechanic, Asta, the cat, Campan, and Jenny. And now you. Actually, can we start her above Jenny?
*Daniel nods*
Mort: Okay, now you and then Jenny.
Daniel went into explaining her duties as a junior member of the crew and secondary liaison to people. Ezmerelda then got sent down to the med bay for her physical. Asta apologized for the state of her equipment, despite it being the most advanced tech Ezmerelda had seen.
Later on, Jenny emerged from her room to find out what had been going on.
Asta: Oh, Jenny. You just missed giving Ezmerelda a physical.
Jenny: Why’d she need a physical?
Asta: I guess they’re inviting her to join the crew.
Jenny: Ahh.
Asta: They want someone who can be a face to the public who isn’t wanted, I guess.
Jenny: I can see that. I’m going to go get some food now.
Back up on the bridge, the officers were talking about the interview.
Mort: So, Dogleg, did we learn about the ancestry you wanted to?
Daniel: Yeah.
Mort: Could you enlighten me? It is still bugging the hell out of me. I can’t remember where I’ve known her from.
Daniel: I don’t think you’ve met her.
Mort: But she’s familiar!
Daniel: Yeah. I think she’s my daughter.
Mort: Okay then.
Daniel: She doesn’t know that yet.
Mort: Okay. Now I understand why you considered her for the crew oh so quickly.
They then got into a long discussion about room arrangements, since he had plans to give Ezmerelda Jenny’s room. But he also knew Jenny had dirt on them and he didn’t want to give her a reason to sell them out. So they talked a lot about How and when they were going to do this and how they were going to fix up a passenger dorm for her. They decided they weren’t going to make any room changes until after they had money to fix up a passenger room and left it at that.
Meanwhile, Jenny was waiting for the other shoe to drop, since Daniel had already told her that, should they take on another full-fledged crew member, she’d be giving up her room. So she spent a lot of time over the next two weeks keeping an eye on Ezmerelda and glaring at her.
After those second two weeks were over the Orasca, or the Big’Un, or the Red Herring… whatever they were calling the ship at the moment, arrived at Planet Dodge. The planet itself had a distinctly pale surface, since it was it was mostly just a chunk of irradiated rock. The one settlement on the planet was the city of Dodge, which was protected by a large dome. Several docking tubes were set up in the port area of the city for ships to secure to.
When Mort asked for the purpose of their stop, Take said they were coasting in on fumes and Daniel explained that they didn’t quite have enough cash on hand to pay for the fuel, so they needed to liquidate a few assets. As they went to dock, they were given a docking port number and told that no guns were allowed on planet.
Mort: Concealed Weapons only, check! Well, can’t sell my guns here.
They found that there were no local Cortex stations, so they had to check with the port master to found out that knives were allowed. Since there were no cortex terminals, there were no local wanted posters. Daniel added that the place was way out on the edge of the rim, so there was no Alliance presence here. He continued to say that Dodge was run by General Fields. He was a Brigadier General in the Independent Army in the war. He had a rather large reputation along the lines of never leaving a man behind, never harming innocents, and never allowing torture of captured Alliance troops. He was a big shiny paragon of Independent virtue. Mort would have gotten in a lot of trouble, had he been stationed under him.
Daniel: So, if he says no guns on this planet.
Mort: No guns on this planet.
Daniel: Furthermore, nothing of our illicit behavior on this planet. He strictly punished for things like torture, cowardice, dishonor. And I think that those of us that are currently slanted by the Alliance might want to sit tight.
Mort: Why?
Daniel: Off chance that the wrong rumors have gotten to his ears and he thinks we’re torturers.
Mort: (pulls out a list of the things he wanted for) Umm.. Torture isn’t on here.
Take: Sides, they’re Alliance lies. They’re always painting all browncoats as murderous bastards. He won’t believe them, I’m hoping.
Mort: Yeah. We should be fine here, sir. So long as we don’t it up. Maybe we should leave Campan on the ship.
Mort and Campan were told to go off ship to see if they could find someone to buy some of their food, with Ezmerelda along to supervise. They walked off into a rather busy port area. They found that the dome let in a rather pretty pink light. Right around their dock port was an opium den, a café/bar with outdoor seating, a pottery shop, and a protein dealer. They wandered into the pottery shop and inquired about where they could sell food. The shop dealer directed them to General Fields.
They wandered back to the ship.
Mort: Hey Dogleg? Selling food should be taken up with Fields. You want to do the talking with him?
Daniel, Mort and Ezmerelda headed back into the city. As they moved passed the café, Daniel heard someone yell out ‘Hey Buggs!. Daniel recognized the voice, but ignored it.
Voice from Daniel’s Past: (shouting) Daniel!
Daniel looked over towards the café to see a guy sitting at a table waving his arms to get his attention. This didn’t make Daniel particularly happy. Nor did the fact that he was sitting with a group of people. He was a young man of around thirty years. His clothes were well maintained and rugged, but a bit seasoned. Daniel recognized the man as Lao Ting, a pilot he knew from sometime after the war. He did mostly legitimate shipping jobs, with the occasional getaway driver job.
Daniel left Ezmerelda and Mort to go over to talk to Lao.
Lao Ting: (happily) Hey Buggs. Pull up a chair.
Daniel: I’m sorta in the middle of an errand right now. How ya doin, Lao?
Daniel found out that Lao was picking up a shipment of fuel to cart it in to Persephone. Daniel pulled up a chair as Lao introduced his crew; George, Mu and Jebben. Daniel did a double take at the name Mu, but the ox of a man didn’t notice. Lao’s crew didn’t seem to care to pay attention to Daniel and Lao’s conversation. Daniel found out that Lao was shipping out in two days. Talking further with Lao, Daniel learned that Fields didn’t care about money out here, so they’d need something to barter with. Lao said that they’d get the best deal with food and munitions. Daniel said he’d see Lao sometime over the next few days. Lao told him to check out the fights.
Daniel: Where are they?
Lao: Oh, you’ll find them. They’re the only entertainment around here.
Daniel returned to the other two and told him what they found out. Mort convinced Daniel to make a detour to the fights to check them out. He figured that, if there was betting, they might be able to make a little cash.
They found a very busy building about the size of a gas station convenience mart. Mort muscled his way inside. He saw a rather large pit type area in the middle of the building. Lots of people were standing around the pit shouting and cheering. Scattered around the room were bookies. People seemed to be betting all sorts of things. Some were betting with cash, some with knives, and one man was even betting with a chicken.
Mort sought out a little old man t find out what the fights were like. He found that they were usually to the knockout, but that changed. It was usually two people fighting, but they occasionally did group brawls and team fights. The guy said he had seen as many as five people in the ring at once. Betting could be on who would win, but that was boring and had bad odds. They could bet on wounds received, first blow, if someone dies, who will hit the ground first, and the like. Rules inside the ring were no weapons and no excessive padding or armor.
Mort reported back to Daniel.
Mort: It is your standard pit fighting, sir. If we need to make some extra cash, It’d be a good place to do so.
Daniel: Are they betting with money?
Mort: They’re betting with anything, sir. They also do multiple fighters and team fights. Plus you can bet on pretty much anything.
Daniel: Well, at least they’re creative. Let’s go see Fields.
Mort lit up a cigar as he entered the small building that housed Fields’ office. It was a nice, small office. They told his secretary that they were here to talk with Fields with regard to trade. The secretary got up, went into another room, then came back and told them he would see them. As they approached the door to Fields’ office, they noticed a no smoking sign hanging on the door. Mort sadly put his cigar out on his jacket and put it back in his pocket.
As they walked in, Daniel leaned over to Ezmerelda and whispered to her.
Daniel: If the bartering doesn’t look to be going my way feel free to jump in at any point.
The room was small, but well furnished. There was a large oak desk with two chairs on their side of it. General Fields was standing by the window, illuminated by the pink light. General Fields was a muscular, black gentleman in 60s. He had white stubble for hair and a clean shaven face. He wore a nice looking brown vest with a lighter brown undershirt. He looked like he did quite well for himself.
Gabe: Well, he owns a planet.
Paul: It’s a sucky planet, but it’s still a planet.
Liz: Is it a planet by the old definition or the new definition?
*Alex blows a raspberry at Liz*
As they came over to the desk, General Fields sat down with them. Daniel explained they were there to barter for fuel. General Fields got straight to the point, asking what they had to barter with. Daniel and Fields haggled for a while before they were able to come to an agreement. They bartered two units of food, fifteen single barrel shotguns, and eight pistols for a full tank of gas and enough protein cubes to feed them and their passengers for the month trip to Regina. General Fields said he would have to send a man over to inspect the weapons before they exchanged goods. Both parties were happy with the arrangement, with Daniel feeling he got the slightly better deal. Mort leaves before the others to get the guns ready for inspection.
Daniel complimented the General on his place, saying it was impressive and more freedom than most places had.
On the way back to the ship, Mort noticed that no one was walking around armed; not even a knife. He thought the people were weird. Back on the ship, Mort set out the guns in the cargo bay near the door.
A couple of hours later, Mort heard a knock on the outer door to the ship. When he opened the door, he looked up at the very large man. He was a bit of a giant, being almost seven feet tall. He was dressed nicely and, notably, wore a large pistol on his hip. This went nicely with the deputy badge pinned on his chest. Mort mostly noticed that he wasn’t wearing a brown coat.
Silas: I’m Silas. I’m hear to inspect the munitions.
Mort lead him over the guns. He noticed Silas seemed to know what he was doing as he inspected each gun meticulously.
While Silas was about halfway through the shotguns, Mort heard another knock on the door.
Mort: (to Silas) Excuse me, one moment.
Mort walked over to the comm. panel and pressed it.
Mort: (over comm.) Campan, can you come down here for a moment?
Campan: Aye, aye, Mortain.
When Campan walked into the cargo bay, his eyes went to the gun table.
Campan: Wow, are we starting a militia?
Mort: No, Campan. Stay with this gentleman for a moment.
As Mort headed over to the door, Daniel wandered down to the doorway into the cargo bay to see what the fuss was.
Mort opened the door to again look up at a man. This annoyed Mort, since he was used to looking down at people. The man was six foot five inches tall and built like a linebacker. He had a number of scars on his face and his clothes were a little bit nicer than Mort’s.
Guy: (looking over Mort’s shoulder) Yeah, I’m just looking for…
The man abruptly stopped talking as his gaze turned to Mort. His eyes bugged in recognition as his mouth hung open. Mort recognized this man as Darrel hagerty, a man he had grabbed the balls of and yanked and threatened to poke his eye out in an alleyway back on Santo.
Fade to Black
Synopsis of 8/21/06 session - subtitled A New Hire
With the Orasca just about ready to be on its way, Daniel sat down with Take and Mort on the bridge. Daniel inquired about how the drop off and pickup went. Mort said they went fine and went into detail about payment from the new passengers.
Daniel: Were any livestock taken as payment?
Mort: No. The concept of live animals was rejected.
Daniel: Good.
Mort: There was some kind of incident involving chicken heads, I don’t know much about it. You might have to ask Campan.
Mort let Daniel know that Ezmerelda had collected the platinum they received as partial payment. He then talked about their hold being filled to the brim with food and needing to devise some more freezing units or something to make sure it all kept, at least till the halfway point. Daniel then inquired where the halfway point was. Take told them that it was way out on the edge of the rim on a planet named Dodge.
Mort: Cause nothing could go wrong on a planet named Dodge.
At this point the entire group broke out into laughter when someone noticed that Arianne had knitted little chicken head finger puppets and was playing with them.
Daniel wanted to know what they needed from Logan to determine if they were going to take the job and what information they needed. Mort stressed that they needed to find out what Logan’ cut was, because 20 was not a valid payment amount.
Mort: When we asked Campan if it was twenty percent or twenty thousand, Campan asked if that wasn’t the same. Clearly he has issues with math. Next time we should just tell Campan his cut of the job is 10.
Mort expressed that, for twenty thousand, he’d better have good information. He put out the possibility of killing Logan and canceling some of Campan’s debt.
Mort: Oh, and out of curiosity, why are we bringing Ezmerelda along with us? To a place where we’re likely going to commit some horrible crime?
Daniel: Another face would be helpful. Do we have to have this conversation before we have that one?
Take: Yeah, cause it comes down to no more charity cases. Cause you know what you told me before wasn’t going to pass mustard.
Daniel: With that being said, Jenny is far more of a charity case than Ezmerelda.
Take: Yeah, I know. Doesn’t make Ezmerelda acceptable.
Mort: Yes, but the charity case that is Jenny is currently keeping Asta happy. And I like Asta happy, cause I get shot a lot. I’m not entirely sure why we’re taking on Ezmerelda, as she appears to be competent in the world.
Daniel: That about actually sums it up. I figured we needed another person to do the talking on Jiangyin who’s face isn’t plastered across half the known galaxy.
Mort: Okay. That’s a reasonable theory. Okay. Why this person.
Daniel: I have some suspicions about her ancestry.
Mort: What the HELL does THAT mean?! You think she’s a Navajo, what?
Daniel: I meant to ask her about this before anything came up but I think we’re already looking to ship off planet and I wanted to see how she did down there. How well DID she do down there?
Mort: ]You’d have to ask Asta or Campan, sir.
Daniel: But my thoughts were to have her pay her way with this on this planet.
Mort: So, are we dropping her off at the waypoint or do you intend to get more information out of her before the waypoint? Because I’d like to have a firm decision on why we’re taking her on before we commence the violent and possibly dangerous crime. Can’t we just give her the standard paper work, blood tests, physical, pysch tests, etcetera?
Daniel: We could.
Mort went over to the filing cabinet and pulled out the Organic Chemistry text book sized employee application questionnaire and thumped it down on the console.
Mort: It’s like this thick.
Take: We do have SuperDoctor. I mean, a simple DNA test should help with your questions of ancestry, right?
Daniel: You keep that on the bridge?
Mort: Sure. There’s a locker. Hold on. What kind of questions do you want answered? I’m sure we could just blend them in on here. They are mostly handwritten notes anyway. Who is your momma? Is that one you want? That’s like on page one.
Take: Are you at all related to the Wee family?
Mort: That’s already on there.
Daniel: What name did Campan give for us to Logan?
Mort: he didn’t, sir. He just referred to ‘my bosses.’ I’m sure it was an accident sir. We have to rely on happy accidents for him to remember our fake names.
Daniel: Do you remember my current name?
Mort: Don’t think you’ve told me, sir.
Daniel: Jack ‘Dogleg’ Horner.
*Take and Mort start laughing*
Daniel: Dogleg is a nickname. Jack Horner is the name.
Mort: Yes sir. I’ll remember to call you Dogleg from now on.
Daniel: Maybe I shouldn’t create denigrating nicknames for my other identities.
Mort: Gee, ya think? Shouldn’t Campan be Dogleg?
Take: No, no. We can call him Eileen.
Daniel decided he had put it off long enough and sent Logan a wave. Mort and Take stayed off to the side with signs in case Daniel forgot something.
While Daniel was on the bridge, Asta left the bottle of moonshine outside his room as a peace offering for the coffee. Campan walked past the unattended jug later, but knew better than to take it. Down in the med bay, Asta and Ezmerelda were discussing killing chickens and chickens heads. The manner of this conversation weirded Jenny out enough that she was off hiding in her room. The two of them didn’t notice.
Daniel set himself up in front of the screen and put in a wave to Logan. Telling Logan’s subordinate that he was a friend of Campan’s got his call put right through.
Logan: (grumpy voice) I take it you would be the one in charge?
Daniel: Yep.
Logan: (grumpy voice) How is Campan? Healthy, I hope.
Ryan: He was jolly when I talked to him.
Daniel: He’s been healthy. Drinks a little much, but I suppose that can be understood, given the number of fiduciary concerns he has.
*Mort holds up a sign saying ‘Fiduciary?’*
Logan: (raises eyebrows in a ‘what is this guy smoking’ manner) Quite. (slight pause) So, have you thought over my business proposal over this past week?
Daniel said he had, but he wanted to hear the information straight from Logan before he made a decision. Logan explained that the job was a bank heist. A Core World gambler was having stakes shipped in to a depository on Regina. The stake was rather sizeable, to the sum of 70,000, in some form of currency.
Daniel asked why the Core worlder was having it shipped out here. Logan responded that the man gambled out here, as well as in the Core. Upon questioning, Logan said that the shipment should be arriving in about two months and he did not have the exact information about when it was being picked up. He explained that this was a depository for the Corone Mining Consortium for their dealings on or near Regina.
Daniel: He’s a friend of theirs, I take it.
Logan: More they have the means to hold such a sizeable amount. They are not the type to take in any deposit from anyone, but he has connections.
Daniel asked what other parties were interested in this take, to which Logan did not have the answer. As far as he knew, he was the only one that had heard wind of it.
Daniel asked why Logan was contracting out on this job.
Logan: Think of this as a favor to Campan. I know he has fallen on hard times recently and I want to see him continue to be capable of paying his debts on time.
*Mort holds up a sign saying ‘Can you provide us with any more information if we take the job.’*
Daniel: If we take this, what kind of cut are you looking for?
Logan: Twenty thousand.
Daniel: With such a sizeable cut, we’re going to need significantly more information than that. Without spoiling the pot, what other types of information will you provide us with if we take it?
Logan: Location of Depository. Depository schematics. Where the take is likely held. Their security and number in employ. Contact on planet.
Daniel accepted the job. Logan sent over the schematics and other information. They depository had a dedicated security force of mostly ex-Alliance grunts that were housed off site and used the line to get to work. The depository itself was on one of rail lines, but past the passenger line. Noted was that there was an Alliance camp about twenty miles further down the rail line. The depository itself was used to hold the earnings of the miners in the area. The main vault was noted as a decoy for anyone looking to steal from the facility. There were thirteen concealed vaults spread out through the building. The building itself was three stories high plus basement and of a decent size (reference made was the size of UAlbany’s main library, so compare to any large state university’s library). Majority of the facility was devoted to office work.
Daniel asked Logan if he had local Alliance schedules, to which he said no. Daniel asked where they were to drop off his share. Logan listed several places they could, each along a different escape vector. Daniel got the information about their on planet contact.
Having gotten everything he felt he could out of Logan, Daniel ended the call. They then had an officer’s meeting about how they were going to handle the money. Daniel was pretty sure that just splitting up the fifty thousand between them wasn’t the way it was going to go. They discussed how they were going to break in, Daniel saying they could impersonate one of the little old ladies in the cafeteria crew. Well, they could dress Campan up as one, at least. He felt that they could conceivably impersonate someone from an outside contractor like the cafeteria who could have had someone call in sick.
With the officer’s meeting concluded, Daniel left the bridge. When he saw the jug of moonshine outside his room, he ignored it and kept going. It stayed outside his room for a couple of days before he brought it in.
Mort and Daniel headed down to the med bay to get a report from Asta about how thinks went on planet. She said Ezmerelda did a good job.
Daniel: I’ve been noticing there have been some skittish people onboard today, namely Jenny. What happened?
Asta: Oh, uh, I made a joke, uh, involving chicken heads. It didn’t go over well.
Mort: I can see that.
Daniel: She hasn’t met that many chickens before?
Asta: I don’t know. I would assume she has, having grown up on a border world and all.
Daniel: What kind of joke?
Asta: Finger puppets, sir.
Daniel: Was this a living chicken?
Asta: Oh, no. Not anymore.
Daniel: I can see now why Jenny might have taken offense.
Asta: Well, you know, at Medical school, we don’t always realize that civilians have a more squeamish sense of humor than a doctor has.
Daniel: And how did Ezmerelda find that?
Asta: She found it funny, actually.
Asta noted that she should probably spend more time on her piloting skills, since she made people sick on the way down and up. Daniel commented that that was quite a feat, since autopilot usually takes care of landing pretty well.
When Campan got to his room that day he found one of the sweaters his mother had knitted him half unraveled and laying on his bed.
About two weeks into the journey, Daniel decided it was a good time for Ezmerelda’s interview. Mort pointed out that they could skip the group interview, since she had already met them and didn’t need to be intimidated.
Mort: Do we want to talk to Asta so she can do the whole physical? She likes that.
They decided to inform Asta so she could play doctor with Ezmerelda after the application was finished.
Mort: I have a feeling this is going to go better than that Leeroy person or whoever.
They called Ezmerelda up to the bridge.
Daniel: Ezmerelda. What exactly do you do?
Ezmerelda: I work in a carnival, or, at least, I did.
Daniel: Why did you leave?
Ezmerelda: A couple of reasons. They left me behind. There were some people who weren’t necessarily happy with me.
Daniel: Financial irregularities? Little slips into your pockets? You did this on a mining asteroid or they just happened to find out about it then?
Ezmerelda: Found out about it.
Daniel went into a spiel about she was the passenger paying the least on board and she did a good job down on Jiangyin and wondering if they could make use of her skills again. Daniel then nodded to Mort.
With a loud thud, Mort dropped the phonebook sized application in front of her.
Mort: This is our standard test. If you could just fill that out fully and completely, we’ll know what kind of crew member you would make.
Take: And consider your employment.
Daniel: Unless you’d prefer to wander the galaxy doing odd jobs and getting stranded on mining asteroids.
Ezmerelda: I think I’ll fill out the form.
Take, Mort, and Daniel read and discussed her answers amongst themselves after each page was completed.
Some of the questions included
- Were you in the Alliance/Independents war?
If so, which side? Alliance, Independents, Mercenary, Civilians.
If you were a civilian, which side of the war would you have preferred to have been on?
Do you have feelings about any of these groups?
Have you ever tried PCP/Sugar? Yes/No
Where were you born?
Do you believe in aliens?
How do you feel about aliens?
Who was your mother?
Was she an alien?
Do you talk to aliens often?
Who was your father?
What do you like for aliens?
When did you stop talking to aliens?
Do you have an Alliance ID?
Do you have an Alliance ID that will get you arrested on the first planet we land on?
Do you have a wanted warrant on a fake identity on multiple planets?
If stopped and questioned by an Alliance officer, can you lie your ass off?
Have you committed any of the following crimes? Murder, Arson, Cattle Rustling, Assassination, Grand Theft Spaceship. (Yes/No for each)
Do you know what a chain of command is? Please explain in your own words.
Do you have a problem associating with people who have been accused of the following crimes? Murder, Arson, Cattle Rustling, Assassination, Grand Theft Spaceship. (Yes/No for each)
Ezmerelda wrote that she didn’t believe in aliens. She said she hadn’t committed any of the listed crimes or tried PCP/Sugar. They figured she was lying about the PCP/Sugar, but at least they knew she could lie. She said she was too young for the war, so she was a civilian. She then said she would have been a browncoat. They figured this meant she didn’t need glasses and had some brains. She said the chain of command was there was a captain and people below him and they all followed in line. Mort liked that answer. She said she could lie to an Alliance officer. She said she was willing to associate with those accused of those crimes listed. She listed her home world as Disa and her mother as Pansy Glass. She didn’t know who her father was, he was just some guy who stopped by the planet for a night. Daniel remembered that one time he stooped so low as to associate with a woman named Pansy.
Mort grabbed the last sheet of the test, scribbled down the question Do you have any cybernetic body parts? and handed it back to Ezmerelda. She wrote no.
Daniel: As I’m sure you are quite aware, the galaxy is not a very nice place for those of us who don’t like the Alliance. It is also a hell of a place to earn a buck. So we have taken to a few liberties in the ways we earn our money. How do you feel about that?
Ezmerelda: I’m certainly fine with that.
Mort: How do you feel about the possibility of getting shot while acquisitioning things in this way?
Ezmerelda: I prefer not to get shot.
Daniel: Why don’t you like sugar?
Mort: No, sir. She said she hadn’t tried it. I think she lied, sir.
When asked if she could use any weapons, she said she had used a knife a couple of times and a frying pan once.
Daniel: She’s not for the front line.
Mort: No, but that’s not where we’re hiring her for, sir.
Daniel: How do you feel you fit in here?
Ezmerelda: I think I’ve fit in pretty well so far. I’ve gotten along with everyone pretty well. Asta and I found we both like chickens.
Daniel: I’m not so sure that’s a good thing.
Mort: It’s not so bad. Where do you think you’ll fit in on the chain of command?
Ezmerelda: Umm, at the bottom right now, until I work my way up.
Mort: Acceptable. I’d prefer if she started above Campan. Alright. Currently, the chain of command is the captain, the XO, myself the mechanic, Asta, the cat, Campan, and Jenny. And now you. Actually, can we start her above Jenny?
*Daniel nods*
Mort: Okay, now you and then Jenny.
Daniel went into explaining her duties as a junior member of the crew and secondary liaison to people. Ezmerelda then got sent down to the med bay for her physical. Asta apologized for the state of her equipment, despite it being the most advanced tech Ezmerelda had seen.
Later on, Jenny emerged from her room to find out what had been going on.
Asta: Oh, Jenny. You just missed giving Ezmerelda a physical.
Jenny: Why’d she need a physical?
Asta: I guess they’re inviting her to join the crew.
Jenny: Ahh.
Asta: They want someone who can be a face to the public who isn’t wanted, I guess.
Jenny: I can see that. I’m going to go get some food now.
Back up on the bridge, the officers were talking about the interview.
Mort: So, Dogleg, did we learn about the ancestry you wanted to?
Daniel: Yeah.
Mort: Could you enlighten me? It is still bugging the hell out of me. I can’t remember where I’ve known her from.
Daniel: I don’t think you’ve met her.
Mort: But she’s familiar!
Daniel: Yeah. I think she’s my daughter.
Mort: Okay then.
Daniel: She doesn’t know that yet.
Mort: Okay. Now I understand why you considered her for the crew oh so quickly.
They then got into a long discussion about room arrangements, since he had plans to give Ezmerelda Jenny’s room. But he also knew Jenny had dirt on them and he didn’t want to give her a reason to sell them out. So they talked a lot about How and when they were going to do this and how they were going to fix up a passenger dorm for her. They decided they weren’t going to make any room changes until after they had money to fix up a passenger room and left it at that.
Meanwhile, Jenny was waiting for the other shoe to drop, since Daniel had already told her that, should they take on another full-fledged crew member, she’d be giving up her room. So she spent a lot of time over the next two weeks keeping an eye on Ezmerelda and glaring at her.
After those second two weeks were over the Orasca, or the Big’Un, or the Red Herring… whatever they were calling the ship at the moment, arrived at Planet Dodge. The planet itself had a distinctly pale surface, since it was it was mostly just a chunk of irradiated rock. The one settlement on the planet was the city of Dodge, which was protected by a large dome. Several docking tubes were set up in the port area of the city for ships to secure to.
When Mort asked for the purpose of their stop, Take said they were coasting in on fumes and Daniel explained that they didn’t quite have enough cash on hand to pay for the fuel, so they needed to liquidate a few assets. As they went to dock, they were given a docking port number and told that no guns were allowed on planet.
Mort: Concealed Weapons only, check! Well, can’t sell my guns here.
They found that there were no local Cortex stations, so they had to check with the port master to found out that knives were allowed. Since there were no cortex terminals, there were no local wanted posters. Daniel added that the place was way out on the edge of the rim, so there was no Alliance presence here. He continued to say that Dodge was run by General Fields. He was a Brigadier General in the Independent Army in the war. He had a rather large reputation along the lines of never leaving a man behind, never harming innocents, and never allowing torture of captured Alliance troops. He was a big shiny paragon of Independent virtue. Mort would have gotten in a lot of trouble, had he been stationed under him.
Daniel: So, if he says no guns on this planet.
Mort: No guns on this planet.
Daniel: Furthermore, nothing of our illicit behavior on this planet. He strictly punished for things like torture, cowardice, dishonor. And I think that those of us that are currently slanted by the Alliance might want to sit tight.
Mort: Why?
Daniel: Off chance that the wrong rumors have gotten to his ears and he thinks we’re torturers.
Mort: (pulls out a list of the things he wanted for) Umm.. Torture isn’t on here.
Take: Sides, they’re Alliance lies. They’re always painting all browncoats as murderous bastards. He won’t believe them, I’m hoping.
Mort: Yeah. We should be fine here, sir. So long as we don’t
it up. Maybe we should leave Campan on the ship.Mort and Campan were told to go off ship to see if they could find someone to buy some of their food, with Ezmerelda along to supervise. They walked off into a rather busy port area. They found that the dome let in a rather pretty pink light. Right around their dock port was an opium den, a café/bar with outdoor seating, a pottery shop, and a protein dealer. They wandered into the pottery shop and inquired about where they could sell food. The shop dealer directed them to General Fields.
They wandered back to the ship.
Mort: Hey Dogleg? Selling food should be taken up with Fields. You want to do the talking with him?
Daniel, Mort and Ezmerelda headed back into the city. As they moved passed the café, Daniel heard someone yell out ‘Hey Buggs!. Daniel recognized the voice, but ignored it.
Voice from Daniel’s Past: (shouting) Daniel!
Daniel looked over towards the café to see a guy sitting at a table waving his arms to get his attention. This didn’t make Daniel particularly happy. Nor did the fact that he was sitting with a group of people. He was a young man of around thirty years. His clothes were well maintained and rugged, but a bit seasoned. Daniel recognized the man as Lao Ting, a pilot he knew from sometime after the war. He did mostly legitimate shipping jobs, with the occasional getaway driver job.
Daniel left Ezmerelda and Mort to go over to talk to Lao.
Lao Ting: (happily) Hey Buggs. Pull up a chair.
Daniel: I’m sorta in the middle of an errand right now. How ya doin, Lao?
Daniel found out that Lao was picking up a shipment of fuel to cart it in to Persephone. Daniel pulled up a chair as Lao introduced his crew; George, Mu and Jebben. Daniel did a double take at the name Mu, but the ox of a man didn’t notice. Lao’s crew didn’t seem to care to pay attention to Daniel and Lao’s conversation. Daniel found out that Lao was shipping out in two days. Talking further with Lao, Daniel learned that Fields didn’t care about money out here, so they’d need something to barter with. Lao said that they’d get the best deal with food and munitions. Daniel said he’d see Lao sometime over the next few days. Lao told him to check out the fights.
Daniel: Where are they?
Lao: Oh, you’ll find them. They’re the only entertainment around here.
Daniel returned to the other two and told him what they found out. Mort convinced Daniel to make a detour to the fights to check them out. He figured that, if there was betting, they might be able to make a little cash.
They found a very busy building about the size of a gas station convenience mart. Mort muscled his way inside. He saw a rather large pit type area in the middle of the building. Lots of people were standing around the pit shouting and cheering. Scattered around the room were bookies. People seemed to be betting all sorts of things. Some were betting with cash, some with knives, and one man was even betting with a chicken.
Mort sought out a little old man t find out what the fights were like. He found that they were usually to the knockout, but that changed. It was usually two people fighting, but they occasionally did group brawls and team fights. The guy said he had seen as many as five people in the ring at once. Betting could be on who would win, but that was boring and had bad odds. They could bet on wounds received, first blow, if someone dies, who will hit the ground first, and the like. Rules inside the ring were no weapons and no excessive padding or armor.
Mort reported back to Daniel.
Mort: It is your standard pit fighting, sir. If we need to make some extra cash, It’d be a good place to do so.
Daniel: Are they betting with money?
Mort: They’re betting with anything, sir. They also do multiple fighters and team fights. Plus you can bet on pretty much anything.
Daniel: Well, at least they’re creative. Let’s go see Fields.
Mort lit up a cigar as he entered the small building that housed Fields’ office. It was a nice, small office. They told his secretary that they were here to talk with Fields with regard to trade. The secretary got up, went into another room, then came back and told them he would see them. As they approached the door to Fields’ office, they noticed a no smoking sign hanging on the door. Mort sadly put his cigar out on his jacket and put it back in his pocket.
As they walked in, Daniel leaned over to Ezmerelda and whispered to her.
Daniel: If the bartering doesn’t look to be going my way feel free to jump in at any point.
The room was small, but well furnished. There was a large oak desk with two chairs on their side of it. General Fields was standing by the window, illuminated by the pink light. General Fields was a muscular, black gentleman in 60s. He had white stubble for hair and a clean shaven face. He wore a nice looking brown vest with a lighter brown undershirt. He looked like he did quite well for himself.
Gabe: Well, he owns a planet.
Paul: It’s a sucky planet, but it’s still a planet.
Liz: Is it a planet by the old definition or the new definition?
*Alex blows a raspberry at Liz*
As they came over to the desk, General Fields sat down with them. Daniel explained they were there to barter for fuel. General Fields got straight to the point, asking what they had to barter with. Daniel and Fields haggled for a while before they were able to come to an agreement. They bartered two units of food, fifteen single barrel shotguns, and eight pistols for a full tank of gas and enough protein cubes to feed them and their passengers for the month trip to Regina. General Fields said he would have to send a man over to inspect the weapons before they exchanged goods. Both parties were happy with the arrangement, with Daniel feeling he got the slightly better deal. Mort leaves before the others to get the guns ready for inspection.
Daniel complimented the General on his place, saying it was impressive and more freedom than most places had.
On the way back to the ship, Mort noticed that no one was walking around armed; not even a knife. He thought the people were weird. Back on the ship, Mort set out the guns in the cargo bay near the door.
A couple of hours later, Mort heard a knock on the outer door to the ship. When he opened the door, he looked up at the very large man. He was a bit of a giant, being almost seven feet tall. He was dressed nicely and, notably, wore a large pistol on his hip. This went nicely with the deputy badge pinned on his chest. Mort mostly noticed that he wasn’t wearing a brown coat.
Silas: I’m Silas. I’m hear to inspect the munitions.
Mort lead him over the guns. He noticed Silas seemed to know what he was doing as he inspected each gun meticulously.
While Silas was about halfway through the shotguns, Mort heard another knock on the door.
Mort: (to Silas) Excuse me, one moment.
Mort walked over to the comm. panel and pressed it.
Mort: (over comm.) Campan, can you come down here for a moment?
Campan: Aye, aye, Mortain.
When Campan walked into the cargo bay, his eyes went to the gun table.
Campan: Wow, are we starting a militia?
Mort: No, Campan. Stay with this gentleman for a moment.
As Mort headed over to the door, Daniel wandered down to the doorway into the cargo bay to see what the fuss was.
Mort opened the door to again look up at a man. This annoyed Mort, since he was used to looking down at people. The man was six foot five inches tall and built like a linebacker. He had a number of scars on his face and his clothes were a little bit nicer than Mort’s.
Guy: (looking over Mort’s shoulder) Yeah, I’m just looking for…
The man abruptly stopped talking as his gaze turned to Mort. His eyes bugged in recognition as his mouth hung open. Mort recognized this man as Darrel hagerty, a man he had grabbed the balls of and yanked and threatened to poke his eye out in an alleyway back on Santo.
Fade to Black
Ao the Overkitty
First Post
“Episode 10 –It’s Never Simple” - Second Session
Synopsis of 8/21/06 session - subtitled Kings of Pain
Mort quickly turned his body away from Darrel Hagerty to protect his own balls from retaliation and smiled.
Mort: Hello there.
Darrel Hagerty sputtered as he was unable to form words.
Mort: Can I help you?
Darrel Hagerty: (highly agitated and pointing at Mort) SILAS, ARREST THIS MAN!
At this point, Daniel felt his presence was needed in the cargo bay and stepped in. Silas maintain a cool expression as he set down the gun he had been inspecting and fully turned towards the door.
Silas: On what charge?
Darrel Hagerty: (still highly agitated and pointing at Mort) HE ASSAULTED ME!
Campan: On a different planet.
Mort liked where this conversation was going, so he continued to project a cheerful demeanor.
Mort: Where?
Darrel Hagerty: (lowers his hand as he looks stupefied) On… Uh… HE DID BAD THINGS TO ME!
Mort: Where?
Darrel Hagerty: SANTO!
Mort: (glances over at the deputy and smiles) Is Santo under your jurisdiction, sir?
Silas: (eyes narrow at Mort) No. I’m charged with keeping the peace here.
Darrel looked increasingly more frustrated as things weren’t going his way. Daniel took this as a good time to speak up.
Daniel: Is this man here to help you, sir?
Silas: (turns to Daniel) My brother does work for me.
Daniel: This is your brother?
Silas: Yes.
Daniel: Understood. (pauses slightly to take in a breath) It appears that your brother and my crew have encountered each other before. I hope it will not get in the way of our doing business here.
Silas: I would like to know what the previous encounter entailed.
Liz: Whores!
Darrel Hagerty: (Pointing at Mort) HE TRIED TO POKE MY EYE OUT!
Mort: No I didn’t.
Daniel: It entailed a fistfight in the alleyway.
Silas: Why was there a fist fight? Well, okay, I can understand… are you sure it was fists?
Daniel: I was perhaps describing a whole fight that involved fists kicks and groins.
Campan: I can serve witness that there were no guns fired. Specifically, I got yelled at.
Mort: No knives, no pointy bits. It was all fisticuffs.
Daniel: Your brother was employed to eliminate certain people that we were investigating.
Silas: I can believe that.
Daniel: And we did not want those people eliminated until we finished investigating them. He disagreed with our opinion and, as a result, I do believe he suffered some pain. However, we made a point not to incapacitate or maim him in any fashion.
Darrel Hagerty: THAT’S NOT TRUE!
Daniel: Are you walking around now?
Campan: Are you blind? Cause if Mort had any inclination to any of the things you’re accusing him of, you would be in those conditions.
Daniel: As you can see, we quite often have quite a sizeable assortment of munitions on us. When we walk around on most planets as well. So, if we had decided that there was serious harm to be done to your brother, it would have been done. However, we were not under such an inclination. Unfortunately, it appears your brother has carried a grudge for us sparing him of any permanent damage. (pause) What is your brother’s name?
Silas: Darrel.
Daniel: Jack. Jack Horner.
Silas: I was wondering why they showed up here bruised and beaten.
Daniel: I figure they’ve been here a little while, then, cause that was some time ago. I do hope they have found more stable employment here. It’s not a fun job being a night lady’s bodyguard.
Mort looked confused at this.
Campan: Whores, Mort. Whores.
Mort: Yeah, it’s the bodyguard part that I’m confused about.
Darrel Hagerty: I DEMAND JUSTICE!
Campan: Hey, don’t they have that fighting ring? You two can.. (Mort glares and shakes his head at Campan) No?
Daniel: As far as I see it, Darrel, we didn’t break any laws on Santo, let alone here.
Darrel Hagerty: YOU AMBUSHED US!
Mort: When was ambushing against the law?
Darrel Hagerty: UNPROKED!
Mort: No, it was provoked.
Darrel Hagerty: NO IT WASN’T! WE NEVER SAW YOU BEFORE!
Daniel commented that these past actions had no bearing on present day and asked Silas if he had any concerns. Silas said he wanted to make sure they wouldn’t attack them further.
Mort: No. I’m a very peaceful man.
The strength of that lie crossed time, space and genre to set off Gareth’s lie detecting charm.
Daniel stated that, as long as his brother did not go out of his way to impede them, their goal was to finish their trade and get off planet. Silas took his brother off the ship, saying he’d be back. A very short time later, Silas returned without his brother.
Silas: He seems to be rather adamant that you grievously wronged him and wants retribution. And I believe my other brother feels the same, he just doesn’t know you’re on planet at the moment. Trust me that that will not remain true for long.
Mort: Can you define retribution?
Campan: Barfight.
Mort: Cause if he just takes me into a back alley I’m going to hurt him again. I don’t wanna do that.
Silas: I would like to not see that happen. I have been able to clean them up a bit since your last encounter. They have a steady job here and they are behaving themselves here.
Mort: Yes. They seem to be upright citizens here.
Silas: I have a feeling he might attack you. I would like to see this out of his system because, as you can see, he is the type to hold a grudge and I have a feeling he might follow you.
Campan: Barfight?
Mort: No, no. They have pits here.
Campan: Yeah, in the bar.
Silas: That seems the most direct solution to this problem.
Campan: Yeah!
Daniel: That would prove mighty annoying.
Mort: One on one fight or does your other brother Darrel wanna fight me and Campan?
Campan: What? How’d I get dragged into this?
Silas: He seems to have a problem with you three. (gesturing to Mort, Campan, and Daniel). I have not had time to get their full story. But I feel Charlie feels the same. Something about you (nodding to Daniel) rifle butting Charlie to knock him out.
Campan: Those two can fight. I’ll watch.
Silas: He kept going on about how evil men you are and how much you are without honor.
Mort: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Daniel: There is no point in getting into that debate, sir.
Mort: How are these things arranged, before we agree to anything? We have three people that have angered two people. That doesn’t really seem fair to you guys. Do we get a third or do we get to have one alternate? Can we have a nice, friendly, no weapons fight?
Silas: All fights are no weapons.
Mort: Oh good.
Daniel inquired about fights to the death, saying they weren’t looking for it. Silas told them that death was to be avoided. It happened occasionally, but they were frowned upon and investigated. He stated that the General understood that the people needed to release pent up rage, so they have the fights. But he wanted all of his people alive.
Mort said that they should just get this over with. Daniel agreed, but put up the show that this was all a terrible hassle and a major annoyance. Silas said that he would prefer his brothers bloody and beaten here than dead on another planet. Daniel questioned why this would end it, since it would be a greater humiliation in front of a crowd.
Mort: You want I should break their limbs?
Daniel: I think we’re not going for maiming.
Mort: I just follow orders.
They found out that no weapons, armor, or excessive padding was allowed in the fights.
Mort: What defines excessive padding?
Silas looked Mort up and down.
Silas: (pointing at Mort) That.
Mort took off his bulletproof vest.
Mort: Am I still defined as excessive padding?
Silas: How many layers do you have on there?
Mort did some quick math on his fingers.
Mort: Five. The vest is usually six.
Silas: Two layers max.
Daniel went on about the excessive amount of unpleasantness plaguing them lately and wanting the word of his brothers that this will be finished after the fight. Silas said he could keep his brothers in line.
Silas asked when they wished the match to be, to which Daniel responded that the sooner the better. To allow adequate time for people to make bets, they scheduled the fight for two hours time. Daniel made sure it was allowable to bring their doctor along.
Once Silas had left Campan turned to Daniel.
Campan: So, where does this fall under in my job description?
Mort: Public Relations.
Daniel: I was going to say under the chain of command, but… it might fall under the part that says thug.
Mort: Think positive. You can wave at the crowd this time.
Campan: I could wave at the crowd last time.
Mort wandered off to his room to find the right outfit. Something black.
Daniel asked Asta for something to disguise Mort with, since he was about to be in a public spectacle.
Campan: He IS a public spectacle!
Asta thought for a few minutes before stating that this was more Jenny’s area of expertise. Asta approached Jenny about foundations and body paint. Jenny said she didn’t have any, but knew how to mix some up quick if they had the supplies. Asta tossed Mort a bottle of peroxide and told Mort to soak his hair and beard in it if he wanted to lighten the color. She and Jenny then went down to find Daniel.
Asta: (holds out hand) Uh, Jenny and I need to go shopping for some cosmetic type things. Money, please.
Daniel handed Asta a small amount of money and the two women left him to go shopping while he prepared himself for the fight. Jenny pointed out what they’d need for certain foundations. She pointed out things for less and more permanent pigments. She said the more permanent stuff stained. She said the less permanent stuff lasted days, while the more permanent would last months.
While Jenny mixed up the less permanent paint, Asta told Mort she’d have Jenny trim up his hair and beard, since they were just two month’s growth without trimming. Mort said he wanted cornrows.
Jenny: You know this is going to look hideous, right?
Mort: I know. I don’t plan on walking around anywhere like this again. It’s a great disguise.
Jenny: (to Asta) Am I getting paid for this?
Asta handed her the change from their shopping venture, which was a few platinum.
Mort took the body paint into his room and slathered on a nice even coat across his chest. To make sure he got everything, he dropped his pants and covered there too until most of his front was black and blue and red. Since he hadn’t bothered to put on gloves, he made the finished coating his hands to look like he was wearing gloves. He then put on a black shirt and black vest. He then returned and had Jenny put his hair in cornrows, including his beard.
Campan decided he was going to wear his recently ruined sweater for the match. Daniel put on a brown shirt and his brown jacket (the short one).
When they were about ready to leave, Campan, Daniel, Mort, and Asta got together on the bridge of all places. Daniel asked Take to keep an eye out for a fourth brother that might come by to steal or sabotage while they were at the fight. Take said he was going to the fight and they could just have Jenny and Ezmerelda watch the door and radio if there was trouble.
Campan: Well, Jenny is going to the fight.
Take: Why?
Campan: Jenny wants to.
Take: So we tell Jenny to stay behind.
Campan: Did somebody explain the chain of command to you?
Take: Yes…
Campan: No, I mean in real life. Where, if you piss someone off and then order them to do something, the chances of that thing getting done are very small. If you say ‘Whore, you stay here and guard the ship!’ she is going to go ‘ You!’ and go on her way.
Asta: Actually, she is more likely to say ‘When did you start paying me, sir?’
Daniel: With food and lodging.
Asta: Yes, but all of us get food and lodging. Some of us apparently get pay.
Daniel: No, just part of the crew.
Asta: Oh, where’s my pay?
Daniel: Uh, we’ll pay you when we get to the next planet.
Asta: (pointing at Campan) You paid him!
Campan: Don’t bring me into this. I’m broke.
Asta: He got money.
Mort: You paid him?
Daniel: I only paid his debtors. (to Asta) You want an advance, I’ll be more than willing to give you one for this planet, but until I know how much we need to make it to the next planet and we can sell off the rest of the food…
Asta: (cutting him off) No, I’m talking about the last job. The one we haven’t been paid for.
Daniel somehow managed to change the subject to needing to get to the fight. Take set Ezmerelda up in the cockpit and told her to radio if there were problems.
They got to the arena about twenty minutes before the fight was scheduled. The place was bustling as usual with bookies all around collecting bets. The pits themselves were empty at the moment. The Hagerty Brothers did not seem to have arrived yet.
Daniel went over to the barker and told him they were there. When asked how he wanted to be introduced, Daniel said Dogleg Jack. Campan blurted out Two Legs Campan. After a little thought, Mort finally went with Pegleg Dog.
Barker: Pegleg Dog?
Mort: Yup. It’s what my momma called me.
The barker pointed them towards a corner and told them they could have it if they wanted it. They found a couple of stools over there and a small basin. When Asta went to fill up the basin, she found the water was brown with rust, but had nothing wrong with it. Campan, Mort, and Daniel started stretching. Jenny wandered off into the crowd.
Daniel: I’m too old for this.
A couple of guys wandered over to look at them before they went to one of the bookies.
Daniel: Are we betting anything?
Mort: That would be up to you, sir. I don’t have any money. I haven’t been paid recently.
Asta went over to one of the bookies and inquired about the rules of the fight.
Asta: Is groin punching acceptable?
Bookie: Uhh… it’s allowed. (jots down ‘raise chance of groin punching’)
Asta: Do people get broken arms? I mean, I have to look after my crew here and they apparently want to get into a fight.
Bookie: It happens.
Asta: They aren’t likely to get killed, right?
Bookie: Oh, we frown on killing. Messy stuff. Might be a bit beat up, but they should be alive. It depends on how dirty the fight gets, but usually they come out all right. Usually it is first one unconscious.
Asta: So it’s frown on kicking someone when they’re down?
Bookie: Oh yeah. That’s just unsportsmanlike.
Asta: So holding someone down and poking out their eyeball?
Bookie: That’s just not right. (jots down ‘raise chance of eye gouging’)
Asta walked back over to their corner. Daniel told Campan, Mort, and Asta that they had 150 platinum to spend on betting, should they want it. Asta didn’t feel right about betting on people getting injured and Mort declined.
Mort: What condition do you want them to be in after the fight, sir?
Daniel: Breathing.
Mort: That’s it?
Daniel: I’m mighty annoyed that we’re being forced to do this, but I want nothing that is going to come back to bite us in the ass later. Limbs attached, breathing, no permanent damage.
Mort: Broken fingers okay?
Daniel: That’s fine. If they go down and they look like they’re staying down, leave them alone.
Asta: They consider it unsportsmanlike to kick a man when he’s down.
Mort: So I gotta hold them up. Right.
Daniel: Breathing.
Daniel went over to a bookie and asked about the odds for them winning, three of themselves up, three of the other down. The bookie told him ten to one odds on that. Daniel went to lay a hundred platinum on that, but reconsidered and only put down sixty.
About ten minutes before the fight, the Hagerty brothers arrived and headed over to their own corner of the room. Silas was looking over the three as they stretched. The crew recognized Charlie as the other one from the alley fight on Santo. He looked a lot like Darrel. The other brother, Cy, was the shortest of them at six feet tall. He didn’t look quite as bulky as they other two. The brothers were each wearing tucked in wife beaters, closefitting pants and steel-toed boots. The brothers did look across the room to check out the competition. Campan waved back while Mort kept his own hands behind his back.
When Jenny returned, Asta handed her a couple platinum and asked her to get a couple of beers. Jenny wandered off and returned a few minutes later with two beers and handed one to Asta.
Take: (to Campan) You haven’t had anything to drink yet?
Campan: Nope. I’m going into this fight clear and sober.
Take: Isn’t that backwards?
Campan: Buy me a beer!
Take actually went over and bought Campan a beer. Campan slammed the beer down. Jenny then went back out and mingled in the crowd.
When the time for the fight rolled around, both sides moved over to the edge of the pit.
Barker: We have a special fight this evening; a three on three match. This is the largest fight we’ve had here in many years.
The barker then leaned over to Daniel and asked him if they had a group name. After Campan replied and Daniel agreed, the bark stood back up.
Barker: The Hagerty Brothers are taking on the Legs! (crowd cheers) On this side, we have Darrel Hagerty on a return to the ring. He holds a five fight winning streak. Next is Charlie Hagerty. He currently holds a three fight winning streak. Finally we have Cy Hagerty making his début in ring. (crowd cheers as the Hagerty brother climb down into the pit) Over here we have Dogleg Jack, the leader of the group. (Campan cheers) Two Legs Campan. (Campan waves and flexes at the crowd to get them to cheer) And finally Pegleg Dog.
Mort and Campan jumped down into the pit while Daniel climbed down. As the two sides moved to the center of the pit Daniel gave the brothers a false smile.
Daniel: Evening. Didn’t have enough the first time?
The brothers lined up so that, down the line, Charlie was across from Daniel, Cy was across from Campan, and Darrel was across from Mort. The crew properly deduced that they were setting up their grudges, since Daniel had rifle-butted Charlie and Mort had threatened Darrel’s eyes.
Darrel: No.
Barker: The fight is to the knock out. The last person, I mean last team standing wins. Sorry, it’s been a while since we had a team fight.
As the bell rang, Mort opened by reaching across and trying to punch Cy. Even though he wasn’t expecting it, Mort completely missed. Daniel was pretty sure that Charlie was going to try and head-butt him so he shifted his weight to try and feint him out. Campan, annoyed Mort was attacking his guy, decided to kick Darrel in the knee twice.
Darrel yelled in pain as he pulled his weight off his left knee. He leaned forward to throw his weight into Mort to try and take him down. He managed to slam into Mort but couldn’t take him down. He ended up kind of leaning on Mort.
Asta: Bite his nipple off!
Cy then leapt at Mort to try and take him down. Mort pulled Darrel halfway between himself and Cy so that when Cy hit him, he half hit Darrel. The force of impact and the weight of the two men forced Mort to fall backwards and hit the ground hard. The weight of two burly men landing on him did nothing for his health. Unlike Darrel, Cy actually had a good hold on Mort.
Mort: (to Campan and Daniel) Get the other one!
Though Daniel knew it was coming, he was focusing on his feint a bit too much to avoid Charlie’s forehead connecting with his.
Mort tried to grab Cy and Darrel’s heads and slam them together, but he was unable to get a grip on Darrel’s head. He decided instead to just toss Darrel off of him. Mort mustered up his strength and hurled him off and into the wall. Darrel’s head cracked into the wall before he fell down to his hands.
As Daniel nursed his head he spit at Charlie’s face and brought his foot up to connect with Charlie’s crotch. Charlie let out a whimper, but remained upright. Daniel tried to follow up with an elbow to the chest, but missed.
Campan leapt into the air, did a somersault and waved at the crowd. There was an audile Oooooooh! as Campan hung in the air for a few seconds. Even Charlie looked up from clutching his groin to see this. This turned out to be to his disadvantage as Campan came down and landed a powerful kick to Charlie’s upper chest. Charlie was knocked into a bit of a flip to land with a thud on his back. They could see that Charlie looked a little dazed.
Cy grabbed onto Mort’s head with both of his hands and put his thumbs on Mort’s eyeballs to apply pressure.
Asta: Hey! He needs those!
Take: I call shenanigans!
Mort rolled his legs to ship Cy off of him. Continuing the roll, he reversed the grapple, and held Cy down face first by slamming his knees down on his shoulders. To add insult to injury, he dragged Cy’s face over the hard dirt floor. Mort tried to write the word Legs on the ground with Cy’s face.
Mort: It if frowned upon to go after people’s eyes!
Daniel moved over to Charlie as he was starting to get up to help him up. He wanted to run Charlie into the wall, but found that guys built like linebackers are very heavy and hard to control. So he then tried to knock Charlie’s legs out from under him, but failed.
Campan saw Daniel was holding Charlie up, so he thanked Daniel and accepted his gift. Taking Charlie off of Daniel’s hands, Campan and Daniel ran Charlie into the wall. Charlie managed to get his arms up to stop his face from hitting the wall. Campan backed up a few feet, grabbed Charlie by the scruff of his neck and put a little extra effort into the second smash into the wall, grinding Charlie’s face a little.
Over on the other side of the pit, Darrel manages to stand up and get his bearings. Charlie pushes back on Campan a little and, when they headed back to the wall, Charlie ran up the wall and did a somersault flip over Campan, smashing him into the wall. Charlie came to a standing rest behind Campan and next to Daniel.
Mort: (to Cy) Say Uncle!
Cy rolled Mort off of him and slammed his full weight down on Mort’s chest.
Paul: (to Liz) You couldn’t have pumped us full of adrenaline before the match?
Liz: Asta figured that was cheating.
Mort rolled Cy off of him and stumbled to his feet. Cy continued the roll and used the momentum to spring up to his feet near Darrel.
Mort: Oww.
With Charlie right behind him, Campan brought his arm up to elbow Charlie in the nose. A sickening crunch could be heard down in the pit as Charlie’s nose bent in ways it shouldn’t and a spurt of blood erupted onto Campan and Daniel. The crowd cheered. Charlie staggered back clutching his bloody face. As he moved back past Daniel, Daniel moved his foot out to trip the guy. As Charlie’s head hit the ground, his eyes rolled back and he went unconscious.
Campan: Don’t mess with Two Legs.
Mort: Glad you two took care of that one!
As Darrel moved over next to Cy, Daniel moved over near Mort. Darrel and Cy grabbed each other’s hand and tried to clothesline Mort. Mort tried to jump into the air over their arms. Daniel tried to kick Darrel. What actually happened was Mort jumped right into Daniel’s kick and then got clotheslined and trampled by Darrel and Cy. The two came to a stop a bit past Mort and dropped their hands.
Mort lied on the ground with half open eyelids. He found it wasn’t exactly comfy there, but he really didn’t want to move since the room was spinning in an interesting way. He tried to say ‘You two get them’ but it came out as an incomprehensible punch-drunk slur.
Campan moved over and brought his foot up to connect with Cy’s already scratched and bloody face. Cy spit blood as he fell backward to land with a thump. He was still conscious, but, like Mort, looked like he was down for the count.
Take: Look Jenny, he’s as pretty as you!
Campan threw a punch at Darrel, but swung wide. Daniel was much more successful in slugging him, though. He softened Darrel up with a left punch, then brought his right leg back and spun around to deliver a spin kick. Darrel stumbled back a few feet and coughed up a little blood. Campan moved up and delivered a hammer punch to Darrel’s upper chest, knocking him to the ground and into unconsciousness.
Campan then moved back over Cy to stand over him.
Campan: Give up little boy.
Through the pain and haziness, Cy focused enough to bring his steel-toed boots straight up hard. Campan crumpled over to the ground as blinding pain emanated from his crotch.
Daniel stood over the battlefield, surveying the situation. Mort and Campan looked like they were out for the count, but so did Darrel and Charlie. Cy appeared to still be marginally active, since he just kicked Campan in the crotch. Daniel moved over to Cy and stomped on his chest, knocking him out.
Through shear force of will, Mort managed to roll over onto his hands and knees while Daniel helped Campan to his knees. Mort tried to say ‘I’m okay’ but again it just came out as a drunken slur.
The bell rang and the crowd cheered.
Barker: The Legs Win! Barely.
Mort: Glad you two were able to handle that one.
Campan: Good thing you took out those other two first.
Mort and Campan continued to throw insults at each other since they were physically unable to throw punches.
Asta tossed down a few of ice patches to Daniel, who handed one to Campan and tossed one over next to Mort’s hand. He kept one and held it up to his throbbing head.
Barker: They’re gonna need stretchers down there.
As ladders were lowered, Asta made her way over to Campan first.
Campan: Oh, wonderful morphine. I’ll lie down.
Asta ignored his request and checked Mort out.
After seeing Mort was his usual black and blue lump, she gave Campan some morphine.
Campan: Ahh, I hope I get morphine every time I get kicked in the nuts.
Daniel continued to clutch his icepack as he made his way up the ladder to collect his winnings from the bookie. While waiting, he did notice Jenny collecting something from a bookie.
Bookie: That’s six hundred platinum. You’ll be paid in a couple different ways. Do you take chickens?
Daniel: NO!
Bookie: (over his shoulder) Hold the chicken!
Daniel got paid in platinum, gold and ore.
Silas had moved down into the pit and was helping hand stretchers of his brothers out of it. Daniel wanted to talk to Silas, but figured this wasn’t the best time.
As the crew limped their way back to the ship, Daniel sidled up beside Jenny.
Daniel: (quiet voice) I hope made out fairly well.
Jenny: Small take. Didn’t have much to start with.
Daniel spent the rest of the trip back to the ship helping Campan walk.
Campan: You’re the best XO ever. Did we make any money me getting hit in the crotch?
Daniel: A good amount. We’ll split it up later.
Campan: Then my crotch is happy.
Daniel: Jenny made some money too.
Campan: Then my crotch is happy for her too.
Once they got back to the ship Mort retreated to his room to rest while Asta and Jenny took Campan to the med bay. After checking Campan out, she noticed his balls were grapefruiting and hemorrhaging. Asta decided that she needed to operate and knocked Campan out with some medication. While she prepped, she handed Jenny a razor to shave him. Jenny got a little overzealous with said razor. He was completely shaved down below. His chest now had a shaved patch that said Beer Bad and his back said Kick Me. Asta stopped her after she had started on the eyebrows. Jenny asked her about a few things they could do to Campan while he was out. Though she tried hard to convince Asta that Campan and the verse would be better if he got a vasectomy, Asta said no. She then said that, given his line of work, crotch hits would likely take care of that problem on their own. Asta explained about how they needed consent for that.
Jenny: He said sure.
Asta: See, this is where signed consent comes in.
Jenny: Campan can write?
Asta: I think so.
Paul: I nominate Jenny for a drama point!
Asta then went into a lesson explaining signed consent. Jenny wasn’t too sure what Asta knew where she was.
Daniel split the winnings amongst the fighters, so each of them got the equivalent of two hundred platinum.
About four hours after the fight ended, twenty three hundred hours local time, there was a knock on the door. Since Daniel was the only one unoccupied or conscious at the moment, he got the door and greeted Silas. He noticed a couple of guys standing behind him. Silas explained that they had the protein cubes and guys should be fueling up the ship shortly, so they were there to pick up the food and guns.
Daniel: No hard feelings?
Silas: Nope. Your side didn’t fair to well yourself.
Daniel: No, we didn’t.
Silas: Seemed like a fairly even match.
Campan: (drunken yell from the med bay) Why is my crotch shaved?
Roll Credits
Synopsis of 8/21/06 session - subtitled Kings of Pain
Mort quickly turned his body away from Darrel Hagerty to protect his own balls from retaliation and smiled.
Mort: Hello there.
Darrel Hagerty sputtered as he was unable to form words.
Mort: Can I help you?
Darrel Hagerty: (highly agitated and pointing at Mort) SILAS, ARREST THIS MAN!
At this point, Daniel felt his presence was needed in the cargo bay and stepped in. Silas maintain a cool expression as he set down the gun he had been inspecting and fully turned towards the door.
Silas: On what charge?
Darrel Hagerty: (still highly agitated and pointing at Mort) HE ASSAULTED ME!
Campan: On a different planet.
Mort liked where this conversation was going, so he continued to project a cheerful demeanor.
Mort: Where?
Darrel Hagerty: (lowers his hand as he looks stupefied) On… Uh… HE DID BAD THINGS TO ME!
Mort: Where?
Darrel Hagerty: SANTO!
Mort: (glances over at the deputy and smiles) Is Santo under your jurisdiction, sir?
Silas: (eyes narrow at Mort) No. I’m charged with keeping the peace here.
Darrel looked increasingly more frustrated as things weren’t going his way. Daniel took this as a good time to speak up.
Daniel: Is this man here to help you, sir?
Silas: (turns to Daniel) My brother does work for me.
Daniel: This is your brother?
Silas: Yes.
Daniel: Understood. (pauses slightly to take in a breath) It appears that your brother and my crew have encountered each other before. I hope it will not get in the way of our doing business here.
Silas: I would like to know what the previous encounter entailed.
Liz: Whores!
Darrel Hagerty: (Pointing at Mort) HE TRIED TO POKE MY EYE OUT!
Mort: No I didn’t.
Daniel: It entailed a fistfight in the alleyway.
Silas: Why was there a fist fight? Well, okay, I can understand… are you sure it was fists?
Daniel: I was perhaps describing a whole fight that involved fists kicks and groins.
Campan: I can serve witness that there were no guns fired. Specifically, I got yelled at.
Mort: No knives, no pointy bits. It was all fisticuffs.
Daniel: Your brother was employed to eliminate certain people that we were investigating.
Silas: I can believe that.
Daniel: And we did not want those people eliminated until we finished investigating them. He disagreed with our opinion and, as a result, I do believe he suffered some pain. However, we made a point not to incapacitate or maim him in any fashion.
Darrel Hagerty: THAT’S NOT TRUE!
Daniel: Are you walking around now?
Campan: Are you blind? Cause if Mort had any inclination to any of the things you’re accusing him of, you would be in those conditions.
Daniel: As you can see, we quite often have quite a sizeable assortment of munitions on us. When we walk around on most planets as well. So, if we had decided that there was serious harm to be done to your brother, it would have been done. However, we were not under such an inclination. Unfortunately, it appears your brother has carried a grudge for us sparing him of any permanent damage. (pause) What is your brother’s name?
Silas: Darrel.
Daniel: Jack. Jack Horner.
Silas: I was wondering why they showed up here bruised and beaten.
Daniel: I figure they’ve been here a little while, then, cause that was some time ago. I do hope they have found more stable employment here. It’s not a fun job being a night lady’s bodyguard.
Mort looked confused at this.
Campan: Whores, Mort. Whores.
Mort: Yeah, it’s the bodyguard part that I’m confused about.
Darrel Hagerty: I DEMAND JUSTICE!
Campan: Hey, don’t they have that fighting ring? You two can.. (Mort glares and shakes his head at Campan) No?
Daniel: As far as I see it, Darrel, we didn’t break any laws on Santo, let alone here.
Darrel Hagerty: YOU AMBUSHED US!
Mort: When was ambushing against the law?
Darrel Hagerty: UNPROKED!
Mort: No, it was provoked.
Darrel Hagerty: NO IT WASN’T! WE NEVER SAW YOU BEFORE!
Daniel commented that these past actions had no bearing on present day and asked Silas if he had any concerns. Silas said he wanted to make sure they wouldn’t attack them further.
Mort: No. I’m a very peaceful man.
The strength of that lie crossed time, space and genre to set off Gareth’s lie detecting charm.
Daniel stated that, as long as his brother did not go out of his way to impede them, their goal was to finish their trade and get off planet. Silas took his brother off the ship, saying he’d be back. A very short time later, Silas returned without his brother.
Silas: He seems to be rather adamant that you grievously wronged him and wants retribution. And I believe my other brother feels the same, he just doesn’t know you’re on planet at the moment. Trust me that that will not remain true for long.
Mort: Can you define retribution?
Campan: Barfight.
Mort: Cause if he just takes me into a back alley I’m going to hurt him again. I don’t wanna do that.
Silas: I would like to not see that happen. I have been able to clean them up a bit since your last encounter. They have a steady job here and they are behaving themselves here.
Mort: Yes. They seem to be upright citizens here.
Silas: I have a feeling he might attack you. I would like to see this out of his system because, as you can see, he is the type to hold a grudge and I have a feeling he might follow you.
Campan: Barfight?
Mort: No, no. They have pits here.
Campan: Yeah, in the bar.
Silas: That seems the most direct solution to this problem.
Campan: Yeah!
Daniel: That would prove mighty annoying.
Mort: One on one fight or does your other brother Darrel wanna fight me and Campan?
Campan: What? How’d I get dragged into this?
Silas: He seems to have a problem with you three. (gesturing to Mort, Campan, and Daniel). I have not had time to get their full story. But I feel Charlie feels the same. Something about you (nodding to Daniel) rifle butting Charlie to knock him out.
Campan: Those two can fight. I’ll watch.
Silas: He kept going on about how evil men you are and how much you are without honor.
Mort: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Daniel: There is no point in getting into that debate, sir.
Mort: How are these things arranged, before we agree to anything? We have three people that have angered two people. That doesn’t really seem fair to you guys. Do we get a third or do we get to have one alternate? Can we have a nice, friendly, no weapons fight?
Silas: All fights are no weapons.
Mort: Oh good.
Daniel inquired about fights to the death, saying they weren’t looking for it. Silas told them that death was to be avoided. It happened occasionally, but they were frowned upon and investigated. He stated that the General understood that the people needed to release pent up rage, so they have the fights. But he wanted all of his people alive.
Mort said that they should just get this over with. Daniel agreed, but put up the show that this was all a terrible hassle and a major annoyance. Silas said that he would prefer his brothers bloody and beaten here than dead on another planet. Daniel questioned why this would end it, since it would be a greater humiliation in front of a crowd.
Mort: You want I should break their limbs?
Daniel: I think we’re not going for maiming.
Mort: I just follow orders.
They found out that no weapons, armor, or excessive padding was allowed in the fights.
Mort: What defines excessive padding?
Silas looked Mort up and down.
Silas: (pointing at Mort) That.
Mort took off his bulletproof vest.
Mort: Am I still defined as excessive padding?
Silas: How many layers do you have on there?
Mort did some quick math on his fingers.
Mort: Five. The vest is usually six.
Silas: Two layers max.
Daniel went on about the excessive amount of unpleasantness plaguing them lately and wanting the word of his brothers that this will be finished after the fight. Silas said he could keep his brothers in line.
Silas asked when they wished the match to be, to which Daniel responded that the sooner the better. To allow adequate time for people to make bets, they scheduled the fight for two hours time. Daniel made sure it was allowable to bring their doctor along.
Once Silas had left Campan turned to Daniel.
Campan: So, where does this fall under in my job description?
Mort: Public Relations.
Daniel: I was going to say under the chain of command, but… it might fall under the part that says thug.
Mort: Think positive. You can wave at the crowd this time.
Campan: I could wave at the crowd last time.
Mort wandered off to his room to find the right outfit. Something black.
Daniel asked Asta for something to disguise Mort with, since he was about to be in a public spectacle.
Campan: He IS a public spectacle!
Asta thought for a few minutes before stating that this was more Jenny’s area of expertise. Asta approached Jenny about foundations and body paint. Jenny said she didn’t have any, but knew how to mix some up quick if they had the supplies. Asta tossed Mort a bottle of peroxide and told Mort to soak his hair and beard in it if he wanted to lighten the color. She and Jenny then went down to find Daniel.
Asta: (holds out hand) Uh, Jenny and I need to go shopping for some cosmetic type things. Money, please.
Daniel handed Asta a small amount of money and the two women left him to go shopping while he prepared himself for the fight. Jenny pointed out what they’d need for certain foundations. She pointed out things for less and more permanent pigments. She said the more permanent stuff stained. She said the less permanent stuff lasted days, while the more permanent would last months.
While Jenny mixed up the less permanent paint, Asta told Mort she’d have Jenny trim up his hair and beard, since they were just two month’s growth without trimming. Mort said he wanted cornrows.
Jenny: You know this is going to look hideous, right?
Mort: I know. I don’t plan on walking around anywhere like this again. It’s a great disguise.
Jenny: (to Asta) Am I getting paid for this?
Asta handed her the change from their shopping venture, which was a few platinum.
Mort took the body paint into his room and slathered on a nice even coat across his chest. To make sure he got everything, he dropped his pants and covered there too until most of his front was black and blue and red. Since he hadn’t bothered to put on gloves, he made the finished coating his hands to look like he was wearing gloves. He then put on a black shirt and black vest. He then returned and had Jenny put his hair in cornrows, including his beard.
Campan decided he was going to wear his recently ruined sweater for the match. Daniel put on a brown shirt and his brown jacket (the short one).
When they were about ready to leave, Campan, Daniel, Mort, and Asta got together on the bridge of all places. Daniel asked Take to keep an eye out for a fourth brother that might come by to steal or sabotage while they were at the fight. Take said he was going to the fight and they could just have Jenny and Ezmerelda watch the door and radio if there was trouble.
Campan: Well, Jenny is going to the fight.
Take: Why?
Campan: Jenny wants to.
Take: So we tell Jenny to stay behind.
Campan: Did somebody explain the chain of command to you?
Take: Yes…
Campan: No, I mean in real life. Where, if you piss someone off and then order them to do something, the chances of that thing getting done are very small. If you say ‘Whore, you stay here and guard the ship!’ she is going to go ‘
You!’ and go on her way.Asta: Actually, she is more likely to say ‘When did you start paying me, sir?’
Daniel: With food and lodging.
Asta: Yes, but all of us get food and lodging. Some of us apparently get pay.
Daniel: No, just part of the crew.
Asta: Oh, where’s my pay?
Daniel: Uh, we’ll pay you when we get to the next planet.
Asta: (pointing at Campan) You paid him!
Campan: Don’t bring me into this. I’m broke.
Asta: He got money.
Mort: You paid him?
Daniel: I only paid his debtors. (to Asta) You want an advance, I’ll be more than willing to give you one for this planet, but until I know how much we need to make it to the next planet and we can sell off the rest of the food…
Asta: (cutting him off) No, I’m talking about the last job. The one we haven’t been paid for.
Daniel somehow managed to change the subject to needing to get to the fight. Take set Ezmerelda up in the cockpit and told her to radio if there were problems.
They got to the arena about twenty minutes before the fight was scheduled. The place was bustling as usual with bookies all around collecting bets. The pits themselves were empty at the moment. The Hagerty Brothers did not seem to have arrived yet.
Daniel went over to the barker and told him they were there. When asked how he wanted to be introduced, Daniel said Dogleg Jack. Campan blurted out Two Legs Campan. After a little thought, Mort finally went with Pegleg Dog.
Barker: Pegleg Dog?
Mort: Yup. It’s what my momma called me.
The barker pointed them towards a corner and told them they could have it if they wanted it. They found a couple of stools over there and a small basin. When Asta went to fill up the basin, she found the water was brown with rust, but had nothing wrong with it. Campan, Mort, and Daniel started stretching. Jenny wandered off into the crowd.
Daniel: I’m too old for this.
A couple of guys wandered over to look at them before they went to one of the bookies.
Daniel: Are we betting anything?
Mort: That would be up to you, sir. I don’t have any money. I haven’t been paid recently.
Asta went over to one of the bookies and inquired about the rules of the fight.
Asta: Is groin punching acceptable?
Bookie: Uhh… it’s allowed. (jots down ‘raise chance of groin punching’)
Asta: Do people get broken arms? I mean, I have to look after my crew here and they apparently want to get into a fight.
Bookie: It happens.
Asta: They aren’t likely to get killed, right?
Bookie: Oh, we frown on killing. Messy stuff. Might be a bit beat up, but they should be alive. It depends on how dirty the fight gets, but usually they come out all right. Usually it is first one unconscious.
Asta: So it’s frown on kicking someone when they’re down?
Bookie: Oh yeah. That’s just unsportsmanlike.
Asta: So holding someone down and poking out their eyeball?
Bookie: That’s just not right. (jots down ‘raise chance of eye gouging’)
Asta walked back over to their corner. Daniel told Campan, Mort, and Asta that they had 150 platinum to spend on betting, should they want it. Asta didn’t feel right about betting on people getting injured and Mort declined.
Mort: What condition do you want them to be in after the fight, sir?
Daniel: Breathing.
Mort: That’s it?
Daniel: I’m mighty annoyed that we’re being forced to do this, but I want nothing that is going to come back to bite us in the ass later. Limbs attached, breathing, no permanent damage.
Mort: Broken fingers okay?
Daniel: That’s fine. If they go down and they look like they’re staying down, leave them alone.
Asta: They consider it unsportsmanlike to kick a man when he’s down.
Mort: So I gotta hold them up. Right.
Daniel: Breathing.
Daniel went over to a bookie and asked about the odds for them winning, three of themselves up, three of the other down. The bookie told him ten to one odds on that. Daniel went to lay a hundred platinum on that, but reconsidered and only put down sixty.
About ten minutes before the fight, the Hagerty brothers arrived and headed over to their own corner of the room. Silas was looking over the three as they stretched. The crew recognized Charlie as the other one from the alley fight on Santo. He looked a lot like Darrel. The other brother, Cy, was the shortest of them at six feet tall. He didn’t look quite as bulky as they other two. The brothers were each wearing tucked in wife beaters, closefitting pants and steel-toed boots. The brothers did look across the room to check out the competition. Campan waved back while Mort kept his own hands behind his back.
When Jenny returned, Asta handed her a couple platinum and asked her to get a couple of beers. Jenny wandered off and returned a few minutes later with two beers and handed one to Asta.
Take: (to Campan) You haven’t had anything to drink yet?
Campan: Nope. I’m going into this fight clear and sober.
Take: Isn’t that backwards?
Campan: Buy me a beer!
Take actually went over and bought Campan a beer. Campan slammed the beer down. Jenny then went back out and mingled in the crowd.
When the time for the fight rolled around, both sides moved over to the edge of the pit.
Barker: We have a special fight this evening; a three on three match. This is the largest fight we’ve had here in many years.
The barker then leaned over to Daniel and asked him if they had a group name. After Campan replied and Daniel agreed, the bark stood back up.
Barker: The Hagerty Brothers are taking on the Legs! (crowd cheers) On this side, we have Darrel Hagerty on a return to the ring. He holds a five fight winning streak. Next is Charlie Hagerty. He currently holds a three fight winning streak. Finally we have Cy Hagerty making his début in ring. (crowd cheers as the Hagerty brother climb down into the pit) Over here we have Dogleg Jack, the leader of the group. (Campan cheers) Two Legs Campan. (Campan waves and flexes at the crowd to get them to cheer) And finally Pegleg Dog.
Mort and Campan jumped down into the pit while Daniel climbed down. As the two sides moved to the center of the pit Daniel gave the brothers a false smile.
Daniel: Evening. Didn’t have enough the first time?
The brothers lined up so that, down the line, Charlie was across from Daniel, Cy was across from Campan, and Darrel was across from Mort. The crew properly deduced that they were setting up their grudges, since Daniel had rifle-butted Charlie and Mort had threatened Darrel’s eyes.
Darrel: No.
Barker: The fight is to the knock out. The last person, I mean last team standing wins. Sorry, it’s been a while since we had a team fight.
As the bell rang, Mort opened by reaching across and trying to punch Cy. Even though he wasn’t expecting it, Mort completely missed. Daniel was pretty sure that Charlie was going to try and head-butt him so he shifted his weight to try and feint him out. Campan, annoyed Mort was attacking his guy, decided to kick Darrel in the knee twice.
Darrel yelled in pain as he pulled his weight off his left knee. He leaned forward to throw his weight into Mort to try and take him down. He managed to slam into Mort but couldn’t take him down. He ended up kind of leaning on Mort.
Asta: Bite his nipple off!
Cy then leapt at Mort to try and take him down. Mort pulled Darrel halfway between himself and Cy so that when Cy hit him, he half hit Darrel. The force of impact and the weight of the two men forced Mort to fall backwards and hit the ground hard. The weight of two burly men landing on him did nothing for his health. Unlike Darrel, Cy actually had a good hold on Mort.
Mort: (to Campan and Daniel) Get the other one!
Though Daniel knew it was coming, he was focusing on his feint a bit too much to avoid Charlie’s forehead connecting with his.
Mort tried to grab Cy and Darrel’s heads and slam them together, but he was unable to get a grip on Darrel’s head. He decided instead to just toss Darrel off of him. Mort mustered up his strength and hurled him off and into the wall. Darrel’s head cracked into the wall before he fell down to his hands.
As Daniel nursed his head he spit at Charlie’s face and brought his foot up to connect with Charlie’s crotch. Charlie let out a whimper, but remained upright. Daniel tried to follow up with an elbow to the chest, but missed.
Campan leapt into the air, did a somersault and waved at the crowd. There was an audile Oooooooh! as Campan hung in the air for a few seconds. Even Charlie looked up from clutching his groin to see this. This turned out to be to his disadvantage as Campan came down and landed a powerful kick to Charlie’s upper chest. Charlie was knocked into a bit of a flip to land with a thud on his back. They could see that Charlie looked a little dazed.
Cy grabbed onto Mort’s head with both of his hands and put his thumbs on Mort’s eyeballs to apply pressure.
Asta: Hey! He needs those!
Take: I call shenanigans!
Mort rolled his legs to ship Cy off of him. Continuing the roll, he reversed the grapple, and held Cy down face first by slamming his knees down on his shoulders. To add insult to injury, he dragged Cy’s face over the hard dirt floor. Mort tried to write the word Legs on the ground with Cy’s face.
Mort: It if frowned upon to go after people’s eyes!
Daniel moved over to Charlie as he was starting to get up to help him up. He wanted to run Charlie into the wall, but found that guys built like linebackers are very heavy and hard to control. So he then tried to knock Charlie’s legs out from under him, but failed.
Campan saw Daniel was holding Charlie up, so he thanked Daniel and accepted his gift. Taking Charlie off of Daniel’s hands, Campan and Daniel ran Charlie into the wall. Charlie managed to get his arms up to stop his face from hitting the wall. Campan backed up a few feet, grabbed Charlie by the scruff of his neck and put a little extra effort into the second smash into the wall, grinding Charlie’s face a little.
Over on the other side of the pit, Darrel manages to stand up and get his bearings. Charlie pushes back on Campan a little and, when they headed back to the wall, Charlie ran up the wall and did a somersault flip over Campan, smashing him into the wall. Charlie came to a standing rest behind Campan and next to Daniel.
Mort: (to Cy) Say Uncle!
Cy rolled Mort off of him and slammed his full weight down on Mort’s chest.
Paul: (to Liz) You couldn’t have pumped us full of adrenaline before the match?
Liz: Asta figured that was cheating.
Mort rolled Cy off of him and stumbled to his feet. Cy continued the roll and used the momentum to spring up to his feet near Darrel.
Mort: Oww.
With Charlie right behind him, Campan brought his arm up to elbow Charlie in the nose. A sickening crunch could be heard down in the pit as Charlie’s nose bent in ways it shouldn’t and a spurt of blood erupted onto Campan and Daniel. The crowd cheered. Charlie staggered back clutching his bloody face. As he moved back past Daniel, Daniel moved his foot out to trip the guy. As Charlie’s head hit the ground, his eyes rolled back and he went unconscious.
Campan: Don’t mess with Two Legs.
Mort: Glad you two took care of that one!
As Darrel moved over next to Cy, Daniel moved over near Mort. Darrel and Cy grabbed each other’s hand and tried to clothesline Mort. Mort tried to jump into the air over their arms. Daniel tried to kick Darrel. What actually happened was Mort jumped right into Daniel’s kick and then got clotheslined and trampled by Darrel and Cy. The two came to a stop a bit past Mort and dropped their hands.
Mort lied on the ground with half open eyelids. He found it wasn’t exactly comfy there, but he really didn’t want to move since the room was spinning in an interesting way. He tried to say ‘You two get them’ but it came out as an incomprehensible punch-drunk slur.
Campan moved over and brought his foot up to connect with Cy’s already scratched and bloody face. Cy spit blood as he fell backward to land with a thump. He was still conscious, but, like Mort, looked like he was down for the count.
Take: Look Jenny, he’s as pretty as you!
Campan threw a punch at Darrel, but swung wide. Daniel was much more successful in slugging him, though. He softened Darrel up with a left punch, then brought his right leg back and spun around to deliver a spin kick. Darrel stumbled back a few feet and coughed up a little blood. Campan moved up and delivered a hammer punch to Darrel’s upper chest, knocking him to the ground and into unconsciousness.
Campan then moved back over Cy to stand over him.
Campan: Give up little boy.
Through the pain and haziness, Cy focused enough to bring his steel-toed boots straight up hard. Campan crumpled over to the ground as blinding pain emanated from his crotch.
Daniel stood over the battlefield, surveying the situation. Mort and Campan looked like they were out for the count, but so did Darrel and Charlie. Cy appeared to still be marginally active, since he just kicked Campan in the crotch. Daniel moved over to Cy and stomped on his chest, knocking him out.
Through shear force of will, Mort managed to roll over onto his hands and knees while Daniel helped Campan to his knees. Mort tried to say ‘I’m okay’ but again it just came out as a drunken slur.
The bell rang and the crowd cheered.
Barker: The Legs Win! Barely.
Mort: Glad you two were able to handle that one.
Campan: Good thing you took out those other two first.
Mort and Campan continued to throw insults at each other since they were physically unable to throw punches.
Asta tossed down a few of ice patches to Daniel, who handed one to Campan and tossed one over next to Mort’s hand. He kept one and held it up to his throbbing head.
Barker: They’re gonna need stretchers down there.
As ladders were lowered, Asta made her way over to Campan first.
Campan: Oh, wonderful morphine. I’ll lie down.
Asta ignored his request and checked Mort out.
After seeing Mort was his usual black and blue lump, she gave Campan some morphine.
Campan: Ahh, I hope I get morphine every time I get kicked in the nuts.
Daniel continued to clutch his icepack as he made his way up the ladder to collect his winnings from the bookie. While waiting, he did notice Jenny collecting something from a bookie.
Bookie: That’s six hundred platinum. You’ll be paid in a couple different ways. Do you take chickens?
Daniel: NO!
Bookie: (over his shoulder) Hold the chicken!
Daniel got paid in platinum, gold and ore.
Silas had moved down into the pit and was helping hand stretchers of his brothers out of it. Daniel wanted to talk to Silas, but figured this wasn’t the best time.
As the crew limped their way back to the ship, Daniel sidled up beside Jenny.
Daniel: (quiet voice) I hope made out fairly well.
Jenny: Small take. Didn’t have much to start with.
Daniel spent the rest of the trip back to the ship helping Campan walk.
Campan: You’re the best XO ever. Did we make any money me getting hit in the crotch?
Daniel: A good amount. We’ll split it up later.
Campan: Then my crotch is happy.
Daniel: Jenny made some money too.
Campan: Then my crotch is happy for her too.
Once they got back to the ship Mort retreated to his room to rest while Asta and Jenny took Campan to the med bay. After checking Campan out, she noticed his balls were grapefruiting and hemorrhaging. Asta decided that she needed to operate and knocked Campan out with some medication. While she prepped, she handed Jenny a razor to shave him. Jenny got a little overzealous with said razor. He was completely shaved down below. His chest now had a shaved patch that said Beer Bad and his back said Kick Me. Asta stopped her after she had started on the eyebrows. Jenny asked her about a few things they could do to Campan while he was out. Though she tried hard to convince Asta that Campan and the verse would be better if he got a vasectomy, Asta said no. She then said that, given his line of work, crotch hits would likely take care of that problem on their own. Asta explained about how they needed consent for that.
Jenny: He said sure.
Asta: See, this is where signed consent comes in.
Jenny: Campan can write?
Asta: I think so.
Paul: I nominate Jenny for a drama point!
Asta then went into a lesson explaining signed consent. Jenny wasn’t too sure what Asta knew where she was.
Daniel split the winnings amongst the fighters, so each of them got the equivalent of two hundred platinum.
About four hours after the fight ended, twenty three hundred hours local time, there was a knock on the door. Since Daniel was the only one unoccupied or conscious at the moment, he got the door and greeted Silas. He noticed a couple of guys standing behind him. Silas explained that they had the protein cubes and guys should be fueling up the ship shortly, so they were there to pick up the food and guns.
Daniel: No hard feelings?
Silas: Nope. Your side didn’t fair to well yourself.
Daniel: No, we didn’t.
Silas: Seemed like a fairly even match.
Campan: (drunken yell from the med bay) Why is my crotch shaved?
Roll Credits
Last edited:
Ao the Overkitty
First Post
“Episode 11 –Financial Woes” - First Session
Synopsis of 9/18/06 session - subtitled I am further convinced I need to kill Mort
Campan’s hair managed to grow back during the month’s travel that followed. At least Jenny’s work was mildly appreciated when Mort noticed Kick Me shaved into Campan’s back. Daniel also got to view this, but his only response was to shake his head.
During that month Asta decided to focus Jenny’s reading assignments on medical ethics. When Jenny finished the material unusually fast Asta got the impression Jenny had just skimmed it, or not read it at all. When Asta assigned Jenny to write a small report on it, it was very vague and looked to have been partially pulled from the Cortex.
Mort and Asta spent most of his time getting the still up and running. Since it was set up in the engine room, Campan pretty much avoided the creation and brewing process.
Take had scheduled a stop on Beylix to at least partially fuel up before heading on to Regina. The reasoning was that they’d want to be seen as little as necessary on Regina and they should probably have something to get away yet.
Alex: Junkyard of the Core Worlds! Treasure trove of the Rim! Beylix is commonly known as the dumping ground and scavenging center of the ‘Verse and prized possession of Unified Reclamation.
Gabe: So what are we going to do to replace Mort?
Liz: Yeah. We’ll just leave Mort here and pick him up later.
The clouds parted as they made their approach to the city of NewHouse. It looked like a target carved in the middle of a vast field of rusted metal and packing crates. The Port tower directed them to pad three without asking for identification. As they touched down they could see that pads one, two, and four were occupied by other ships. The other ships didn’t look like any they had pissed off or stolen from, so they mostly ignored them. Mort looked them over from the cockpit to see if they were worth stealing.
As they were congregated on the bridge, Daniel spouted out a little bit of information he had learned over the years about this planet and scavenging. This led Asta and Daniel to wonder how easy it was to get a scavenging contract and if they actually needed one. Campan pointed out that it was a big deal that Jessalyn had such a contract. He was ignored. Asta decided she’d check on getting a contract within the next couple of hours.
Take went down to the cargo bay doors to let in some fresh air and look around the port. The port itself looked like a decent sized landing pad and repair facility. There was a large crane on both ends of the dock and a good sized team of mechanics were scurrying around the tarmac. A fat, greasy middle-aged man in a dirty overalls and wearing a tool belt walked over towards the ship.
Daniel: Hey Mort. Looks like someone is heading on over to talk to us. Who’s going to go out to talk to him?
Mort: I think Take already went out. I’d better follow cause I know someone is going to start a fight.
Daniel and Mort headed down with Asta following behind. Meanwhile, Take called out to the man walking up to them.
Take: Hey, fat and greasy. You a chef?
Mechanic: (drops his hand towards a wrench on his side and glares) I’m a mechanic. You got a PROBLEM with THAT?
Take: No, no. You just remind me of someone.
Mechanic: (waving wrench) Does it LOOK like I COOK around here?
Take: Well, you’re greasy. Cooking is greasy.
Mechanic: (yelling) IT’S ENGINE GREASE!
The group hastened their approach upon hearing the yelling. Asta tried to distract Take and get him away from the enraged mechanic. Said mechanic turned towards the equally greasy Mort.
Mechanic: (yelling and gesturing at Take) What kind of MORON is this guy?
Mort: He’s like this to everyone.
Daniel: What’s going on?
Asta: (to Take) Umm, sir? Sir? Look, there’s, ummm, shinnies back in the ship…
Campan sat down to watch.
Mechanic: What just happened? He just asked me if I was a chef?
Take: I’m a pilot, not a ferret.
Mechanic: (confused look) Not… a… ferret?
Mort: Uh, Campan?
Campan: I’m not touching this, I’m watching.
Daniel: Campan, get our friend her a cold beer.
Campan was annoyed that he had to miss the fun, but agreed and headed back into the ship.
Daniel: I take it you’re in charge around here?
Mechanic: I’m the head mechanic. Anything you need done?
Daniel explained that they didn’t currently have the cash for the parts they needed. He then asked how you go about getting a permit to scavenge. The mechanic said it involved talking to the Alliance, lots of forms, and an extensive background check. During this, Campan came back with the engine still beer, which he handed to the mechanic.
Campan: How many credits?
Mechanic: Huh?
Campan: How many credits? (pause) That’s right to the point.
Mechanic: Uh, for what? He said that there wasn’t anything you needed.
Campan: He’s asking the wrong questions. How much do you want for, uh, letting us look around?
Mechanic: Not exactly my domain.
The mechanic said another short sentence, but Campan talked right over it.
Campan: Then what are we asking him for?
Daniel: I wasn’t asking him. He walked over and said hi.
Mechanic: I wouldn’t suggest it.
Daniel: You wouldn’t suggest it?
But the mechanic was distracted as he took a drink of his beer. He coughed a little.
Mechanic: (raspy voice) Strong.
The mechanic then put his hand out in front of him and moved it back and forth, as if he was testing vision.
Daniel Won’t make you go blind and it’s good.
Campan: If it burns blue, it’s good. Green bad.
Mechanic: I don’t keep fire on me. Engine grease.
Daniel then explained that he didn’t like dealing with eh Alliance any more than necessary. The mechanic directed them to the Public Works building, but said that just starts the process.
Daniel asked if he was who they would talk to about salvaging and he said yes. Mort asked if it was okay for them to go along with him to point out stuff they’d like. He said he’d have to check his contract, but he wasn’t sure that was legal. He had no intention of losing his license. He said that usually people just gave him a list.
They eventually dropped the subject and told him they wanted to a third of a tank of fuel. Mort decided that just wouldn’t do and started trying to figure out how they could make money rock. He asked the mechanic a series of questions about what they were lacking and what types of jobs were around. When he didn’t like the answers he got her started pondering how they could illegally make some money.
The mechanic told them they had a five hour wait, since they had ships ahead of them and left them to their own devices.
Back on the ship, Ezmerelda was being bugged by the passengers. Since they had been stuck for two months in cramped quarters they bombarded her with questions.
Are we there? Can we go out? I’d like some breathable air. Everything smells like beer here.
Ezmerelda pretty much ignored them.
As Asta headed back into the ship, Jenny wandered over to Asta and asked her how long they would be there and if she could go out. Asta told her they’d be there for at least five hours. Jenny said she’d take a comm. and be back in a few hours.
Once the mechanic was gone, Daniel turned to Mort and told him he didn’t want to wait around on planet long enough to find work. They were just here for some fuel. Mort was unhappy about the amount of fuel they had procured and wanted a full tank. Daniel explained that the plan was to land on Regina, sell the rest of the food and cruise over land to find a place to hide the ship. Mort said that wouldn’t get them any money. Daniel said that that was what the job was for. Mort was very adamant that this was a bad plan and they needed money and a full tank of fuel now. He then went into outlining a big plan revolving around stealing gas from the other ships docked there.
Ezmerelda eventually got annoyed with the incessant questioning and headed out to go get a drink at a bar. The passengers decided that, since she could go, they’d follow her.
Mort looked around the landing area and went into further depth and crime. He started talking about making sure ships were empty in a vague sense and asking Asta if she could find out how the port and city were powered.
As Asta headed inside the ship to check on that information, Daniel pulled Mort aside and told him they were not pulling anything on this planet because they had a job they didn’t need to attract attention to. Mort nodded and then went back to figuring out how to pull off this crime.
Liz: Gabe, you might want to use your knowledge: Mort to know what he’s planning.
Dan: Can I buy Wildcard: Duh to know when we’re about to do something really stupid?
Paul: What kind of backup power do they have? Is it nuclear?
Gabe: Drama Point (plot twist) Mort is on the ship and we’re leaving.
*group breaks out laughing*
Ryan: Wow. That IS a plot twist.
Paul: But what kind of power plant?
At this point, the GM broke.
For the sake of the almighty plot (and the remainder of the GM’s sanity), Mort receded to his room and spent the next five hours planning his big fuel crime. He made several schematics and diagrams. Daniel checked in on him to make sure he was sufficiently occupied. When he thought Mort might finish early, he asked Mort to explain his plan in detail and asked several questions. Mort finished his plans just in time for Daniel to tell him they were fueled up and leaving.
During this time, Ezmerelda decided she could do some crime while she was out. She went to a bar and looked for a mark while sipping a beer. The passengers all planted themselves at a table.
Paul: They complained about the ship smelling like beer, so while they’re out they went to a bar. Brilliant.
Ezmerelda picked a decent looking ship captain that was drunk and alone. She coddled up to him for a while and got him to pass out. She then stole his cash when no one was looking.
During this time, Asta spent her time researching salvage permits on the Cortex. The process looked like what the mechanic described.
Asta: Mort, we need better computer stuff.
Mort: Yeah, I know.
Asta: I’d be much easier to make a permit than to go through all this paperwork.
Everyone got back to the ship with time to spare. Ezmerelda left the bar without the passengers, but they quickly noticed she was gone and ran after her.
The players then got into a discussion about plot twists.
Liz: Well, I think some of our plot twists are a bit too large, so they get nixed.
Dan: There have been lots of attempts to use plot twists, but you didn’t seem to like ‘plot twist: his heart explodes.’
Alex: Correction. There have been three reasonable plot twists.
Paul: See, ‘plot twist: power plant explodes’ would have been perfectly reasonable. It would have provided sufficient distraction for us to steal gas.
*Alex almost cries*
Paul: Plot twist: The fuel gauge was broken and they filled up the tank?
They then peer-pressured Dan into spending a drama point on that plot twist.
Daniel pointed out the full tank was full. Take said they must have screwed up and hastened take off. Daniel went off to make sure Mort’s plan got saved for later use.
The last leg of the trip to Regina took two and a half days. Daniel waited for Mort and Campan to come up with a plan for the bank heist so that he could revise it or throw it out.
Campan: Alright, sir. We get these things called GUNS. We point them at people and yell a lot.
Daniel talked about the cleaning crew or cooking crew being people they’d need to deal with and he felt they needed to disable the rails. He then pointed out that there was likely a patrol boat orbiting the planet. Mort talked about how blowing up the power station on Beylix would have been a great diversion to get the patrol boat out of there.
Gabe: Plot Twist: We’re on the bridge.
Alex: Umm, you don’t need a drama point for that.
Dan: Yeah, you just kind of walk up there.
Gabe: Of the patrol boat!
Ryan: We transport in, Mort is wearing a red shirt.
Asta proposed they do this job very discretely and fly far away quickly. Mort proposed doing the job on ‘Taco Tuesday’ and dole out food poisoning. There was lots of discussion about this and what to do about poisoning of the people who didn’t eat at the cafeteria. Mort brought up the concept of poisoning the water supply, but strangely seemed hesitant about ‘poisoning an entire town.’ Asta reassured him that it was okay if they just made people sleepy for a while.
Eventually they made it to the planet. Asta talked about hacking into the Corone Mining Consortium’s systems, but found them encrypted. She felt they’d need to borrow someone’s computer for that. Mort went on the local Cortex to look at wanted posters. He found that Daniel, Take, and himself were fairly recent additions to the list. He also found a less recent one for himself and a very minor one for Ezmerelda.
Mort and Daniel discussed infiltration. They felt taking out the cafeteria staff or the janitorial staff and impersonating them was the best way to go. Mort felt guns would be a bad idea, since he gets shot when he carries them.
Gabe: (writing into his notes) Become lowly gunless workers.
They discussed for a very long time what to do. Paul kept trying to get the ship to Regina and landed, but Gabe kept thwarting this. Paul’s attempts to get Dan to say they land also failed.
Mort: We also have a plan where Asta needs a computer.
Daniel: Why?
Mort: So she can steal information.
Daniel: Oh. That’s a good plan.
Paul: Then we should LAND so she can actually do that!
Take, with his excellent piloting skills, avoided detection by the Alliance patrol boat in the area and landed the Orasca in a nice canyon near the mining town of Cerbeza. It was a moderate sized town of about two hundred people. The town had twenty nine buildings with majority of the structures were tents and non-permanent ones.
Once landed, the passengers bugged Ezmerelda.
Liz: Oh, god. Get them out of here.
They asked her if they were there. Ezmerelda told them yes. When they asked her if they were in town, she shooed them away. They figured this was a yes and headed for the door. Daniel headed them off and herded them to the shuttle. Once they were there, he rounded up Mort, Asta, Take and Ezmerelda so they could take the passengers into town and do some crime. The five man shuttle was very crowded with nine people crammed into it. Take and Mort got the only two seats, leaving Asta and Ezmerelda crammed in between the passengers. Neither were very amused and pretty sure they got groped a few times. The shuttle flew very low to the ground and, despite Take’s long hours of flight time, the journey was anything but smooth.
The contact Logan had given them for this planet was a local rum-runner type smuggler for the camps named Mascovich. Daniel had plans to drop a signal buoy out in the middle of the desert and wait for a response for a meeting, but wasn’t going to enact this plan until the others returned from town. So this led to Campan and Daniel sitting around bored on the ship.
The shuttle landed near town and everyone but Take scrambled for the free, open space of the desert in the evening.
Mort: There you go. Town! On the planet you requested.
Take: Have a good life.
Mort: (closes door) Yeah. Clearly when we have more money, better shuttle.
They waited a little bit before Mort, Asta followed Ezmerelda into town. Mort was wearing a black shirt and a tool belt and was without his brown coat. Asta was wearing run of the mill clothing (nothing special). Ezmerelda was dressed up nicely.
Asta: Maybe they’ll have coffee.
Mort: Oh dear. We don’t need to scare another bartender.
The first bar they came to was called ‘The Dead Dog Saloon,’ which seemed to be doing a good amount of business that night. Ezmerelda wandered in to check things out, leaving Asta and Mort outside.
The saloon had nine round tables with room for five or six patrons at each. There were stools at the bar for another eight patrons. The bar had a grimy mirror placed along the wall behind it to let patrons see behind them. The bartender stood behind the bar serving drinks. He was about six foot tall, bulky man missing his right arm. He was in his late thirties with his hair not showing any signs of going grey yet. He wore a dingy, brown vest that had a bullet hole in it and the right sleeve sewn up at the shoulder into a little pocket. There was a large congregation of people near the back of the bar, about thirty five people or so, though Ezmerelda couldn’t see what it was for. They were wearing nicer clothes than a miner would and they were bathed. There were a few miners scattered around the tables and seated at the bar. Two pleasant, if plain serving girls were moving about the bar serving food and drinks to the people at tables and at the back of the bar.
Ezmerelda walked up to the bar and ordered a beer. The bartender looked her up and down.
Bartender: Are you sure you want a beer at this establishment?
Ezmerelda: Why wouldn’t I?
Bartender: The bar down the street is much more suited for your… type.
Ezmerelda: (looks down at herself to check what she looks like) Um, can I get business over there?
Bartender: Yup.
Ezmerelda: Will I make good money?
Bartender: Can’t say.
The bartender then moved down the bar to take care of a customer.
Paul: Clearly this is the wrong bar.
Ezmerelda walked out of the bar to meet up with a confused Mort and Asta.
Asta: That was fast.
Ezmerelda: There should be a bar down the street that should be… better.
Down the street, they got to the a place called ‘The Hole.’ Mort walked up and down the street to make sure that there were, indeed, only two bars. This bar only had five tables which weren’t very well kept up. Everything about the place was a little creaky. The bar itself was more of a large crate than a place to sit.
Mort: No, you wanted the other one.
Ezmerelda took one look at the bar and headed back to The Dead Dog Saloon. She walked in and headed over to the group in the back. She saddled up to one of the guys and stumbled into him. She apologized and leaned into him, wiping some of his spilled beer off of him. Since she couldn’t find out why these people were celebrating, she asked him why. The man told her they were celebrating the retirement of Anderson from Accounts Receivable.
Mort and Asta wandered in and sat down at the bar. Ezmerelda grabbed a beer from one of the serving girls and paid her. Mort noticed the bartender glaring at Ezmerelda a little later. Ezmerelda decided to stay with the man at the party for quite a while. She found out he was from Anderson’s unit. She offered to buy him a drink and ordered him a beer. When the order came up to the bar, the bartender spit in the beer before sending it back.
Asta: That’s really quite unhygienic!
Mort: Please, dear. (Asta starts to talk again, but he cuts her off) It’s not your beer.
Asta: As a doctor I must protest this terribly. I mean, not to impugn the health here but isn’t that a little.
Bartender: Nah, it’s fine.
Asta: There are reasons why you are doing this? Some local tradition I am unaware of?
Bartender: Yup! Don’t like it, head down the road.
Mort: Don’t worry, dear. It’ll be fine.
Ezmerelda handed the foamy beer to the guy and smiled. She continued buying him ‘foamy’ beers.
Dan: Did they wander into an Alliance bar on U-Day?
After a while, the bartender came back over to Mort.
Bartender: I know you from somewhere.
Mort: I’ve been a lot of places.
Bartender: Were you in the war?
Mort: Uh, kind of. (pause) Merc.
Bartender: Fer what side?
Mort: Alliance.
The bartender walked away. The next time Mort ordered beers the bartender charged him more. Mort neglected to comment and just nursed his beer. The party in the back went on for several hours and Mort and Asta had mild conversation.
Paul: We talk shop and try to not look like psychotic, deranged individuals.
Alex: That’s difficult for both of you.
Back on the ship, Daniel and Campan were getting very bored. Since it had been several hours, Daniel decided to go leave the message buoy so he and Campan took the mule and closed up the ship. He left a note in case the others got back before them.
When cake was served at the bar, Mort snuck into the line to get a piece. Ezmerelda ‘accidentally’ dropped her cake down her dress. She asked him if he had someplace where she could wash it off. He told her there was a water spigot out front. She steered him to offering to use the water at his place.
Liz: Does he look down her dress?
Alex: No, he doesn’t actually.
Liz: Oh, that’s so sad! That means he might actually be a nice guy.
Ezmerelda started to lead him out the door.
*Fade to Black*
Synopsis of 9/18/06 session - subtitled I am further convinced I need to kill Mort
Campan’s hair managed to grow back during the month’s travel that followed. At least Jenny’s work was mildly appreciated when Mort noticed Kick Me shaved into Campan’s back. Daniel also got to view this, but his only response was to shake his head.
During that month Asta decided to focus Jenny’s reading assignments on medical ethics. When Jenny finished the material unusually fast Asta got the impression Jenny had just skimmed it, or not read it at all. When Asta assigned Jenny to write a small report on it, it was very vague and looked to have been partially pulled from the Cortex.
Mort and Asta spent most of his time getting the still up and running. Since it was set up in the engine room, Campan pretty much avoided the creation and brewing process.
Take had scheduled a stop on Beylix to at least partially fuel up before heading on to Regina. The reasoning was that they’d want to be seen as little as necessary on Regina and they should probably have something to get away yet.
Alex: Junkyard of the Core Worlds! Treasure trove of the Rim! Beylix is commonly known as the dumping ground and scavenging center of the ‘Verse and prized possession of Unified Reclamation.
Gabe: So what are we going to do to replace Mort?
Liz: Yeah. We’ll just leave Mort here and pick him up later.
The clouds parted as they made their approach to the city of NewHouse. It looked like a target carved in the middle of a vast field of rusted metal and packing crates. The Port tower directed them to pad three without asking for identification. As they touched down they could see that pads one, two, and four were occupied by other ships. The other ships didn’t look like any they had pissed off or stolen from, so they mostly ignored them. Mort looked them over from the cockpit to see if they were worth stealing.
As they were congregated on the bridge, Daniel spouted out a little bit of information he had learned over the years about this planet and scavenging. This led Asta and Daniel to wonder how easy it was to get a scavenging contract and if they actually needed one. Campan pointed out that it was a big deal that Jessalyn had such a contract. He was ignored. Asta decided she’d check on getting a contract within the next couple of hours.
Take went down to the cargo bay doors to let in some fresh air and look around the port. The port itself looked like a decent sized landing pad and repair facility. There was a large crane on both ends of the dock and a good sized team of mechanics were scurrying around the tarmac. A fat, greasy middle-aged man in a dirty overalls and wearing a tool belt walked over towards the ship.
Daniel: Hey Mort. Looks like someone is heading on over to talk to us. Who’s going to go out to talk to him?
Mort: I think Take already went out. I’d better follow cause I know someone is going to start a fight.
Daniel and Mort headed down with Asta following behind. Meanwhile, Take called out to the man walking up to them.
Take: Hey, fat and greasy. You a chef?
Mechanic: (drops his hand towards a wrench on his side and glares) I’m a mechanic. You got a PROBLEM with THAT?
Take: No, no. You just remind me of someone.
Mechanic: (waving wrench) Does it LOOK like I COOK around here?
Take: Well, you’re greasy. Cooking is greasy.
Mechanic: (yelling) IT’S ENGINE GREASE!
The group hastened their approach upon hearing the yelling. Asta tried to distract Take and get him away from the enraged mechanic. Said mechanic turned towards the equally greasy Mort.
Mechanic: (yelling and gesturing at Take) What kind of MORON is this guy?
Mort: He’s like this to everyone.
Daniel: What’s going on?
Asta: (to Take) Umm, sir? Sir? Look, there’s, ummm, shinnies back in the ship…
Campan sat down to watch.
Mechanic: What just happened? He just asked me if I was a chef?
Take: I’m a pilot, not a ferret.
Mechanic: (confused look) Not… a… ferret?
Mort: Uh, Campan?
Campan: I’m not touching this, I’m watching.
Daniel: Campan, get our friend her a cold beer.
Campan was annoyed that he had to miss the fun, but agreed and headed back into the ship.
Daniel: I take it you’re in charge around here?
Mechanic: I’m the head mechanic. Anything you need done?
Daniel explained that they didn’t currently have the cash for the parts they needed. He then asked how you go about getting a permit to scavenge. The mechanic said it involved talking to the Alliance, lots of forms, and an extensive background check. During this, Campan came back with the engine still beer, which he handed to the mechanic.
Campan: How many credits?
Mechanic: Huh?
Campan: How many credits? (pause) That’s right to the point.
Mechanic: Uh, for what? He said that there wasn’t anything you needed.
Campan: He’s asking the wrong questions. How much do you want for, uh, letting us look around?
Mechanic: Not exactly my domain.
The mechanic said another short sentence, but Campan talked right over it.
Campan: Then what are we asking him for?
Daniel: I wasn’t asking him. He walked over and said hi.
Mechanic: I wouldn’t suggest it.
Daniel: You wouldn’t suggest it?
But the mechanic was distracted as he took a drink of his beer. He coughed a little.
Mechanic: (raspy voice) Strong.
The mechanic then put his hand out in front of him and moved it back and forth, as if he was testing vision.
Daniel Won’t make you go blind and it’s good.
Campan: If it burns blue, it’s good. Green bad.
Mechanic: I don’t keep fire on me. Engine grease.
Daniel then explained that he didn’t like dealing with eh Alliance any more than necessary. The mechanic directed them to the Public Works building, but said that just starts the process.
Daniel asked if he was who they would talk to about salvaging and he said yes. Mort asked if it was okay for them to go along with him to point out stuff they’d like. He said he’d have to check his contract, but he wasn’t sure that was legal. He had no intention of losing his license. He said that usually people just gave him a list.
They eventually dropped the subject and told him they wanted to a third of a tank of fuel. Mort decided that just wouldn’t do and started trying to figure out how they could make money rock. He asked the mechanic a series of questions about what they were lacking and what types of jobs were around. When he didn’t like the answers he got her started pondering how they could illegally make some money.
The mechanic told them they had a five hour wait, since they had ships ahead of them and left them to their own devices.
Back on the ship, Ezmerelda was being bugged by the passengers. Since they had been stuck for two months in cramped quarters they bombarded her with questions.
Are we there? Can we go out? I’d like some breathable air. Everything smells like beer here.
Ezmerelda pretty much ignored them.
As Asta headed back into the ship, Jenny wandered over to Asta and asked her how long they would be there and if she could go out. Asta told her they’d be there for at least five hours. Jenny said she’d take a comm. and be back in a few hours.
Once the mechanic was gone, Daniel turned to Mort and told him he didn’t want to wait around on planet long enough to find work. They were just here for some fuel. Mort was unhappy about the amount of fuel they had procured and wanted a full tank. Daniel explained that the plan was to land on Regina, sell the rest of the food and cruise over land to find a place to hide the ship. Mort said that wouldn’t get them any money. Daniel said that that was what the job was for. Mort was very adamant that this was a bad plan and they needed money and a full tank of fuel now. He then went into outlining a big plan revolving around stealing gas from the other ships docked there.
Ezmerelda eventually got annoyed with the incessant questioning and headed out to go get a drink at a bar. The passengers decided that, since she could go, they’d follow her.
Mort looked around the landing area and went into further depth and crime. He started talking about making sure ships were empty in a vague sense and asking Asta if she could find out how the port and city were powered.
As Asta headed inside the ship to check on that information, Daniel pulled Mort aside and told him they were not pulling anything on this planet because they had a job they didn’t need to attract attention to. Mort nodded and then went back to figuring out how to pull off this crime.
Liz: Gabe, you might want to use your knowledge: Mort to know what he’s planning.
Dan: Can I buy Wildcard: Duh to know when we’re about to do something really stupid?
Paul: What kind of backup power do they have? Is it nuclear?
Gabe: Drama Point (plot twist) Mort is on the ship and we’re leaving.
*group breaks out laughing*
Ryan: Wow. That IS a plot twist.
Paul: But what kind of power plant?
At this point, the GM broke.
For the sake of the almighty plot (and the remainder of the GM’s sanity), Mort receded to his room and spent the next five hours planning his big fuel crime. He made several schematics and diagrams. Daniel checked in on him to make sure he was sufficiently occupied. When he thought Mort might finish early, he asked Mort to explain his plan in detail and asked several questions. Mort finished his plans just in time for Daniel to tell him they were fueled up and leaving.
During this time, Ezmerelda decided she could do some crime while she was out. She went to a bar and looked for a mark while sipping a beer. The passengers all planted themselves at a table.
Paul: They complained about the ship smelling like beer, so while they’re out they went to a bar. Brilliant.
Ezmerelda picked a decent looking ship captain that was drunk and alone. She coddled up to him for a while and got him to pass out. She then stole his cash when no one was looking.
During this time, Asta spent her time researching salvage permits on the Cortex. The process looked like what the mechanic described.
Asta: Mort, we need better computer stuff.
Mort: Yeah, I know.
Asta: I’d be much easier to make a permit than to go through all this paperwork.
Everyone got back to the ship with time to spare. Ezmerelda left the bar without the passengers, but they quickly noticed she was gone and ran after her.
The players then got into a discussion about plot twists.
Liz: Well, I think some of our plot twists are a bit too large, so they get nixed.
Dan: There have been lots of attempts to use plot twists, but you didn’t seem to like ‘plot twist: his heart explodes.’
Alex: Correction. There have been three reasonable plot twists.
Paul: See, ‘plot twist: power plant explodes’ would have been perfectly reasonable. It would have provided sufficient distraction for us to steal gas.
*Alex almost cries*
Paul: Plot twist: The fuel gauge was broken and they filled up the tank?
They then peer-pressured Dan into spending a drama point on that plot twist.
Daniel pointed out the full tank was full. Take said they must have screwed up and hastened take off. Daniel went off to make sure Mort’s plan got saved for later use.
The last leg of the trip to Regina took two and a half days. Daniel waited for Mort and Campan to come up with a plan for the bank heist so that he could revise it or throw it out.
Campan: Alright, sir. We get these things called GUNS. We point them at people and yell a lot.
Daniel talked about the cleaning crew or cooking crew being people they’d need to deal with and he felt they needed to disable the rails. He then pointed out that there was likely a patrol boat orbiting the planet. Mort talked about how blowing up the power station on Beylix would have been a great diversion to get the patrol boat out of there.
Gabe: Plot Twist: We’re on the bridge.
Alex: Umm, you don’t need a drama point for that.
Dan: Yeah, you just kind of walk up there.
Gabe: Of the patrol boat!
Ryan: We transport in, Mort is wearing a red shirt.
Asta proposed they do this job very discretely and fly far away quickly. Mort proposed doing the job on ‘Taco Tuesday’ and dole out food poisoning. There was lots of discussion about this and what to do about poisoning of the people who didn’t eat at the cafeteria. Mort brought up the concept of poisoning the water supply, but strangely seemed hesitant about ‘poisoning an entire town.’ Asta reassured him that it was okay if they just made people sleepy for a while.
Eventually they made it to the planet. Asta talked about hacking into the Corone Mining Consortium’s systems, but found them encrypted. She felt they’d need to borrow someone’s computer for that. Mort went on the local Cortex to look at wanted posters. He found that Daniel, Take, and himself were fairly recent additions to the list. He also found a less recent one for himself and a very minor one for Ezmerelda.
Mort and Daniel discussed infiltration. They felt taking out the cafeteria staff or the janitorial staff and impersonating them was the best way to go. Mort felt guns would be a bad idea, since he gets shot when he carries them.
Gabe: (writing into his notes) Become lowly gunless workers.
They discussed for a very long time what to do. Paul kept trying to get the ship to Regina and landed, but Gabe kept thwarting this. Paul’s attempts to get Dan to say they land also failed.
Mort: We also have a plan where Asta needs a computer.
Daniel: Why?
Mort: So she can steal information.
Daniel: Oh. That’s a good plan.
Paul: Then we should LAND so she can actually do that!
Take, with his excellent piloting skills, avoided detection by the Alliance patrol boat in the area and landed the Orasca in a nice canyon near the mining town of Cerbeza. It was a moderate sized town of about two hundred people. The town had twenty nine buildings with majority of the structures were tents and non-permanent ones.
Once landed, the passengers bugged Ezmerelda.
Liz: Oh, god. Get them out of here.
They asked her if they were there. Ezmerelda told them yes. When they asked her if they were in town, she shooed them away. They figured this was a yes and headed for the door. Daniel headed them off and herded them to the shuttle. Once they were there, he rounded up Mort, Asta, Take and Ezmerelda so they could take the passengers into town and do some crime. The five man shuttle was very crowded with nine people crammed into it. Take and Mort got the only two seats, leaving Asta and Ezmerelda crammed in between the passengers. Neither were very amused and pretty sure they got groped a few times. The shuttle flew very low to the ground and, despite Take’s long hours of flight time, the journey was anything but smooth.
The contact Logan had given them for this planet was a local rum-runner type smuggler for the camps named Mascovich. Daniel had plans to drop a signal buoy out in the middle of the desert and wait for a response for a meeting, but wasn’t going to enact this plan until the others returned from town. So this led to Campan and Daniel sitting around bored on the ship.
The shuttle landed near town and everyone but Take scrambled for the free, open space of the desert in the evening.
Mort: There you go. Town! On the planet you requested.
Take: Have a good life.
Mort: (closes door) Yeah. Clearly when we have more money, better shuttle.
They waited a little bit before Mort, Asta followed Ezmerelda into town. Mort was wearing a black shirt and a tool belt and was without his brown coat. Asta was wearing run of the mill clothing (nothing special). Ezmerelda was dressed up nicely.
Asta: Maybe they’ll have coffee.
Mort: Oh dear. We don’t need to scare another bartender.
The first bar they came to was called ‘The Dead Dog Saloon,’ which seemed to be doing a good amount of business that night. Ezmerelda wandered in to check things out, leaving Asta and Mort outside.
The saloon had nine round tables with room for five or six patrons at each. There were stools at the bar for another eight patrons. The bar had a grimy mirror placed along the wall behind it to let patrons see behind them. The bartender stood behind the bar serving drinks. He was about six foot tall, bulky man missing his right arm. He was in his late thirties with his hair not showing any signs of going grey yet. He wore a dingy, brown vest that had a bullet hole in it and the right sleeve sewn up at the shoulder into a little pocket. There was a large congregation of people near the back of the bar, about thirty five people or so, though Ezmerelda couldn’t see what it was for. They were wearing nicer clothes than a miner would and they were bathed. There were a few miners scattered around the tables and seated at the bar. Two pleasant, if plain serving girls were moving about the bar serving food and drinks to the people at tables and at the back of the bar.
Ezmerelda walked up to the bar and ordered a beer. The bartender looked her up and down.
Bartender: Are you sure you want a beer at this establishment?
Ezmerelda: Why wouldn’t I?
Bartender: The bar down the street is much more suited for your… type.
Ezmerelda: (looks down at herself to check what she looks like) Um, can I get business over there?
Bartender: Yup.
Ezmerelda: Will I make good money?
Bartender: Can’t say.
The bartender then moved down the bar to take care of a customer.
Paul: Clearly this is the wrong bar.
Ezmerelda walked out of the bar to meet up with a confused Mort and Asta.
Asta: That was fast.
Ezmerelda: There should be a bar down the street that should be… better.
Down the street, they got to the a place called ‘The Hole.’ Mort walked up and down the street to make sure that there were, indeed, only two bars. This bar only had five tables which weren’t very well kept up. Everything about the place was a little creaky. The bar itself was more of a large crate than a place to sit.
Mort: No, you wanted the other one.
Ezmerelda took one look at the bar and headed back to The Dead Dog Saloon. She walked in and headed over to the group in the back. She saddled up to one of the guys and stumbled into him. She apologized and leaned into him, wiping some of his spilled beer off of him. Since she couldn’t find out why these people were celebrating, she asked him why. The man told her they were celebrating the retirement of Anderson from Accounts Receivable.
Mort and Asta wandered in and sat down at the bar. Ezmerelda grabbed a beer from one of the serving girls and paid her. Mort noticed the bartender glaring at Ezmerelda a little later. Ezmerelda decided to stay with the man at the party for quite a while. She found out he was from Anderson’s unit. She offered to buy him a drink and ordered him a beer. When the order came up to the bar, the bartender spit in the beer before sending it back.
Asta: That’s really quite unhygienic!
Mort: Please, dear. (Asta starts to talk again, but he cuts her off) It’s not your beer.
Asta: As a doctor I must protest this terribly. I mean, not to impugn the health here but isn’t that a little.
Bartender: Nah, it’s fine.
Asta: There are reasons why you are doing this? Some local tradition I am unaware of?
Bartender: Yup! Don’t like it, head down the road.
Mort: Don’t worry, dear. It’ll be fine.
Ezmerelda handed the foamy beer to the guy and smiled. She continued buying him ‘foamy’ beers.
Dan: Did they wander into an Alliance bar on U-Day?
After a while, the bartender came back over to Mort.
Bartender: I know you from somewhere.
Mort: I’ve been a lot of places.
Bartender: Were you in the war?
Mort: Uh, kind of. (pause) Merc.
Bartender: Fer what side?
Mort: Alliance.
The bartender walked away. The next time Mort ordered beers the bartender charged him more. Mort neglected to comment and just nursed his beer. The party in the back went on for several hours and Mort and Asta had mild conversation.
Paul: We talk shop and try to not look like psychotic, deranged individuals.
Alex: That’s difficult for both of you.
Back on the ship, Daniel and Campan were getting very bored. Since it had been several hours, Daniel decided to go leave the message buoy so he and Campan took the mule and closed up the ship. He left a note in case the others got back before them.
When cake was served at the bar, Mort snuck into the line to get a piece. Ezmerelda ‘accidentally’ dropped her cake down her dress. She asked him if he had someplace where she could wash it off. He told her there was a water spigot out front. She steered him to offering to use the water at his place.
Liz: Does he look down her dress?
Alex: No, he doesn’t actually.
Liz: Oh, that’s so sad! That means he might actually be a nice guy.
Ezmerelda started to lead him out the door.
*Fade to Black*
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