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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ptolemy" data-source="post: 9810950" data-attributes="member: 1412">218-1081We stayed on Pyramus for another month. By the time we left I had learned to ride a horse, sort of, had plenty of practise with my rifle and my stunner, mucked out turkey-things, haggled over the price of wine, fixed some stable doors and had nearly been struck by lightning. I enjoyed being there but inevitably the time to leave arrived. We had stocked up on some very nice local wines, which we were reliably informed always fetched a good price amount the belters of Dobham, and had a passenger in the form of one of Sir Tayce’s staff who was on a purchasing mission to Glisten. We said our goodbyes and took off into the void.We didn’t find a good price for or wines at Dobham, but we did find plenty to buy. We didn’t stay long. After our relatively pastural sojourn on Pyramus we found the brith lights and noise of a busy Starport a little overwhelming. We moved on to Bendor and then to Glisten via Sorel without much happening. We made money and did our jobs and went shopping at Glisten. We didn’t stay long and I filled the ship with passengers for Mertactor and our hold with robots and the sort of thing Glisten does best, various high-tech manufactured goods. All went well until we came out of jump space at Mertactor. We jumped straight into a micrometeorite storm which pounded the hull. We didn’t take damage to any systems but the ship was going to be in a dockyard for a few weeks. After docking and making some enquiries we found out the backlog meant that a few weeks would actually be a few months and would set us back a million credits. We checked into a hotel, dropped off our stuff and explored the station, ending up in a nice restaurant with a fabulous view of the planet. Helena received a message from someone called Gasha Nouhdular from the Naasirka mega-corporation. We quickly searched the Datanets for information on Naasirka and Gasha. Naasirka was founded during the First Empire and mainly produce communication tech. Peter already knew who they were as they hold a contract to supply the X-Boat service. Gasha was a middle-manager type who dealt customer relations. We had no idea why she wanted to talk to us, but we had some spare time so arranged to meet her in the restaurant we had just walked into. We ordered drinks and waited for our mysterious guest.Gasha arrived with a man in tow. Both had strikingly good looks, and dressed impeccably. The man was introduced as Kafla Thingvellir, who we had never heard of, and proved to be charming as well as wealthy. The long and short of it was he needed a crew. We nearly turned him down when we heard that the job was a hunting expedition. We had killed enough animals to last us a life time back on Pyramus and didn’t like the idea of doing it for “fun”. Kafla had other ideas, though. He wanted to one-up a business rival who had recently discovered a weird 8 legged thing on some planet somewhere and Kafla was determined to do better. An avid hunter for specimens he had discovered a few new species already, but not one he had given his own name to. He wanted something spectacular to present at the Siren Conference at Mora University (Helena and I had heard of it, Helena had attended once or twice). This was a big deal and Kafla was in the unfortunate situation of having bought a share in a safari ship and arranged a crew only to be let down at the last minute. His crew had all been arrested after a barroom brawl and Kafla was on a timetable. To be at the conference in time he needed to go to 567-908, 8 parsecs away, find the legendary crested trapper and be back at Mertactor in 18 weeks to catch the fast liner to Mora. As soon as he finished eating he rose, excused himself as he needed to attend to some business, told us to be at Docking Bay C in - he checked his watch - 12 hours and 37 minutes, nodded a goodbye to Gasha and left. We hadn’t even agreed to his terms of 4,000cr per month, which is what he thought a standard rate would be. Gasha rolled her eyes and apologised. “I think he might have mistakenly assumed that you had already agreed to the commission. The Naasirka Corporation would like to add a further 2,000cr per week and will pay for expenses up to 3,000cr per person. I’m not good at haggling and that’s the budget I was given. Is it acceptable?” - Gasha.“How did you hear of us?” - Peter“I oversaw the upgrade of the communications array on Pyramus a couple of years ago. I met someone you transported to Glisten couple of weeks ago and I asked if he knew anyone competent to help me out. The previous crew hadn’t fallen foul of the law at that point, but the enquires I made suggested they were not ideal. I hoped to find you here after receiving a glowing recommendation. Apparently there is a very happy Sir Tayce due to your involvement and discretion regarding whatever happened on Pyramus. I need someone who knows how to cater for the mega-rich. Are you in?” - Gasha“We would go via Walston. It would be nice to visit again, even if only briefly.” - LilyGiving us an excuse to call in on Walston tipped us into accepting. We needed to pickup some equipment, most notably we all wanted a good quality rifle which could fire tranquilliser darts. Something low tech which didn’t need much maintenance in the field. We thoughts it wise to pick up some survival equipment as well. This all meant a trip planet side as Mertactor Starport and Mertactor Downport are two very different places. We hopped on a shuttle and went shopping on planet. We found what we needed in a small shop which had automatic grenade launchers in the window. Mertactor, you get used to it. Shopping done we had a couple of drinks in the lobby of our hotel and turned in. We arrived at virtually the same time as Kafla. He sent us to collect security passes and we had a look inside the ship which would be our home for the next few months. We dumped our gear in our allotted rooms and Kafla ordered his dinner. The ship smoothly responded to our checks and a couple of hours later we requested permission to leave. It was granted and away we flew. The Leaping Snowcat, as the ship was called, was adopted for its purpose. A couple of sealed holding cells had adjustable atmosphere and the trophy room was very elegant, if you like that sort of thing. None of us do so we weren’t particularly impressed. Peter had me pilot the ship to the jump point and we shifted from normal space to jump space without a fuss. We settled down to life outside of the universe.</blockquote>

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