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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 9574476" data-attributes="member: 11760">Albedo woke up, his back warm, his body shaking, looking at a lit sliver of the sky between two ragged cliffs. His mouth was try and lips cracked.He was laying down on something. Albedo turned his head and saw he was on a hover-trailer, being pulled by a lizard like beast of burden ridden by a Lek'tok.A chill running through him, Albedo felt for his pistols. Gone. His stun baton? Gone.The Lek'tok turned its head nearly all the way around to look at him with whitish eyes that looked half-molted."I have them up here. Didn't want you to get spooked when you woke up and do something that would make me regret rescuing you.""Rescuing me?" Albedo's voice was a croak, his throat parched."Humans come to this world, see the mountains, the deep shadows. They stay away from the volcanos. Trick themselves into thinking it's wet. Found you passed out on the side of the road, dozens of clicks from anywhere. And no water bottles anywhere.""Dehydration," Albedo's head fell back against the vibrating hover-trailer, ignoring the smell of animals and fertilizer it emanated."Happens to livestock too some time. They're almost as dumb as you." The Lek'tok rubbed its forelimbs together in a quick motion, making a rapid squeak. Lek'tok laughter, maybe. "I gave you a shot. Should be feeling better soon. Don't expect you to be grateful, though. Just saved your life."Albedo smiled, feeling the moisture returning to his mouth."I'll need those guns back and the baton.""Oh, I know. Holster is worn. These aren't for show. You're too small to be a Targ Cartel enforcer. Too dumb to be a Red Moon agent. Old Empire would send a dozen soldiers in armor. New Uprising would send pretty young things with political literature. So you a Nomad, dummy?""Are you this polite to everyone you save from death?"The Lek'tok made the squeaking sound again."Yeah, I'm a Nomad. Looking for a member of the Mystic Order, Itsuki Itch.""Don't know them.""My name is Facula Albedo. What do they call you?""Tiki Dokk. I work on a farm." He made a clicking noise apparently to modify the type of farm, a word in Lek'tok, not something in Galactic Standard."Do you want easier work? I could use a discreet ride as I look for my target.""If I wanted your money, I would just have let you die and sold your fancy pistols, dummy."Albedo sat up on the trailer, Tiki and the road ahead."You find a lot of humans passed out on the side of the road?"The squeaking noise again."Oh, yes. Sometimes just dead bodies."Tiki pulled something from a basket beside him on a seat and offered it to Albedo."Imperial Rescue Agency," Albedo said, turning the medallion over in his hand."She was terrible at her job. Dried up like jerky on the side of the road when I found her. Not going to rescue anyone now."More prolonged squeaking again.Tiki guided his lizard beast toward a series of enormous mounds made of mud and a papery coating the Lek'toks created in some fashion. An aluminum hut selling services for humans lurked on the edge of the settlement. An illuminated sign announced "DELICIOUS EATS," although Albedo was deeply skeptical."I suppose I should load up on drinking water.""I don't know your target, dummy, but I know someone who might. Mystic Order hermit lives in caves," Tiki said, pointing up at the ridge line on the far side of the village.Albedo ascended into the caves. He expected a camp site or a mystical retreat. Wind chimes. Prayer wheels. Instead, it's some sort of hive structure. Starlander is supposed to be human, not Lek'tok, but the caves are full of an organic substance with fluid quietly passing through it and which gives slightly under Albedo's foot steps. There's just one path visible in the light from the cave's mouth, and Albedo follows it until coming to a man-sized oval, an amber-colored transluscent sphincter.Albedo raised his hand to knock, but hesitated. The surface looked vaguely sticky."Master Starlander? Can you hear me? The people in the village said you might be able to help me."Movement was visible through the sphincter. A shape drew near and then the sphincter opens partially with a wet noise.An old man, lean but hard, peered out at Albedo, brilliant blue eyes in a face the color of old leather.Albedo opened his mouth, but Starlander cut him off, hard eyes moving across the Nomad's scar where it peeked out from under his eyepatch."No," he said. "That cut edged with burn scars: plasma sword scar. Fight your own wars, fools. You have stepped off the Path."Before Albedo could object, the sphincter closed again with a squelch. He banged on the door anyway, confirming that it was sticky."I'm not with the Mystic Order! It was a duel at the imperial flight academy! I'm looking for ..."But there was silence beyond the door, not even a shadow beyond it. Albedo was yelling at no one. He sighed, wiping his knuckles on his woven poncho and headed back to town.Delicious Eats turned out to be anything but. There was a blue drink the Lek'toks insisted that mammals loved, but Albedo would not be swayed. He bought plenty of drinking water, though, and emergency foodstuffs bearing the Imperial Rescue Agency label, before setting out again, riding another hover-trailer out of town.[SPOILER="This turn's rolls"]Rolled a 2 on Exploration. If my notoriety was 6 or higher, I would encounter a lead. Instead, I'm directed to the exploration events table. I rolled a 2, meaning I go to the first such table, and then rolled a 3, meaning I succumb to exhaustion. I wake up being dragged behind someone on a vehicle or beast. They've saved my life and are non-hostile and I have the opportunity to recruit them.Rolling between the three main species on Storix, the rescuer is a Lek'tok named Tiki Dokk, with a rude personality. I rolled another d6, with 1-3 matching each of the factions on the planet, and 4-6 to say Tiki is unaligned. I roll a 5: He's just an unaligned regular person.For recruiting, I roll and add half of my favor (3), rounded up (2). I roll a 2, for a total of 4, which I compare to Tiki's roll, of a 3. Success.I roll to see what sort of asset Tiki has/is. I roll a 2. He's a crop farmer or tribal elder, who gives me a charm, necklace or other small memento that I use to gain 2 Motivation (metagame currency) when I next encounter a lead or target.Then I roll on the destinations table to see where I end up. I roll a 4, meaning I end up in a small town run by unaffiliated locals like Tiki. Rolling on the destination events table, I get a 2 and then roll a 5 on that table, and learn that a reclusive mystic mentor lives nearby, a human named Sol Starlander. I roll a 2 and the mystic takes one look at my scar and turns me away, refusing to help me.Returning to the village, I have the choice of speaking with a local and resting, or bartering for supplies and gaining another point of Motivation.[/SPOILER]</blockquote>

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