Project Daedalus- d20 Modern

[DanMcS]

12/5/2002 Session 1

DM's website: http://www.project-daedalus.com/
The setting owes much to Urban Arcana, from the d20 modern book. Project Daedalus is a small group working towards closing the connection between the worlds, and ending the influx from Arcadia, as the other side of shadow is known. There's some character information at the site, too.

Tonight was our first session, actually none of us had ever met before, the game was arranged over the 'gamers-seeking-gamers' forum hear, and by post at the FLGS we played at. A good time was had by all.

Character creation, about an hour. We were slowed somewhat by the novel bits of the system compared to standard 3e, but we seem to have worked it out.

My character, Isaac Holt, is an academic, a rare book dealer. His business has brought him in contact with a number of arcane curios, and thence to recruitment by Project Daedalus. I'm visualizing him as similar to Johnny Dep's protagonist in The Ninth Gate, or maybe an early Wesley Windham Price from Buffy/Angel- smart and kinda wussy now, badass later.

Isaac is a consistent journaler- he deals in books, and would love to pen his own memoirs someday, thus the records.

Excerpts from the journal of Isaac Holt:
First day at Daedalus. Excellent library here- many of these books are worth small fortunes. Several fine examples of late Renaissance binding techniques. Wide variety of papers, from all over the world. Some need minor repairs- obviously no true bibliophiles here before my arrival.

Interesting people, too. Looking forward to training and evaluation.

later...

Past couple of weeks have been exhausting. Days of poking, prodding, testing, evaluations. Verdict seems to be that I am generally healthy, but lack advanced athletic skills. I could have told them that and saved us all a couple of weeks. My past aikido training has stood me in good stead though. Begun training with sword and pistol- slow progress, nothing to brag about.

My strengths are really in research and languages, not so much shooting and fighting. If this is the focus of the project, I question my place here. Still, intend to stick it out a bit longer.

 

[DanMcS]

Returned from first mission. Placed with:
Mason Andrews, ex-police investigator;
Rae Winters, previously with national parks medic service;
Wolfgang Kohl, retired military.

Mission objective was distraction. Instructed to find one Big Johnny, an orc of (as we later discovered) fearsome reputation and even more fearsome odor. Johnny and his lads worked for an ogre who had been consolidating power among criminal gangs downtown. We were to find Johnny and keep his gang away from their hideout long enough for a strike team to go in and deal with the ogre.

Arrived in neighborhood approximately at dusk- we believed the orcs would not venture forth earlier. Report had it the orcs often visited a local liquor store, so we started there. More a gas station, we discovered, with a large convenience store and large liquor selection. Mason and I ventured inside to check it out. Rae took up a position across the street to call me if she saw them approaching, and Wolfgang went around back to look around.

The owner, Horacio, was an easily agitated Pakistani gentleman. I selected a small bottle of whiskey to appear as a customer, but when I went to check out Horacio reacted to some inaudible noise, grabbed a bat, and started towards the rear storage area. We later learned Wolfgang had broken into the back and was snooping around- he claimed it was unlocked. Mason and I suspected trouble, so we kept talking at the owner until he decided it must have been nothing, and relented to serve us.

Mason proceeded to question the owner. "I need to talk to Johnny. I hear you know him. Big Johnny. Can you get me in touch with him?" The owner tried to protest, but M. persisted, and we were told that some nights they hung out and drank in a park nearby.

We went outside and met Rae and Wolfgang. W. told us there was a car parked behind the store in the alley, we decided to check it out. The car was locked, but we found gashes in the wall of the store, as though someone had been hitting it with a large bladed weapon. This we also discovered, in the dumpster, a fireman's type axe, with old blood on it. A bloody rag was also found nearby. Very strange.

None of this was finding us any orcs, though. So we went to the park, maybe a half mile overland, in a somewhat residential neighborhood.

Wolfgang disappeared into the dark to look around. Rae stayed near the sidewalk to watch the street, Mason and I also investigated the park. It was block-sized, small parking lot at one end, little restroom building in the middle. There were two cars in the lot, one a running Mercedes, the other unoccupied.

Mason and I searched the area with flashlights; we discovered black tire tracks on the driveway, someone peeled out of there fast. I called out for my lost dog, wandered around, and approached the Mercedes. Knocked on the window. A Jamaican gentleman opened the driver's door.

"Excuse me sir, have you seen my dog? Little wiener dog, he got away from me and was dragging his leash, have you seen my Fluffy?" He told me unless I was buying, I should scram, so I did. There was someone in the passenger seat, too, but he didn't get out.

Rae, Mason and I regrouped and eventually found Wolfgang skulking in the dark. Mason had investigated the restroom building- there was a guy in there wearing sunglasses, washing his hands, but it was otherwise empty. All the faucets were running, though. They were the push-down type that turn off automatically after several seconds. Very odd.

Rae approached the Mercedes again, and initiated an exchange. I was called over to front the cash. I'm used to dealing in expensive plant matter, but mostly it's bound and printed on. We got out of there quick when Wolfgang reported a large Arcadian he had seen earlier was approaching the area. We later determined it to be an ogre.

From 20 yards away we saw the figure approach the Mercedes. I called Daedalus, and told him the ogre he was looking for was probably right here, right now, with no supporting orcs, and he should get here RIGHT the HELL NOW. He demurred, and ordered us to leave the area. The ogre produced a huge, double-headed battleaxe, seemingly from nowhere, and with a shriek of metal brought it down on the passenger side of the Mercedes. The driver popped out the other side and took off, right towards myself and Rae. I informed Daedalus that the ogre had just cut the Mercedes in half; he reiterated that we should leave. This was not particularly helpful, so I terminated the conversation.

The ogre brought the axe down again and again. The passenger had been struggling to bring a gun to bear, but he was never successful. We took the stunned driver prisoner and vacated the area. Under questioning, the driver proved unaware of the incursion of strangeness in the world- he babbled about the "'uge frigging guy" that had attacked the car. He did not recognize the assailant, and could give us no useful information on Johnny, so we zip-cuffed him, hobbled him with duct tape, and called the police to pick him up. He had sufficient drugs on him to incriminate him without our testimony, so we decided to stop wasting our time in this obvious wild goose chase and go back to Horacio's liquor store.

On the way back, Mason spotted a cop he knew investigating the severed Mercedes. The second car had disappeared from the lot, and with it I suspect the sunglassed man from the restroom. None of the drugs had been taken, but the passenger was messily dead, and the Mercedes had been searched.

A quick check behind Horacio's found the car there now unlocked- it smelled of an unidentifiable herb, but the trunk had more of those bloody rags.

Back in Horacio's, Rae told H to "Stop playing games" and hook us up with Johnny, we had a job for him. Wolfgang had gone to burgle the back room again, and picked up the phone in time to hear H talk to a deep-voiced person who wanted to work for beer. We regrouped in the store, and waited for the orcs to show up. A call to Daedalus told him when the orcs reached the store, and we were told to keep them there for 10 minutes at least.

Negotiations were difficult at first, as the orcs (rightly) believed we didn't have a job for them. They were distracted by the smashable glass doors concealing lots of beer. Horacio was displeased and produced a mammoth shotgun, but we pointed out that he was insured, and the gangers would outshoot him. Touch and go for a minute, though. We escaped out the front door, and pondered the merits of crashing the car through the front door, or torching the place with the gas hoses, but decided retreat was the better part of valor. H deserved to deal with the orcish vandals anyway; what good person keeps a box of bloody rags in his trunk? Daedalus picked us up several blocks away, commented that the ogre he saw had no battleaxe, but that he was reasonably successful, and so were we.

Who was that other ogre, though? And the sunglassed man in the park. Horacio is definitely up to no good. And we'll have to deal with those orcs eventually, I imagine. Maybe this job isn't so bad after all.

Illegal actions perpetrated by the party this session, roughly chronologically:

• Concealed carry w/o permit (constantly)
• Burglary (Horacio's back door)
• Buying, possessing controlled substances
• Kidnapping, armed robbery (searching the driver's pockets for clues)
• Disturbing a crime scene
• Burglary (the back door again, and the car)
• Incitement to vandalism/riot (of the orcs)

And we're just getting warmed up.

 

[Buddha the DM]

Nice use of the ogre with the axe. Loved that bit.

 

[projectdaedalus]

That list of crimes kinda reminds me of the scene in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" when the judge is reading off the list of crimes for which "the Ugly" is being hanged.

 

[DanMcS]

12/7/2002
Session 2

(One of our players had to skip this saturday; the GM brought a short one-session adventure we could do in one session, and we'll start a longer adventure next week. Plus, a short vignette for each character present.)

Wolfgang Kohl

Wolfgang, after our encounters with rampaging ogres and pillaging orcs, decided he needed a bigger gun. There was a gun show in the area, so he went hunting for an M4 carbine, a weapon he was familiar with from time in the military.

He struck up a conversation with a dealer who had two on display, one standard and one apparently modified, better barrel, sights, a good custom job. He attempted to sweettalk the guy down on the price of the masterly crafted one, but the dealer stood firm, and another customer walked up and bought it for the listed price. Wolfgang did a double-take, the other customer, slender, graceful, pale, pointed ears, obviously an Arcadian. He lost the elf into the crowd, but ended up buying the stock gun and some rounds.

Wandering around the show, he found something even stranger- another elf, this one dark skinned, pale hair. Different subspecies, maybe. The elf was dealing WWII memorabilia; some guns, defunct grenades, but mostly authentic looking Nazi stuff, and some bizarre grisly artifacts, necklaces made out of teeth and paperweights made out of skulls. Wolfgang talked to him a bit, didn't bother to buy anything, but later shadowed the elf to his car and got the license plate for later reference. Very strange.

Rae Winters

Rae got a call from an old friend, a park ranger in town for the weekend. She met him for dinner, and he related some unusual attacks in the park he was managing- a brown bear, normally a reclusive creature, had been attacking hikers and campers. They hadn't tracked it down yet, but the hunt was on. They spent the rest of the dinner in chit-chat, catching up on old times.

After dinner, walking back to the car, they witnessed a carjacking! The driver fought, the attacker fired several shots into the car and ran off. Rae and her date (I didn't catch his name) ran to the car, helped the victims as best they could, and called 911. When they spotted the ambulance coming, Rae took off in the direction she'd seen the gunman take, her bewildered date following in her wake. They got lucky and spotted the shooter walking down an alley. Rae drew her sidearm (to her date's shock) and called for the suspect to surrender. He turned, drawing his pistol, but she had him lined up and dropped him with a well-aimed shot. Bound his wound, zip-cuffed him, and left him by the nearest street for the cops to find.

She doesn't figure she'll get another call from the guy anytime soon.

Isaac Holt

Isaac used his couple of days to conduct business. Another book dealer, an older gentleman named Clayton McKendrick, an acquaintance of his, had passed away. The funeral was tomorrow, the estate sale a couple of days later.

He went to the funeral to pay his respects to an old competitor. A couple of other guys in the business were there too, and isaac smiled grimly to himself. "The vultures are circling all right." He ran into the old guy's daughter, Jenny, who he also knew vaguely, and assured her he'd stop by the auction- she knew he was in the same business as her father.

A couple of visits to local motels confirmed that a lot of regional guys would be here for the auction. Old McKendrick had a sizeable library and a big house full of his collections- the auction was going to be quite an event. One guy Isaac knew, some noveau riche chump with more money than taste, styled himself a Baron. He had stock market money and had gotten out at the right time, so he'd be hard to outbid on some of the better pieces. Rumor had it he owned a castle in Pennsylvania, a real one, shipped over from France or something stone by stone. Jerk.

On the day of the auction, Isaac showed up early. Pretty much everything was for sale, even the house, so all the furniture and everything had been brought out to tents on the lawn. The lower value pieces were in lots in the tents with listed prices, but the real valuables would be auctioned later that afternoon. He browsed the lots, didn't spot anything, and slipped away to venture inside the house.

He knew it vaguely from doing business with the old man, but it was very empty and kind of sad now. Isaac poked around, nothing really in most of the rooms. In the study, under a couch that hadn't been moved yet, he found a small book, handwritten, apparently McKendrick's journal. Pocketed that for later. Didn't really spot anything in the rest of the house, but he got caught snooping around by Jenny.

"Are you lost?" A disapproving look on her face.

"Just taking a look around for old times' sake. Place sure looks different now. Really going to miss the old guy." Hope she bought that.

"Yeah. Well, he'd been sick, it wasn't unexpected." Beat. "Well, you can find your way out?"

"Sure thing. See you later."

Safely back out in the tents, Isaac went through the lots more thoroughly- nothing else to do anyway until the auctions started. In one of them, he found an old, kind of shabby set of books. They didn't look like much, but paging through them, they proved to be Victorian era, medical texts of some kind, written by one of the Queen's private doctors. They /should/ be up for bidding, but since they weren't- he checked the price mark, and whistled. Still pricey, but undervalued. Some mental calculation- he found a sale worker, and offered them less than the asking price. Look at the condition, not real good, but interesting as curiousities. To his surprise, they went for it. Even if he got nothing else, this was a heck of a find by itself, and he stood to make a great deal of profit.

As he suspected, he couldn't bid with the big dogs at the real auction, but stuck around out of curiousity. The Baron snapped up a bunch of pricey but gaudy artwork and furniture, and some books Isaac wasn't interested in anyway. An old manuscript on Vlad Tepes went for a LOT, to a mysterious figure Isaac didn't recognize. Even the Baron got outbid on that one. Afterward, Isaac found Jenny McKendrick to say his goodbyes, and asked her the name of the Tepes buyer. The log said Nicholas something, but it was obviously a pseudonym- he paid cash. McKendrick said she'd look into it a bit; also, if any of the book lots were left over, was Isaac interested in being called? He left his card.

 

[DanMcS]

The three of us met up later on- Mason was using his week for family time, but said he'd do some digging on that elf's license plate for Wolfgang.

Rae related the story about the bear attacks, and said she was going down to look into it. Nothing better to do, so Isaac and Wolfgang went along. Isaac was a city boy through and through, and the bears worried him. "Has anyone been really hurt by these things? I thought they were scared of people." He had to endure teasing after that, about the ferocious squirrels we were likely to run into in the park.

***

The drive was long, but we arrived safely, and got into a cabin by nightfall. Still too early to sleep, so we went out for a walk.

Down the path, we were approaching the lot where our van was parked. Sounds of voices alerted us to people ahead- arguing? We spread out, coming in on the parking lot from different directions. Isaac got there first.

A couple of guys, local toughs, giving a native american lady and her little girl some trouble. That's just obnoxious. We walked towards them.

"Hey! You guys got a cigarette I can bum? Who's that with you? You all right, lady?" The two guys told Isaac to buzz off.

Rae, coming in off to the right around some parked cars, saw three guys in a truck that Isaac hadn't seen. One in the back had a rifle and was looking off at Isaac. She pointed her pistol at him. "Freeze!" He was so surprised he dropped the rifle.

Wolfgang, circling around left, snuck in behind a tree and took a bead on the two by the women. They hadn't seen him, focused on Isaac.

Things started to happen very fast. The guys in the truck tried to back over Rae, who rolled out of the way and started shooting at the driver, but mostly hit the truck body.

The guy in the back grabbed his rifle, and shot Rae. She was knocked down and out.

Wolfgang ran in, took aim, and shot the driver. The truck swerved wildly as the passengers tried to control it. One of the two on foot punched at Wolfgang ineffectually.

The other took off, past Isaac. Isaac yelled, "Stop, fool!" in his most authoritative voice, stepped back into a shooting stance, and drew his taser to drop the guy. Unfortuneately, it tangled on his jacket, flipped out of his hands, and rolled off into the night. "Crap." He chased after the terrified thug, yelling his fool head off, but lost him in the dark and had to work his way back to the parking lot.

Wolfgang butt-stroked the last standing combatant into unconsciousness as the guys in the truck got control and peeled away. He ran over and began trying to stabilize Rae. We loaded her into the van, and headed out for the hospital.

After a visit to the ER, we determined Rae wasn't as bad as it first appeared, and with some bandages and antibiotics, and several police reports, we were free to go back to the cabin, about 4 in the morning.

***

The next day, our crew was able to go about our real business, instead of brawling with drunken rednecks. Hiking into the woods, several miles of trails revealed nothing. We were just meandering at this point, but then Wolfgang spotted a body down in a ravine. Quickly, Rae was lowered by rope to the man; she found him unconscious but alive, and was able to wake him up. He was very disoriented, but remembered being hit by something big and furry- it must have knocked him off the cliff. We left him a blanket and some supplies, we didn't want to risk dragging him up the cliff ourselves.

Rae's tracking skills revealed large hoofprints around the top of the ravine. We set off through the woods following them.

The bottom of the hill opened into a big clearing, with a number of standing stones in the center. 15 or 16 people milled around amongst them. Wolfgang went in for a closer look, keeping in touch over walkie-talkie.

Most of the crowd set out to leave- Wolfgang followed at a distance. Rae and Isaac went in to talk to the man who was left.

"Hey, how you doing? Do you have a phone? We found an injured man, over in a ravine."

The man answered, but not in English. Isaac's multilingual ear worked for him here, and he was able to pick out the gist of the conversation.

"No, no phone. No technology." Wierd.

"What were you doing down here?" Isaac inquired. Rae moved out, examining the standing stones, and getting behind the man.

"Make sacrifice. Appease nature demon." Wierder. Sacrifice- that dark spot on the snow, blood?

"Sacrifice? What are you talking about?" Isaac and Rae moved their hands towards their pistols.

"Sacrifice. Feed demon. Usually goat, rabbit, today little child." What the?!

Isaac and Rae drew. To the walkie-talkie, "Wolfgang, get back here RIGHT NOW." To the man, "What child? Where's the child? Get your hands up."

The man turned, pointed, and spoke. Rae fired and hit, but the man didn't even wince. Her gun got hot, and she dropped it. Isaac missed. The druid spoke to Isaac, but he resisted, and missed again. By this time, Wolfgang has heard the shots, and is running back.

Rae tried to hit the druid with her baton, but it bounced off his chest- was that a leather cuirass under his clothes? Who was this freak? The guy looked, spoke, and disappeared. Isaac saw footprints appearing in the snow, and tried to tackle the apparently invisible spellcaster, but landed on his face in the snow.

When Wolfgang got back to the clearing, he found Rae cursing and putting snow on her gun to cool it off, and Isaac trying to wipe the slush off his front. "What are you idiots doing?"

***

The group decided to try and follow the 'demon', bear, whatever, tracks to its lair. Rae was very good at this, and in a short time we found the opening to a cave. Snoring echoed from inside. It was dark, narrow, and didn't look fun. "Good luck, Wolfgang, scream like a girl if you need us." Isaac and Rae hung around outside the cave mouth, looking for psycho druids and pointing their guns at the cave occasionally.

Wolfgang crept quietly into the cave. Sloped up, and branched. The snoring was louder. He went left, but that didn't seem to be the way, and he went back and took the right branch, shining his penlight around, holding his gun, and trying very hard not to make any noise.

The tunnel widened into a cave. Off to the right, he saw the child- the same little girl from last night, amazingly. That family had the worst luck in the history of the earth. She looked uninjured, and packets of candy lay scattered around her.

Gulp. Shine the light left. Oh, crap. There's a hoof. Leg, leg, leg, very long legs. Oh, a body, wow, big critter here, hey, um, it's sitting up. Chin, mouth, eyes. Open eyes. And horns. A minotaur, very awake. It looked at him curiously.

"Who you?" Wolfgang found himself surprisingly not dead. Had to tread carefully though.

"I'm here to, ah, take the girl back to her mother. And you are?"

"Cedric. Good, take girl. Take candy too." Mmm, yeah.

"All right, thank you Cedric, I'll just be going now." Wolfgang gathered the little girl, and a couple pieces of candy (do NOT disobey the minotaur), and headed towards the cave mouth. He cringed as Cedric followed him.

And so Rae and Isaac were treated to the sight of Wolfgang, carrying the little girl, followed by the large, friendly minotaur, blinking at the light.

***

Cedric revealed that the druids usually gave him food, every couple of weeks. The rest of the time he foraged. Occasionally, usually after seeing the druids, he would lose control of himself, and roam around attacking hikers. We began to suspect that the druids were magically affecting him somehow.

Cedric said he could lead us to the druid's house. We gave a walkie-talkie to Rae, and sent her to take the girl and the wounded hiker back to the ranger station. Isaac and Wolfgang went with Cedric.

A large cabin, on top of a hill. Couple of windows, front and back door. How did this guy get away with building this in the middle of the park? We talked Rae in, it took her an hour to get back from the station.

Peeking in the window revealed the druid, engaged in some ritual involving a magical diagram and many candles. No way we were letting him finish that.

Cedric and Wolfgang went to the back, Rae to the front, Isaac outside a window. With a crash, Cedric kicked the door in.

Wolfgang slipped past him and opened fire on the druid. Rae burst in the front door and shot too. Isaac broke the window, shot, and missed.

Rapidly, the druid bobbed, weaved, and magically heated all our guns to glowing heat. Crap. Rae grabbed her baton, Wolfgang his knife, and Isaac a nicely non-metallic tree branch. The druid was still more than our match, he was too fast and most of our blows were glancing. He whirled, pointed at Cedric, and chanted something in his strange Gaelic. Cedric stirred, stepped in the door, and started towards Wolfgang, but shook his head and retargeted at the druid instead.

The tide turned then, Cedric was too strong for the druid, battering him and then tossing him across the room. The druid chanted rapidly, though, and Cedric was trapped to the ground when roots and vines grew up in seconds to tangles his legs. We had him on the ropes anyway, as Isaac clubbed him in the head, Wolfgang stabbed him, and Rae searched for her pistol (now starting to cool).

Just when we thought we had him, he twittered, turned into a bird, then flew out the door and into the dusk. Rae shot ineffectively, and Isaac threw his club after the bird. "I hate that guy."

***

Nothing was to be done, we'd never find him in this twilight, so we contented ourselves with trashing his place and taking his spell components. We stayed the night in our cabin and called Daedalus in the morning, telling him all about our strange escapades. He thought he might be able to do something for Cedric, so midmorning found us driving up the interstate with a four-hundred pound minotaur in the back of the van, under some blankets.

(The spells the druid cast were heat metal, charm person (failed, at Isaac), and invisibility. In the second fight, lots of heat metals, a failed charm monster at Cedric (had that worked, we would have had a TPK), entangle, and finally a shapechange of some sort. We HATE that guy.)

As near as we can figure, the druid was using some kind of Charm on Cedric, to get him to drive off the tourists and safegard the nature, or something like that. He was a nutjob.

Loose ends, after session two: The orcs, the car-axing-ogre, Horacio, and the sunglassed man, from session 1. The gun-show elf and drow, and the guy that bought the Dracula book. The druid escaped too. We just keep racking them up.

This session had wierd rolling. We consistently rolled low on Spot and Listen- our characters were wandering around oblivious. Other skill checks were amazingly high- Isaac had never spoken Gaelic before, but rolled so high with his linguistics talent that he was able to converse pretty well with the druid. Tracking, search, other checks were similar. Our shooting was just bad.

We learned that the class Defense Bonus makes a bigger difference in combat than you'd expect. Also, that melee weapons are extremely necessary against spellcasters- with guns or unarmed, you don't threaten, but with AoO you're getting double attacks when the guy casts spells. Oh yeah, and when your medic goes down, you're stuck using action points trying to stabilize her. We need more Treat Injury ranks in the party.

 

[Buddha the DM]

Man I am enjoying this a lot. Can't wait to see some more.

 

[projectdaedalus]

Me too.

Great job, Dan. I'm glad you're doing this. I'll remind the people in the group to come and take a look at this thread.

 

[DanMcS]

12/14/2002
Session 3

The Daedalus team was called back to project headquarters the day after New Years. They'd had a couple of weeks to pursue side interests, but were now back on the job.

Eric Daedalus brought them in to his office for the briefing. "A number of Egyptian artifacts were stolen from the New York Metropolitan Library yesterday. The New Amsterdam branch, to be specific. They probably have occult significance. The night before, the Turkamen Star, a small freighter registered out of Cyprus, came into NYC harbor. Here's the crew list. Recognize anyone?"

Isaac scanned the list. "I recognize that one, Jamhad al-Akbin Abari; he's Saudi, deals Egyptian stuff in Europe, right? Never met him though."

"Precisely," confirmed Daedalus. "Go to New York, investigate the burglary, check out the ship and see if they were involved."

"That's pretty thin. A ship came into harbor the same night as the burglary. So what? A hundred ships must go in and out every day." Mason wasn't convinced. "What makes you think..."

"Good sources," Daedalus interrupted. "Here are the tickets, here's a debit card for expenses, phone in periodically."

***

By the time they got off the plane, it was getting dark. A short trip to the hotel, then they caught the subway to the library branch. It was closed. Discreet scouting revealed several private security guards patrolling, inside and out. No way they were getting in there tonight.

"To the ship!"

***

The Turkamen Star was small as cargo ships go. It nestled into pier 8 at the city harbor. Occasional lights pierced the evening gloom, but this dock was mostly empty of people. Two other ships, a big container ship and a smaller boat, shared the dock.

Trying to look nonchalant, Mason, Wolfgang, Isaac and Rae sauntered down to the far tip of the dock. Four guards at the foot of the ramp eyed us hard as we passed the Star, but we gave them a wide berth. The smallest ship was moored at the end, and we walked onto it like we knew what we were doing.

Once aboard, we wanted to have a good look at the Star through binoculars, but it was too dark. A whispered plan developed. Rae and Mason stayed aboard the ship, peering toward the Star, while Isaac and Wolfgang crept towards it, keeping to the shadows.

Wolfgang led the way towards the mooring line of the ship. He was nearly there, and
WHAM
cringed as Isaac walked into a crate behind him. The guards shined a light towards us, and began yelling at us, not in English.

Isaac went for his wallet, and flipped it open at them. "Port authority! We're inspecting your mooring lines."

The guards, seeing him reach inside his jacket, had gone for their guns. "Oh, crap!" The guards opened fire.

Isaac ran for cover, several crates were around that might stop bullets. Wolfgang pulled his own weapon and shot back.

Rae and Mason, hearing the gun battle, ran to the dock and began working their way toward the Star, keeping behind cover as they came.

One guard ran back aboard the ship. Another went down to Wolfgang's fire, but Wolfgang was knocked back by several shots and fell unconscious. Isaac hid behind a crate, trading potshots with an equally terrified guard.

Rae and Mason finally showed up and finished off the two guards still standing. Rae checked out Wolfgang, tied off his worst wounds, and called for the retreat. Our heroes scurried away, Wolfgang over Isaac's shoulder, retreating to the hotel to regroup.

 

[projectdaedalus]

BEWARE **SPOILER**

I assume there's going to be part two with the library sequence and the second battle at the Turkamen Star?

I like the way you re-arranged Isaac looking at the manifest before the group left Columbus. That's actually how I envisioned it, but for some reason, we didn't get around to it until later in the session...