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Turn
Campaign:Black Moon
Adventure:The Desolute Void
Send To:Curt Rustle, Dasan Gram, Ianna, Isobella, Jack, Marcello diPietro, Shooter, Tal Everwind
Turn Start Date (ex. 12/31/6565)
Turn Number:6.0
Combat Turn:
Subject:The Pirate King
Combat
Physical
Energy
Other
Flash
Charges
DEX/EGO
SPD
PD
rPD
Total
ED
rED
Total
Mental
Power
Sight
Sound
???
Curt Rustle
26
5
10
13
23
5
13
18
19
5
0
0
0
Dasan
20
5
4
20
24
4
20
25
6
0
10
0
0
Laser Cannon - 13/16
Flame Thrower - 0/4
Mini-gun - 13/16
Force Field - 0/6
Ianna
35
6
11
15
26
11
15
26
0
5
0
0
0
Isobella
33
5
5
24
29
3
24
27
9
0
10
0
0
Defiance Super Shock - 92/96
Jack Braun
20
5
12
23
35
11
23
34
10
0
2
0
0
Marco diPietro
18/23
4
12
13
25
12
13
25
24
7*
0
0
0
Shooter
20
4
8
31
39
8
31
39
18
10
7
3
0
Manhunter - 11/12
SSR - Normal - 14/16
SSR - AP 16/16
Frag Grenades - 3/6
Tal Everwind
23
5
2
20
22
4
20
24
0
0
0
0
0

REC
BODY
STUN
END
Other
Full
Current
Full
Current
Full
Current
Curt Rustle
10
12
37
40
Dasan
9
14
36
46
Ianna
10
12
37
46
Isobella
5
12
25
30
Jack Braun
12
12
47
76
Marco diPietro
10
10
33
48
Shooter
8
13
32
40
Tal Everwind
9
18
32
36
END Reserve 90/90 (10 REC)



IANNA: Checking quickly the captain replies to the others, {The mind counts check out. Okay, Jack, Isobella, Dasan and I will go talk to them. The rest of you be ready as you may need to come bring the big guns. We'll see how far conversation will take us.}

IANNA (GM): I don't know the best way to get close to where they are. I could teleport the four of us to the other side of the wall, where the group wouldn't likely notice us but I'm not sure that would work. I don't want to show off the teleporting powers right now and wish to preserve our 'normal' status. Ideally I'd like the 4 of us to get close so we can walk towards them to make contact. If we can get ahead of them and then 'naturally' greet them as they come closer that would be great too. Just not sure the proximity and bearing of their group to figure out how to get close. Ianna can just call out with something like this, "Hello there! We're glad to see other humans in this strange place." She'll definitely be using her interpersonal skills to try to create a positive rapport.


Once the sound of the pirate king and his group have faded somewhat, the group quickly scales the walls of the pod room. Shooter remains on top of the wall to observe the distant group through his sniper scope while the rest drop to the floor of the platform. Then, while Dasan, Tal and Marco remain behind, Ianna, Jack, Curt and Isobella hurry after the other group. They reach the edge of the platform, where a walkway extends out over the red mists far below. The walkway is about two meters wide and angles upwards at a 15 degree angle or so. After about 20 meters it curves first to the right and then to the left.

Through his scope, Shooter than see the four gaining on the slower moving group led by the pirate as they ascend towards a large platform that is set well away from the central spine of the ship but is also not touching the outer walls of the vast interior cavern.

As they come around a bend, Ianna can see the tail end of the other group up ahead. She hails them. "Hello there! We're glad to see other humans in this strange place."

The men at the back of the other group stop and turn, their weapons at the ready. As word of the newcomers is passed forward to the pirate king, one of the men calls out, "Who are you and where are you from." He is very wary and looks tired.

With the better vision afforded by her LG lens, Isobella can see that the man is wearing the uniform of a lieutenant in the Imperial Navy. She focuses on the shoulder badge and sees that he is from the INS Fast Spike.

ISOBELLA: Isobella will pass this on using the mental link.

IANNA: "I am Captain Fox of the civilian science vessel, Darklight and this is part of my crew. We were passing through the 871-438 system when we encountered some anomaly and ended up here. You're the first humans we've encountered so far. What is this place?" Ianna is not trying to stray too far from the truth, nor project an image that isn't believable about who they are. She is using her presence to be believable and sound fairly normal as captains of exploratory vessels would go. She does not want to sound military at all.

IANNA (GM): Darklight seems like a dubious ship name to Marty. However, if it has little significance in the game world then she'll use it openly. I'm assuming that this ship has no connection at all to the Imperial Navy or the Empire and to those knowledgeable about vessels would assume it is a science/exploration type ship. Ianna would have insisted on getting a ship that could allow the group to keep the non-IIS connection as real as possible. If this is not true, then she'll use a different ship's name of a matching class that might pass for the ship we're on. Hopefully the name of the ship isn't obvious when looking at it or detecting it with sensors.


LT TRASK: "Greetings, Captain Fox," the officer replies without enthusiasm. "I am Lieutenant Trask of the INS Fast Spike. This place is an alien ship. Have you run into any aliens since you arrived?"

GM: I should also mention, for the benefit of Curt, Marco, Tal and Shooter, that the other group is about 80 meters (40 inches) away. The range penalty is -8. My assumption is that Shooter is perched on top of the wall between the passage and the pod room while the other three on in the passage, and against the wall so as to be hidden from view.

IANNA: The captains nods at the lieutenant's identification but makes no visible recognition of him or his ship. "We have seen some wasp-like beings flying around but haven't encountered them directly. We did run into some bug like critters as well as some shadow beings. Have you encountered these aliens as well? Any idea what or who they might be? We haven't been able to communicate with them. They simply seem hostile. But that seems odd given there are docking bays in this 'ship'. Have you encountered any non-hostiles here?"

LT TRASK: "Everything here is hostile," the lieutenant replies morosely. "We've encountered at least six or seven different races of Charons and lost men to all of them. We've encountered the shadows and lost men to them as well. We've..."

IANNA: {Interesting,} she thought over the mindlink as the lieutenant speaks. {I guess the Charons are the bug creatures. 6 or 7 different races.}

DARK CLAW: The lieutenant is interrupted by the appearance of the pirate captain. "And a very good day to you," the merry pirate exclaims to Ianna as he arrives. Such an unpleasant location for which to meet two ladies as lovely as yourself," he adds as his gaze wanders towards Isobella. He also glances at Dasan and Jack briefly. "I am Captain G'Damnuk, most recently a sworn emeny of the Empire and a sad constituent of an imperial prison ship but now free again and in the most unlikely company. Still, strange circumstances make for strange bedfellows and circumstances do get much stranger than this, eh lieutenant."

GM: This last is directed at Lt Trask." The lieutenant does not reply.

DARK CLAW: "So now we encounter fellow travelers in the night - poor wanderers trapped in the very dimension responsible for my current state of freedom. Captain G'Damnuk yes I am but also known as Dark Claw, feared defender of the oppressed, a mutant if you like, and unashamed - ney, verily proud of who and what I am."

GM: The extremely verbose, fast talking and downright merry pirate is the exact opposite of the droll navy lieutenant. The group notes that the pirate is not dressed in prison clothing but a hodge-podge of clothing that is more befitting of his debonair attitude. One can just imagine that his first act, upon attaining freedom, was to change into a more appropriate wardrobe. Dark Claw is armed with an imperial blaster rifle (4d6 RKA).

DARK CLAW: "What prompts you to approach us? And I should warn you that it is my nature to assume that you are lying until my own eyes can verify the truth of what you say. And I've been known to curse my own eyes as liars though, to exact vengeance on them would be self-defeating."

GM: The pirate lord finally pauses long enough for Ianna to say something.

IANNA: Ianna takes this all in quickly, nodding at several things the two had said. "Strange circumstances to meet anyone in, no doubt Captain. I am Captain Fox and these are some of my crew members. Your merry tune caught our attention and given you are the first humans we've seen here, we had to hail you. Actually, you weren't the first human. We encountered a woman in an Imperial Navy officer's uniform that was attached to a bunch of vines back over there." Ianna gestured toward the massive pillar where they found her. "We weren't sure if she was even alive until we pulled her out. We were unable to save her but she did talk about the shadows attacking from the darkness and she asked about her crew with her dying breath. Perhaps this one of your officers?" Turning to Isobella, "Do you remember the name on the uniform? Gryphon, right?"

ISOBELLA: "Yes maam, it was the Gryphon," replied Isobella. Privately she thought, 'He wouldn't think I was so lovely if he saw me instead of the armor.' Isobella has had a long time to become comfortable that she was not, and never would be, a beauty. At least not by anyone who saw her angular face. Moment of introspection over, she continued keeping the rest of the group up to date over the mind link.


MARCO (GM): Eidetic memory check to associate "Charon" with any empire-related mythologies?

GM: Marco cannot recall any references to Charon that seem to apply to this situation.

MARCO (GM2): what is the difference between mental radar and find minds?

GM: There are similiarities but there are also major differences. Mental Radar is mostly designed to be used in combat. Marco can keep it up (by spending END) and pinpoint targets. It has normal range modifiers so his ability to "see" targets diminshes with range. This ability allowed him to mentally "see" the shadows when the absolute darkness prevented him from being able to see them with his eyes.

GM: Find Minds can be used to find a specific target or it can e used to get a "snapshot" of minds in a general location. Find Minds can be (and has been) used to find a specific person out of all of the minds on a particular planet. Find minds can be used to target the person with a mental attack but you must know the person in order to be able to find them. Marco has rarely used this particular ability of Find Minds. He has mostly used it to get a count of minds in a specific area. In this function, it is a snapshot in time that shows the number of minds (and general or exact location) at that moment but it can't be used to launch a mental attack.

MARCO (GM): Does the Mental Radar provide any discriminatory senses such as "are they also a mentalist" or "are they under mind control"?

GM: Marco has his Mental Radar bought as discriminatory which means that Marco could pick out specific minds that he knows. For example, if the group is in total darkness and Marco activates his Mental Radar and picks up 25 minds, he would know exactly which ones were Jack, Ianna, Isobella, etc. He would not be able to tell if the person was a mentalist unless they were actively using a mental power. He might be able to tell if the mind was under the influence of Mind Control, depending on how the mind control is being used. If the mentalist was paying END every phase to maintain a strong mental grip on their target, then Marco should be able to see this. If the Mind Control was used to issue an order, but the mentalist is no longer paying END every phase, then Marco would not be able to determine this.


LT TRASK: "Captain Gryphon was the captain of the Fast Spike," the navy officers says in his usual droll monotone. Then, apparently feeling that he needed to add something more, he continues, "When we first entered this ship, we were attacked by some strange shadow creatures and lost some good men. We became separated in the running battles that followed."

DARK CLAW: "So the mystery of Captain Gryphon's fate is solved. No doubt she was a fine captain and a lovely person."

DARK CLAW: "So what now is your desire? Do you wish to join my merry band in our efforts to escape this ship and this dimension and return to normal space or will you go it alone? If you wish to join my crew you must accept me as your captain and obey my orders without question for I will not countenance mutineers."

GM: This last is delivered in his usual light banter but the group is certain that he is quite serious.

IANNA: "My desire this moment is to understand more about this place and, of course, to return with my crew to our dimension. As for your generous offer, it seems we have a mutual goal but I'm curious if you have made progress towards getting off this ship and out of this dimension. Do you have a ship? Do you know how to leave the dimension once back on board a ship? What's to entice us to give up our autonomy and join you?"

IANNA: {Hmm, I hope our ship hasn't been compromised while we were gone.} Ianna wondered over the mindlink. {What are the group's thoughts on his offer of joining them. Any merit to it at this point? My gut says no but we do have an opportunity to learn a lot about what happened and more of this place. I guess we could always split off later if sticking with them isn't valuable. We still need to find the four other parts to repair our jump drive.}

MARCO: {Rejecting his offer is likely to force his hand, which may not be a good thing if he's got the rest of these troops under some sort of mind control.}

DARK CLAW: The pirate captain laughs and exclaims, "What a fun game to play! You go first. Do you have a ship? Do you know how to leave this dimension? What skills and talents would you bring if I accepted you into my bloodthirsty crew?"

SHOOTER: {Captain, I have the pirate in my sights. Let me know if you want me to shoot.}

DASAN:{I agree with Shooter. This does not look like it is going to end well. If we all hit him at once we should be able drop him before he can truly respond.}

IANNA: {Negative, Shooter. Let's not be too hasty. There is still much to be gained and we're not in any worse position than before.}

SHOOTER: {Captain,} the sniper says patiently, {I am not advocating a course of action. I am letting you know that I have him in my sights and will shoot if you give the order.}

IANNA: {Aye, Shooter. Thank you.}

JACK: {He himself is not reputed to have any mental powers, remember, just super-strength and the ability to form killing weapons from his shadowy forcefield sheath. I am loath to ambush someone but we do know that he is an Imperial prisoner by his own admission. I don't suppose you have any non-lethal rounds that would do the job? As for joining his crew, we have no reason to. They are exploring without much information, just as we are, and not cooperating and sharing information, which would be the chief reason to work with them. They would be extra targets to try to protect from the bugs and shadows, with very little to gain from working together. If we tried to split up into more than one group to search more area, we end up splitting our forces and having to watch our backs at all times against people we can't trust. As much as I hate to say it, he's not going to give us any truthful information more than he has without the situation changing significantly. He thinks he's in a position of power and seems to be the bully in charge of his little band. Hopefully most of them will be relieved if we take him down.}

IANNA: {I don't think we should undervalue what they could offer. First, they may have some of the parts needed to repair the jump drive. Second, they may be the only source of information about what happened to the other prisoners and crew members. Whether we join forces with them for the long run isn't as important as getting this information now. We also can't be hasty with our prying for information. I'm guessing Dark Claw is too astute to pick up on our unusual interest in the prisoners if we come out seeking it too directly. Remember unless we can find those parts to fix the drive we may all die here. We can worry about dealing with the prisoners once we safe from this place. As for their crew being a burden to protect, they'll be safer with us as a group than without. We can't save everyone and by grouping up the chances that more lives are saved is higher. I do appreciate everyone looking at this situation critically. No doubt, Dark Claw is a formidable opponent and I don't want to be too rash in how we proceed. Keep on your toes.}

IANNA: The captain smiled and gauged her opponent for a moment. "That's very generous of you to play along, but I asked you first. As soon as you show me a reason to consider joining your group, I will give you a reason you would want our assistance. So far all I have gathered from our conversation is that your group has been losing men to the aliens and have been split up. That doesn't give me much confidence."

DARK CLAW: "And so you did. And so you did," the pirate replies cheerfully. "Indeed I have a ship and so must you or you would not be here. As for losing men, you are confusing previous alliances with the current state. I have lost none of my crew since they have come under my exalted leadership."

DARK CLAW: "I fear, captain, that you would not do well in my crew. You are much too accustomed to command to accept my leadership, superior though it be. Perhaps then, an alliance. Some sharing of knowledge and a shared goal of escaping this dimension together. This implies, of course, a sharing of resources."

IANNA: "Now that sounds more feasible. There is sound logic in working together given the circumstances. What is your next course of action? We have only been here a short while and are still getting our bearings in this place."

DARK CLAW: "No captain. This time it is your turn to go first. What is it that you are trying to accomplish on this alien ship? Have you learned anything of note?"

IANNA: "Sure, we are looking for parts to repair our ship and any sort of salvageable alien technology worth taking with us, being enterprising folk. We've only been here a few hours but in that time we've learned a few interesting things. We encountered the shadows and seeing the various bug species here. All seem to be hostile. We checked out the massive pillar where the vines that entangled Gryphon were. We're not fully sure what they're about but they seemed bad. We found an area with a bunch of storage pods filled with salvaged equipment. The rest of my crew is wrapping up there."

IANNA: "How long have you been in this place? Since you're still here, there must be some reason you haven't departed since this seems not to be the most welcome layover."

IANNA: {Alright, go with me on this. One of our missions is to search and salvage ancient or alien technology for gain. Dasan, pipe up and ask the captain if he's found any alien technology worth salvaging.}

IANNA (OOC): I was totally going to add this to my dialog: Have you found any salvageable alien technology worth selling in our dimension? But I realized that Dasan is already totally into that and he should be the one to play that up. Heck he's even got the stun rod from the critters to show for it.

IANNA (GM): How big is our ship again? How many people could we bring in addition to our team? Also, I don't know how much time has passed since we've arrived but I thought it was only several hours. If that's not accurate change what Ianna said to be true. My sense is we haven't been here all that long.


DASAN:{I would love no more than to talk tech but for apearances you may want to call on me for the information. This pirate appears to hold his people in a tight grip. I would not want him to think you do not have control over your team. We also need to figure out how these things comunicate.}

DASAN(GM): I know we had not discussed this yet, but what rolls do I need to make to see if I am getting a feel for the bug tech. Unless I am mistaken we have only seen the sticks and the mods on the prisonship.

IANNA: {I might but let's allow Dark Claw to respond first. If a logical opening to ask presents itself, don't hesitate.}

DARK CLAW: "We are on this ship for exactly the same reason you are - to find the necessary parts to repair the hyperspace engines of our ship. We've been in this strange dimension for a number of days though it is difficult to say exactly how many."

IANNA: "That confirms our Chief Engineer's theory that all ships here sustained the same damage. Which makes it very curious we're able to find any salvageable parts but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth. How close are you to having the necessary parts?"

DARK CLAW: "Did you find any usable hyperdrive parts when you searched the storage room?"

IANNA: "Yes, we found one of the parts. How much of this ship have you searched then? Have you mapped out the ship yet?"

DARK CLAW: "Your chief engineer may not be as competent as you believe if he hasn't figured out why this ship might have salvageable parts. We too have found one of the parts needed to repair the hyperdrive. We found it on the next level up. We do not have a map of the ship."

IANNA: "Please explain then as we don't know much about this ship. What about this place makes it so clear that it would have salvageable parts? Does your ship need five parts to make your jump drive functional? We found a hypercoil. What part have you found?"

DARK CLAW: The pirate lord grins and replies, "The same five parts of every hyperdrive, including any spares, are fried by going through the anomaly. The only ships that might have parts are those that have never gone through the anomaly. With the exception of this very alien ship, all of the ships that we've seen in this strange place pretty clearly came from normal space. Ergo, this ship is the only one that might not have come through the anomaly and might have usable parts.

GM: Marco and Tal had already figured out that any ship that came through the anomaly would not have usable parts to fix the hyperdrive. I should also point out that the hypercoil that you found is very alien-looking but Tal and Marco are confident that they can make it work. A less capable engineer may not have even recognized it as a hypercoil.

IANNA (OOC): Let's strike this whole line of conversation then. I was under the impression that the stuff we found (including the hypercoil) were parts taken from Imperial ships here and thus would have come through the anomaly. If I had known it was alien then I would not have asked.

IANNA: "Okay, so you don't have a map. Do you have a sense of how large this ship is and how much of it have you explored?"


DARK CLAW: "Oh it is quite large but our alliance is not such that I will share all of my knowledge with you. I will share some knowledge. The part that we found was a Crosslink Power Coupler. It looks pretty alien but I'm confident that we can make it work."

IANNA: The captain frowned. "Okay, it's going to be pretty difficult to coordinate search efforts if you can't indicate where you've already searched." Assuming Dark Claw doesn't withhold those details she will discuss the structure of the ship that they are aware of and areas they've already searched. She'll also ask for any places in the ship that should be avoided.

DARK CLAW: Dark Claw points out over the open interior of the ship to where the massive pillar runs from the top to the bottom of the ship. "As you can see, there are four levels, or platforms. I've been on all four but won't give you any advice on where you should search. I would expect you to search places that I and my crew have already searched, just as I will search places that you and your team have already searched."

IANNA: "What do you know of the red mist?"


DARK CLAW: "I call it happy gas. It makes me see interesting visions. It affects other people in different ways."

IANNA (GM): My goal here is to get some sense of where he's already searched and get a better understanding of the layout of the ship. If he doesn't want to offer that information it's fine but I have to ask. We'll just go on our way as we were before.

IANNA: "So you've been here a few days. Are you the only surviving humans here then? You mentioned that the crew was split up. How many others might be around then? Do you have a way to communicate with the other groups?"


DARK CLAW: "There may be other humans on this ship but I have no way to communicate with them."

IANNA: "Do your radios not work in here? So far our communicators have worked fine. Dasan, can I have your extra communicator?" Ianna will then give the communicator to Dark Claw. "You can reach our group with this. We will inform you if we find another piece. 3 more to go."

IANNA: "About these shadows and Charon. Are they allied? Do they fight each other? What does their purpose here seem to be? Are they actively hunting humans down or just react when they see you? Does there seem to be any coordination or intelligence behind either of these groups?"


DARK CLAW: "I have not personally seen these so-called Shadows so could not say if they are allied with the Charon. Nor could I speak to their purpose or degree of intelligence or organization. I would only suggest that you not attempt to negotiate with them for they seem incapable of any type of non-violent interaction."

IANNA (GM): Do our radio communicators work here?


GM: Yes they do.

DASAN(OOC): Dasan my not have thought to use his internal radio because of the prior interference, but Ianna should rember that he has one.

IANNA (OOC): Good point. Since we all have issued communicators we can use Dasan's to give to Dark Claw so we can communicate.

IANNA (GM): Did Dark Claw take the communicator? Did he say anything in response or did he just nod?

IANNA: Once the communicator has been handed over she speaks up, "We will return to the rest of my crew now. Good luck with your ongoing search." With that, unless Dark Claw has anything more to add, Ianna will lead the other three back to the storage area.


DARK CLAW: The pirate lord takes the proffered communicator and says, "Good luck to you."

DARK CLAW: He turns away from Ianna and heads back towards the front of his column of crew members singing, "I AM the Pirate King. And it tis, it TIS a glorius thing to be the Pirate King."



Meanwhile, back on the edge of the platform, in the passage between the sunken pod room and the sunken room with red mists, Marco, Tal and Curt wait. They listen to the mental communications adding their thoughts from time to time. Above them, on the wall between the passage and the pod room, Shooter lies spread out with his sniper rifle pointing up towards where the rest of the group is talking to the pirate, on the curving walkway that runs from the large platform, towards a distant platform that appears to be floating in the massive, open chasm.

Marco glances around and suddenly notices a woman sitting on the top of the wall that separates the passage from the room of the red mists. She is about 5 meters from the group and is watching them. When Marco notices her sitting and watching, she puts her finger to her lips as if to say, 'don't tell anyone else that I'm here'. Marco notes that she is quite probably the most attractive woman that he has ever seen in his life.

GM: The woman is wearing tight-fitting jumpsuit. As far as Marco can see, she is carrying no weapons and is unarmored. Marco recognizes her as one of the high-value prisoners - woman by the name of Zardra. He recalls from her profile that she is listed as a mutant vampire for her ability to drain life and even mutations from her victims.

A moment or two later, Tal and Curt also notice the woman.

MARCO: {No, one look, but another of the high-risk prisoners just showed up. She's not far from me and is recommending silence - my guess is that she and Dark Claw are not team-mates at this point.}

MARCO (TECH): Conducts minds in her (Zardra's) direction to ensure that she is, in fact right there. Alternate, is Mental Radar a better option at this point since I have LOS?
Find Minds [rolled 13] - focussed, small arc, exact number and location effect [rolled 4 6 6 6 3 5 1 5 2 6 3 2 - Total: 49, Body: 15]
Mental Radar [rolled 14]

GM: Yes, Mental Radar is the better choice if you just want to confirm that there is a mental presence there. Mental Radar confirms that she is there and will allow Marco to recognize her "mental signature" if he sees her again with Mental Radar.

IANNA (OOC): Sam, one thing you'll want to be careful (and aware) of is the overuse of some of your mental sense. Some of them are detectable by other mentalists. So by using them frequently you'll be broadcasting your presence and the fact you're a mentalist to those that can sense it. This case is probably fine but when we encounter the Duke, you'll definitely want to think twice before using an active sense. I'm pretty sure your Mind Scan and Mental Radar are active and will be easily detected. I could be wrong if you're got custom builds of those senses but it's something to be considering.

MARCO (OOC): Marty, good call, and that's what I was planning on doing. I figured that these two weren't major threats in that regard, although, one of them could be working with/for the Duke. I am not sure about the mechanics of these senses, but I am trying to be inconspicuous in my detections and such so as to not be too obvious.

IANNA: {Wow, okay. Which one is she? Regardless see if you can establish friendly contact with her. Probably good to keep her separate from Dark Claw. Keep me informed how it goes until I can wrap up with Dark Claw.}

MARCO: {Zardra, I believe. A vampiress or sorts...Tal, Curt, watch my back...} Assuming that Tal and Curt don't object...

MARCO: Marco turns and faces Zardra and then raises an eyebrow in sort of a "why should I be quiet" look.

ZARDRA: The woman smiles at Marco. Then, when Curt and Tal also become aware of her presence, she smiles at them. "My name is Zardra. Who might you be?"

TAL: "What the hell? Where'd you come from, Missy?" Tal mutters to himself. Tal starts looking around to see if there's anyone else around, ready to pop out of a dark corner.

MARCO: Holds up a hand to suggest that Tal not get too antsy..."We, are travellers who were stranded here by an anomaly and are attempting to get home. Who are you?"

ZARDRA: "I was a prisoner being transferred via an imperial ship by the name of the Dar Formuth when the ship blundered into what is probably the same anomaly you came through. I say this because your story suggests that you are either extremely unlucky, extremely incompetent or lying. I would put the odds at 2%, 8% and 90% respectively. I believe it is most likely that you are the third team - come to arrest us terrible criminals and take us back to the empire so that justice can be served. If that is the case, and you fail to properly identify yourselves and arrest me now, then I know a pretty good lawyer that can probably get my case thrown out based solely on your lack of proper procedure."

ZARDRA: She holds out her hands and says, "So, are you going to arrest me?"



IANNA (OOC): Let's hold off on any IC replies to this yet. I'm assuming that Ianna will be getting reports of what she said in near real time.

GM: True, though if you are going to be having two full time conversations at the same time, the pauses will be discernable to someone skilled with interaction (and Jack can certainly tell that the Pirate Lord is a very skilled conversationalist).

IANNA (GM): Oh yeah, I'm going to hold off on having Ianna do much with that until she's wrapped up with the pirate king.

IANNA (GM): I just reread the initial turn to get a sense of how we're supposed to handle the prisoners. I didn't get the sense that we were deputized or given authority to make arrests. In that case, we aren't true law enforcement agents and thus could do whatever we wanted (though I'm guessing the prisoners could sue us for assault/kidnapping). We could simply turn them over to the authorities when we get back where the official arrest is made. In the turn it was clear that they didn't want these prisoners freely walking so if they can be taken out or trapped here then that's acceptable.

IANNA (OOC): One thing that I'd like to get a sense for is how rogue our group really is. Our orders seem fairly loose and give us a lot of leeway in how to best deal with the situation. Do any of our characters seem strictly bound to the law? I would think that Marco and Shooter are probably the most likely to be so. The rest of the group are all civilians so we can pretty much do whatever we want in terms of following orders. I know we had a good amount of time traveling here so I'd hope that we'd have pretty good sense on where we each stand on this issue. For instance, what if we 'let' Zardra go and not try to apprehend her? At this point Ianna doesn't see the harm in that but she also doesn't want to trouble the crew by asking them to clearly go against what we were sent to do, in Zardra's case.


TAL: (OOC) Tal isn't exactly the most "law and order" type of guy. He sees cooperation with the former prisoners as a high-risk (I.e. they were prisoners for a reason), but possibly successful strategy. Our goal is to return them to the empire. Tal doesn't recall any mention of what state they should be in at point of return, other than that they probably wouldn't go willingly. For the record, we weren't deputized either. The closest analogy would be that we're bounty hunters.

IANNA (OOC): Exactly. I think they'd be happy with us just succeeding with as much of the mission as possible. Perhaps taking out the Duke would be good enough and each prisoner after that would be icing.

GM: Those are some very good points and some good questions. During the briefings, the prisoners were primarily considered to be a military threat. Very little was said about Zardra as she was not considered particular important. The primary perceived threat was the duke. The expectation is that if he was free and managed to escape from the anomaly, he could use his mental abilities and his contacts to create a rebellion within the empire. The rebellion would be localized to be sure but even a localized rebellion, if strong and persistent enough, could grow to be a real threat to the empire.

GM: The assumption was that if the duke managed to recover access to all of his powers, then the other prisoners would probably follow him, at least in the beginning so as to escape the anomaly. The IIS also believed that, given time, the duke could dominate the crews of the navy ships that were sent to find him, as well as the crew of the Dar Formuth. That's why the navy reacted so quickly. They wanted to recover the prisoners before they could break free of the blocks that were keeping their powers in check. Even now, you have not seen any concrete evidence that Dark Claw or Zardra have full access to the mutant abilities.

GM: All that said, Zardra's statement has a ring of truth to it. If she tried to turn herself in, even to bounty hunters, but was rebuffed, then a good lawyer could turn that into a legal point in her favor. With the exception of Marco and Shooter, your group is really acting as a group of bounty hunters. Marco and Shooter are both still active duty military personnel so if she tried to surrender to them and was rebuffed, a lawyer would have even more ammunition.

GM: All that said, the IIS didn't think that knowing the fine points of the law was required for this mission. They were concerned about the duke first and foremost and sent you to prevent him from returning to normal space. Nothing was specifically said, but there were some hints that if the duke was killed in a fight with your group, it would not be a bad thing.

IANNA (OOC): Okay, that makes sense. Alright, I'll hold off on going into more thoughts on this now. I'm guessing that we've had some discussions on the way here about some of the possible scenarios but I'll keep the current situation IC and let the discussion flow naturally. I'll wait until Ianna's not in an intense discussion with one of the prisoners!

DASAN(OOC): Sounds like the Duke is our primary objective. Zardra and maybe even the Pirate could be of use in taking down the Duke for a chance to escape this place. Their aid in this could go a long way with the Empire. I know Dasan would turn a blind eye for their help.
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