Saturday, July 05, 2014

Traveller Session - The Aslan attack

The last session ended with the PCs bursting into the bad guys office in the midst of a hail of lead. We picked up right where that ended.

The bad guys were shooting from behind the soft furnishings. One good guy was in the office returning fire and the other popping his head around the door to let fly with his laser rifle. The dice were rolling poorly and the shots were all going wild. In fact it was so bad that Hake once again gave up on his rifle and decided to use his axe. He ran for the head bad guy, was saved from a point blank shot by a misfire and got his axe to the throat of the head bad guy.

Conversation ensued. The axe threat had both bad guys throwing their guns to the floor. Then they  forced the henchman to go fetch Alboor and meet them at the front door to the club. Off went the henchman. As the PCs were leaving, sirens were heard in the distance. By the time they got to the front door they could hear the cops pulling up out front.

When the henchman brought Alboor (with a bag over his head) he had one last trick to play. He pushed Alboor at the PCs and pulled out another pistol. His shot went wide (again!) and in retaliation the axe all but took off his head.

Alboor was unmasked and rather than being a grateful rescuee he was a somewhat panicked, scared rescuee who was horrified by all of the blood and violence. The dead man at his feet, those across the dance floor and the blood, oh my god, the blood! 

The head bad guy was left with bullets in the kneecap as the PCs dragged the kicking and fighting Alboor towards a side door.  He was struggling so bad that he got a broken arm for his trouble, after which he calmed down a little.

From here, things became a little less horrific. They escaped out of side door, dodging the cops and dived once again into a garage. While in there they could hear copper choppers overhead. They decided to use a dodge they'd used very recently. They found a lot of womanly clothing being stored in the garage and again engaged in a cross-dressing disguise.

Once suitably attired they made their way back to the university to gather the help of the secretary they met there last time they visited. She recognised Alboor and even our cross dressed heroes. At their bidding she tried to put through a call to the Navy to get a pick-up but the line was cut just as she started to get somewhere. That meant they had to make their own way to the Navy base. The only car available was the secretary's two seater. With one in the boot(trunk), one on the roof, and two in the seats they drove towards the Navy base. But the poor little car couldn't handle the extra load very well. Very kindly they dropped off (abandoned) the secretary and drove the rest of the way themselves.

The road to the Navy base was blocked by abandoned, burning vehicles and in front of the gate and fence were protesters. The PCs tried to talk their way through the protesters but things didn't go well and soon guns were drawn and  a path won through to the gate.

Very quickly they found themselves transported to the space-side Navy base and delivered Alboor safely into the hands of the waiting Admiral. Alarms sounded, claxons blared and battle stations was called.  The Aslan war fleet choose that moment to arrive in system.

The Navy was going to war. As our heroes boarded their own ship(s), they saw the Imperial Battle Fleet moving forwards to engage the Aslan invaders.  The PCs powered up their own ships, pushed the drives to maximum and bravely soared off in the opposite direction. A quick jump to a nearby system allowed them to dispose of the lesser of their two ships. Thus with 45MC to their name they ended the session cruising towards more civilised space.

Alas I let the side down at this point. Although we had a sector map I had not prepared myself to deal with the PCs going gallivanting across space, thus the details of the space they were entering were not set out and I ended the session a little early.

It is almost a mantra to say that if you prepare something, the players will go the other way, and that happened here. The campaign had been building to this point. The PC's had discovered and battled with the Aslan. It had become clear that a massive invasion force was coming, and as a referee I had mapped out the fight. The loss of the planet. The PCs leading the rebellion from a secret asteroid base, or dirtside leading freedom fighters in vicious attacks against the forces of occupation...and then they go the other way.  Doh!

I now have a good deal of prep' to do before the next session. I have to detail the stats for the ship they are currently piloting, and provide rationales for each planet in the subsector. Then come up with some plot hooks.  It's going to be awesome!



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