"Fast Buck" Episode 10 - "Mine!" "Mine!" "Mine!"

The Setup

Floating in the Rin system.

A ship, with one person aboard.

Linked into the systems.

Dormant, though not fully deactivated mines in the area.

Trying to get the ship moving toward Baftoma, where the Wreckers have their semi-functional dreadnought.

Clustered in the cockpit.

Here we go

To head out, figure out complications.

Try to talk the passenger down, to let us control things. Armin – talking the Year 3 intern down off the ledge.
“Where’s the other guy?”
“I’m the other guy’s boss.”
Kei comforts the guy to calm him down, too. (1 stress, but now 3 dice to Armin)
Risky, Standard. Push to 4. --> 2,1,5,5

Dude is, no, I just have to feel it. I’m one with the Way.

So one of the team has go to him.
Seon (to sedate him); Monster (to deal with Way Beasts)

Skulk, Monster leading (Seon supporting, pushing self).
partially compromised hull, sneaking through, bad schematic … Desperate!
Desp - Std … Monster: 3; Seon: 6,5

Monster does get close enough to actually see one of them … gives some pause …


Glowing centipede-like creature with a face sort of like the People.

Manage to get to the secondary bridge.
Knock.
“How do I know it’s you?”
“Tell something only you would know!”
“What?”
“How many are coming adn knocking on door?”

The dude is plain, scraggly beard (Keanu Reaves, by way of Shaggy). “I’m X-Ray. Welcome, and, um, thanks …” starts to cry.
image

Ships coming online. Ready to go. Lots of amber and red lights.

Seon tries to use the other wreck to draw away the mines. Rig. Armin assisting with Hacking. Risk of low-grade ship damage to this ship.
Seon --> Rig, +2d --> 2,4,1
Temp damage to the ship that would take a system offline; Resist? (6 stress - highest die of an Insight roll). --> 1,1,6 (no stress!)

As the mines hit the other ship, huge chain reaction! Pieces of ship hit us KLANG. Seon gets the mines to go after the debris flying toward us.

Very exciting to see.

Covered in sweat, but not dead.

Kei is assisting Drifter in piloting out of here (ripping tales of space exploration!)
Drifter … Pilot, +Gambit, +Kei’s Assist. --> 3,3,1,5,2
(Result: a bit of Heat … folk will know we were the ones who did this job)

Bringing It Home

The Wreckers’ base of operation is the dreadnought.


The guns all swivel as we approach, but all is forgiven …

Down time!

4 cred added to previous! Maintenance. 1 left for everyone.

Heat.
No Wanted.

Entanglements.
Wreckers were informed of the infestation … but quarantine wasn’t as good as it needed to be and … Way creature gets back on the dreadnought …

Fortune:
Starsmith Guild is ticked off.

Downtime Activities.

Seon
(1) Clearing Stress via Vice! The dreadnought is a seedy place … yeah, we’ll just pick up what we want and go back to the ship and enjoy it away from other annoying people. --> 5!


(2) Train! Prowess … +2

Monster
(1) A raucous place … what strange things have they gotten their food processors and yeast tanks --> 3 stress
(2) Train! Prowess … +2
(3) Research … someone who can do research with fingers on keyboard, or else not use fingers. Intel-gathering / records gathering guy. Sit and park in space, and … everyone is staying and working late. Or until the next day.
Devil’s Bargain (start clock at 3 of 4) +2
Scary (+1 potency) --> 4, so like a 6, so 3 ticks on the research clock (leaving 2 left)
… compiling lists of sightings of more of keys? places to check out? rumors of dig sites, libraries, private collections …

Drifter
(1) Train.
(2) Gambling. Devil’s Bargain (mob injury). --> 4+2 (Hedonist)

Armin
(1) [Gets in on the Gambling] Luxury / Indulgences --> 3+2
(2) Acquire an asset! A Way Creature ward (Tier 1) … two of them, one to clear the infection on the dreadnought …
Our dockmaster Takala is here, involving a friend (so 1 die).
–> 2 (Tier 0)
[Takes off a tick from the “Piss off the Wreckers” clock]
(3) Long-term project. Armin has figured out the lowest level of price on sector nobility. 8-clock. 1 segment (paying the upgrade to 2 segments)
A barony on Sanhandra.
(Drifter is exploiting this to get into better card games)

Kei
(1) Before Seon self-medicates, healing. Seon --> 3,2 … 1 tick, heals Kei.
(2) Indulge vice – “antiquing”. --> 1
(3) Research … Sway. --> 2 ticks! Collection of 3 books (paper!) … pre-Holt Gate being open. The theorizing seemed sound.
Heading back to the ship …
Sandals slapping in the corridor … and this disheveled, wild-haired lurker comes rushing up, “You’re! You found one of the keys! I can help! Let me help!”

Experience!

Ship

  • Delivery!
  • New reputation (not good)
  • Goals and drives of crew

Armin

  • Deception or influence for a tough challenge
  • Beliefs

Drifter

  • Vice or traumas? Punched.
  • Beliefs - coasting on Armin’s fame
  • Flare - mines for propulsion.
    (Bailing Water and Mech Tape)

Seon

  • Beliefs

Kei

  • Struggled with issues
  • Charm and audacity

Monster

  • Force or Threats
  • Heritage
    (Prowess -> Skulk!)
1 Like

Idle thought, but is Armin’s hunt for nobility the barony of a whole moon or just a part of it? Because Sir Armin Kroll, Baron of Wagner Ridge (or some other name for a area of land on an uninhabitable moon) has a certain ring to it, though Baron of Sanhandra-4 is nothing to sneeze at.

I suppose it depends on (a) how much he can spend, (b) the market for petty noble titles, and © what the “rules” are that the title sellers are operating from.

Part of a moon implies you have aristocratic neighbors. What are they like?

I enjoy this question and all the possibilities it raises.

When you start getting into the selling of titles, the sky (so to speak) is the limit. If nobles can create lesser nobles, then the Duke of Sonhandra (who has never been there, but was a general of the Hegemon’s who got the title herself as a thanks for service in a particular battle) might earn some change by carving out estates on “her” world and selling or gifting (but most likely selling) them to favorites and high bidders. Who in turn do the same. Some of those folk might be in-system, some might be at Court in the Core.

Indeed, a title (especially when one gets to knighthood) might not have any land at all. It might be a lordship over (just) the mineral rights in a given area, or a sector of sky, or of the third ring around the planet, or July 14 (the Hegemon’s birthday), or of the crystalline butterflies that migrate between poles.

Another distinction to be made is whether it is an hereditary title or not; in the latter case, it reverts to the next lord up the food chain to redistribute on your death, or in a decade, or when during the next lunar eclipse, or if you ever fail to bring a wheel of cheese to the ducal mansion on her birthday.