GM: Let me know what you want to do after the battle. If you would like first aid or minor surgery, let me know. I will send a complete list of the stuff you find on the down pirates. I will also let you know how many are still alive but were knocked unconscious and are now your prisoners.
ENSIGN FURY: "S'lch, would you mind helping me out with communications with these native creatures. I would like you to use your Vizoldt Chronocom to record some of their sounds that I can listen to later. Maybe once with have the new Vizoldt hacked, I can take it and use it for communications."
ENSIGN FURY: George will be spending much time with the kurabanda attempting to communicate with them. Here are a few Communications rolls: [rolled (43) Success], [rolled (44) Success], [rolled (72) Success]
ENSIGN FURY: Almost forgot. Here are some Alien Interaction rolls (from Xenolinguistics skills): [rolled (39) Success], [rolled (71) Failure], [rolled (40) Success]
ALYSON: Alyson says,"I can help with wounded."
CIARA: Ciara will make sure everyone in the group is accounted for and will help anyone in need. After that, she'll turn her attention to their new friends.
CARTER (GM): Can't find my old emails for cracking the first Vizoldt so I'll guess. Does he get a bonus since he cracked the first one??
CARTER: Can also help with First Aid (Rank 1); he'll do that to take a break from the Vizoldt
CARTER TECH:
Defeating Security [rolled (1) Grievous Success!!!] (-20 modifier included)
General Cryptographic Knowledge [rolled (94) Partial Success]
First Aid [rolled (25) Success]
GM: The correct skill is Defeat Security. Security level is 2 so there is a -20 to the roll (I made the change above). It will take Carter [rolled 10] hours to defeat the security of the device if he is successful.
Quite a few of the group suffered wounds during the battle with the crazed pirates and they all cycle through Gorman's first aid tent. Alyson provides medical assistance for Gorman. Together they perform first aid on Alzarix, Carter, George, Jim and Mykel (healing each of them 10 STA). Both Alzarix and Mykel could benefit from minor surgery although Mykel is a relatively fast healer and will be right as rain after 10 days of rest. Alzarix would require almost 30 days of rest to fully heal.
GM: Let me know if Alzarix or Mykel will ask for minor surgery. The group has 63 doses of biocort available. Gorman has a 75% chance with minor surgery and each attempt uses 2 doses.
While Ensign Fury and Ciara spend their time with the Kurabanda, and Gorman and Alyson perform first aid, the rest of the group goes about retrieving the bodies of the pirates. Half of the pirates are still alive and were simply knocked unconscious during the battle. These include two humans, a vrusk, and dralasite and a yazirian. The group makes sure all are firmly bound and guarded. When they first come to, some still have the crazed looks in their eyes but this diminishes with time.
When the bodies of both the living and the dead are searched, the group comes up with the following items.
Nine laser pistols with the following powerclip status:
- 2 are empty
- 2 have 2 charges remaining
- 1 has 4 charges remaining
- 1 has 5 charges remaining
- 1 has 8 charges remaining
- 1 has 12 charges remaining
- 1 has 14 charges remaining
On the pirate leader you found a sonic disruptor connected to a power beltclip that has 38 charges remaining (out of 50). Also connected to the power beltclip is an albedo screen that provides protection vs laser weapons. The leader was also wearing a type of skeinsuit that you have not seen before. On his utility belt, you find a nasty looking melee weapon not dissimilar to those that Carter and Mykel are currently using (uses nightstick damage) as well as two grenades: a frag grenade and a tangler grenade.
All of the pirates were wearing cold suits. They are of better quality than those the group obtained from the lifeboat supplies and can still be worn with skeinsuits. The cold suit of the pirate leader is of especially good quality.
All of the pirates also have minor "pocket stuff" including cheap pocket knives, lighters or everflames, legal narcotics such as cigarettes or dopesticks as well as credsticks. The group finds a total of 1243 credits on disposable (and thus, transferable) credsticks. The pirate that S'lch searched also had a plastic box containing some sort of illegal narcotic. Gorman believes it is a drug known as captagon. Injecting tends to make the person fearless and relentless and is popular among some mercenaries. It also provides a euphoric high during battle. The down side is that the injected target will not know when enough is enough and will often fight to the bitter end.
GM: I will get all this added to the equipment list. Let me know who will be taking laser pistols as well as the pirate leader gear.
Meanwhile, Ensign Fury is having some degree of early success in communicating with the kurabanda. He has learned that this is not the first encounter that the kurabanda have had with pirates but it is the first time that non-pirates (i.e., the group) have fought on their side. The kurabanda have only bows and knives and always come out the worst for encounters with the pirates. They further learn that prior to the arrival of the pirates, there was a loud roaring and hissing sound that permeated the area. The group concludes that these pirates were dropped off by some sort of flying conveyance.
Once the bodies have all been recovered, first aid is complete, and the loot has been taken from the pirates, Carter sits in the corner of the medical tent where there is some degree of warmth and begins working on the Vizoldt chronocom. Within 30 minutes he has broken into the device and has access to all of its functions. He reprograms it so that he and the group can get into it themselves with their own biometrics. A search of the device reveals little in the way of intelligence but "little" is not nothing. He finds a file that indicates that the pirates have some sort of remote base on the edge of a lake for the purpose of research.
Interestingly enough, he also finds a file on what the pirates have learned about kurabanda communications. The nature of the text make it clear that this was not some sort of public good outreach to the kurabanda but more along the lines to being able to give them orders so that they can be captured and used as slaves for the pirate's activities on Volturnus. Carter takes the Vizoldt to George and Ciara who are still conferring with the kurabanda. The language primer goes a long ways towards speeding up the communications process.
GM: Let me know if and how you plan to question the surviving pirates.
S'LCH: The vrusk is more then happy to help out were ever. So he helped secure and 'loot' the pirates, noting with a bit of disappointment that they carried no automatics so he could not reload. He wasn't much of a fighter but he would be even less so when he was out of ammo. He handed over the combat drugs to the more medically trained personal. He will take the pirate vrusk's chill suit (and any other equipment modded for vrusk use) for himself because no one else could really use it
ALZARIX: After the battle and the biocort shot he is feeling a bit better, but not all that great. I do need the minor surgery,, but at this time I or we do not have any place suitable for restful recovery. If we can find a place for that then I would say yes.
ALZARIX: As for the pirates, we should see if we can get any information out of them like base location. How many are there. What equipment they have. Why they are here? Things like that. But as to what to do with them I would suggest that we let the Kurabanda decide on there fate.
ALZARIX: I will call dibs on the Yazarian cold suit and equipment and let him have my cold suit from the shuttle and that's about it.
JIM JITSU: Once Jim lands his mighty blow and knocks the pirate out he will accept any healing he can get.
JIM JITSU: He also will observe the kurabanga relying on his past as an observer of behavior of people although this time its not so much to figure an angle to swindle but to understand their new friends better. LOG check [rolled (88) Failure]. Having just cooperated with kurabanda in a fight he will make a show of bowing without breaking eye contact with the closes member of their species when the fight with the pirate ends.
JIM JITSU: Question to the referee: how bad is Jim's defenses? he has been wearing his Combat Gi since leaving the ship I'm just not sure what condition its in.
JIM JITSU: After obtaining some healing he will see whether there is anything he can repair and aid with organization of stuff. Tech skill check [rolled (52) Success]
JIM JITSU: I would like dibs on a new skien suit if mine civilian skein suit is tore up bad.
S'lch and Alzarix order both the vrusk and the yazirian pirate prisoners to remove their cold suits. The pirates put up some resistance but comply under the threat of death. S'lch and Alzarix claim the two cold suits, clean them up a bit and don them, tossing their discarded lifeboat suits to the two prisoners, who quickly don them to avoid dying of exposure.
The prisoners are not inclined to volunteer any information. Offhanded comments from them indicate that they arrived in the area an hour or so ago with the explicit plan to hunt and kill kurabanda for sport. Although not specifically stated, the group gets the impression that they are to be picked up by the same means later today.
ENSIGN FURY: "I will start interrogating the prisoners shortly after I finish speaking to the Kurabanda."
GM: The group's skeinsuits are in generally okay condition. You've had access to some skeinsuit repair kits over the course of your time on Volturnus so all skeinsuits are still functional though they all have obvious patches. Alzarix, Ciara and S'lch do not have any sort of armor or defense.
GM: The Albedo Skeinsuit should probably go to someone who tends to get into the thick of things fairly quickly. Carter, Jim and Mykel come to mind. Whoever takes the new skeinsuit can give their old one to Ciara and she will then have some protection.
GM: The pirate leader was also carrying a Power Beltpack with both an Albedo Screen and a Sonic Disruptor plugged into it. Who will take this rig? Mykel or Alyson are the obvious choices since both are skilled with Beam Weapons.
GM: Let me know what questions you want George to put to the pirates during his interrogation of them. Once I have a list, I will resolve that.
ALYSON: Alyson says,"George. I got a few. How many do they have in camp? These parties they send out how many per group and how many do they put out there. The last is where they hold their captives."
Communications with the kurabanda are going quite well, especially once Carter unlocked the new Vizoldt chronocom with the kurabanda primer loaded into it. George learns that they have a village about half a day to the north. He also learns that pirates have come to the forest quite a few times over the past year for both the sport of hunting and killing kurabanda as well as capturing them. The kurabanda leader does not know where the kurabanda captives are taken or to what use they are put but he does know that there is a pirate outpost some distance to the east of here on the short of a large lake.
ALYSON: Alyson says,"Looks like our deal might be going to pieces. Suits me just fine. I didn't like the deal in the first place." As she checks out a laser pistol. OOC Anyway I can train someone that dosen't have beam weapons?
JIM JITSU: Jim decides to pack his combat Gi into the gym bag he's been lugging around and call dibs on the albedo skien suit. He's been burned by lasers a number of times since reaching Zebulon and since his fighting style means charging the enemy having this item might prolong his life.
JIM JITSU: Jim poses a question to the team, "If the pirates are expecting to be picked up later should we not facilitate that happening? Run a bluff? Suppose we dress as them and lay out a few bodies and ask who ever shows up to help us load the bodies. Some of us will be posing as pirates and some as bodies."
JIM JITSU (OOC): Jim's bluff ability is 85%
ALYSON: Alyson says,"Do you think that would fly. More worried they send someone who would know this group. If we knew we took out the ones that have seen us. Then the plan would work."
CARTER: I like the idea of ambushing the pirates but i don't think trying to pose as pirates will work. Maybe scatter a few of us in with some kurabanda and pirate bodies and a few others (distance weapons) ready for them to come down? Make sure the number of bodies is LESS than the total so they think there are survivors that aren't visible...
JIM JITSU: The big hurdle I see is that they might call by chronocom and expect to talk to one of their guys and that can be a problem. Whatever they send as a conveyance will likely be empty so we're only talking about overpowering 1-2 individuals most likely. Wonder if the fury guys wont mind posing as prisoners?
ALYSON: "Maybe they will be if it will stop them from being attack once and for all. Too bad the other race couldn't be part of this also."
George continues questioning the pirates, one at a time, seeking information. He asks about pirate numbers and although he does not get a solid number, he does get a sense that the main pirate base holds dozens, and maybe upwards of a hundred pirates. He tries to pin down a location of the base and, while the pirates he talks to are closed mouth when it comes to such information, he is able to use psychological trickery to get enough information to indicate that the base is hundreds of kilometers to the northeast. He also learns that, in addition to pirates, the main base has a large complement of prisoners used as slave labor, including survivors from the Serena Dawn.
George then turns his attention to more immediate needs - the possibility of tricking a returning transport. He learns that these pirates were dropped off about a kilometer or two to the southeast of here. He does not learn exactly when they are supposed to be picked up though he suspects it is supposed to be later today. From one of the pirates he learns that it is the pirate leader who is responsible for arranging for the return pickup and unfortunately the pirate leader is dead.
ALYSON: Alyson says,"Great didn't think they had that many. Looks like we have attrition fight. We can not take that many on at once. If we can keep taken these guys on like we did here. We could take the place in time. Or we get lucky and the UPF finds us."
S'LCH: He listened as others talked about ambushing the pirates. "What would be our main goal in trying to force a confrontation? Gain resources? Preemptive defense? All potentially good goals... Knowing what we really want to do is the first step in figuring out how to do it."
ALYSON: Alyson,"Am game for anything. That would allow us to have advantage in a fight."
ALZARIX: I am not really in any condition to help in a fight to take over the pick up vehicle. But it sure would be nice to have a better mode of transportation and some tech to work with. I am also wondering if the UPD base or outpost is still up and running on volturnus.
ALYSON: Alyson asks,"Hey who's been talking to our allies? Maybe they have seen someone from there?"
JIM JITSU OOC: where is or what is our current stamina? another fight might be a fools mission?
GM: Neither Alzarix nor Mykel are in condition for another battle. Carter and Jim are iffy.
Over an hour has passed since the battle. Communications with the kurabanda are good due to the language primer in the new Vizoldt that Carter unlocked. First aid has been done on everyone who needs it but Alzarix could definitely use additional medical care and possibly Mykel as well.
Discussions on ambushing the craft that returns to pick up the pirates has stalled as there are too many unknowns at this time. The group does not know where the pirates are to be picked up or even if there is a designated location. They don't know if the transport will arrive at a specific time or if the pirate leader was supposed to radio when they were ready to be picked up.
What will be very obvious to the pirates soon is that they lost a landing party and will obviously wonder what happened. Were they somehow defeated by the low tech kurabanda or did something else happen? Will they connect the loss to the group of Serena Dawn survivors that they know is still out there?
At this time, the group decides that discretion is the better part of valor. They will retreat to the north with the kurabanda who are thankful to the group for the aid they rendered in the battle.
The group packs up the hospital tent where Gorman and Alyson were treating battle wounds and stows it in the Carry Bot. Then S'lch supervises the tricky maneuvering that gets the Carry Bot up onto a stable branch of the bachanda trees for the trip north. Fortunately those who designed the Carry Bot envisioned all manner of maneuvering and the bot is able to pull itself up into the tree and negotiate the thick branches with relative ease.
The group follows the kurabanda through the trees for the rest of the day, generally heading north and east. The line of pirate prisoners is strung out in the middle of the formation where they are carefully watched on the trip north. |