March Harrier Session 8: Raid on the Villa

Player Characters:

Everett de Clisson (Adam), Medic and Engineer

Ganidiirsi Ashran (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster

John Matrix (Nick), Broker and Navigator

Sacha Bright (ChaoticNeutral), Pilot and Temporary First Officer

PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:

Gvoudzon, Vargr Gunner and Pilot

Dale Conan Wilder, Captain

Significant NPCs:

Lisa Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner

Gustav Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner

Boris Dree, Fireau et Fille Employee

Lorn Denveldt, Tukera Lines Employee

Jelika Chan / Arion Jamail, disgraced Akerut Engineer / kidnapper

Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines

Commander Eneri Giilaan, Imperial Naval Intelligence

Detective Carter Voight, Imperial Starport Authority

Lord Magistrate Vernor, Klavisur politician

Harlan Jann, Professor and pyramid researcher

Dates: 

325-1105 to 332-1105

Worlds:

Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)

While waiting for Boris Dree to return from Zila, Gani went carousing in Aramanx highport's bars, looking for anything interesting.  He met an older man named Professor Harlan Jann who was looking for evidence of pyramids on many worlds throughout the Spinward Marches.  He said he had finished surveying the Rhylanor and Regina subsectors and was starting on the Aramis subsector, and was looking for a ship that would let him take long-term middle passage and explore various worlds along the way.  Gani got the Professor's contact information and said he'd run the idea by the Captain and get back in touch before they left Aramanx.

When the Oberlindes Lines fast courier returned from Zila, it had Gustav Fireau, Lisa's father, on board.  Gustav had the MCr 20 ransom, secured by a short-term loan against the winery.  He insisted that the group pay the ransom and try to recover Lisa, rather than immediately resorting to force and possibly getting his daughter killed.

The kidnappers contacted the March Harrier again and instructed that Gvoudzon should take the public shuttle, alone, to Ulfrey, the capital of Klavisur, and then await further instructions.  Before Gvoudzon left, he gave his brooch to John for safekeeping, and Gani made a copy of the brooch in the March Harrier's workshop.  Gvoudzon also swallowed a small tracking device, so that the crew could find him if something went wrong.

Gvoudzon took the shuttle down to the surface, then waited for a phone call from the kidnappers.  Meanwhile, most of the crew piled into the launch and flew above the ocean, outside of Klavisur waters, to attempt to track Gvoudzon, using both sensors and the tracking device.  The kidnappers called Gvoudzon and instructed him to go to a certain warehouse just outside the spaceport.  Gvoudzon complied, then someone snuck up behind him and hit him over the head.

When Gvoudzon stopped responding to communications, the crew started tracking him.  They saw that his phone was no longer trackable (because the kidnappers had smashed it and left the pieces behind), but his tracking device was headed east at high speed, probably aboard an aircraft.  They used their sensors and eventually found the aircraft, which landed at Ulrach on the east coast.  Sacha flew the launch up to orbital altitude to avoid infringing on Klavisur airspace, then over to the east coast.  At that point Gvoudzon was removed from the airplane and placed on a high-speed boat headed to Zenfalen Island.  The crew tracked the boat and got some fuzzy pictures of it docked at a private dock on the northeast corner of the island, near the villa.  They then tracked Gvoudzon being taken to the villa, where they already suspected Lisa was held.

At that point, Gustav Fireau agreed that the kidnappers were unlikely to return Lisa and that a rescue operation to recover Gvoudzon, Lisa, and the ransom was the best option.  Everett suggested contacting Detective Voight of the SPA and Commander Giilaan of the Navy, but neither could render any direct assistance.  So the plan was to put the crew and all their weapons in the launch, fly down to the villa at night, and rescue both kidnap victims.

The launch descended slowly in the dark, with all lights out.  Sensors showed one guard in the courtyard and a couple outside the villa's wall.  Sacha put the launch down in the tree-lined courtyard.  Unfortunately, he hit one of the trees.  Fortunately, the damage to the launch was fairly minor.  The crew all piled out of the launch.  The nearby guard got on his radio, yelling for help, as he started shooting at the crew with a machine pistol.  He missed, as Gani (wearing a grav belt) flew right up to him.  Gani and John closed in on the guard from the east and south and shot him in the leg, crippling it and knocking him down.  Sacha went south into a door and found a kitchen. 

Gani checked his scanner and saw that Gvoudzon was to the west.  There was a doorway in that direction.  John and Gani headed west into the villa, with Captain Wilder right behind them.  Then another guard they hadn't seen took careful aim at the Captain and put a bullet in his forehead.  Wilder collapsed to the ground immediately.  Everett grabbed the Captain and dragged him back into the launch then started first aid.

Gani flew right at the attacker, firing gyroc rounds.  John followed up, firing his shotgun.  A gyroc round hit the guard in the arm, destroying it.  The guard collapsed in pain.  There were two locked doors.  John and Gani each took one.  The first one had Lisa behind it, so Gani told her to stand back then shot the lock with a gyroc round.  Lisa came running out and grabbed the guard's gun.  Meanwhile, John got no response behind the other door, so bashed the lock open and found an unconscious and beat up Gvoudzon lying on a bed inside.

The crew carried Gvoudzon into the launch and herded Lisa inside too.  Everett relieved Lisa of the guard's machine pistol, so Lisa grabbed another one from the other disabled guard.  Someone interrogated one of the guards as to where the leader was, and he indicated that the woman Arion Jamail was the leader and her quarters were to the north.  The crew headed that way quickly, with Sacha breaking into the eastern door while John broke into the southern door.  In her bedroom, they found Gvoudzon's bag, which Sacha quickly checked to verify it still contained (at least most of) the ransom money.

One of the guards' radios was squawking with chatters from other guards, so at that point the crew decided to grab both wounded guards, pile into the launch, and take off before reinforcements arrived.  As they prepared to take off, a jet fighter flew over the villa.  Everett got on the radio and told the fighter that they were doing a medical evacuation and to stand down, while the fighter pilot told them to land their vehicle and get out.  Sacha basically blasted off straight up at maximum speed.  1G isn't much for a starship, but it's much faster than a low-tech fighter plane, and the launch escaped Klavisur airspace before anything faster came after it.

Approaching orbit, the crew debated going back to the March Harrier with its small med bay, or just taking the Captain straight to the (hopefully better equipped) hospital at the highport.  They went to the highport, first making a radio call to announce that they were inbound with three gunshot casualties, one a life-threatening head wound and two with serious limb wounds.  They were given clearance to dock near the medical facility, where a team with grav stretchers awaited.  Captain Wilder was immediately whisked off to surgery.  Unfortunately, he did not survive.  Both guards were also treated, and both survived their wounds.

Lisa told the crew that she had been treated well during her captivity.  Gvoudzon, on the other hand, had initially been treated well (other than being knocked unconscious), but after the kidnappers realized the brooch they'd taken was a fake, they had beat him up to try to find where the original brooch was.  Arion Jamail (who appeared to be the same person formerly called Jelika Chan) had been the main questioner.

Detective Voight was alerted to the incoming combat casualties and questioned everyone.  The crew told him the truth, that the kidnappers had taken the ransom and kidnapped Gvoudzon, so they had no choice but to launch a rescue mission.  One of the kidnappers refused to answer questions, but the other one believed Voight's talk about a murder charge for shooting the Captain, and said that the kidnappers were working for the Vemene, Tukera's covert security service, and that Arion Jamail was in charge.

After the crew was released, John used an override code to look through the Captain's records and found his will.  He had a lawyer named Ezraa Foxwell on Aramis who needed to be contacted.  His cash and minor possessions were to be divided equally between his two children, except that Cr 1 was to go to his ex-wife. His share of the March Harrier was to be divided equally among the active crew.  This raised John and Everett's ownership to 20% each, with Gani, Gvoudzon, and Sacha each becoming 3.3% owners, and the Duke of Rhylanor's Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust, LIC owning the other 50%.

Gustav and Lisa Fireau met with the crew before heading back to Zila.  Gustav indicated that in gratitude for rescuing Lisa and recovering the ransom money, he would give the March Harrier an exclusive export contract for five years.

Marc hault-Oberlindes contacted the crew with a message of condolences on the loss of their captain, and a note that they should contact him about a business matter before leaving Aramanx.  When the crew met with Oberlindes, he informed them that he had recently purchased their subsidy contract from the Duke of Rhylanor.  He thought the March Harrier was clearly a great venture to have a half interest in, based on their recent run of profitability.  He clarified that he couldn't change anything in the subsidy contract without the crew's permission, but that he was willing to expand the subsidy area from the Aramis Trace to the entire Aramis subsector, giving the crew more freedom to wander.  Oberlindes also said that Gustav Fireau had told him that he was giving the March Harrier an exclusive license contract, and Oberlindes offered to have Oberlindes Lines handle the Zila wine exports for them, in exchange for a 1% royalty.  The crew discussed this and ensured that they got to keep the whole 1%, not give half of it back to Oberlindes as the subsidy holder.

The last order of business was picking a new captain.  The two qualified candidates were John and Sacha.  John had more seniority, so it was agreed that John would become Captain and Sacha would be (permanent) First Officer.  Gvoudzon asked if as a co-owner he could be promoted to Chief of Security, and the title bump was approved, though this didn't change his actual duties.

We stopped at that point, with the March Harrier ready to leave Aramanx and in search of passengers, freight, and cargo.

GM's Notes:

Don't get into a GURPS gunfight without Luck or a very strong helmet.  Preferably both.  One bullet to the brain can ruin your whole day.  RIP Captain Wilder.

The March Harrier no longer needs to return to the Aramis Trace in six months.  It does need its annual maintenance soon, as it's been almost a year since the start of the campaign.

Ownership of the March Harrier

The subsidy contract complicates things, but to a first approximation, the March Harrier is owned half by the subsidy holder and half by the crew.  (Any crew members who bought Merchant Rank 1 or higher at the start of the campaign were part owners.  Any crew members without Merchant Rank, and any crew members who joined later, were just employees.)

At the start of the campaign, the March Harrier's ownership was:

• Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust, LIC (Duke of Rhylanor) 50%
• Captain Dale Conan Wilder: 12.5%
• First Officer Randal Dorsainvil: 12.5%
• Second Officer John Matrix: 12.5%
• Engineer/Medic Everett de Clisson: 12.5%

After Randal Dorsainvil left the crew (to get married and join his new wife's crew), the other crew owners split his shares evenly, resulting in revised ownership:

• Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust, LIC (Duke of Rhylanor) 50%
• Captain Dale Conan Wilder: 16.7%
• Second Officer John Matrix: 16.7%
• Engineer/Medic Everett de Clisson: 16.7%

After Oberlindes Lines bought the March Harrier's subsidy contract from the Aramis Trace Commercial Development Trust LIC, ownership was updated to:

• Oberlindes Lines 50%
• Captain Dale Conan Wilder: 16.7%
• Second Officer John Matrix: 16.7%
• Engineer/Medic Everett de Clisson: 16.7%

After Captain Dale Conan Wilder died (of a machine pistol bullet to the forehead while attempting to rescue Lisa Fireau and Gvoudzon from Vemene kidnappers) and his will (pending completion of probate or any other legal challenges) divided his share of the ship evenly among the surviving crew, ownership became:

• Oberlindes Lines 50%
• Captain John Matrix: 20%
• Engineer/Medic Everett de Clisson: 20%
• First Officer Sacha Bright: 3.3%
• Steward Ganidiirsi Ashran: 3.3%
• Chief Security Officer Gvoudzon: 3.3%

March Harrier Session 7: Island Stakeout

Player Characters:

Everett de Clisson (Adam), Medic and Engineer

Ganidiirsi Ashran (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster

John Matrix (Nick), Broker and Navigator

Sacha Bright (ChaoticNeutral), Temporary First Officer and Pilot

PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:

Gvoudzon, Vargr Gunner and Pilot

Dale Conan Wilder, Captain

Significant NPCs:

Lisa Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner

Boris Dree, Fireau et Fille Employee

Lorn Denveldt, Tukera Lines Employee

Jelisa Chan, disgraced Akerut Engineer

Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines

Commander Eneri Giilaan, Imperial Naval Intelligence

Detective Carter Voight, Imperial Starport Authority

Lord Magistrate Vernor, Klavisur politician

Dates: 

325-1105 to 332-1105

Worlds:

Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)

After the ransom note arrived, there was no longer any doubt that Lisa Fireau had been kidnapped.  Detective Voight was handling the investigation for the starport, but had no jurisdiction planet-side.  He indicated that extradition from Klavisur would be difficult, as Klavisur was not a member of the Imperium and women had few rights there.  However, he was willing to share some information.  He had security footage of Lisa Fireau unsteadily boarding the a shuttle to Ulfrey, Klavisur along with Lorn Denveldt, a woman who Gani was sure was Jelika Chan, and other two large men.  He was also willing to let the crew talk to the pilot and steward of the shuttle.  The steward remembered that Fireau had appeared wobbly when boarding, and that she hadn't said anything.

Boris Dree advocated for getting in touch with Lisa's father Gustav Fireau on Zila, and seeing if he was willing and able to pay the random. Zila was 3 parsecs away, so Boris wanted to find a fast ship to get there and back quickly, before the kidnappers got impatient.  Marc Oberlindes contacted the crew, indicating that he had heard of the kidnapping and offering to help.  Boris asked if there was any way Oberlindes could get him to Zila quickly, and Oberlindes agreed to make a fast courier available.  Boris boarded the courier, and asked the crew not to try anything rash until he got back, unless it appeared to be the only option.

Captain Wilder's Navy contact Eneri Giilaan told him that it appeared Lisa might have been taken to Zenfalen Island, a small fishing island off the coast of Klavisur, owned by Lord Magistrate Vernor, a powerful Klavisur politician.

The kidnappers contacted the March Harrier again over a video feed, with the only person visible being Lisa Fireau, who was sitting in a sunny formal room, alive and apparently unharmed, holding a copy of that day's Ulfrey's Daily Truth newspaper.  (Aramanx was at the tech level where paper periodicals were still popular.)  The captain called the crew to the bridge to watch and try to find clues.  A disguised female voice indicated that the kidnappers would wait 3 weeks, not a day longer, to hear whether the MCr 20 ransom would be paid.  Then the sound muted for a minute.  The female voice returned, saying that the Vargr emissary must be the one to deliver the ransom.

The crew decided to check out Zenfalen Island and see if they could find Lisa.  They left Gvoudzon on the March Harrier, thinking the Vargr might stand out too much on the small fishing island.  First they went looking for a grav vehicle, but they only found one Air/Raft listed for sale on planet of Aramanx, for about double the usual price.  Deciding not to spend that much, they instead boarded a commercial shuttle to Ulfrey, then took a jet aircraft to Ulrach on the coast.  They then nosed around the docks looking for a fishing boat who could take them to Zenfalen.  The first captain they found indicated that he would indeed be going that way in a couple of days.  The crew offered to pay a lot more to leave immediately, and the captain was motivated to find a couple of crew members and leave within an hour.

The ride to Zenfalen on the low-tech fishing boat was mostly uneventful, with the highlight of the voyage being Everett actually catching a fish.  The crew disembarked and went looking for a hotel.  There were two on the island: the Grand Zenfalen Hotel (expensive) and the Fisherman's Rest (cheap).  They chose the cheap option, then visited a general store to buy some local clothing.  They walked around the island a bit, seeing the main docks, the town of Falenza, the dormant volcano, the star-shaped Klavisur Army fortress, and a few outlying villas and farm houses.  

The crew decided to split up and snoop around the island at night.  The most interesting thing they found was that a large villa in the northeast of the island had unexpectedly heavy security, with a high wall and a circling guard.  Gani scoped out the villa from a distance with his night vision gear, but avoided risking detection.  The next day, the crew watched the road to the villa and saw a couple of men with gun bulges under their clothing returning from the villa to the Grand Zenfalen Hotel, and then an older man with a cart bringing supplies to the villa.  

Further investigation showed that there were four men staying at the hotel and working at the villa in shifts.  Searching their hotel rooms found a high-tech tablet (locked) and some clothing.  Following the delivery man to a bar and buying him drinks gave some information: the villa belonged to Lord Magistrate Vernor himself, but he was rarely there, as he spent most of his time at the capital.  Besides the guards, at least one female guest was staying at the villa, but the delivery man didn't know her name.  She did not match Lisa Fireau's description.

The crew used their long-range laser communicator to contact the March Harrier in orbit, so that Gvoudzon and Captain Wilder could do some research for them.  Gvoudzon found video of Lord Magistrate Vernor giving a speech in the Klavisur Parliament in Ulfrey the day before.  The crew waited until night and then Gani used his grav belt to spy on the villa from above.  He saw a guard outside the wall, a guard inside the wall, and a guard inside the villa's central courtyard.  Most of the windows were closed.  He threw some rocks at a shuttered window, and a few minutes later the shutters opened and a man who looked like Lorn Denveldt stuck his head out, as a guard came over to investigate and Gani hid on the roof.

The presence of Lorn Denveldt was enough that the crew thought it was likely that Lisa Fireau was held nearby, but they were out of ideas for safe information gathering, so the next day they got back on the fishing board back to the mainland, then took a jet back to Ulfrey and a shuttle back to the highport.  They still had about 11 days remaining until Boris Dree's return and the deadline for paying the ransom.

GM's Notes:

This session ended up being mostly medium-tech information gathering on a low-tech planet.  The crew had night vision capabilities and a grav belt, which were helpful, but they did not manage to find Lisa Fireau.  However, they found Lorn Denveldt, one of her kidnappers, which they thought was close enough.

March Harrier Session 6: Bureaucratic Infighting

Player Characters:

Everett de Clisson (Adam), Medic and Engineer

Ganidiirsi Ashran (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster

John Matrix (Nick), Broker and Navigator

Sacha Bright (ChaoticNeutral), Temporary First Officer and Pilot

PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:

Gvoudzon, Vargr Gunner and Pilot

Dale Conan Wilder (Phil), Captain

Significant NPCs:

Lisa Fireau, Fireau et Fille Winery Co-Owner

Boris Dree, Fireau et Fille Employee

Chelsea Vilchis, Receptionist at the Department of Commerce

Lorn Denveldt, Tukera Lines Employee

Marc hault-Oberlindes, CEO, Oberlindes Lines

Dates: 

286-1105 to 325-1105

Worlds:

Zila/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2908)

Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)

The March Harrier landed on Zila.  The crew spent a couple of days at the starport, doing their best to keep out of trouble after their arrest last time on Zila.  But they did not quickly find any passengers or cargo, and Gvoudzon got bored and went looking for something to do.  He found that Fireau et Fille, a renowned winery, had a free wine tasting at a location in the suburbs of Crescence, near the starport.  Free wine sounded good to the whole crew, so they renewed their Zila standby legal insurance and then took the train out to the winery.

The wine was excellent, though the small winery was a bit crowded.  A woman eventually approached the crew, saying she's overheard they had a starship, and wondering if they were interested in work.  She was Lisa Fireau, the "Fille" in FIreau et Fille, and she said that the winery's exclusive interstellar distribution agreement with Tukera Lines was about to expire, and that Tukera was buying up land on Zila and looked to be making a play to take over the wine market, so she and her father wanted to end the agreement with Tukera and go independent.  However, they were worried about Tukera's response, as Tukera had stockpiled a lot of Zilan wine and could possibly flood the market and put Fireau out of business.  Fireau had one advantage: a large and fine vintage of eiswein, a very rare wine that should sell for a large profit.  Lisa asked the March Harrier to get the eiswein to Aramanx without Tukera finding out, at which point she should be able to auction it for enough money to keep Fireau solvent.  She offered 10% of the sale price, and said it was important to leave within two weeks, to get the payment in time to make a tax collection deadline.

Unfortunately, after having Tukera handle all their exports for decades, nobody at Fireau knew the exact process to legally ship their own wine off-planet.  Furthermore, she didn't think it was safe to ship the wine from the main winery 2000 km away to the starport, as she feared Tukera intercepting the shipment.  So she was counting on the crew to handle all the legalities to let the March Harrier land at the winery, pick up the wine, and fly it to Aramanx.  She helped out by identifying five forms that she thought were required.  Form 117: Special Landing Permit, would allow landing the March Harrier to land at the winery.  Form 82a, Customs Declaration/Export Authorization, would allow shipping the wine offworld.  Form 29, Waiver for Pre-Launch Inspection, would allow taking off again after landing away from the starport.  Form 106, Local Landing Permit, was required to allow landing in Polykarp  Province, where the winery was located.  Finally, form 11/2, Application for Visa, was required to let Lisa Fireau and her employee Boris Dree leave Zila and return.

Lisa also knew of a few government and non-government organizations that might be able to help.  The Zila Trade Authority (ZTA) in Crescence dealt with imports and exports.  The Bureau of Offworld Affairs (BOA) in Crescence worked with offworld corporations and individuals.  The Department of Commerce (DoC) in Crescence was in charge of all commercial and economic affairs.  The Zila Port Authority (ZPA) at the starport was the Imperial Starport Authority (SPA) office on Zila, in charge of the starport.  The Polykarp Provincial Government Administrative Offices (PGAO) in Amali was in charge of local affairs in Polykarp.  The Imperial Consulate (IC) in North Crescence was the Imperial diplomatic center on Zila.  Finally, the Merchants' Guild (MG) at the starport was an association to help offworld merchants.

Given five forms to procure and a large number of possible offices to visit, the crew split up.  The Captain stayed at the starport and prepared the March Harrier for travel.  The others alternated between telephone calls and visits to the five offices they thought might handle the appropriate forms.  First they called the ZPA, and the receptionist there said their organization handled Form 29.  They also tried calling the PGAO, but didn't manage to talk to the clerk who knew about Form 106 before the office closed.

The next day Gani called the PGAO again, who said they had Form 106, but it required a local visit.  Sacha volunteered to take a plane trip to Amali in Polykarp Province to deal with that office.  Everett called his lawyer to see if he or any other lawyer at his firm could handle the forms, but they appeared to only do criminal work.  The crew visited the DoC in person and Gani met a very cute receptionist named Chelsea, who referred him to several officials who might be able to help, and also agreed to have dinner with him.  One clerk named Ditha was no help.  However, they also talked to a more helpful clerk named Randy, who extracted a small "cash only expediting fee" and produced a blank Form 17, but said it took 1-6 weeks to get approved through channels.  Told the crew needed it faster than that, he referred them to a supervisor named Lee.  Gani and Chelsea had dinner at a Vargr restaurant, which was not very authentic.

On the third day of the job, Gani called the BOA to get information about forms and scheduled an appointment with a supervisor named Joshua.  John met with the supervisor Lee at the DoC, who got him a meeting with Eneri, the Assistant to the Administrator, who could sign Form 17.  Sacha got on a jet airliner and flew to Amali in Polykarp Province, near the main winery.

On day four, Gani met with Joshua, who referred him to Zebulon, the Trade Relations Coordinator.  Meanwhile, in Polykarp Province, Sacha met with a receptionist named Lo, who got him a copy of Form 106 and a meeting with District Administrator Kynon, who could sign it.  That afternoon, Gani and John also managed to get Form 29 signed by Tamsin, a supervisor at the ZPA.

On the fifth day, the crew met with Zebulon "call me Mr. Askvig", who signed Form 82a, after they visited the receptionist Lizab to get the form.  Lisa Fireau called the crew to tell them she had been threatened by an anonymous person.  The Captain appointed Gvoudzon to take charge of ship's security in case of sabotage or hijacking attempts.

On the sixth day, Gani thought he was being followed by a couple of suspicious individuals.  He called his lawyer, who directed him to their nearby office.  While in the office, he took a photo of one of the followers, then went out the back door into a waiting taxi, which took him back to the starport's XT line.  Back on the March Harrier, Gani tried to find out who the tail was using the ship's databases, but didn't get a hit.  He and Gvoudzon used the ship's computer to make some wanted posters accusing the man of various crimes, and then printed out a bunch of copies, which they could later dump out the hatch before leaving the planet.

Sacha's appointment with Kynon happened on the seventh day, at which point he got Form 106 signed.  On the eighth day, the crew got another signature from General Supervisor Verrill at the DoC on Form 82a, and at that point they thought they were legal.  Lisa was getting nervous and asked to meet the crew in person on the ship.  She asked that they fly to the winery, load the cargo, and leave the planet as soon as possible, before the threats of violence escalated further.  The Captain agreed to leave the next day, and the crew called Sacha and asked him to meet them at the winery.

On the ninth day, Sacha took a taxi from his hotel to the winery and started working with the Fireau employees on a cargo loading plan.  Meanwhile the Captain got the ship fully fueled and then the March Harrier took off for the winery, taking a rather roundabout route required to avoid all commercial air corridors.  After landing, the crew and the Fireau employees loaded 150 dtons of wine onto the ship as quickly as possible.  Some police showed up outside the winery just as the loading finished, but Lisa had her local employees deal with them while the ship took off.  The March Harrier got off Zila without further problems.

Getting to Aramanx first required a double-jump to Carsten, which went smoothly.  Since they wanted to reach Aramanx quickly, the ship just refueled from the ocean on Carsten (because it was closer than the gas giant) and then took off again and jumped for Aramanx.

Arriving at Aramanx Highport, the crew found that all the long-term berths were full, so the ship would have to park in orbit near the port and take the launch back and forth to the port, except when actually unloading the cargo.  Still worried about security, the Captain asked Gvoudzon to keep an eye open for trouble.  Meanwhile, Lisa and Boris, with Sacha helping, started setting up a wine auction.  Lisa invited multiple merchants, but not Tukera, to bid at an auction for the wine in three days.

When the auction started, Lorn Denveldt of Tukera showed up, despite Fireau's attempts to exclude the company.  He was representing three merchants who did have invitations, and the auctioneer ruled that he could stay.  Bids started at Cr 150 per bottle (KCR 22.5 per dton) and rapidly rose to Cr 225 per bottle.  At Cr 250 per bottle, it appeared that Tukera might win, but then a new bidder appeared in the back of the room.  It was Marc Oberlindes, and he escalated the bidding all the way to Cr 310 per bottle.  At that point Denveldt asked for a hold on the auction while he got authorization to bid higher, but the auctioneer denied the request.  The total load went for a bit over MCr 8, leaving the March Harrier's 10% share over KCr 800.

The crew attempted to use the March Harrier's sensors to see if the Wolblutn could still be seen on the surface of Aramanx, at the mining camp in Renitza.  They failed to find it.

With the initial sale completed and enough money raised to keep the company afloat, Lisa stayed at Aramanx Highport setting up future wine deals.  Still concerned about security, she stayed on the March Harrier and took the launch to the starport.  However, one evening she failed to appear for the trip back to the ship.  Her employee, Boris Dree, indicated that it wasn't like her to not show up or answer calls, and asked the crew to help look for her.  Some investigation showed that Lisa had gotten on a shuttle to the nation of Klavisur, along with two men and a woman.  A few hours later, a message was sent to the March Harrier, saying "If you wish to see Fireau alive again, arrange payment of Cr 20,000,000.  You will be contacted."

We stopped at that point.

GM's Notes:

The Zilan bureaucracy paperwork challenge was one of the more annoying quests I've run in any RPG, but the players handled it well, using reaction rolls, Streetwise, bribery, and Sex Appeal.  After the profitable charter to Paya followed up by a profitable wine run, the ship is doing very well financially.

Interstellar Mail Order in Traveller

I haven't seen Traveller rules for interstellar mail order.  What if you don't have time to visit a high-tech or low-law-level world where the gizmo of your dreams can be found?  Can you get a merchant there to ship it to you?

The trivial case is same-world mail order.  On any world high-tech enough to have a datanet (TL8+) or at least a telephone system (TL6+) and with enough population to have a reasonable number of merchants (Population code 4+, or at least 10000 people), there should be mail order businesses, selling any products that are legal on that world.  Cost should be roughly the same as that of visiting a store, possibly with some additional shipping costs, especially for larger items.

But it gets more complicated across interstellar distances.  The customer needs a copy of the store's recent catalog.  This should be relatively easy to find, at least for larger merchants who broadcast xmail out their catalogs to all nearby systems regularly.  The customer then needs to send an xmail to place the order, along with sufficient funds.  If the customer's current location and the merchant's world have a bank in common (which should be the case for any high-TL high-population worlds within a subsector or so), then the customer can deposit their Imperial credits at the local bank and send an interstellar money order along with their order, typically for a 1% fee.  (If the buyer actually has an account at that bank, they might reduce or even waive the fee.)  The xmail costs the typical Cr 10 / parsec, and typically moves at around Jump 2, faster along xboat routes and major trade routes, slower between backwater planets.

Once the merchant receives the order and the payment, they can ship the goods, assuming they're still available and the price hasn't increased.  Shipping for large items runs at the rates given in GURPS Traveller Interstellar Wars: Cr 700 per dton per parsec on minor trade routes or better, or Cr 800 per dton per parsec on branch routes.  Shipping for smaller items runs into minimum fees: Cr 100 per parsec.  Freight typically moves at about Jump 1, as most cargo ships are Jump 2 but spend about half their time in-system rather than in jump.

That assumes the recipient will be staying put on a known planet.  If they expect their cargo to chase them down, there will be extra time and expense.  First, they'll have to send periodic xmails to update their own location, so their goods can be forwarded.  Second, they'll have to pay for any extra hops their cargo takes, at the usual price.  Third, if they want to be updated on the current location of their items, they need to pay for more xmails, from the item's location to all the worlds they might be.  It all adds up, so it's probably simpler to ship to a world the buyer visits regularly, and pay for storing the item there.  Storage fees for large items can add up: the standard rate at starports is Cr 2 per dton per day, with a Cr 1 per day minimum for small items.

March Harrier Session 5: War on Aramanx

Player Characters:

Everett de Clisson (Adam), Medic and Engineer

Ganidiirsi Ashran (Ben), Steward and Cargomaster

John Matrix (Nick), Broker and Navigator

Sacha Bright (ChaoticNeutral), Temporary First Officer and Pilot

PCs Temporarily Run by the GM:

Gvoudzon, Vargr Gunner and Pilot

Dale Conan Wilder (Phil), Captain

Significant NPCs:

Randall Dorsainvil, First Officer of the March Harrier

Fenna Song, Captain of the Margin of Profit

Cai Calula, Chosen of Cratersea

Lana Calula, Cai's sister

Celia Bailee, Lana's surrogate mother

Thoren Soner, Cai's bodyguard

Roet Bannerji, Captain of the Wolblutn

Jeffry Marte, Sternmetal Horizons employee

Kfouzorr, ex-member of the Kforuzeng

Eneri Giilaan, Imperial Naval Intelligence officer

Dates: 

192-1105 to 286-1105

Worlds:

Aramanx/Aramis (Spinward Marches 3005)

Carsten/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2906)

Heguz/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2706)

Violante/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2708)

Paya/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2509)

Violante/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2708)

Zila/Aramis (Spinward Marches 2908)

Everett, Gani, John, Sacha, and Gvoudzon started the session in Seniek, the capital of the nation of Senled on the balkanized world of Aramanx.  Their goal was to reach the remote border city of Tavanix and find Captain Bannerji.  They considered renting a car or taking the train, but it would be a three-day ground trip, so they bought airplane tickets instead.  The plane was grounded for several hours due to reports of aerial incursions over the border, but eventually reached their destination.  In Tavanix, the crew looked for the Sternmetal Horizons party that Bannerji was with.  A solider in a bar told Gani that he'd seen the Sternmetal reps at the Provincial Governor's Mansion, which was the temporary seat of local martial government.  Sacha made a phone call and managed to get an appointment at the Mansion to meet with the Sternmetal party.  The crew rented a ground vehicle and headed to the Mansion.

While waiting for their meeting, the crew saw an argument break out.  A Vargr was yelling at a Senledi army officer, who was ordering soliders to take the Vargr prisoner.  Gvoudzon recognized the Vargr as his friend Kfouzorr, and the crew joined Gvoudzon in trying to get the officer to listen to Kfouzorr's story.  Kfouzorr had deserted from the Kforuzeng mercenaries serving the rival nation of Lanax.  He said that he had been on the staff of Thane Dhurgeng, a batallion commander, but had decided to leave rather than being subjected to further blows to his charisma.  He had come bringing information on the mercenaries' plans, in exchange for asylum and transport.  Kfouzorr continued that the mercenaries were about to launch a raid to try to capture the Sternmetal representatives and destroy the local Senledi forces.  He thought the Sternmetal group were to be bargaining chips in upcoming negotiations.  The officer decided to pass Kfouzorr's story to higher authority, and level to find his commander.

The crew, with Kfouzorr and some soliders in tow, went for their meeting with Bannerji and the other Sternmetal representative.  Bannerji looked surprised to see them, but before discussion started, sounds of machine guns and artillery fire could be heard.  The Mansion was under attack!  The soldiers hit the deck and the crew hid under the conference table.  Bannerji and the other Sternmetal employee were slower to react, and when the ceiling started coming down, both were pinned under rubble.  When the explosions stopped, Bannerji was screaming for help.  The crew and one of the soldiers worked together to unpin Bannerji, while the other soldiers left the room.  Everett began first aid, including splinting a broken leg.  The other Sternmetal employee was dead.  The crew asked Kfouzorr for more details of the attack, and he said it was a pincher with two armored columns trying to cut Tavanix off from the rest of Senled.  The crew decided to rush back to their vehicle and try to get out of the war zone.  Bannerji begged them to bring him along, which they were happy to do.  Everett inspected the other Sternmetal rep to make sure he was dead, and took his wallet, which contained a Sternmetal business card identifying him as Jeffry Marte.

Reaching the parking lot, the crew saw that all vehicles that had been there were gone except for two, both of which were badly damaged.  Their own rental car was upside down.  The crew took a quick look to see if it was repairable, but there was no chance without major parts and a lot of time.  They decided to head back to town and look for another vehicle, carrying Bannerji.  Kfouzorr asked for a minute to grab something from the Mansion, and came back with a bolt-action rifle and some ration packs.

After some walking, the group reached Tavinax, and saw a huge traffic jam, with all roads heading north out of town toward the rest of Senled completely backed up.  The crew approached a man in an off-road vehicle and said that they needed to take it for military reasons.  He didn't seem to believe them, but he was outnumbered and they had guns, so he abandoned his vehicle and ran away.  Bannerji said that his ship was hidden in a mining camp across the Renitza border, and if they could get him there, he could get them offworld.  The roads toward the border were clear, so the group headed that way, though they stayed off the roads as much as possible.  There were some primitive rotary-wing aircraft patrolling the area, but nothing took a shot at their civilian vehicle.

While heading toward the border, the crew started asking Bannerji questions.  He revealed what he'd been doing with Sternmetal: smuggling lanthanum to evade the Navy's price caps on domestic lanthanum.  He had been picking up lanthanum in Patinir, then bringing it to Aramanx and hiding, while forging documents to make it look like the Wolblutn had gone to Scangen in the Vargr Extents and bought the lanthanum there.  He said the missile attack on the shuttle that found his ship in Patinir Belt had been an accident: he had only meant to fire a warning shot, but had hit the wrong button and accidentally nuked the shuttle.

The crew reached the Renitza border and found the gates closed and guarded by Renitzan troops.  Everett and Banerji produced Sternmetal IDs and said they needed to get back to their ship in Renitza.  The story worked and the vehicle was let through.  However, once past the border area, Everett said that going to Bannerji's ship was a bad idea, as there might be an ambush waiting for them, and they should instead just head for a spaceport and get a shuttle back to the highport.  There was no spaceport in Renitza, but if they drove north far enough, they could then cross back into Senled away from the battle zone, and head for the spaceport in Seniek.  They stopped at a fuel station for directions, and the attendant there said that Senledi border guards were notoriously corrupt and demanded bribes of alcohol to cross, and he happened to sell the kind of alcohol they liked.  It was cheap, so the crew bought some, and then refused to give any to Bannerji.

After several hours of driving north, they headed west for Senled.  The border was closed except for citizens, but Sacha pulled out his fake Senled citizen ID and told a (mostly true) story about trying to get out of the war zone and back home.  The story combined with a bribe of alcohol worked, and they were back in Senled.  When they reached the nearest airport, they found it jammed full of people trying to get away from the border.  It would have been a long wait for a flight, but there was a long-distance communicator at the airport that could send a message to Captain Wilder at the highport.  He responded that he would try to get permission to come get them in the launch, and an hour later the launch arrived.  The crew plus Kfouzorr, Bannerji, and two random people who were willing to pay for the two empty seats piled into the launch.

Reaching the highport, the Captain discharged the two paying passengers and instructed the crew to keep an eye on Bannerji, then left to contact his Navy contact.  A bit later, the Navy officer appeared to collect Bannerji.  He later returned to question the crew members and Kfouzorr about what Bannerji had confessed.  A couple of days later, the Captain called a meeting of the crew and handed out some reward money to everyone involved, plus some cards with Imperial Navy logos identifying the bearers as good citizens.

A couple days later, the Captain called a meeting of all owners of the March Harrier.  The ship's First Officer, Randall Dorsainvil, had xmailed Captain Wilder letting him know that he was engaged to Fenna Song, the Captain of the Margin of Profit, and would like to remain on that ship permanently.  The Captain's suggestion was offering Randall KCr 100 for his share of the ship.  On the one hand that was a very low offer because the ship was worth a lot more, but on the other hand Randall would be leaving the crew, and his ownership share had been contingent on being a crew member.  So the Captain thought that would be a fair offer.  The other owners agreed, and the Captain sent off an xmail.

Cai Calula, the ship's VIP passenger, was ready to resume his trip to Paya.  However, Everett thought he saw an angle and wanted to meet with the Navy officer to see if there was any chance of going back to the surface, seizing Bannerji's ship, giving the lanthanum and evidence to the Navy, and keeping the ship as a reward.  The officer took the meeting but said that the matter was above his pay grade and it would take a few weeks to get an answer from the brass.  After some discussion among the crew, they decided to give up on grabbing the Wolblutn and resume their trip to Paya.  Kfouzorr stayed on Aramanx Highport, after telling Gvoudzon that he was going to use his reward money to find passage as far away from the Kforuzeng as possible.

The trip to Carsten was fairly uneventful.  While there, Gani found some ammo for his gyroc weapon.  The March Harrier then double-jumped to Heguz, a water world where two different colonies had mysteriously disappeared over the last few centuries.  The third group of colonists were inhabiting a space station and trying to investigate the planet from orbit before trying again.  With no gas giant in the system and no fuel for sale on the station, the March Harrier risked a trip to the surface to refuel from the ocean, and managed not to be eaten by any sea monsters.

The March Harrier then double-jumped to Violante, an estate world owned by a small number of nobles from Deneb sector.  While there, John finally found a decent price for the howood they'd been carrying since Pysadi, and Gani set up the March Harrier's ATV as a food truck and made a bit of money selling food outside the starport.

The ship then double-jumped for Paya.  On the way, Cai Calula announced that he thought the March Harrier was a quaint and fun ship and would be an excellent addition to his collection.  He offered MCr 250 for the ship, well above its value.  However, the crew did not actually have clear title to the ship, as the subsidy holders were also owners.  Also, Calula indicated that the crew would need to stay with the ship and become his employees, and nobody really wanted to work for him.  The Captain held a meeting of the owners, who decided not to entertain the offer.

The March Harrier landed directly at Cai Calula's spaceport at Cratersea, rather than at Paya's main starport.  Someone goaded Calula into flying the G-Carrier out of the cargo hold himself; fortunately he managed to do so without breaking anything.  The ATVs, ketch, and fighter jet were also offloaded, and the crew was free of their charter.  They headed to the orbital highport to look for other passengers and cargo, and did find some mail heading for Violante, but nothing else.

Jumping back to Violante, the pilot asked John and Sacha whether they should head for Heguz or Zila.  Sacha immediately said Heguz because he hated Zila after his bogus arrest, but John said that Zila had better commercial prospects and they just needed to be careful there to avoid getting arrested.  Captain Wilder agreed and said maybe it would be safer to just stay inside the XT Zone on Zila.  The March Harrier then jumped toward Zila, and the session ended.

GM's Notes:

The players surprised me by first carjacking a vehicle and then heading for a spaceport instead of for the Wolblutn, but their plans were solid enough, and their rolls good enough, that their plan worked out.  Of course later they regretted not taking the Wolblutn, but at least they got out of the war zone and off of Aramanx safely.

The charter with Cai Calula was quite profitable, putting enough money in the operating fund to try to buy out Randall and keep the ship going for at least a few more months.  It could have been even more profitable if they'd sold the March Harrier to him, but being a spoiled rich boy's personal crew didn't seem like fun to anyone.