Well, there was a session. It blew Cold Fuzion off the rails, but it was great fun.
Last session left off with the party imprisoned by the MOJ in the marine barracks on Kishimaa. I didn't think the motivation given in the adventure for them to continue investigating once freed would work for my player. So I had the MOJ push/pull the party into investigating, saying that they needed outsiders because their faces were known on Shamuus. Between the threat of prosecution for shipping drugs and the offer of a Gauss Rifle permit (the unlicensed weapon had been found aboard Event Horizon), the party were persuaded to hunt Gvarrk on Shamuus.
They went through the Shamuus part roughly as written, except they went to the hotel before the apartment. The guys in flak vests with autopistols very nearly killed Athos, who had a concealed body pistol on this "no guns" world. He was bleeding at –6 before Bert (who goes through doors second) managed to drop the last thug. Then they headed for Hansen’s World. Well, Bert headed for Hansen’s world and Athos woke up in the Autodoc halfway there.
At this point I had a real moment of, um, something – I handed SR the “MOJ briefing on Hansen’s World”, i.e. the description of it from the adventure, and he said “what’s this ‘Fuzion Lab’ on the map?” I will vet handouts more thoroughly in future…
After they arrived, things went per the script for a while – they landed at the public starport, saw signs of the riot, got rammed by the fleeing woman, and fled after her without fighting police or mob. Later they got their visit from the two cops asking about the woman (they’d been identified from video footage cross-referenced to a hotel registration). The cops asked a few questions, leading to “and what’s your business here on Hansen’s World?” SR thought hard for a while, and then told them he was investigating on behalf of the MOJ who thought that it might be the source, or at least a distribution avenue, for Cold Fuzion.
This is not something the adventure was designed to handle……but it was actually an OK thing to say. He’d arrived in town on a crime-fighting mission and he was requesting the aid of local law. He was talking to two honest cops, one of whom (Bertram) practically had light bulbs going off over his head (visible on a good Sense Motive roll). And it looked like I might be winging it from here…
They agreed to exchange information, the constable said he’d arrange a meeting with the chief (who was busy with the riot aftermath), and Bertram said he’d go check some things.
Athos went off to Gather Information in the seedier bars, and pose as a wholesale buyer who was looking to score a lot (MCr 1-5) of the drug for export. He arranged a meeting with “some guy” whom I decided was a High Raider (the people making the drugs). This guy listened to Athos’s pitch and decided he was “competition”. He agreed a follow-up meeting in a couple of days, then booked a hit on Athos and Bert for that night. This was the hit mentioned in the adventure, and was my flailing attempt to stay with the published story. They got their warning phone call before the hit, and ambushed the hit men, who were soon fleeing. They chased them, giving one a called shot to the legs (for questioning) and the other a called shot to the head. Then they called the police. Who sent a detective round, and took them in for questioning.
Next morning, Athos found himself sat in a room with the head of the Colonial Police brooding across the table like a thunderstorm. [I said “think of him as Rutger Hauer in Bladerunner”.] After a few minutes of brutal staring, the chief got the story and made him a strange offer: he’d “do him a favour” by keeping him in jail, if Athos would testify that the hit men had tried to kill him etc. Athos asked why this was a favour, and the chief told him the two hit men were Pharmacom company security.
And there we leave it, with the party again in jail, but this time willingly. The two police/security forces are on collision course. Director Persus is about to go finally and irrevocably mad. Bertran is still good guy in the midst of the bad guys. And on Monday it will all blow sky high. Now I just have to figure how to get the PCs front and centre, or at least involved, for the climax.
Last session left off with the party imprisoned by the MOJ in the marine barracks on Kishimaa. I didn't think the motivation given in the adventure for them to continue investigating once freed would work for my player. So I had the MOJ push/pull the party into investigating, saying that they needed outsiders because their faces were known on Shamuus. Between the threat of prosecution for shipping drugs and the offer of a Gauss Rifle permit (the unlicensed weapon had been found aboard Event Horizon), the party were persuaded to hunt Gvarrk on Shamuus.
They went through the Shamuus part roughly as written, except they went to the hotel before the apartment. The guys in flak vests with autopistols very nearly killed Athos, who had a concealed body pistol on this "no guns" world. He was bleeding at –6 before Bert (who goes through doors second) managed to drop the last thug. Then they headed for Hansen’s World. Well, Bert headed for Hansen’s world and Athos woke up in the Autodoc halfway there.
At this point I had a real moment of, um, something – I handed SR the “MOJ briefing on Hansen’s World”, i.e. the description of it from the adventure, and he said “what’s this ‘Fuzion Lab’ on the map?” I will vet handouts more thoroughly in future…
After they arrived, things went per the script for a while – they landed at the public starport, saw signs of the riot, got rammed by the fleeing woman, and fled after her without fighting police or mob. Later they got their visit from the two cops asking about the woman (they’d been identified from video footage cross-referenced to a hotel registration). The cops asked a few questions, leading to “and what’s your business here on Hansen’s World?” SR thought hard for a while, and then told them he was investigating on behalf of the MOJ who thought that it might be the source, or at least a distribution avenue, for Cold Fuzion.
This is not something the adventure was designed to handle……but it was actually an OK thing to say. He’d arrived in town on a crime-fighting mission and he was requesting the aid of local law. He was talking to two honest cops, one of whom (Bertram) practically had light bulbs going off over his head (visible on a good Sense Motive roll). And it looked like I might be winging it from here…
They agreed to exchange information, the constable said he’d arrange a meeting with the chief (who was busy with the riot aftermath), and Bertram said he’d go check some things.
Athos went off to Gather Information in the seedier bars, and pose as a wholesale buyer who was looking to score a lot (MCr 1-5) of the drug for export. He arranged a meeting with “some guy” whom I decided was a High Raider (the people making the drugs). This guy listened to Athos’s pitch and decided he was “competition”. He agreed a follow-up meeting in a couple of days, then booked a hit on Athos and Bert for that night. This was the hit mentioned in the adventure, and was my flailing attempt to stay with the published story. They got their warning phone call before the hit, and ambushed the hit men, who were soon fleeing. They chased them, giving one a called shot to the legs (for questioning) and the other a called shot to the head. Then they called the police. Who sent a detective round, and took them in for questioning.
Next morning, Athos found himself sat in a room with the head of the Colonial Police brooding across the table like a thunderstorm. [I said “think of him as Rutger Hauer in Bladerunner”.] After a few minutes of brutal staring, the chief got the story and made him a strange offer: he’d “do him a favour” by keeping him in jail, if Athos would testify that the hit men had tried to kill him etc. Athos asked why this was a favour, and the chief told him the two hit men were Pharmacom company security.
And there we leave it, with the party again in jail, but this time willingly. The two police/security forces are on collision course. Director Persus is about to go finally and irrevocably mad. Bertran is still good guy in the midst of the bad guys. And on Monday it will all blow sky high. Now I just have to figure how to get the PCs front and centre, or at least involved, for the climax.
