Friday, August 10, 2012

The Highwaymen Episode #4 -Actual Play - Lost Among The Stars



I've got a lot of ground to cover, we did about 7 hours of my retro future Stars Without Numbers game!
The PCs were called into the commander's office of Archlight Station & introduced to a Stone Back Alien named De'Isle actually his name is Count Larti George De'Isle The 3rd.

The Stone Backs are turtle like reptile men from the Algol system. Some of the best space craft designers in known space they have a well deserved reputation for violence. Originally descended from carnivores who camouflaged themselves as rocks. This warrior race spends the first one or two years of their lives upon their predator heavy home world. Should they survive the experience they are  allowed to take their place in society. 
Their home world weeds out the weak & in firmed through unnatural selection. After 50 years of development the stone backs increase in intelligence & wisdom. Many will take their place as lawyers, scientists, doctors, etc.
The stone backs want to hire the PCs to recover their ore freighter. This vast ship's engines have been stolen. The Sky skull pirate Concern has taken the ship. Not interested in the ore they took the ship & stripped it of its engines & hyper space relays. Everything was level 4 or better.
Suddenly the space station is invaded!

Fantastic Worlds 7-01.jpg

The Archlight is invaded & the commander guards are killed. This  begins a race to the various jeffry's tubes that run the length of the station.
The Sky skulls are a gang of androids controlled by a rogue A.I. This gang of space cut throats who hijack high end cargo.They use jet packs, force fields, & lethal pulsar ray guns Each one wears a distinctive form of  tech level 4 tight black body armor /space suits. These suits have a distinctive skull & bones motif.
They were not taking any chances & killed the entire  station commanders body guard party.
The  commander showed the party a secret door just as the power went out & the station was overwhelmed . The party stayed behind to cover the commander, Melody(his full conversion cyborg daughter) & Count De'Isle.
The players engaged the Sky skulls & after a long melee they were able to also leave.
They found a body in the secret passage & energy weapons were being fired down the other end of the hall.
The body belonged to the station commander who had been killed by his own daughter!
He had been replaced by an android since the last  game.
Count De'Isle.had withdrawn into his shell. & after the characters helped Melody with more pirates they were able to get to their own ship.
The ORE Hauler 

More combat awaited the PCs as they crawled through the station's Jeffry tubes. They made it back to their ship which was crawling with more pirates! They activated their ship's anti personnel weaponry & killed the rest.
They blasted off from the station & quickly made their way to the Star Gate for Talon Space. Hyperspace was filled with debris from a recent battle. Several piloting roles were need to pass through hyper space. The PCs checked on a wreck they had tagged 3 games ago. It was still there & in one piece.
After exiting the gate they tagged the hauler in an eleven planet system. The system was filled with magnetic anomalies that made piloting interesting.
There was a pirate ship as well. Space combat ensued & the PCs came out on top.
The ore hauler proved to be nerve wracking as a dungeon! Space Rays, Suit chewers, & other hazards proved to be hazardous to the PCs health
Finally lines were secured, maglocks were put in place & the PCs had the hauler in tow! The hauler is now on its way back to the Stone back's system. 
Questions Remain 
  1. Where is the station commander? Who has him & is he alive 
  2. There is a budding romance between one of the PCs but can it survive the space hell to come? 
  3. Whose agenda is working this deal & why prey on the Stone backs 
  4. What are the stone backs hiding? 
  5. The PCs found the Space Coop but its in rough shape but the whole ship has mechanical systems geared for dealing with the magnetic anomalies of this system. Who does it belong to & what attacked it. 
  6. The original information on the Stone Backs can be found right  here Stone-Backs
  7. The original info on the Sky Skulls can be found right Here 
  8. More To come Next Week 



4 comments:

  1. Sounds like quite an action packed session.

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  2. That it was. The players loved the iconic 40s style of the adventure. It went against the grain of the SWN setting.
    I'm going to be using the "Public Domain Space Races" in this & you'll be seeing write up of some these icons of yesteryear with a bit of an update.
    Thanks for the comment! There's more to come!

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  3. I like your use of the 40's style adventures also. While the SWN setting is cool, I find myself drawn to/preferring other setting types.
    Looking forward to seeing what you work up.

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  4. I find the setting interesting alright but I long for a sword & planet feel to it more. Something akin to an old Republic serial combined with some of the space inspired comics of the 40s.
    I'm working up a couple of factions at the moment based on the above they should appear tomorrow. More to come Bill & thanks for the comment!

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