Chapter 4A: Traitors in our midst

Feb 19, 2024 9:59 am

OOC:

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Also, can the synths be used for crew purposes if we don't have enough actual crew? Just trying to go through all of the permutations.

They can. That's the standard reason why the Navy keeps them awake in real space. Like in a real Navy, there's always something to be done by a on-duty sailor. It's "annoying" for some people to deal with Synths, but (luckily?) the previous crew left and there's just you now, you all probably wouldn't mind, specially in these circumstances.

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If we do get a new cargo shuttle, the two shuttles can be the "lifeboats" if we only have a crew of a dozen or so

They can.

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With the five old crew, plus Slaine and the synths, we're at the minimum 10. If we get Douklan back, we're to 11. And the new guy will make 12. That's still pretty low, but it is workable even with no new NPCs!

Douklan will count, as he will probably stay in the helm, he did that before willingly. But Slaine and Peter would have to work somewhere in the ship and give up on their current jobs.

You can always invite Slaine to stay as part of the crew now, and they are free to do so, but that's a PC choice. Another option (that doesn't involve Slaine working but can get you some credits) is Slaine renting a berth as a passenger instead of a spacious room in the station. You will have to talk about it with them, either way. Standard fares are now available in the Game details.

Mariella and Stone are paying in the background, so they don't count as crew. By the way, you have empty berths, feel free to sell passenger tickets if you wanna risk it, after you talk with Valeria about it.

Hank asks Erin, "Did they say why they quit en mass? Just didn't want to be part of a cursed ship, or was there something else driving them away?"

Erin Brand

"Valeria asked. They said that with Gabe's death, Ryan betrayal, the bombing, the almost empty coffers and we getting further and further away from New Jordan as part of our charter, now is a good time to leave this 'cursed ship' behind. They also got a huge discount in a passenger starship heading to New Jordan, and the vouchers that we got upon signing with Valeria (to be used in those situations) could easily cover that passage. So they're 'going home'. I guess for them this was just a job. I don't feel this way..."

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Looking at the ship write-up. It shows that we have 98K credits on hand. That would easily cover everything. Or is there something we have to save it for?

You can easily expend that money and "solve" your current situation. There are some caveats/long term consequences though:

1. Nameless NPC crew costs 100 credits per day, per person, in wages (time in cryo-pods doesn't counts) plus any signing bonus (like a passenger ticket home). Valeria kept some of that money for the crew. PCs have "special arrangements" that can be talked about In Game, but we don't need to and can gloss over that. (ie. we usually skip this minutiae for PCs, as that's boring, but we also don't deal with small amounts of daily expenses, bar tabs, small luxuries and cheap equipment for them as a consequence)

2. Crew (PCs included) needs 20 credits per day in food and regular supplies. This comes from the ship's money, not from yours, in bulk, whenever you resupply. The character sheet calculates that for us.

3. You have to pay 344,375 in maintenance every 6 months. This is automatically calculated by the sheet. The next one is in 5 months from now.

4. You may need that 96k for speculative trading, so you get more money out of it. Specially because you have an empty 2,000 (!!!) tons cargo hold now. The Explorers Division hired you for a large part of that hold, but not until you reach Altairia.

PS: You can also use those holds for "sealed crates" (ie. freight) with some local broker or company. Standard rates are now available in the Game details.

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Hank will reach out to any commercial contacts the Captain has to see what is both available for sale that they need, and what they can sell here. I'm assuming we can do the work needed on our own. We just need the supplies to get it done. The shuttle is a whole separate issue.

Yup. Corbin can fix everything with the Synths and/or crew (The shuttle is a whole separate issue). I will handle that Trade roll result and the discount in a future post.

Feb 19, 2024 2:23 pm

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"Corbin, in light of the hacked shuttle computer that almost killed us back at Draco I, and the Fugitive's ability to overload the shuttle so quickly, have you scanned for any such booby traps or hidden bombs in the Voyager's computers?"

Gimme a Fix test for it. =)

Rolls

Secret Roll

Feb 19, 2024 4:11 pm

Hank replies, "Yeah, I don't feel that way, either."

He turns to Slaine and says, "Well, if you are going to keep 'Ryan' around, then you're going to need to get moving, or he's gonna get on that ship with the rest of the leaving crew. And he doesn't need a ticket, he can just 'hop' on at the last second.

"When you get back, I'd like to talk with you about your plans going forward."

Getting back to Corbin and Erin, he says, "Let's turn this to our advantage. With less than half the crew, we only need half the supplies. So, we should be able to sell off around a quarter of the Extended Stores and Ship's Locker supplies. Then, add that to the Lifeboats, and that should give us enough funds for the repairs and a new shuttle. We might even be able to get a better deal on a replacement shuttle if we can find a used one to buy. But, that should pay for everything without harming our operational readiness. That just means the shuttles will have to serve as our lifeboats. It also means we won't be able to add much, if any, crew until we can get new lifeboats.

Assuming Douklan returns, he and the synths will give us the base crew we require. I'll talk with Mariella and see if she is willing to pitch in. We can work an extended time in that configuration going forward."

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And if Slaine and New Guy join in, we can draft them ,too.

"Oh, and speaking of the synths, Corbin, you should probably go ahead and wake them up now. We'll need their help with all of the repairs and rebuilding that needs to be done. I mean Erin and I can help, but the synths will be way more useful to speeding up the process."

"Does that all make sense to you? Any better ideas? If not, that's what I'm pitching to the Captain."

OOC:

Meta-question: Do we call her Captain or Valeria? I'll do either one. If it's Valeria, pretend Hank said Valeria every time he said Captain when talking to the crew. To non-crew, e.g. Slaine, he will always say Captain.

When we finish the discussion, he'll have all three of them go to talk to Valeria. Erin can decline, but she is invited to join.

OOC:

We can do this in character after talking to Valeria and getting her blessing, but Hank plans on talking to Mariella to help out. If she can help part-time with crew-stuff, that's a plus, but the main thing is he wants her help with trading. I am pretty sure she's the better trader, by a lot, so he'll want to leverage that as much as she is willing. She is free to speculate on her own for the standard deal Valeria offers, but in addition, he would like her to help out with the general ship operation when it requires trading.

Also, when talking to Valeria, Hank wants to pitch for us (Hank, Mariella, Valeria, and "the ship") to continue to speculate all we want, but, he also wants to change things so that any unused hold space is to be filled up with freight for the next stop. If we know multiple stops, we can carry freight for farther down the road, but the emphasis will always be on the next stop. He wants to eliminate empty hold space as much as possible. Even a few bucks per ton of space is going to help us out. It is up to Valeria if she was to add in passenger service, but with no lifeboats and minimal crew, Hank will strongly recommend against that. At a minimum, we would have to have the lifeboats and double the minimum crew to support carrying passengers. The only exception would be military or government passengers that are relatively self-sufficient.

In addition, I thought Valeria was looking for some mail contracts. I don't know how that works, but he'll add that to the list of things they can be taking a look at. If it's anything like in Traveller, that should be relatively lucrative, though only in small lots. Let's take advantage of that, too.

Finally, Hank is going to be heavily studying our path forward, at least two or three deep, to see what kind of worlds we will be hitting. Since we need to make money, that means speculation. And for speculation to work, we need to take advantage of world imbalances. And to do that, we need to know where we are going. I'll need GM help with that part.

Erin Brand

Feb 20, 2024 12:17 am

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So, we should be able to sell off around a quarter of the Extended Stores and Ship's Locker supplies.

Well... It makes sense, but I can't handle that using SWN rules. It's always keep or sell the whole ship fitting. I can handle the food/supplies, they are based on days × people, but not the Ship's Locker.

I can pretend that you sold some of it and that you had smaller discounts in that Trade roll (14 is very good). All in all, the math works out.

So, in the ship's character sheet, we will keep the fitting (as is) and don't sell partial fittings in the future again ok? =)

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He turns to Slaine and says, "Well, if you are going to keep 'Ryan' around, then you're going to need to get moving, or he's gonna get on that ship with the rest of the leaving crew. And he doesn't need a ticket, he can just 'hop' on at the last second.

"I'm going with you, Slaine." - says Erin. - "You may need some help."

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"Does that all make sense to you? Any better ideas? If not, that's what I'm pitching to the Captain."

"Yeah. See you around. I have a fugitive to catch."

Erin Brand

Feb 20, 2024 12:32 am

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Meta-question: Do we call her Captain or Valeria? I'll do either one.

Your call. Erin uses both, depending on the situation. Valeria don't mind after those years.

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We can do this in character after talking to Valeria and getting her blessing, but Hank plans on talking to Mariella to help out.

We do In Character, after you get those repair supplies form your previous roll. Just as a side note, she is not that better. She changed careers for the Explorers Division (Specialist Survival) and spent her skills all around. You're better with Valeria's contacts.

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In addition, I thought Valeria was looking for some mail contracts. I don't know how that works, but he'll add that to the list of things they can be taking a look at. If it's anything like in Traveller, that should be relatively lucrative, though only in small lots. Let's take advantage of that, too.

She was. Works similarly, you can talk to her about it.

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Finally, Hank is going to be heavily studying our path forward, at least two or three deep, to see what kind of worlds we will be hitting. Since we need to make money, that means speculation. And for speculation to work, we need to take advantage of world imbalances. And to do that, we need to know where we are going. I'll need GM help with that part.

Will do. =) I will add Trade info for 2 or 3 worlds ahead.

Slaine Rowan

Feb 20, 2024 12:58 am

htech says:

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He turns to Slaine and says, "Well, if you are going to keep 'Ryan' around, then you're going to need to get moving, or he's gonna get on that ship with the rest of the leaving crew. And he doesn't need a ticket, he can just 'hop' on at the last second.

"I'm going with you, Slaine." - says Erin. - "You may need some help."

Slane looks between the two screens they are already working on, and then back up at Erin.
I think I do need some help. I have so much to fill out for these reports. And a dangerous terrorist to find

Feb 20, 2024 1:02 am

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Thanks on the world info.

I still want Corbin's input, but unless he suggests something radically different, I think we're good for our conversation with Captain Valeria.

Erin Brand

Feb 20, 2024 1:14 am

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Slane looks between the two screens they are already working on, and then back up at Erin.
I think I do need some help. I have so much to fill out for these reports. And a dangerous terrorist to find

"Just send those reports, they are good enough as it is. Don't get me wrong, but you're a perfectionist, aren't you?

Let's head to the station and look for him, it will be way more interesting! I will grab my gun. Where should we start? A secret hideout? Or a bar?"

Erin Brand

Feb 20, 2024 1:28 am

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Do I have any profiling on Alfredo? If I have any guess where he may go I'll go there.
Otherwise ... Probably not a bar, Slain is not great at talking. But somewhere they can get security footage or anything like that?

Feb 20, 2024 1:44 am

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Roll a Notice DC 12 for an educated guess. If you fail, we will head to the station monitoring center, for that surveillance footage

Feb 20, 2024 1:47 am

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If it's Int compadable I would get one higher, but here goes. That's a hard roll.
Edit: doesn't matter.

Last edited February 20, 2024 3:36 am

Rolls

Slaine Rowan: Notice - Usual roll - (3D6h2+2)

(324) + 2 = 9

[SWN] Corbin McRogers

Esidrix

Feb 20, 2024 3:35 am

OOC:

Fix test

Rolls

Fix - (4d6h2+3)

(1241) + 3 = 9

Slaine Rowan

Feb 20, 2024 3:48 am

"Erin, I hate to sound paranoid," pulling their bioscanner out of their bag, "but after everything you might understand where I'm coming from. Would you concent to a quick scan?There is a small possibility that Alfredo Hernandez, who you knew as Ryan Carter, could have compromised individuals he had extended periods of access to." Slain is watching for any sort of recognition or violent action. "I don't know if anyone from your crew has given you an update on my, out, suspicions. "

Last edited February 20, 2024 3:49 am

Feb 20, 2024 2:43 pm

Assuming they are still all together, Hank will reassure Erin, saying, "It's OK. It is quick and non-invasive and will provide some piece of mind. Honestly, I'll probably need to talk Valeria into letting the Special Agent scan the rest of us, too. But that will probably have to wait until after the manhunt."

Last edited February 20, 2024 2:44 pm

Far Traders: GM

Feb 20, 2024 3:04 pm

Erin allows Slaine's scanning. It shows as human.

"That was painless. Let's go."

OOC:

As a reference for that rule conversion, the portable scan can now detect Synths with Heal DC8. The "Extended medbay" ship fitting would make it an automatic success, no need to roll. The Celestial doesn't have it.

My next post for Slaine will be in the surveillance room.

Rolls

Slaine Rowan: Heal - Usual roll - (3D6h2+3)

Feb 20, 2024 4:37 pm

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And back to Hank and Corbin, did he find anything with his Fix roll of 9?

Far Traders: GM

Feb 20, 2024 7:29 pm

As Corbin delved into the task of scanning the Celestial Voyager's computers and equipment for booby traps or hidden bombs, he found no evidence of booby traps or hidden bombs. However, he knew that ensuring the ship's safety required more than a cursory scan.

With a sigh of resignation, Corbin realized that fully clearing the Celestial Voyager of any potential threats would require days of exhaustive analysis and testing.

OOC:

If you wanna continue that later, we can note down a project to do that during downtime.

Slaine Rowan

Feb 20, 2024 7:50 pm

What's Slaine's next steps and what do they have available? Slaine would like to keep looking, but I'm not sure what's available.

Feb 20, 2024 8:27 pm

OOC:

Well, before he does that, he and the synths are gonna have to put the ship back together. And before that, we have to talk with the Captain.

Feb 20, 2024 8:31 pm