Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Saturday was a Confed session, and this time, the players were myself as Carmella Maylock, a cheval trader (or gypsy) who's been made the default ship's captain; The Paper as Katy Swenson, a 21-year-old adventurer from a rich family; The Dormouse playing Liang Tze, a Shaolin monk who is strongly opposed to deadly violence; The Gryphon as weapons expert Jenna Starfall; The White Rabbit as Alauzhi, a large female cat creature skilled with weaponry; and The Martial Artist as Taiwan MacGuyver, the idiot savant ship's engineer and my character's second cousin, twice removed.

We picked up where we had left off last time, which meant the crew of the Vandervecken had returned to the huge floating laser gun which had been hijacked by the crew of a cheval trader ship the Vandervecken crew suspected were involved in the gem smuggling operation they were investigating for a planet called Suelden in the Svetl system (apologies for incorrect spellings).

Still with me? If not, refresh your memory with the beginning of this adventure.

The Vandervecken crew prepared to board the hijacked laser in order to arrest the hijackers. First, Jenna radioed the head of security for the mining station and informed her of the plans. They emphasized that she should use non-lethal force. Jenna argued that the Vandervecken crew might need to defend themselves against lethal force, but the head of security remained firm, stating that if the crew was endangered they should retreat. They'd be only too happy to turn the remaining eight lasers on the hijacked laser and fire to resolve the situation if the renegades couldn't be captured.

So the crew of the Vandervecken stocked up on non-lethal weapons, taking an hour to create and stockpile some additional ones, should they be needed if something goes wrong and, say, the hijackers decided to compromise their own atmosphere so that the stunners wouldn't work. Since stunners are sonic weapons, they need air to function; otherwise, no sound gets transmitted and they're useless.

At this point, Carmella was following the lead of the more seasoned crew members, who had faced just such situations in the past and therefore liked to go prepared. She made six tangle grenades, which are non-lethal weapons that essentially tangle up the opponent who's shot with them, making them incapable of moving to take offensive action.

She also grabbed six Drug-a-Thug patches, a space age device that administers, via time release through the skin, a powerful sedative that discombobulates an opponent for an hour.

Everyone also grabbed, of course, their stunners and other non-lethal weapons to prepare to board. Jenna, Katie and Alauzhi all were equipped with gel bullets which are non-lethal and could be used in their traditional weapons, as well as their stunners and, in Alauzhi's case, a Gatling stunner, which allows her to shot multiple stunner rounds.

The crew also outfitted themselves with spacesuits — just in case the patches the hijackers made to the blasted up laser gun didn't hold and the atmosphere was compromised— and grav belts, to navigate in the zero G interior.

Before entering, the crew of the Vandervecken discussed strategy, while consulting the map that The Cheshire Cat, who is the GM and game designer, had provided of the laser station. First, Carmella suggested a scan to determine where the people were located. Discussions with the remaining crew of the surrendered cheval trader ship revealed that about 18 crew members were expected to be aboard the laser. While the reading wasn't precise, it indicated most of them were located in the globular middle section of the weapon, between the utility/engine rooms and the gun itself. This meant the crew had to enter between one of two airlocks to the utility rooms and clear the rooms on their way to the midsection.

The decision was made to enter through the lower level, because the entrance to the midsection was on the upper level, which allowed the Vandervecken crew to clear each room successively on their way to the midsection. Since only two people could fit in the airlock at a time, Alauzhi and Jenna, the two characters with the most combined firepower and strength, would lead the party, with Liang Tse and Katie in the middle and Taiwan and Carmella in the rear.

Initially, when they entered the first room, Alauzhi threw a smoke grenade, to throw off any welcoming baddies until the entire Vandervecken crew could enter the room. To keep track of the action, The Dormouse placed dies on the map to indicate the Vandervecken crew, with a different number turned up for each character, based on where the players sat in the room (or, clockwise, The Gryphon, myself, The White Rabbit, The Dormouse, The Martial Artist, The Paper, so that the characters were represented, respectively, by one for Jenna, two for Carmella, three for Alauzhi, four for Liang Tze, five for Taiwan and six for Katie). This was initially confusing when the characters were in their original entrance order, but once they started engaging in the operation, it made a lot more sense.

I just realized this is probably far too many words spent describing something that's relatively unimportant to relating the story of the adventure. The only reason I bother is because of a running joke that developed from our visualization of the scene. When The Cheshire Cat announced that there was a baddie in the middle of the room, The Dormouse used a Lifesavers mint to indicate him. His reasoning was that this made the bad guys visually distinctive from the Vandervecken crew.

Carmella reminded Alauzhi that he needed to demand that people surrender before shooting. After all, if the crew could avoid combat, so much the better for keeping their promise to the chief of security. Plus, the crew had been deputized by the security of the mining station and therefore could use that authority to make arrests.

She emphasized aloud that it was very important that we not destroy any evidence or harm any witnesses who could help the gem smuggling investigation. "Otherwise, we don't get paid," she reminded them, true to her cheval trader nature.

But she was also motivated by a desire to protect fellow cheval traders from harm. Even if they'd turned to the dark side, they were still her people. While I never expressed this thought aloud, it was definitely part of Camella's motivation.

So when Alauzhi entered in a cloud of smoke, heavily armed Jenna at her side, she demanded that, in the name of the security forces of the Illowal mining station, he surrender immediately.

This particular mint was armed, I believe, with only a stunner and was, well, stunned. His first action was, we joked, to wet himself. He was easy to subdue using, I believe, a combination of stunner blasts and brawling. Liang Tze, who was the one to finally knock him out, stowed him in the bathroom, located in the corner of that initial utility room, which was a radiation shelter with super thick walls.

The Dormouse then proceeded to eat the mint. "You're not supposed to eat them!" I exclaimed.

"Spoils of war," he said, or something to that effect. So thus began the practice that if your character was the one to put the bad guy out of commission, you got to eat the mint representing him.

The door to the next room was a massive hand cranked door, made to withstand radiation. Alauzhi opened it slowly, and soon the head of a surprised looking henchman became visible, peering out into the smoky room. To complete his confusion, Alauzhi tossed another smoke grenade into the second utility room, through the widening gap.

When Alauzhi demanded that the henchman surrender, he refused. So the Vandervecken engaged him and a second henchman, who emerged through the smoke, who fought back despite being armed only with, respectively, a stunner and a wrench.

A lot of people were having bad rolls this evening, so it took a couple rounds before they were rendered unconscious. Carmella got to dispatch one of them by smacking a Drug-a-Thug patch on his forehead, which delighted her. The Dormouse tossed me my minty reward.

For the first few rounds, Taiwan and Carmella held back for strategic reserve, but then they got bored and came forward to join in. After all, given that the laser was floating in space and the Vandervecken was docked right next to the airlock, it was unlikely that any others would enter from outside. If they cleared all the successive rooms on their way to the midsection, they bore little risk of being surprised from behind.

Alauzhi led the party into the next room, which was entered through a hole in the floor. But she experienced vertigo as she peered through, because of the way the floors were constructed. You see, since it was a zero G facility, the floors of the two levels were back to back. She popped her head through a hole in the floor, but instead of popping through the ceiling of the higher level room, she was peeking through the floor.

Don't worry; it took me a minute, too.

While Alauzhi was standing there in awe, she spotted one baddy, who refused to disarm and instead shot her with a stunner. Then, since Alauzhi wasn't taking action, Katie pulled her out of hole, to rescue her from further fire. Liang Tze dived into the hole, coming up on the other side and attempting to disarm the attacker. The baddy managed to grab his primary weapon, his staff, and they grappled over it. This made the Book Lover giggle. She was there just to observe, like she always does, and she was making some lace, I believe, while watching.

Everyone once in awhile, she shared a thought when we put our heads together for the Big Brain. This is a term we use in Confed that indicates OOC (out of character) strategizing. Our characters have had several hundred years more to evolve than we and are all a good deal smarter than we, the players. This allows us to put our heads together for OOC strategizing and help each other out.

The rest of the party, by turns, popped into the room and engaged the two visible baddies. Nobody spotted the third guy, who was in a back corner, until Taiwan popped through and, instead of turning himself to stand on the floor, used his grav belt to stand on the ceiling. From this vantage point, he could see another guy hiding behind some equipment.

Taiwan decided to have some fun, trying out his new vortex gun on this guy. It's a really powerful nonlethal weapon that creates a whirlwind type force used to propel opponents away from you at a high rate of speed, provided of course, you're braced. Otherwise, it forces the shooter backwards at an equal rate. Taiwan, however, was braced against the ceiling, and when he shot the guy with it, the force pushed him hard into the floor. Kind of like a TV news reporter during a hurricane.

This took enough — pardon the pun — wind out of the guy that another stunner shot by someone else in the party rendered him unconscious.

Liang Tze pulled a surprise move on his opponent, letting go of his staff, which promptly hit the guy in the face. Again, the Vandervecken crew pooled their resources and had the room secured in no time, the opponents all unconscious in the corner. We, the players, made short work of their minty surrogates.

As the crew entered the next room, I believe Katie was leading. One opponent refused to drop his weapon when challenged. This next room was a battery room, with rows and rows of cylinders containing the batteries. Through her engineering skills, she knew that it was generally safe to shoot near them but that if you cracked them, they could explode.

So Jenna warned Taiwan not to fire the vortex gun again, and knowing that he's not much for following authority, she used her womanly charms to convince him. Taiwan is a real womanizer, lost a battle with his willpower, and agreed. Of course, the point was moot: since the vortex fun can only fire once!

Upon entering, the crew spotted just one henchman, who again refused to disarm. This just took a couple stunner rounds, and he was down, as well.

Just then, a baddy kicked out a panel in the ceiling and dropped down, expecting to get the element of surprise on the party. Instead, he was surprised. He was also surprisingly resilient. He took a lot of really hard blows, starting with a crippling blow from Liang Tze's staff to his left arm, numbing it. (This was another in-joke for this session, since it seems we were rolling in such a way that almost everyone was initially struck in the left arm. The Cheshire Cat joked that they were crab people with enormous left arms). Then the poor guy took a disabling blow to the left arm and two to his midsection before he finally passed out.

Although it was a team effort, Carmella fired the final shot. Yum. Mint.

After this, we were moving into unmapped territory. As The Cheshire Cat explained, the room we were now entering was the main power source for the massive laser, crisscrossed with battery pillars. So not only were there lots and lots of places to take cover but plenty of reason not to employ deadly force.

As the crew entered, Alauzhi gave the now familiar command to surrender to the two mints — I mean guards — at the front door. He added that we were going to arrest them anyway, so they might as well come peacefully. One of them said that he'd go speak to the captain, and shortly afterwards, angry whispered conversation was heard.

Meanwhile, Alauzhi tried to force their decision, telling them that surrendering peacefully was their best chance at survival, as the mining station was more than happy to blow up the laser with their remaining eight if we withdrew and told them it was hopeless.

More angry conversation, then the sound of a stunner blast. One person emerged, dragging a woman we recognized as the captain, unconscious. This time, the rest of the crew obeyed the command to disarm and come out with their hands up.

Then we moved to stage two of the session: cake. No, actually, we had the cake earlier, taking a break away from the fighting, but there didn't seem to be a good time to mention it. The Paper had made us a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and it was delish.

Stage two of the session was the interrogation. The Cheshire Cat suggested that we assume that we had interrogated all the prisoners separately, and that we would only role play two interrogations: that with the captain and the second in command.

Of course, as skilled as Jenna was with interrogation techniques, a lot of it comes down to what someone is willing to say. For example, the second in command talked readily, because he knew he was facing serious charges in Illowal for the attempted attack, i.e. attempted mass murder, on the mining station. Jenna promised that, in exchange for his cooperation, she would make clear that the local authorities knew he once took a supporting role in the attack and would urge leniency.

For this interrogation, only Jenna and Alauzhi were actually in the room, but the rest of us contributed suggestions via the Big Brain.

He readily spilled the beans about such things as the fact that a radio communication came in shortly before the captain made her move for the laser. The communication came from the captain of the Rorima, the cheval trader captain who'd been so friendly to the crew of the Vandervecken back on Suelden. Slowly, it began to dawn even on Carmella that it was, like The Cheshire Cat said, like "The Purloined Letter" of Edgar Allan Poe, hiding in plain site. Or, to use another axiom, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

The second in command also told us about his part of the smuggling plan: his ship would carry the forged platinum coins from the Illowal system to the Svetl system, where the Rorima picked them up and completed moving them into the Suelden economy.

With his testimony, he took care of completing most of the gaps from this end of the operation. But it was worth it to attempt interrogating the captain anyway. For this interrogation, everybody sat in, which might not have been the best idea, seeming as how some people in the part weren't good at lying, which can be a useful interrogation technique but not, say, if you're a Shaolin monk. Good at fighting, yes. Good at lying, no. She saw right through him.

Afterwards, Carmella said to Liang Tze, "It's kind of cute that you can't lie." He tried to explain himself, as if assuming she was finding fault. "No, it means I know you're telling me the truth all the time, and that's cool by me."

No point in blaming anyone, though. The captain was not willing to talk, despite any sort of attempt ranging from veiled threats to coercion to my Big Brain suggestion to bang her head against the table (wish now I'd said that in character, just for the reaction). She kept taking the fifth, refusing to talk on grounds that it might intimidate her.

Finally, since all the players were starting to get tired and were ready to leave anyway, and The Martial Artist and The Book Lover were actually donning their coats, Carmella stood up and said, "There's no point in talking to her any more. She's not going to tell us anything. She'll get at least a couple life sentences for the attempted attacks. Plenty of time to talk to her later."

She stood up and made for the door, as did Taiwan, who called back over his shoulder, "Cheval traitor."

Everyone else followed suit, and The Cheshire Cat revealed to us that she wouldn't have talked without a really sweet deal that basically would have gotten her off scot-free for the attempted mass murder. Since they got as much information as they did from the second in command, it was sort of unlikely that she was worth dealing with.

The security chief told them that she had no need for the cheval trader ship, and the idea began to swirl around that they use the ship to entrap the smugglers on the other end of the smuggling run. As The Cheshire Cat explained to us, cheval trader ships are owned by the community as a whole. Now that the captain was in the hands of the authorities, then cheval traders Taiwan and Carmella could assume command and get the existing crew to follow their orders.

Then, once they'd captured those responsible for the smuggling ring on the other end, there's no reason they couldn't simply turn the ship back to the crew. This is a tempting proposition because it would ensure that those who really deserve to be punished are punished but would avoid doing permanent damage to their reputations among the cheval traders.

I think Carmella could easily come around the seeing the logic in this, especially as it begins to dawn on her that this latest attempt was probably the second time the captain of the Rorima tried to have them killed. After all, who knew that they were attending a party on his ship in order to bushwhack them? And who told the mobsters about the Vandervecken crew's plans to try to ferret information out of the local Mafia through a false identity? Carmella had told the captain all about those plans at the party!

You know what? This is starting to get personal as far as Carmella's concerned. He may be a distant relative, as are all cheval traders, but if he's willing to put out hits on two of his own people not once but twice, risking hundreds of innocent lives in the process, he's no family. He is, like Taiwan would say, a cheval traitor.

Further adventures from Confed:

Confed adventures index

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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