(3) [Traveller] Voyages of the R.e.d. Dusk

Game Master mdt

"A little break might do us all some good." Tam adds.

"Well I suppose it would not be too big a problem to go and stretch our legs at the station. Fresh supplies would be a good deal as well."

The two groups make their way toward the central planet from different directions, the first group to arrive is the Kektys...

On the way in, the Kektys encounters a yacht of a retired Raider Baron, it's escorted by 6 fighters, who warn the Kektys of coming within energy range of the yacht. Other than that, the system is pretty slow at the moment, apparently the Raiders are out raiding.

On reaching the station, the ship finds that there will be a 2,000 credit 'approval' fee to dock with the station, as well as a 300 credit per day docking fee.

The Phoenix is given a more expensive fee, 3,500 credit 'approval' and 400 credit per day docking fee, given it's a freighter.

Note, since the Kektys gets there a day sooner, they rack up an extra 300 credits for the extra day

The station is an old station, it's a 'pre-fab' station, with docks that handle up to 5000 ton ships. The station is shaped like a giant barbell, with the docking rings forming the 'bells' on each end. The main section of the station is the 'bar' in the center, while the core of each ring is cargo handling.

The Raiders have half the docks, those on the 'upper' decks which are Deck 1 to 10, with decks 11 to 20 as the main station or 'main decks', and 21 to 30 are the 'lower decks'. The Kektys is in dock 30 + 1d30 ⇒ 30 + (14) = 44, while the Phoenix is in 30 + 1d30 ⇒ 30 + (9) = 39.

Jenni moves onto the station and tries to find a marketplace of some sort, or perhaps a grocery.

Once the fees are paid, Glitch can enter the station easily.

There's several decks of market, with shops that range from small hole in the wall shops that are highly specialized, to huge multiple floor shops that have many different types of stuff for sale.

In addition, there's a 'virtual market' that handles either very rare items, very expensive items, or bulk items.

Most of the food oriented stores are on decks 8 and 9.

Are you looking for anything specific, or just general supplies?

Alisan, who's been here for 24 hours, has had time to pull up a list, which she transmits to everyone concerning bulk items that might be of interest, and the prices she negotiated on them. She's got the highest broker on the Kektys.

Bulk Item List : (Minimum Purchase 1 ton)
Advanced Weapons - Slug Weapons (TL 12) - 16 tons - 60,000/ton (Normally 150,000/ton)
Basic Consumables - Food Grade Vegetation - 12 tons - 800/ton (Normal 1000/ton)
Basic Consumables - Survival Rations and Storage-packed Liquids - 28 tons 1,350/ton (Normal 3000/ton)
Radioactives - Industrial Isotopes - 2 tons - 337,500/ton (Normal 750,000/ton)

Moyasmedsev secures Kektys, warns his passengers to check in each day or get left behind, and then wanders the station, simply exploring. He's used to having everyone stare, so he no longer even notices it. And the Vargr are normal to him; he takes notice of other aliens and things for sale. He keeps an unblinking eye out for the items on Alisan's list, but isn't really shopping with any purpose.

Now that he's off the Military Base, he's not the only Droyne around. While not a large population, there's several hundred on the space station, and therfore he sees one every four or five shops.

Most of the shops on the station are restaurants, general services, or specialty shops. You can find the following :
Augmentation (Limbs, Torso, for Vargr)
Discerning Weapons Specialist (Explosives, Gun Combat Weapons, Melee Weapons)
Electronics (Communications, Computers, Vision and Detection)
Heavy Weapons (Artillery, Man Portable Weaponry, Vehicle Weapons)
Home Comforts
Medical Supplies (Drugs and Phramacuticals, Medical Equipment)
Personal Protection (Armor, Armor Modifications)
Survival Gear (Aerial, Atmospheric Protection, Desert and Arid Environments, General Survival Gear, Marine Environments, Mountains and Cliffs, Vacuum Environments, Wilderness Housing)
Tools and Engineering (Tools)
Weapons (Accessories, Archaic Weapons, Grenade Weapons, Melee Weapons, Shields, Slug Rifles)

Tam accompanies Glitch and reminds everyone before she leaves, "Best if we travel in pairs we don't know much about this place." She looks to Glitch, "Lets go shopping."

Warren looks eager to see someplace different for a little bit. "I'll be glad to see someplace with a variety of people and things to do. I need to restock medical equipment and supplies." When he comes upon the medical supply shop he enters and begins to browse their goods. He picks up the items needed to resupply his kit. He then looks around for any new medical items that have been devised since the last time he had a chance to peruse medical equipment.

Kavanasada's Medical Emporium

In the small shop, a Vargr woman is behind the counter. The shop has the typical bandages, bandaids, and other small medical items.

There are a couple of Vargr and a Human shopping as well.

On the shelves are standard equipment packs as well.

Drugs and Phramacuticals
Name - TL - Price
Truth Serum - 5 - 500

Medical Equipment
Name - TL - Price
Field Surgical Kit - 5 - 2,000
First Aid Kit-2 - 2 - 10
First Aid Kit-5 - 5 - 125

Jenni looks at Tam welcomingly, glad for the company. "I've a craving for strawberries. I wonder if they have anything locally that would fill that void? Ooh, and maybe a cat. I used to have a cat when I was little. Little black ball of fuzz. His name was Wingnut!"

Dev ventures into the "commodities" area to look at the various lots that have been presented to them. He also is going to inquire on anyone who might be interested in the alien tech they have (including the fighter).

Dev has Broker-1 and will try to get as good a price as possible on the items he is selling, as well as those he wishes to purchase for trade.
Broker: 2d6 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (2, 6) + 1 + 2 = 11

Purchase:
Advanced Weapons - Slug Weapons (TL 12) - 16 tons - 60,000/ton (Normally 150,000/ton)
Radioactives - Industrial Isotopes - 2 tons - 337,500/ton (Normal 750,000/ton)

Sell:
Alien Fighter
Other alien artifacts found.

As Tam and Jenni walk around looking, they do find a small pet store. Or a small live food store, it's hard to tell the difference in Vargr space.

The small front facing has two windows, one on each side of the entry way. The creatures on the left are somewhat less than cute and cuddly.

However, the animals on the right are somewhat more cute or at least not as icky.

"Is cat a delicacy among humans," Tam asks straight faced.

"They are for Vargr," says Moyasmedsev as he wanders by.

We should consider investing in survival gear and some vision and detection equipment. How much walking-around money do we have?

You've got your unspent money. The PC's have 830000 credits, minus the docking fees and NPC pay.

Ship Expenditures :

Life Support Cr1000 per stateroom, Cr3000 for double occupancy, Cr100 per low berth, Cr1000 per person
Fuel Cr500 per refined ton, Cr100 per unrefined ton
Repairs and Maintenance 0.1% of purchase price, divided
by 12 (684 MCr * 0.001 / 12 = 57,000 credits per month of operation)
Salary: Pilot Cr6000/month
Salary: Astrogator Cr5000/month
Salary: Engineer Cr4000/month
Salary: Steward Cr2000/month
Salary: Medic Cr3000/month
Salary: Gunner Cr1000/month
Salary: Marine Cr1000/month

Current Sallary :
Pilot : Dev (0/month)
Astrogation : Dev (0/month)
Medic : Warren (0/month)
Engineer : Glitch (0/month)
Additionial Crew :
Aoleaao E'Earle - 1000/month
Rorick Brade - 1000/month
Vordoan Aevantsan - 1000/month
Passengers : Eryckah Latislan - 0

Kektys
Pilot : Elrick Moynehan - 6000/month
Astrogation : Alisan Mecorian - 5000/month
Medic : Morisa Elsantha - 3000/month
Engineer : Morisa Elsantha - 4000/month
Additional Crew :
Moyas - 1000/month

Total Cost : 100,000/month
Ship Upkeep : 57000+8000 = 65000/month
Crew : 22000/month
Life Support : 13000/month

GM suggests trying to pick up some cargo. You can either pick up specific cargo drops, which are guaranteed but low paying cargo drops, or you can buy cargo cheap and try to sell it high at your next stop, and hope you make a profit. Rewards for speculative cargo are high, but costs are also high, so bigger gamble. Rewards for cargo runs are low, but guaranteed.

The Phoenix normally has 278.7 tons of cargo space. However, you've used up 40 tons of space for the historical fighter, and another 30 tons of space with historical parts and oddities. The alien fighter doesn't take up space because it's in the docking bay which is already calculated at 52 tons per hanger, meaning that you can pack in a few extra tons of cargo by storing it in the hanger, another 15 tons. This gives you a final total of free tonnage of 278.7 - 70 + 15 = 223.7 tons. Kektys has 8 tons of cargo space as well.

Available Freight Runs to Ourksaea
Tons - Pay - Value - Type of Cargo
20 - 32,000 - 3,600,000 - Air Vehicle Components/Raft Components
15 - 24,000 - 75,000 - Workable Alloys
10 - 16,000 - 1,000,000 - Prescription Medications/Surgical
10 - 16,000 - 50,000 - Workable Alloys
6 - 9,600 - 120,000 - Wheeled Vehicles/Tracked Components
4 - 6,400 - 200,000 - General Medical Equipment
4 - 6,400 - 8,000 - Furniture-Grade Timber/Rare Grades
4 - 6,400 - 20,000 - Workable Alloys
4 - 6,400 - 80,000 - Jet Fuel/Gelid Adhesives
4 - 6,400 - 44,000 - Fabricated Plastics
4 - 6,400 - 12,000 - Insulation/Polyurethane Foam
3 - 4,800 - 60,000 - Jet Fuel/Gelid Adhesives
2 - 3,200 - 20,000 - Personal and Commerical Computers
2 - 3,200 - 100,000 - Ruthenium/Rhenium
1 - 1,600 - 500,000 - Psi-Related Drugs/Viral Therapy Doses
1 - 1,600 - 50,000 - Protective/Specialized Clothing

If you agreed to take all of it, it would take up 94 tons of cargo space, and pay out 150,400 credits

So, all of the available contracts don't come close to filling up Phoenix's hold. That means we'll be able to take on more at the next stop. Let's take all of that. Between Phoenix and Kektys, that will leave 223.7+8-94=137.7 tons of cargo space free. As there are 58 tons of bulk goods available, I say we take as much of that as we can afford.

On the bulk contracts our limit is cost, not space.

________________________________________________________________

Advanced Weapons - Slug Weapons (TL 12) - 16 tons - 60,000/ton [ooc](Normally 150,000/ton)
Basic Consumables - Food Grade Vegetation - 12 tons - 800/ton (Normal 1000/ton)
Basic Consumables - Survival Rations and Storage-packed Liquids - 28 tons 1,350/ton (Normal 3000/ton)
Radioactives - Industrial Isotopes - 2 tons - 337,500/ton (Normal 750,000/ton)

The radioactives are as good a discount as the Basic Consumables (55%), but they cost so much we could only afford one ton and even then only if we overspend.

So let’s assume we’d like to spend roughly cr400,000 on bulk goods.

We can take all of the Basic Consumables (55% discount) for 37,800 credits. We can take all the Vegetation (20% discount) for 9,600 credits, leaving us 352,600 credits to spend from our assumed budget. That’s enough for 5.87 tons of advanced weapons (a 60 discount!). Round that up to 6 tons of advanced weapons for 360,000 credits and we’ll have spent 407,400 credits.

I think that’s a great initial cargo. If it were just me and not a whole group of owners, I’d consider buying more of the advanced weapons, which are a great buy, but maybe prudence dictates not spending all our available money.

This way we're taking all of the specific contracts (earning us a nice amount), and a decent amount of bulk cargo while still holding back more than 400,000 credits for emergencies and all the shiny stuff that catches Moyas's lidless eye.

"Is cat a delicacy among humans," Tam asks straight faced.

Jenni looks aghast. "No, it's a pet. A domesticated animal companion. For comfort and friendship. You've never had a pet?"

Tam lets out a rare laugh and asks, "See anything you like?"

"Maybe this one. What does it eat?" she asks the proprietor.

You see that ribcage its standing in, right?

What do you folks think of my recommended cargo plan? Is it good? Do you want to risk spending more? Less?

The proprietor smiles. "Ah, this is a Shalnassar, it is popular among humans." She says in Imperial. "It eats anything you feed it. It is the most complete omnivore, plants, animals, anything organic."

Sorry, cargo plan is awesome!

Arrgutsurr Market

In case you want to buy some other items. There are items for sale at various discounts, I only listed the ones on deep discount

I am OK with the list. The guns make me a bit nervous I don't know it's a good idea to be a gun runner. Other than that I'd like more of the isotopes but I understand not spending all of our money.

The issue with the isotopes is their sky-high price. Plus, not for nuthin', but PCs carrying radioactives is a GM's dream. :-)

Oh, yes. Cargo is a great idea.

Jenni continues to mull over the shalnassar. "How much, and how big will it get?" It's cute, but I'd like to be sure that I don't end up on the menu... or my shipmates.

The woman shrugs. "Depends on breeding. Could be size of Droyne, could be size of Vargr. When larger, many use for hunting."

Jenni looks at Tam and raises a questioning eyebrow. "What do you think?"

"Nope," she says firmly. "I think our ship will be to cramped for it."

"You're probably right. Besides, feeding and clean-up might be a problem." Jenni says with a trace of sadness in her voice. She turns to the shopkeeper. "Sorry, but I think it's best for both of us not to take him."

The Vargr nods. "I see, are you sure? I'll give you a discount, it really deserves a caring owner who won't abuse it." The Vargr taps it's chin. "How about... 500 credits, rather than the usual 800? You do know how hard it is to find pets who can eat anything, most have such fussy diets."

"Awwww." Jenni looks at Tam with a pouting face.

"I think you said it best... big cat big mess,"Tam shrugs.

Jenni hesitates a moment longer. "I... can't," she says at last. Sorry."

The Vargr sighs and nods. "As you wish, human. If you change your mind, do return. If not, I'm sure one of the raider's will come in and buy it for a dinner or celebration of some type. Or as a hunting trophy for it's pet to chase down and eat."

Jenni leaves the shop, giving a long last look at the shalnassar.

As Jenni begins to walk out, a Vargr in armor walks in. "Oh, Hi Jarek, you want another barbeque?" The woman behind the counter asks?

The big Vargr nods. "Yah, good raid. How about the fluffy brown thing with the horns? Look tender, bet taste good."

You cad!

After Tam and Glitch leave the shop, the 'Raider' watches for them to return, and then turns to the shop keeper. "Bah, sorry, thought she'd bite."

The shopkeeper shrugs. "Most humans do. She may be back. Give me the one from the window, in case she does." They trade the furry bear like creature out for a different one of the same species. The shopkeeper slips the Raider a couple of credits for the attempt, and they set up ready for the next soft hearted human.

------------------------------

It takes a couple of days to load up the cargo, both consignment and speculative, and then the two ships disconnect.

The VARGR are not interested in the alien fighter or artifacts, or at least, not paying anything near what they are worth (Per your Broker). The Vargr tend to be more interested in stuff they can plug directly into their existing ships, not stuff they have to research to use, and not in stuff like alien tech they have to investigate

Cash : 830,000 credits
Docking : 8,600 credits
Maintenance : (56,833 + 2,754) = 59,587 Credits
Life Support : (20,000 + 8,000) = 28,000 Credits
Speculative : 407,400 credits
Bank Balance : 326,413 credits

I'm assuming you both stop at the gas giant to refuel, adding 2 days to your journey

As you reach the gas giant, a black and red ship pops up from behind one of the moons, and fires a pair of pulse lasers between the Kektys and the Phoenix. "Ahoy! You two blubbering idiots! You be mine now! Lay over and prepare to be boarded by The Dread Corsair Black Fang! Ye'll be able to tell your grand-pups about it! If you do as I say, that is! Otherwise, ye'll be plasma! Now heave to and prepare for my Pinnace to board!" The speech plays over the speakers in Vargr.

2d6 + 1 ⇒ (2, 1) + 1 = 4

Your resident Vargr shrugs, not having heard of this pirate before.

Do we know anything about the ship class? Its tonnage, standard weapons load or speed?

That requires an Electronics (Sensors) check, and then either an engineering (spacecraft) check or an electronics (Computer) check. Time dilated people will have a +4 DC on the Engineering check, the Phoenix can't make the Electronics check (it's DB is out of date).

Can Dev make a straight Sensor's check to just see what they are up against, or will that not work due to the ancient database as well?

He can make a straight sensor roll to get a general idea, tonnage, possibly power output, if he makes his roll by enough. But he won't have a good idea of it's full weapons layout without a database to compare stuff to.

"Shall we get out of here and head back to the spaceport or let them board?" Warren asks the rest of the crew.

Tam perks up from up her seat in the galley where she has been lounging. She holds her tongue trying to get a better feel for the situation.