Once on Blue Moon

Game Master Xabulba

Weeks of interviews followed by months of training and finally 11 weeks of Space travel aboard the Idono Farigo brings you to Thompson's system, a binary system far beyond the spin-ward rim. You and the nearly 150 personnel are to do a detailed survey of Question, the third moon of Thompson A3. The flight was mostly uneventful only the occasional fight breaking out between the Yazirian and the Humma members of the expedition. The Idono Farigo is awash with activity as the various expedition teams begin their landing preparations. Tec teams begin the deployment of survey satellites. Mil-spec teams prepare for first landing and everyone else prepping their gear for their turn on a shuttle planetside. Suddenly the alarm claxons go off and the captain begins an announcement before being cut off by a massive explosion that rocks the ship throwing you to the deck. As you try to rise a second then a third explosion rocks the ship. The ships computer begins to broadcast over the ships comms as well as your personal comm, "CATASTROPHIC SYSTEM FAILURE, PROTOCOL 11C ENACTED, ALL PERSONNEL TO ABANDON SHIP, PLEASE CALMLY MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE NEAREST ESCAPE POD." you make it to an escape pod with 4 others when a fourth explosion blows the ship in half and your escape pod auto seals and launches you towards Question. Once clear of the wreckage of the Idono Farigo you can finally see the source of the explosions, a frigate and a dozen fighters. The fighters zip to and fro targeting the helpless escape pods as they descend and only by the purest luck your pod goes unnoticed. Unguided your pod crashed down in a heavily forested area and springs open the door.

Everyone okay? Those hostiles may be tracking signals. If the beacon is active, we may want to shut it off.

That said, Chip unbuckles and checks that his personal gear is still secured to him before heading to the hatch and taking a look at their surroundings.

The pod must have some malfunctions, the door shouldn't have popped open. At least the atmo seems ok.

The petite young woman in med uniform who spent the entire planetfall muttering to herself, We're gonna falking die, what the mattafalk am I doing here, falkfalkfalkfalk what the vell is going on?, sits quietly for a moment after landing, seemingly in shock.

She doesn't look up when Chip speaks, but answers mechanically, Of course the atmo's okay, the first expedition found that out.

Then she looks up, intelligence returned to her eyes.

Holy shile, you're right. Get me the falk outta here.

She frantically extracts herself from the crash webbing and scrambles out of the pod in a panic.

"Yeah! I'm good." Tyiiree checks the pod's emergency locker to see what they have to work with. "Wait!" He calls after the human woman. "Oh well. We should get out of here anyway. These will come in handy sooner or later." Tyiiree pulls out the medkit, the envirokit, and the techkit. He hands them to whomever wants them and climbs out of the wreckage of the escape pod.

The forest filters out most of thr double suns rays covering the pod in twilight. As you take an assessment over your situation and supplies the sound of the native wildlife quieted by the pods crash slowly returns.

Give me some survival checks please if you don't have any survival skills default to perception.

R. Wilco and Ru DeHammer I need some posts from you.

I added a link to the resolution table in the campaign notes for easy reference.

Kara looks around, confused.

Didn't take Survival skills, and I'm not seeing anything about a Perception skill in either Alpha Dawn or Zebulon's rules. Can you summarize for us or point to the rule?

Did you hear that?

She looks the opposite way.

Or that?

Falk me bloody. Out of the falkin heat plate and into the gods-dremmed fire. We're gonna get falkin eaten before we get shot.

Kara puts a hand on her Maser pistol, reassured by its presence but wishing she'd touched it in the last two years since Basic Training.

I'm not getting eaten alive on this gods-dremmed mattafalkin phisshole of a moon. I'll cut my own throat first.

The comforting bulge of the sonic knife reassures her, a little. She watches the surrounding area warily near the pod's escape hatch.

"Holey crap that was crazy!, wails Roger Wilco, a robot tech, as he struggles out of the pod. Looking around, surrounded by all this nature Wilco feels extremely out of place and at a loss. Taking the TechKit when Tyiiree offers it ... ah, that's a little better. If only I had my drones from the ship. Space fodder by now ... poor little geek.

"You're right about that beacon ... let's get the heck out of here!

Intuition 50: 1d100 ⇒ 24

Didn't take Survival skills, and I'm not seeing anything about a Perception skill in either Alpha Dawn or Zebulon's rules. Can you summarize for us or point to the rule?

Page 5 Alpha Dawn (the original handbook) under ability checks. Using a skill without training defaults to the base attribute and cannot have a positive shift on the resolution Table.

Survival, +0CS: 1d100 ⇒ 7

So, that's a Cobalt result, right?

Survival Forest +3 1d100 ⇒ 26 Green

The yazirian finally comes out of the pod and takes in the surroundings. His uniform patch denotes him as a scout proficient in wilderness lore.
"Slow down a bit. Rushing off could be just as deadly. Give me a minute to get my bearings." He gets his gear situated better as he looks around.

"Ugh, that was a rough ride," says Ru, a Humma Enforcer, as he checks himself over to make sure he's not injured. He curiously watches Kara as she tries to gather herself. A smirk comes over his face, "And here I thought I was going to have the foul mouth. I didn't expect such language from you."

He grabs his gear and climbs out of the pod. Turning to the yazirian, "If you are familiar with this terrain, I'll let you take the lead. Just let me know if something needs a thumping," Ru says as he smacks his tail against the ground a few times.

He scans the surroundings. intuition 45: 1d100 ⇒ 49

Having taken a blow to the head, Sgt. Mcluntz only now begins to groggily come to. uncoupling himself from the landing harness, he loads his weapon and then comes out of the shuttle to survey his surroundings.

Intuition: 1d100 ⇒ 38

Once everyone is situated and a direction has been chosen, Tyiiree gets moving. "Ok folks, we're definitely in a pinch here. I mean it's a gorram shame to have to leave from this here pod, but what's done is done. We gonna hoof it a few clicks and find us another foxhole. We'll figure out what's what then. Everyone ready? No? Good! Let's get going."

Trying to find Tyiiree's voice.

perc: 1d100 ⇒ 67

Chip was busy unfolding the stock on his Raffluer to take notice of the surroundings.

Before we run off half-cocked, did anyone check to ensure the beacon was shut down? Quite frankly, this pod is our ONLY chance of rescue. It's not like any of us are carrying a planetary comm unit in our back pocket. We don't know what part of the planet we came down in. The pod should have some scan data.

Chip runs a hand through his hair, a nervous habit he thought he had long broken. I mean running off in any direction could lead us into more trouble than we are in right now. We need more information.

Kara listens carefully to the jungle sounds, trying to identify what type of animals are there.

Zoology, +3CS: 1d100 ⇒ 64

...and fails to learn anything from the cacophany of sounds.

Do we need a skill check to turn off the beacon? I can try flipping random switches, but I'm just as likely to set off the autodestruct sequence.

You...plasma scalp. She gestures to Chip. Did you turn off the falkin beacon?

I'm assuming asserting that "plasma scalp" is a nickname for redheads in universe, often but not necessarily intended as an insult. Kara uses it here simply as a descriptor, either not aware or not caring that it might be rude.

Noticing Mcluntz exiting the pod, she says to him,
Whoa there, zwerrah. Equivalent to "whoa there, tiger" to you and me. See Alpha Dawn page 91 for details on the beastie.

You look pale. Sit down and let me take a look at you.

Her training taking over, she seems much less panicked and considerably less foul-mouthed.

What's your name, soldier? Do you know what day it is? How many fingers am I holding up?

"M'Okay Doc. Just smacked my head good. You got insert appropriate number of fingers here held up, and my name is Sargeant Joseph Mcluntz. Anyone have any idea who it was that hit our ship?"

"Even with the come hither quiet, the metal pod will be noticeable in all this not metal forest. If they are lookin for us, I'd rather not be here to get found."

Agreed.

Kara turns back to the sargeant.

All right, Sargeant Mcluntz, you'll be okay. Just try not to crash land any more escape pods for a while, mmmkay?

Is anyone else injured?

Assuming no one speaks up, she stands up and says,

Does anybody know which way we should go to reach civilization?

That's more of a question I hope the GM can answer. Does anyone, or are there any clues that would give us a start?

BTW, fnord72, I think you forgot to choose your "Post As" last time, leading to some confusion on my part. Sorry, should have caught that before submitting.

[ooc[Call it a getting used to the system mistake I forgot to tell you what color is need for success. you only need to a green to get most of the details, higher gets you all the details.
I also gave a summery of how the resolution table works in the discussion page.[/ooc]

Survival, +0CS: 1d100 ⇒ 7

So, that's a Cobalt result, right?

correct.

Do we need a skill check to turn off the beacon? I can try flipping random switches, but I'm just as likely to set off the autodestruct sequence.

No, all you would have to do is remove the battery. An escape pod wouldn't have an auto-destruct.

An escape pod wouldn't have an auto-destruct.

You underestimate my mechanical ineptitude. :-)

Cara and Wilco notice a small air skiff fly by far overhead. Wilco as grunt you would recognize the skiff is short range (500Km) and atmosphere only.

@Kara - No need to roll a skill check unless you are preforming under pressure or doing a highly detailed analysis.
The plants and trees appear to be somewhat primitive, no flowering plants and the trees are more grass-like than wood. You cant see any sign of fruiting either.

@Chip - The beacon is active and sending out the mayday, it is also receiving the mayday from another pod. That means that not only did another pod survive but at least one of the survey satellites launched before the attack is still working, for now.

"There's a fighter! It's close! Try to conceal the ship, I'm killing the beacon!

Wilco disables the beacon.

"Maybe when the heat dies down, or we see rescue ships, we can turn it back on ... but for now lets keep this hidden."

If there is any easily obtainable brush available, Kara begins lightly covering the pod with whatever fronds and branches she can gather.

Wait...did I read that monitor right? There's another escape pod nearby? We have to find them. They may need medical attention.

Concealment +1 1d100 ⇒ 62
Tyiiree tries to find something to cover the escape pod with.

"Whoever sent the fighters that attacked the ship are going to come looking for the pods. They don't want us here. We should try to get a bearing on the other pod to find it. Since we were the only ship, I wouldn't expect a rescue any time soon." Ru states as he helps cover the pod.

While the rest of the group is looking for things to cover the escape pod with, the sergeant will be looking for a covered and concealed place to pull security from, then hide and wait for the inevitable attack. I assume that the pod made a furrow when it landed due to the relative speeds involved. I'm going to be pulling what's called overwatch in the military.

Chip looks at anything else that might be of use from the pod. A survival kit, tents, rope or other tools, water pouches, MRE's, etc.

Did you get a heading on the other pod?

Chip looks at anything else that might be of use from the pod. A survival kit, tents, rope or other tools, water pouches, MRE's, etc.

Did you get a heading on the other pod?

Survival blanket; waterproof and thermal insulated, can also be turned into a one pup tent. x5

You got the general location of the other pod from the surviving satellite.

I assume that the pod made a furrow when it landed due to the relative speeds involved.

No furrow the pod uses a combination para-wing, parachute and cushion balloons for a relatively soft landing. You can and will need to gather or cover up the para-wing and chute though.

"Whoever sent the fighters that attacked the ship are going to come looking for the pods. They don't want us here. We should try to get a bearing on the other pod to find it. Since we were the only ship, I wouldn't expect a rescue any time soon." Ru states as he helps cover the pod.

The surviving satellite provided the general location, once you get near you'll need to make some survival or scanners check to get their exact location.

"Beacon's off ... let's book!", says Wilco as he books off in the direction of the escape pod ...

After distributing the survival gear, Chip starts working on pulling down the parawing and parachute. no reason to advertise where the pod is. The struts from the parawing and the parachute may come in handy.

Assuming he gets some help with pulling the stuff down, he'll start dismantling the parawing.

Assuming the parts are workable, he'll lay out a simple travois with the struts.

The sergeant does nothing but continue to scan the terrain and sky, looking for threats.

"Anyone have any idea how long we have until nightfall?," Ru says as he tries to see how high the suns are above the horizon through the forest canopy.

Seeing that the others seem to have things under control, he finds a position opposite the crash site from McIuntz to help with security. He draws his laser pistol as he scans the forest around them.

@GM - I count 6 of us: me, McIuntz, Chip, Wilco, Kara, and Tyiiree. Does that mean there are 6 sets of equipment?

Sounds like we were all agreed and ready to travel to find the other pod. Speak now if you have unfinished business here.

Assuming we get somewhere near the other pod, Kara searches diligently...

Survival, +1CS: 1d100 ⇒ 83

...but does not find anything.

It's not here. D'ya think it's worth chancing using the communicator?

I'm assuming that a "broad spectrum communicator" would likely be overheard by everyone in range, including our enemies?

@Ru - yes mt math is off

@Kara - very much so.

The group head out to find the other pod, for the most part it is uneventful. After traversing about halfway there the major sun begins to set leaving the land in twilight lit only by the distant minor sun and the gas giant itself.

Another round of survival checks please.

Survival Forest +3CS 1d100 ⇒ 26
"No. It could be a trap. We should go with caution."

Taking the offered pack without a sound, Mcluntz settles it on his back and moves to take point.

Survival, +1CS: 1d100 ⇒ 8 Cobalt, Bicchezz!

I see that my survival skill is utterly useless here.

Nice roll Kara. Although not needed:

Survival: 1d100 ⇒ 94

lol, always the opposite of what I need.

Clearly out of his element Wilco trudges through all the wretched nature, all the while lamenting the loss of all that beautiful tech

No survival skills

Intuition +1: 1d100 ⇒ 51

@Tyriiree & Kara - After twilight a hush falls over the forest, the calls of of life doesn't stop but noticeably lessens. As you continue to hike the ambient forest noise stops altogether as you catch glimpses of dark almost glossy looking shapes moving about, you are being stalked.

Tyiiree gets closer to Sgt. Mcluntz. "Looks like we done picked up a tail. I don't know if its metal or flesh, though. You reckon we ought to hunker down and prepare for it or try to outrun it?"

That brings Wilco out of deep thought. "Huh ... outrun what ... what's going on!", he whispers in distress.

"I'm thinking we keep moving. A fight could bring the pirates to us if that's not them. Let's keep moving."

Kara glances apprehensively around her as she walks.

I do *not* falkin like this. Not one falkin bit.

She removes her sidearm from its holster and carries it in her hand.

Come *on*, come *on*. Let's get the falk out of here.

You could have stayed in the military where it was *safe*, but no. You had to go and get caught, didn't you? Well, now you're in the shiles, Kara old girl. Falkin falked yourself good this time, didn't ya?

Ru looks over at Kara, "I agree. The next time I see something, I'll try to shine my flashlight on it so at least we can see what we're dealing with." Ru pulls out his flashlight, but doesn't turn it on. He also draws his pistol.

Shaking his head, McLuntz continues in the direction of the other downed shuttle, alert for any signs of the enemy, including the enemy following them...

Perception/Intuition: 1d100 ⇒ 13

I don't know about the rest of you, but shouldn't we be looking for a place to rest up for the night? Any idea how far we have to go? Not sure how much night we will have with three suns, but it's been a long day.

Chip was content to let the others keep an eye out as he trudged along with the travois sliding along behind him.