Hmm's Against the Aeon Throne -- The Adventures of The Teapot!

Game Master Hmm

Pon claps his hands enthusiastically, "Party!"

Wint, of course, totally ignores the planning on what to actually do with the "guests". Instead, he concentrates on getting the place clean, on getting the tables set up, on getting the right glasses and dishes, etc.

Culture: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (10) + 8 = 18 Note -DC 5 lower if related to my profession housekeeping skill
Prof Housekeeping: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (11) + 13 = 24

Rush just works at fixing the place up to look like a properly maintained Azlanti outpost, every now and then walking over Wint and his party set up.

Engineering: 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (12) + 13 = 25

"Sounds like a sweet plan Spec! Let's do it!"

Prosper helps Wint move in any tables and set out any rented table settings. Despite the obvious danger of the situation, she gets swept up in the skittermander's excitement. "This is going to be great! They're going to like it so much they won't even mind we've duped them."

Rush welds another piece of metallic Azlanti logo together and places it up. "They like.." His bone blade bursts from his hand. "Or they die." Rush is clearly somewhat annoyed by all the effort he is putting in, but he doesn't complain.

Pon continues to clap his hands enthusiastically, "Party!"

The Party is on! The room is cleaned, tables are laid out, a special kitchen is in place. The Captain of the Relic gushes, "Exalted ones, this is such an honor!" Meanwhile, the Azlanti crewmen eagerly sit at the lower tables, anticipating whatever feast is coming!

Can you all please place yourselves on the map? If there is anything else the map needs, please feel free to put it there!

May I remind you at this point that you have picked up a number of disguise items, including a recent hat of disguise.

Wint is going to bustle around serving drinks and canapes to the Azlantis. Presumably they'll just think her some exotic "pet" or slave that somebody has picked up.

With 6 arms she can manage several trays at once, the perfect servant :-) :-)

Prosper tosses her hair back and looks down her nose at the Captain and her crew. "The honor is all yours, Captain." She speaks Azlanti with a biting sharpness, only to modulate it with a tight smile. "Apologies. A few days in this... outpost, and I am already finding myself frustrated with the lack of discipline in the locals. Can you believe that the Empire that protects this Station receives such a half-hearted reception?" She takes a seat and reclines.

"Please, take a seat and be at ease. We will speak after you've had a chance to relax."

(I like MAP#1, so I've updated Prosper's token there. We can use either though.)

Pon crumples his nose at the room while he looks around. Having seemingly spotted his desired seat, he sits at the same table as Prosper with a contented expression. "Important," he mutters to himself happily.

Minos will use on of the gems of disguise self and turn himself in to a somewhat large half orc. Acting as a simple servant to the Azlanti. He for now will keep quite and at as butler and set and move plates as needed.

Disguise self says I am limited staying my own type which is Monstrous Humanoid so I can not look Azlanti, but at least something more common in the Empire than Nuar. At this point going for non-desript

If there are enough disguise items for everyone Dal will take one, if not you guys use them. His action would be the same either way.

Dalinar deactivates his solar armor before the Azlanti arrive. He stands near the far door in mundane armor hoping the 'guests' take him to be hired security. He can be a somewhat convincing liar if needed but isn't very good at holding to lies. He plans to stay out of earshot of the ruse because he fears that he'll punch one of the imperials in the face if they say something disparaging about Wint or Spec, or any other non-humans really.

Throughout the first course of the meal, Prosper engages the Captain in light conversation, intentionally keeping her own role here secretive even as she asks questions about the Captain's trading route. She stokes what ego he may have with comments like "Your role in keeping our Empire running, Captain Tilldanec... I feel it is deeply underappreciated. Many take the efforts you make for granted. And the danger!~ Why, I am certain you are forced to fight off rabble on a regular basis out here." She waves her hand vaguely to indicate this region of space.

As much as I can do this all day, I sense from the pace of this scene that we want to move on. So...
As the first course starts wrapping up, she'll put a finger to her ear as a signal to Spec. To the Captain, she says "While your crew enjoy, would you mind joining me in the antechamber? I have a sensitive question for you. And... a request." She stands and beckons for the Captain to join her.

The fussy little owl spends the meal scurrying about, attempting to make sure that her Ladyship, the Captain, and the Interdictor are not seen to be lacking for anything .... and otherwise becoming incredibly ignorable to any cultured Azlanti.

Spec blinks his acknowledgement to the signal and busily bustles out the door to "prepare" the antechamber for a briefing.

He sets a few pages onto the small table, with a datastick on top of them, and turns on the small-but-tasteful lamp to provide a small pool of illumination over the desk-of-obvious-interest.

The professor perches near the ceiling of the room, as near to the door as possible, thinking "No one ever looks up right away" as he prepares to cast his DC 15 charming spell as soon as the shot is clear.
Probably as her Ladyship leads the Captain across the room towards the table.

Rush, having the social grace of a toaster being thrown into a bathtub, decides to also just play a servitor role and deliver hors d'oeuvres and drinks.

Captain's Will Save: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14

The Captain blinks for a moment, uncertain of what's just happened to him. "A request? What would your ladyship like? I'm completely at your disposal."

Talk about a close shave!

Yeah, seriously! BTW, since charm only works for the caster, I think the specific request is up to you Spec.

Prosper smiles mysteriously, offering "My lovable xaursi servant here will provide you with the details. Be certain that you're doing the Empire a great service."

Spec swoops down next to the Azlanti leader
"Yes of course milady, but before we get too far into things, might it be most prudent if your Ladyship might have the good Captain first sign the NDA under the briefing materials there? I'm sure codifying the rewards and penalties would be most beneficial someone collecting this sort of open favor."

The xaursi's somewhat predatory grin was of course a sad side effect of evolution past, and not at all a result of loading a negotiation with psychological apprehension via the universally feared specter of legal paperwork.

Once that is completed:
"Now Captain, I'm sure you saw the Interdictor out there, and noticed the state he was in. I know I don't have to remind you how powerful that kind of old family is .... and how dangerous their enemies are. We had thought this accursed backwater was secure enough for his recovery, but alas his enemies are doggedly persistent."

He leans closer to the man and lowers his voice
"Your fortuitous arrival has provided an amazing opportunity for all of us though. You can can garner blank-slate favors from two well-situated imperial noble families, by essentially doing nothing!
You know that old bylaw, the one that states an agent of the Throne may commandeer any and all equipment needed to accomplish a Throne-Directive? Well, that is going to draw more attention than we want, unless we can count on you being a loyal servant of the Empire.
Just let your crew take a bit of shore leave here, and her ladyship's crewmen can use The Relic to deliver the Interdictor to a secure location so he may recover enough to complete his priority mission."
"Your ship will be returned to you completely unharmed (and potentially with a little bonus onboard) and you will have two favors to call upon at your discretion."

Spec grabs the datastick and presses it into Tilldanec's hand.
"All of the contact and redemption details you need are on this device. As long as the terms of the NDA are met, it shall remain viable and penalty-free. What do you say Captain? You rarely get an opportunity to simultaneously get compensated for taking a vacation as well as prove your loyalty to the Empire (and your crew will love you for giving them the time off!)"

Bluff: 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (15) + 8 + (3) = 26

"As my xaursi describes, this is a sensitive matter. I would like to remind you of how critical it is that you treat this discussion, and this task, with the solemn respect and discretion it deserves." Prosper nods gravely before smiling lightly. "You would have my utmost appreciation if all goes well."

Bluff (aiding): 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (18) + 8 + (6) = 32

The Captain is delighted with the idea of time off and the chance to earn favors for doing nothing! His crew are a bit more dubious, but Azlanti culture is all about obedience and pleasing the higher ups! They all agree to the time off, and have a fabulous dinner with the many, many courses that Wint and the Singing Chef have planned for them!

You have control of the Relic! Are you doing anything before heading out to the Prison Moon?

"Excellent work, no blood had to be shed."

I am ready.

Pon claps his hands excitedly as he walks onto the Relic. "Field trip!"

Minos makes sure Lord Dracos is all set and then is otherwise ready to go.

Rush and LINGSTON make one final stop to thank their Wrikreechee friend. "You bring honor. Many die to your blade." Rush says bluntly.

"Criticism: That was blunt. Appreciation: Thank you. Without your help, we would probably have spilled blood. May you find the freshest waters with the softest streams."

The duo returns to the ship and readies to take off.

Spec is somewhat taken aback by the success of his gambit...
"Umm, well yes indeed... such a mutually beneficial tactic for all. Please Captain, return to the festivities and enjoy yourself."

With that, the professor beats a hasty retreat to the Relic, (flapping a harried wave to Half-Red and Hassachir on the way past), half-convinced that something will explode if he waits around too long.

Prosper rejoins the rest of the group rather flushed in the face from the total success with the azlanti captain. When she sees Spec though, she sobers up rapidly. As the group heads to the ship they've managed to 'commandeer', she steps up beside the xaursi and rather awkwardly squirms for a few moments before saying "Ummm, sorry Spec! I said some nasty stuff back there while pretending you were my servant. Like, you belong to me, things like that." She looks very much contrite "It was all to trick that captain, but I hope it didn't hurt too bad... I got kinda carried away."

She checks that she has all her gear and says goodbye to Hassachir (and Talmrin, if she can find her) before joining the rest on the ship.

"See, all problems can be solved with parties, food and drink!!"

Wint will do a quick pass through the market and buy up as much Azlanti opera as she can find, which she will present to the chef

"Chef, I don't really know enough opera to separate the good from the bad. So I bought you a selection to choose from. Thank you for all your help, the party just wouldn't have been a success without you"

Then Wint hastens to the Relic, making sure that all the consumables are well stocked, that the ship is properly cleaned, that everybodys equipment is stowed correctly. After he is finished it positively glistens.

Book 2, Part 3. Jailbreak.

You say your farewells to Hassachir, and Talmrin gives the ship one last look over before you leave. "Remember thou hast promised to liberate my friends as well as thine own," she says to Dalinar. "Safe travels to thee and thine."

Hassachir waves at you, speaking through Spec's mind speech. Bye, bye friends. Have fun storming the Prison Moon! Hassachir makes a further offer. Would you like me to dock your ship, The Teapot? I have a private spacedock that could keep it out of sight of the Azlant authorities, and perhaps upgrade a few key systems while you are away?

In gratitude for all the help you've given her, Hassachir offers to upgrade your ship to Tier 4 for you, to whatever specifications you designate.

★ --- ★ --- ★ --- ★

Travel Time: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

You take off with a combination of the Relic's cargo and your own. Thanks to Wint's efforts, there is plenty of Azlanti opera to listen to, snacks to eat, and the whole ship is very clean! The trip takes only three days. When you arrive outside Gulta, a ship hails you. Your sensors tell you that the Emerald Green vessel is the Zandamont.

The following message comes in over the hailing systems. "Captain Tilldanec! Tell me you have something good for us! We've been down to manufactured rations for the past week, and I'm all out of news! Also, if you have time before you get out of here, I could use a partner for Rune Gambit. I'm tired of playing with the same idiots all the time." It's a slightly bored woman's voice, and there's no visuals yet because you haven't fully opened the video frequency.

"Ooh, we can definitely do something to improve their food! Uh, I mean, uh, if that would be useful somehow"

I assume we would have worked out our plan of approach on the way over. Is it alright if we discuss it in OOC speak before engaging with this scene?
Also HMM, what kind of supplies was this ship carrying? Would we have been able to inventory them on the way over?

While it's been a long time since we were playing, I *think* we have disguise methods for every single member of the party. Either uniforms/armors that are appropriate for Azlanti troops OR magical disguises.
But what's our story? Prosper can pretend to be the Captain, but how do we go from that to getting access to the people we're trying to break out? Trying to imitate Captain Tilldanec could also be a liability, since we don't know what he was like very well. Maybe we can pretend we're some other crew subbing in for Captain Tildanec? Or would that be too suspicious?

Discuss what plans you wish. You had three days, and many disguise items.

Ah, good. You did your inventory! Your inventory includes some Azlanti sugar nuts and other small food luxury items, standard rations, and more of those awesome azlanti shower gels. There's also 5000 UPBs on board that are clearly intended for the base.

In addition, you find a letter and parcel from Talmrin when you do the inventory. The letter is written in a spidery hand on parchment of all things.

As thy crew hath undertaken my rescue mission, I hath taken the liberty to procure a few small items to help you.

Talmrin.

It is signed with a paw mark.

I'm inclined to start with the simplest bad plan: Pretend we're a crew subbing in for Cpt. Tilldanec, bring all the food and goodies to Gulta and the Zandamont, then manufacture some pretense to dock directly onto Gulta itself... like... "We have critical toilet cleaning nanites that we need to personally oversee"... but you know, a better reason than that. :>

I assume we have the crew manifest so we can at least try to cover most of the roles. Someone will need to look/act like the previous captain. We may want to quickly make some additional "cover IDs" for the rest of us.

I think once we get on the station itself, we need to find some "safe" area to start hacking at least cameras and doors. At least tapping in to the camera feeds can allow us to move around with some awareness

Pretending we are another crew borrowing this ship is for the best I'd say. We'll have a hard time pretending to be other people.

Looking at the various disguising options there isn't anything we have access to that allows for looking like another creature type, only a different subtype. So myself Pon and Miss Starr could pass as Azlanti while the rest of you will have to do something more drastic. Pon and Prosper have their own means of appearing different and it might be best to let me wear the hat of disguise. Minos and Rush are monstrous humanoids so you'll have a real hard time looking human and I don't think we have a way to make Wint aand Spec medium sized. Therefore we have to decide what you guys are doing here. Prisoners? Slaves? Non azlanti crew members?

Agreed

I think the easiest thing to do with Wint is for him to appear to be a slave. I'm pretty sure Azlanti would collect "exotic pets" so it probably makes sense from a cultural point of view. And if anybody knows ANYTHING about Skittermanders its not going to be that suspicious (our willingness to help has to be about the first thing everybody knows :-)).

Are slaves allowed to go armed in Azlanti space? On our earth there were lots of times that happened.

culture: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (7) + 8 = 15 +5 if you feel that falls under the kind of thing a housekeeper would know

Hmmm, skittermanders as exotic pets is exactly the kind of twisted I'd expect from azlanti! Four out of our seven member party being very unusual slaves seems pretty suspicious. Oooh, maybe they're potential prisoners we were asked to personally deliver into the prison! Give the "prisoners" the glamered fusion seals?

In anticipation of first contact with the prison, Prosper adjusts her appearance to that of a non-specific male human with azlanti features. He keeps his armor as-is, but swaps out any insignia with those to match what Captain Tilldanec was wearing. He also runs through his brief conversation with the Captain to try to deduce how Captains like Tilldanec are supposed to behave.

Disguise: 1d20 + 7 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 7 + 10 = 28

I've been assuming that the xaursi serve the Empire in much the same fashion as the screedreep ... administrators, errand persons, and all-around comic relief (at least comical to overbearing race-supremacists )
I'd imagine most Azlanti would ignore him like a piece of furniture as long as someone kicked him every so often.
Maybe go with an extension of the previous ruse .... commandeered the vessel to get some prisoners and/or supplies to the moon?
Captain Tildanec would've totally been here, but you know sometimes visiting that one asteroid colony .... ya know ... a nasty case of Xendexuma's Revenge
Just trying to help a fellow captain out after all .... noone wants to lose a cargo over such a small thing

Best I can think of for Rush is playing off as someone's battle pet.

All plans sound good to me. Just tell me what I am to do.

OK, not sure if we have everything ironed out, but I'll get us started.

Prosper clears his new voice and responds to the audio connection from the Zandamont. "Hail Zandamont. This is Captain Rafflexis. I regret to inform you that Captain Tilldanec and his crew picked up a virulent strain of disease on their last visit to Outpost Zed. My crew and I have been assigned temporary control of the Relic to complete this supply run."

Bluff: 1d20 + 8 + 1d6 ⇒ (5) + 8 + (3) = 16 Oof, using Convincing Liar for the reroll.
Bluff: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19 :/ Anyone want to aid by looking like a convincing crew in the background of his video call? Or chiming in with some appropriate stuff?

Auto aid. Looking convincing.

Bluff Aid: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21

Dalinar,in his fancy new (illusion)armor, tries to hold in a laugh. He fails. At least, he tries to act like that is what he's doing.

"It was virulent alright. There were bodily fluids everywhere."

Aid: Look Convincing: 1d20 ⇒ 17
Rush, in his Azlanti armor, gets to work looking like some sort of slave that is making routine repairs on minor ship systems.

Spec shuffles busily into the frame, with a datapad nearly attached to his flat owl-face, calling out in a distracted tone:
"Captain Rafflexis sir? Terribly sorry to bother you on the bridge sir, but there seems to be one more space on the ASN-2204 Temporary Relinquishment of Command form that needs to be filled in."
He stumbles over to the command chair, seeming oblivious to everything else.
"See sir, you need to sign here right next to Captain Tildanec's....". At this point, the xaursi finally looks up and realized the scowling Azlanti in front of him was on an important call.

*gulps audibly*" oh no Um, sorry sir, this can definitely wait til we get back to Zed, Captain Tildanic won't need it till then ....

With a resigned look, he mutters "don't worry sir, I'll go flog myself now ... I know where the tools are" and scurries quickly off scene again.

Bluff: 1d20 + 6 + 1d6 ⇒ (18) + 6 + (3) = 27

Wint just nods at just about everything that is said by anybody

bluff: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (1) + 5 = 6

"Welcome, Captain Rafflexiss. I am Captain Tyree of the Zandamount. Good of you to take over for Tildanec." Then she looks worried. "Did you sterilize the ship? I don't want you to bring anything contagious from Outpost Zed." She looks nauseated at the thought of it. "Please tell me you followed standard decontamination protocols."

Does it look like Gulta itself has docking ports for supply ships? Or does it seem like deliveries go to the Zandamount?

"Captain Tyree. A pleasure." As he speaks, Prosper delivers a swift kick to his ever-useless xaursi assistant. "Hmph! Well, I can assure you the ship is fully sterilized, and the supplies we're bringing are still sealed in their original cargo containers. There's nothing for you to worry about. The same could not have been said with all of my crew, unfortunately. A few will be awaiting my return to Outpost Zed... convalescing."

He shakes his head in frustration before scowling. "That leaves me with some of the servants and slaves filling in critical roles. Appalling. It is a wonder we reached you in one piece."

After a moment to compose himself, Prosper lets some curiosity enter his voice as he says "I must admit this is my first supply trip to Gulta. Is there anything we should be aware of in completing this delivery?"