Zirelle's page

I have dropped out of this game. I told the Referee a few days ago, but wanted to make sure you all knew.

Zirelle leaves some equipment behind

Artificial Gill TL8 | 4Kg | 4,000 Credits
Breather Mask TL8 | -- | 150 Credits
Bugs (4) | TL11 | Audio/Visual/Data | 300 credits (x4)
Electronics Toolkit TL7 | 2Kg | 2,000 Credits
EM Probe TL10 | 1Kg | 1,000 credits
Forensics Toolkit TL8 | 12Kg | 2,000 Credits
Light Intensifier Goggles TL9 | -- | 1,250 Credits
Gauss Pistol | 13 | Range: 20m | Damage: 3D | Weight: 1Kg | 500 Credits (but taken from Harlan) | Magazine: 40 | Magazine Cost: Cr20 | Traits AP (armor piercing) 3, Auto 2 (when attacking with a burst of fire (can't aim), add the auto score to damage)

with a note, saying that she needs to get back to her husband and her retirement.

Zirelle says nothing, worried about taking advantage of the injured woman, although having a place to stay for a few days could be a good thing. Then they would be less dependent on talking Pollard into paying them.

You would have gotten the information about the G-band detector from when Zirelle caught you up on the background of the whole thing. As far as I remember without looking back specifically they accidentally happened upon a way to detect alien artifacts. This is what the Prof said earlier (from my notes): "There’s another dig on Beck’s World. My assistant Juni is there now and she’s working to isolate the G-band conditions"

Zirelle takes the woman's hand, reassuring her.

Thank you. We'll follow up with that.

She looks over at Malaxius

If you have questions, better ask them now. We can't take up too much of her time.

Get some rest. Life comes first. :)

We already went through the claiming the body scene, so I doubt there is more to be gained there. If we are going to retcon all that, I'll rather ret con that Dev took it home and buried it, unless the GM rules that it is still here, insinuating that we need to revisit that scene and get more information. Visiting Prof. Ujinka makes sense in the storyline, but as players we know it is sorta pointless because GM said she was supposed to have died, so we probably already have all the clues that she could give us. We know Prof. U's assistant Juni is on Beck's world and we have the clues to talk to her about finding the weird artifacts, but visiting Prof. U can give us clues about that again with this group. There was something about a conference on Deneb too, but not sure if it was a red herring... should probably go with what the GM says and talk to the inspector and see if he wants to work with us now.

I think talking to professor Ujinka first is a good idea, but let's not stay long. She needs her rest. But we can let Malaxius find out as much as he can about the statue.

Then, unless we find out something we need to act on immediately, I think talking to Pollard is a good idea. We could at least thank him, and you never know... he might want to hire us on as consultants to find out what is going on. Would be nice to have him on our side if we face super-officious types in the future. Especially if they are, uh, familiar with my past work.

Then maybe when we leave, we should visit Vlen's lodge on Allel. The body is taken care of I believe, but I feel like there is still a lot to discover in that regard, Nic. Agree with you there.

Nic, it has been a while, but I believe that we retrieved the body, or at least saw it and talked to the coroner, and we arranged for it to be delivered to our ship... but definitely could have missed/forgotten it going missing after we claimed it.

Zirella smiles at Malaxius, hoping that the professor has recovered enough to talk to them. Then she replies to Ben.

We could reach out to Pallod, but remember, he did threaten to arrest us recently as well. He might have gotten us released so he can follow along and see if we get any leads, but I don't know that he has any special love for us. I don't mind if that is what you all want to do. He might share more. Didn't he tell us that he had already found the murderer last time we talked?

Zirelle was loath to leave her weapons behind, but it looked like the best they could do. Perhaps a quick visit to the professor, and then a ticket out so they could retrieve their weapons. After they were away from the government facility, Zirelle stopped at a seedy diner so they could eat, and so she could fill the team in on everything now that they weren't in the middle of a deadline. Quietly so as not to be overheard, she told the story, in between bites, and pausing whenever anyone was near enough to listen in.

So, we can RP the meal if you guys want, but I think this is the point where we can finally say that you know everything from reading the backstory of the game so far. Everyone fully informed.

After she was done, she suggested visiting the professor to find out about the artifact, but whatever they wanted to do from here was open to discussion.

Suggestions?

Zirelle sighs, taking the datapad and going to sit down to fill in paperwork. That was what the government was best at.

She gives her real name (although her married name is different than most people would know from the past), the address of the planet where she lives now with her husband, and her original planet of origin... she'd never been convicted of piracy, so her official record should be clean enough.

She puts down her title as "security consultant."

She has an awful lot of weapons on her, and authorities might wonder what she is doing with audio/visual/data bugs. If they are patting them down, they might also wonder how she could afford massively expensive subdermal armor.

The ship isn't ours, we just took it to escape that place that was going to blow up. We went over with the supply run.

The ship must have belonged to that man... Harlen I think. The crazy one who started the destruct sequence before we even got a chance to ask him anything. We didn't have another way off. We would have taken everyone in the ship if we had known the pods didn't work. We tried to save them, but we had no idea he had the pods rigged, or disabled or whatever. How could we have known that? ... And we didn't know he was a madman! We just heard that Vlen had business with Harlen before Vlen died, so we went to ask about it. Believe me, if we had known he was going to blow the whole place up, we would have handled it differently! Don't accuse us of something because we tried to save ourselves!

Zirelle steps forward.

She sounds a little bit shaky when she talks, and she says

We did everything we could. We helped all those people to life pods, we really tried to help get them out, but they never launched. We scanned and ... they never launched. I don't know what happened. Why did that man start a self-destruct sequence? We were just asking him about some business he did with our friend Vlen Backett. Trying to tie up loose ends for his estate. I mean, we were standing there talking one minute and the next this warning was going off everywhere telling us that the place was going to self-destruct. We were just asking him questions, and he started the countdown. Why would he do that? I thought maybe he was just faking to try to get rid of us. I was hoping at least, but you can't stay just in case, you know? And then we were launching and it all exploded, and I don't know why he would do that... he killed himself. He killed all of those people. I don't know why, or why those pods didn't launch. Did you find anyone else? We had to run there at the end to save ourselves, but we tried to help everyone else, and I saw people getting into the pods. What happened? What kind of a man would do that? Just to avoid some questions? I mean, the guy must have been insane, right?

Answering Malaxius, Zirelle says

Stay cool. Those people don't have any idea who we are or what we brought with us. It is an artifact that we got from Vlen's belongings and are taking to Professor Ujinka for analysis. I'm sure we'll be hassled, but the story is that we were there to look into Vlen's death, and when the self-destruct went off we ran for the ship. That's all true. Just breathe, and things will work out.

Things may or may not work out, of course, but the important thing now was to get everyone to stay calm. She had wasted time and their choices were now limited. She had no idea what Winter Trading or the government was going to interfere with now. Was the statue illegal? She didn't know, but they needed it either way if they wanted to pursue the mystery. ... Then again, did the mystery really matter? If they confiscated the statue maybe she could just go home. She was supposed to be retired, and she didn't need this hassle anyway.

Zirelle, frustrated because they don't really have time for this now either, runs through the main events of everything that happened after they came here with Dev... questioned by authorities, saving professor Ujinka, then getting the very last-minute, time-limited opportunity/demand from Winter.

Okay, Nic. Now you know. If you can think of any way that I could have planned that better given the time constraints and the limitations that were inherent in the offer, I'd like to hear what you would have done. Unless you have a real suggestion, then lay off the criticism. I'm happy to take you to one of those ships and drop you off if you want to go home. In fact...

Zirelle trails off, then contacts the trading ship and the lux liner and asks if they have any medical services available, or cabins available, and where they are heading. She motions to Linc to head towards the ships. If they have to drop someone off or confuse the issue further, then visiting a couple of other civilian ships might help. Maybe they could split up, then meet up later.

I already responded to those asking if we need aid. The message is above, but this is what it said:

Thank you, but no aid needed here. We are uninjured and the ship should be able to dock safely. We think the pods malfunctioned, because there were other people there, but we don't detect any other survivors. Maybe someone with better sensors could check though?

Well, Nic, I didn't know he mattered so much to you. Dev was next of kin, and that is how I got mixed up in this whole thing if looking for his murderer, who is the person we were after by the way, although that certainly isn't the end of it.

I didn't even remember that you had a connection with him. I just called you about a job. But for the record, I'm sorry. I didn't know first of all that it was important to you, and second of all, that you didn't already know. It definitely wasn't a secret.

Sorry, Nic. Just looked at your background and don't see anything about Vlen, so not sure how to respond to that. Clue me in and I'll come up with something.

And with more information we could also confuse the issue by docking with some other ships, inquiring about passage out of the system or whatever. The more ships we visit, the less reason the government has to believe that we got anything at all from where we just were. We already have a reason for having it... one of our group was the closest relation to Vlen Backett and should have inherited everything he owned, so we could have gotten it from Ujinka and were inquiring about selling it to someone else for a higher price or whatever, but we weren't able to make a deal (no idea why the self-destruct was turned on... our argument wasn't to that extreme, at least so we thought), and are going to return it to Professor Ujinka, who Vlen was initially planning on selling it to. Visiting other ships could confuse things further... so, group opinions on whether we want to go contact other ships first, or just land?

Assuming that Nic and Max share their insights, we likely have a plan.

It's okay, Linc. Just land as soon as you can. We'll have to talk to the authorities, but I think we can talk our way out of giving up the statue. It clearly belonged to Vlen Backett, and was possibly the reason he was killed. We heard of a trader out here that might want it, and were provided transport by Winter Holdings, but after we boarded there was a self-destruct countdown and we tried to help others, and took the ship back out ourselves. All of that is technically true. We don't have to add additional detail. We'll head back to Professor Ujinka and see if she can help us with some scanning equipment. If not, we know where her assistant is, and might be able to get her to help instead.

Does that sound good for going forward?

Posting this in all my games that have activity: won't be posting today because my right eye is swollen up so that I can only see a blur out of it, and even though I can still see and type, it's obnoxious and giving me a headache. Will be back when this goes away, hopefully tomorrow, and sincerely apologize for the absence.

Zirelle sends back to those asking whether they need aid

Thank you, but no aid needed here. We are uninjured and the ship should be able to dock safely. We think the pods malfunctioned, because there were other people there, but we don't detect any other survivors. Maybe someone with better sensors could check though?

Zirelle scans through the names of the other ships, looking for one that they could dock with if needed, and maybe even take passage with. Are there destinations listed in the computer for each ship (assuming they have to record that somewhere, but not sure if it is public)?

My idea is to claim the statue belongs to professor Ujinka. She owes us, and perhaps this was meant for her to see anyway. As for where to dock though, not sure... As a former pirate, how likely does Zirelle think it is that they could get back to Professor Ujinka with the statue without getting hassled about it? Does she have any piratey insight on what other ship might be able to help them confuse the issue if she doesn't think that it is likely that they could just head back themselves? Maybe the far traders or the lux liner?

Also, are there passenger lists that they might have access to? Maybe they could find out where the people came from that they met on the station. The ship that brought them might be out there.

Last one off the platform, history of piracy... He wondered quietly. How long before she disposes of us the same way?

Ha ha... priceless. :)

I am still here and reading it all, but I'm not going to post further storyline until we have more information. That's how we got way ahead of ourselves last time.

It would help to know our options here... who exactly is trying to contact us, and whether there is a port nearby that we can disappear into... or does it have the range to get us out of the vicinity and somewhere else that we can lay low?

Zirelle is reluctant to side with the man who was so recently willing to leave her behind to die, but she spoke up anyway.

We can't let it out of our sight. I was able to hack in and saw a video of that exact statue being given to Harlen by Vlen Backett. A note on the file mentioned a lodge in Alell. I have no idea what it means, but whatever it is, it is important, and letting go of it is a bad idea unless there is no other choice. Let's find out if we have other choices first.

First I heard of it was when Linc radioed and asked why they weren't launching, and by that time no one had the time to undo what was done. If whoever used them didn't notice, then I'd say their deaths are on the head of the author of the universe and not us. Not sure why the story seems so awful sometimes, but it's the same universe we've been living in this whole time.

Sometimes it works out in our favor and other times it doesn't. If you believe in an afterlife, then those poor sods are probably happier than we are by now. Either way, nothing we can do but go forward, and hope that it all works into a larger tapestry that makes sense.

Relieved that they are all alive, Zirelle goes into damage control mode. She sits down at the comms panel and starts looking through the messages and seeing who they are from.

We probably have to answer someone, especially if it is official, but do we know the designation of this craft or the listed owner? If that information is there, we might be able to bluff. If not, what story are we telling? Found a container out here in the black and were planning on salvage, but it was trapped? Play dumb?

Linc, if you can get us to a dock somewhere, that might give us more options if things go wrong... well, worse.

If that were the case, wouldn't some of them have jettisoned... the first ones, and then stopped later? Also, I assume escape pods are built to work when the power is out... being emergency features after all.

As far as not solving things by retconning, normally I would agree, but if we had realized immediately that the pods weren't working, which we would have if we were doing this in real time, then we could have saved some people rather than letting them all perish. Finding out after we had moved on necessitates some flexibility... and play by post is going to be like that a lot if we are out of rounds and posting a bunch of stuff before it gets confirmed.

Arriving at the shuttle, Zirelle is amazed to see that it is still there, and jumps aboard.

If Zirelle dies here, then yes, I will bow out. I don't see a way to save her (or any of the prisoners) at this point, and although you posted all the places where people were put into the pods... there are also posts about them already taking the shuttle out as well, so perhaps that illustrates why so much of it seems up in the air.

As I read it, they already left before I even started running (Linc posted that he was emergency boosting away), then you had me roll a check, but also said the pods weren't launching, which was my only other way off, and so survival itself seems like a retcon of some sort here.

If Zirelle miraculously survives, I will keep playing her. I just am not seeing how that happens at this point, that's all.

Zirelle replied on Comms

I'll try.

She tries.

No go. The pods are non-functional. We have exactly (Insert exact countdown here) left.

No idea what timing we/you need to escape, but Zirelle does know the timing of the actual countdown from seeing it on the screen after she hacked in, and it was two minutes when she set out... so depending on what posts you believe, we either have everyone with us, or we do not, and with no clarification before this, getting a message like that, without knowing the pods are nonfunctional... I would say that Zirelle stopping and trying to shoot off in a pod probably used up her time, so I think you should just take off, and we'll let the GM decide who you have with you NPC wise and who you do not. I'm okay with dying. I made that choice when I attempted to stop the countdown.

Because we don't want to leave them here to die?

Yeah, I think you are right that we weren't "meant" to... I just don't like when the game prevents you from getting loot. Loot is part of the fun.

One person said that they put the prisoners in the pods, so theoretically there are people in there, but if they don't work, we'd better get them out quick. I can't help because I am still trying to get there myself. Or, we retcon and say everyone is in the shuttle, because someone also said that they pulled the shuttle away already, so I think everything is still in question.

Vacc Suit + EDU: 2d6 + 0 + 1 ⇒ (4, 3) + 0 + 1 = 8

What a waste... so much loot. An entire freaking private station.

Disappointed that she can't stop the countdown, Zirelle sprints for the shuttle, hoping she can make it.

Zirelle searches Harlan's body and his desk.

I am not using a neural interface to do the hack, though I can communicate with the Intelligent interface that way... I am using the Intelligent Interface from my portable computer, which I hooked up to his system. It should be like an AI that is working on the hack for me, or at least that is what I think it does, and is the reason that I bought the whole portable computer setup. ... Good to hear that Harlan is dead though. That's something. :)

That's okay. She said that because she didn't want you waiting around for her, not because she didn't think the others were competent enough to get out on their own.

Sorry, not sure either. Maybe he just subtracted one because that would be the difference between using gambler and using Electronics (Computers)? ... And yeah, get out. I have no idea if the thing is going to go off before 5 rounds is up.

Also, can I take any other action while my intelligent interface is working on getting that information? If so, I would like to zip-tie Harlan and also bash him to keep him unconscious. I don't want him waking up and ruining things.

Zirelle takes Harlan's gun, in case he comes to before the place explodes, then says

We can't get out the way we came in... go untie those guys we left behind and see if there are lifepods or ships enough for all. I am going to take a moment and see if there is a way to turn off the self-destruct from here. Anyone that is great with computers, could use your help.

Zirelle hooks her intelligent interface up to Harlan's set up and has it start running through access options to try to stop the auto destruct... if there are biometric locks to the interface, she has the guy right there.

She's glad that he's down, but this is not a win... she wants the time to loot this place down to the bare walls and solve the mystery of what this guy has been doing, not to barely escape with their lives.

Gambler + Int: 2d6 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (2, 5) + 1 + 1 = 9

She isn't going to stop anyone from running though. She sees Nic waiting for her and says

Nic. You are in charge of extraction. Save as many as you can. And don't wait for me. If you find a way out, and the countdown is still active, get everyone safe.

My stunner is TL 12.

Zirelle is annoyed and worried and wishes that they could have snuck up on this guy and knocked him out before he set off some auto destruct command, but also knows there is no point in negotiation. She shoots Harlen.

Gun Combat + Dex: 2d6 + 0 + 1 ⇒ (2, 5) + 0 + 1 = 8
Damage: 3d6 ⇒ (2, 3, 4) = 9

Up. Don't want to leave bad guys behind us.

Zirelle climbs up the ladder as quietly as possible...

Stealth + Dex: 2d6 + 1 + 1 ⇒ (4, 2) + 1 + 1 = 8

...but when she nears the top she is careful to poke her head up to get a glimpse and then duck back down, just in case someone is waiting to shoot her.

Not the guy. Get everyone secured. We can come back and clean the place out after we accomplish our objective.

Zirelle doesn't know if that is the guy, but doesn't want to say it out loud, because that was exactly the information they needed to get from the prisoners, and hopefully from the computer system here as well, if they could gain access. If their mission was already accomplished, great, but she wasn't sure, and she was anxious to find out.

We need to make sure the entire base is cleared out and access their systems. See if one of them will talk in return for his life.

Note: still waiting on the DM for looting results, etc., and he is sick and finishing tax stuff, so my character actions are on hold until he has time to come back and give us more information. Assuming part of that will be clues to our next steps. Main priority is to make sure no one escapes from here that we don't specifically allow to leave... can't let the shadowy evil organization continue. I think there is another area in this place, so need to check that as well before we know that we solved the problem.

Zirelle looks around for other threats, but when she sees none, and assures herself that Erryl was doing what he could for their injured comrade, she goes over to examine and loot Orange's corpse and retrieve his weapon. Then she checks out the room where he presumably got it.

The roll with Dex would be exactly the same as with int... I have a +1 in both, so not sure why the effect would be different. (Thanks for the correction though. I thought it was more flaxible and went with Int because of the complex aiming I was doing trying not to blow a hole in the ship.)

Zirelle shoots Orange again.

Gun Combat+Dex: 2d6 + 0 + 1 ⇒ (5, 6) + 0 + 1 = 12
Damage: 3d6 ⇒ (6, 2, 3) = 11

Zirelle shoots Orange, making sure to line up the shot so that it wouldn't hit any outside walls.

Gun Combat+Intellect: 2d6 + 0 + 1 ⇒ (6, 2) + 0 + 1 = 9
Damage: 3d6 ⇒ (2, 5, 2) = 9

After shooting, she drops down below the lip of the lower area again and moves to a different position, expecting him to try to hit her last position, and planning to pop up and shoot him again after he tried.

With her rifle ready, Zirelle feels confident that she can shoot just about any distance in this little tub, but she also doesn't want to get hurt herself, so she goes down the stairs again, keeping low to take advantage of the cover of the lower cargo area. She moves forward until she sees orange and then she visually tries to line up a shot that won't hit the outside wall of the container.

Takes triple movement to get orange in sight again, unfortunately. The shot from the other way was a lot safer since there was an internal wall behind him.

Zirelle starts to move out to take out pink, but hears Erryll trying to talk him down, and also sees Orange out that way.

She ducks back in the room, holsters her stunner and takes out her accelerator rifle, assembling it with practiced hands.

Moving to door and back and holstering weapon I am counting as a minor action. If I need to drop the stunner instead so it doesn't count as an action all on its own or something, I can do that instead, but since I only moved two squares, I thought I might be able to fit it into that move. Significant action is getting out my rifle and making sure it is ready to use.