Sex, Spies and Trains

The Travellers are at the world of Iirkkhu, where they have the open ended task of finding out about the factions here, and possibly deciding which one would be best for the Imperium to support if it were to bring the world under its control.

Irian wants to talk to the Mayor, and Nashu wants to go under cover. In either case, they need to talk to some people.

• There is Mayor Ganimakur Managudeli
• There is Smoke City, which probably requires some travel
• There are the Bandits

Asking around about the Mayor, he is married (on his third wife), and also has a mistress named Uldira Karemurii who also acts as his PA. Stories about him is that he’s a bit of a sexist, and somewhat greedy and aggressive when it comes to business deals and politics.

Gan meanwhile sets up his ship computer to start scanning the local ‘internet’. Though the world is TL 5, it has a satellite network (purchased at some point in the past) which provides a limited amount of global communications. A bit of voice and text communication, along with some basic data networks. There are some simple sites and news groups to filter data from.

Everything is very basic, and not much is connected to the network. A lot of what is connected to the network though in unsecured.

Dmitri has a chat with his mercenary friend, to see what sort of contract they are going for. It sounds like they might get a job helping security at the oil fields up near the town of Railyard. It is also mentioned that one of the spacecraft landed here – the Double Entry – has a reputation for getting up to no good. Rumours are that they do a bit of piracy. There are a couple of other ships in the group, the Saffron Poni and the Kingfisher. Neither of those two ships are here though.

As well as a few other bits and pieces (rail timetables, a Smoke City news station, some nerdy spacecraft spotter’s website), the local starport warehouse has an inventory accessible on the net. It mentions that 30t of military equipment are currently stored there.

Dmitry sets up some surveillance on the Double Entry. Dr Durunarar up on the Big S sends word that another ship has arrived at the world, and is heading down towards them. It is a far trader, bright orange in colour, and isn’t broadcasting a transponder code. It also has nose art of an eight legged riding animal, being ridden by a scantily clad human woman. They guess that it’s the Saffron Poni. However, it doesn’t land at the starport. The Big S tracks the ship down to south of the starport, possibly into bandit country.

That evening, there is a discussion about whether it’s worth offering to sell the favour of the Imperium to the highest bidder. Irian had considered it, but from what she’s heard about the Mayor, doesn’t actually want to offer him anything. Though he does seem to be in the best position.

Gan and Dmitry head to the Red Lantern, a brothel. It’s also a good quality bar, relatively quiet and with good food and company. The crew of the Double Entry had gone here as well. They are currently enjoying a meal, along with a few of the staff.

Dmitry tries to find someone who can put him in touch with the Bandits and gets Lucky (spends some Luck points). He meets someone who can sort out contact with somebody ‘independent’ and not connected to the area around Landing. Dmitry is happy to simply enjoy a drink and a bite to eat, as well as the social company of the staff, whilst Gan arranges to go somewhere private with one of them.

Irian goes to the Gentleman’s Pedigree, where she meets another Sylean named Major Ackton Dantev. He has been working as a military advisor to the mayor, trying to train and organise the defensive army here. He has to rely on weapons coming in from traders. There are 20t of military hardware recently delivered in the warehouse.

Nashu goes back to the Litho Break, to meet with some of the pilots. Whilst there, she gets a tingling sensation at the back of her neck, and notices that one of them seems to be taking an interest in her. She goes over to talk to him.

He is Captain Harlen Stone, who was here chatting with one of his crew. She leaves, leaving Harlen and Nashu to have a conversation. They both turn out to be gifted at being polite, entertaining and not actually giving much away. Except Nashu is a telepath (though she doesn’t know it), and is picking up vibes from Harlen that suggest that he is working for the Imperium, possibly trying to do much what they are doing.

Eventually they both head back to his ship, the Wayward Mule, an 800t Python class trader. At this point I get visions of a certain episode of Babylon 5 about telepaths and sex, and decide it makes sense for Nashu to get a lot of information from Harlen. He works for the Imperium Intelligence Service, effectively a spy.

The following morning, Irian and Gan discuss that the Major thinks that there’s only 20t of military hardware in the warehouse. Is he wrong? Are they wrong? Who is hiding something from someone else?

The (internet enabled) train timetable says that there is a train turning up at the warehouse this afternoon, then heading down towards the southern border. It’s listed as being a private train for the Mayor. The people here have basic internet knowledge, and don’t know what is good or bad to put on it. They also don’t know what can be found out from misconfigured servers.

Nashu wants to do a “train job”. The warehouse is also lightly guarded, so it may be possible to break in. Or they just head up to Smoke City.

There are multiple options, which can be left until next session.

The players having a free form discussion about things, and not following any specific plot, is quite fun to GM. As long as they don’t get bored, I don’t mind which direction they go off in.