A Profitable Outcome
The Travellers have reached the main world of Medishvlaas, with a couple of barely functional ships and some pirates in tow. They have pretty much decided that they want to blow open the corruption case concerning the pirate captain Vera Vance, but there is disagreement over whether to involve her in it.
After much discussion, it is decided to return her to the Imperium (but not directly to Sylea) as a prisoner, and to share the information she has put together with as many people as possible. However, do they want to even talk to her again?
From my perspective, it seemed odd that they were considering not even involving her in the process. She was made scapegoat for a massive corruption scandal, and the Travellers want to help her, but they don’t want to talk to her about it.
In the end, it’s decided to interview her again – but not to tell her that they have found her notes. Nashu tells her that she recognises her from the scandal, and had always thought she was innocent, so wants to help prove that she is.
Vera is suspicious – she doesn’t understand why her captors have suddenly brought the subject up and are so eager to help her. She asks whether they’ve found something, and Nashu denies it. So Vera remains suspicious and doesn’t really cooperate. She’s expecting to be locked up or executed for being a Pirate, so the chance of anyone believing her version of events is low.
Eventually Nashu admits that they’ve found Vera’s notes and decoded them. They’re aware that she has a lot of evidence, and finally convince her that they are willing to help. Vera says that everything she knows is in her notes – but does give them some useful pointers to important parts.
The plan seems to be to take Vera back to the Imperium, but leave the other pirates at this world.
As for the two victims Nya and Dax, they have decided they just want to get home. If their rescuers could fund them enough to get tickets home, they’d be happy. They don’t need the cargo or the remains of the ship.
Dax does give some suggestions on how to sell the two ships – in not entirely legal ways. He knows people who would buy them without any questions. They wouldn’t get full market value, but would get a quick lump amount of cash.
Together with the help of an Imperium contact down on the world, Dax is able to help sell the smuggled weapons and illegal drugs for a significant sum of money – giving the Travellers a few million credits. Since they never paid for them, it’s all profit.
There is more discussion about how to sell the ships, and whether to give Dax and Nya a share or not. Eventually, Nya is offered a job aboard the Sphincter as a mechanic, and Dax is giving a quarter of a million bonus for helping sell the goods.
The final decision seems to be to take the two heavily damaged ships back to the Imperium and dispose of them legally. For that, they’ll need to hire some pilots and engineers. For a decent markup for ‘danger money’ for flying ships in single digit hull points, they get a small crew willing to fly the ships to Sylea.
It’s a reasonable plan. The one world left on their shakedown cruise is Nirinirk, where there are thought to be pirates. However, Vera has told them that she doesn’t think there are any pirates there. Possibly some corrupt off-world corporations taking advantage of the people on that world, but no pirates.
There has been a lot more discussion about trade and money in this campaign than I had been expecting. I’d deliberately given them enough income to cover expenses, with the option of doing a bit of trade for an extra bonus. But there’s been a lot of thought given to trade, and also a lot of disagreement about how to share out the profits.
Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter. They’re going out into the wilderness where Imperium credits will be worthless, and if they succeed they will get incredibly rich. If they don’t succeed, well, then they probably won’t be coming back so it won’t matter.
Any money they gain will be useful for buying equipment that will be useful to them for their mission. But less useful on a personal basis. But a lot more thought has been spent on the subject that I was expecting.
They now have a big lump of cash, plus the potential for a few million way from the salvage of the two ships. I need to figure things out, but it will probably be at least another few million. So hopefully everyone will be happy, and be able to tool up before the main mission begins.
