De Havikmannen arrive on Tartan and are soon caught up in a terrorist attack they are too late to stop but at least they can assist. After, they meet with Kayla Elaine, their contact, who shares the first clue in tracking down De Wittespin.
SCENE ONE
{Cloak and Dagger + Law Star} {Scene Task: 5 Brawny + Craft & 6 Hard}. I like the idea of take C+D as a criminal group. The Havikmannen have a chance to help with a crime scene, essentially. We'll put 3 Effort to stop the terrorists, and 2 Effort to free the trapped victims.
The Tartan Port Industrio-Entertainment Complex. Part mall. Part business center. Part central nervous system for the human populace of Tartan. The largest non-industrial-processing structure on the moon. A living wall blocking off the eastern side of the space port. Standing at the base of it, looking up, it ceases to look like a building and starts looking like a strange landscape. Like a sound wave. It stretches 400 meters into the sky, and runs for a full kilometer to either side of its center.
The traffic to the port is small. Tartan is not a prime destination for many. Gravity locked around GLXα, the third moon is protected from the harsh blue-light of GLX but only 1/3 of the surface. This is the so-called Terraformed Zone, the TFZ. Where humans cling in a perpetual eclipse. Magenta sky with purple haze. Green sand from the oxidized copper. Splashed through with browns and yellows.
The TPIEC [Tay-Peek], though, stays busy. Somewhere in its labyrinthine internals, The Tartan Corp plots to wrest control of the collected mines from the workers who currently have part ownership. The Children of Tartan have taken this as a rallying cry. Thus, it is not too much a surprise that violence will soon spread out.
As Willem Havik is leading his motley crew of premiejagers1into the TPIEC, he stops to stare up the facade. He flutters his wings and thinks briefly of giving into the impulse to fly up and around this massive testament to the human mind. This brief moment of hesitation possibly saves his life, for right then a loud explosion rips from the entrance they nearly took.
Shouts and cries fill the spaces inside and outside of the building. Confusion reigns. Until a voice gives name to the violence, the reason:
VOICE: Tartan voor Tartanse2!
Other voices cry out in response.
OTHER VOICE: Stop them!
A group of three people are fleeing the TPIEC, dressed in heavy plasti-leather robes favored by TFZ Edgers, those that live as far from authority as they can muster. A small tri-wheeled vehicle is nearby. Not out of place at a space port, though the green, verdigris-ridden sand of the Tartan waste is perhaps a bit more pronounced.
WILLEM HAVIK: Nate, help the injured! Roos, with me!
NATUM VIJF3: Affirmative.
Roos does not say anything, because Roos Ellim never says much when she is hunting mode. Instead, she lifts her multi-range straalpistool4 and sets it to far and explosive.
- {Hard Agile} >> 1,3,6 >> One Success.
The tires of the escape vehicle blow out as Willem takes flight and lands to catch the people crawling out of the wrecked vehicle.
- {Hard Brawny, as per scene} >> 2,5,6 >> 1 Success. 1 person captured.
- >> 5,5,6 -1 Karma vs Human Hawk Hybrid >> 3 Successes. Fully captures all. 2 Karma Remain.
Willem kicks the first person square in the chin and hears a female voice grunt in pain as she slides down the outside. One of the others, a man, shouts TEELA! as he jumps out but Willem is grabs him and flies up. As the third tries to flee towards the off-world spaceships, Willem drops the second person on top of the third.
By the time Roos has caught up, all three terrorists are captured.
ROOS: That was quick.
WILLEM: Speaking of, let us find out how Nate is doing.
Back near the entrance, Natum Vijf is trying to solve how to get people out of the burning wreckage without causing more damage. People had initially balked at the strange robot. One designed for war reconnaissance, now rebuilt to help and assistant the capture of dangerous criminals.
- {Hard Crafty, as per Scene} >> 2,2,2 >> 0 Successes. -1 Resolve. 2 remain.
- >> 1,6,3 >> 1 Success.
- >> 4,5,6 >> 1 Success. Complete.
The first beam Nate pulls upon shifts badly and catches the robot in its custom-made five-fingered arm, not so suited to such heavy tasks. Though Nate feels no pain, it still recognizes further damage is a problem. It shifts to its stronger, left arm which has been designed handle heavier tasks. With it, Nate is able to pull much of the wreckage up long enough that others pull folks out.
- How many people did Nate save? {1d6} >> 3.
- How many were trapped in the explosion total? {3d6} >> 9.
WILLEM: Nate! How goes the rescue?
NATE: I have saved three people. Several more died in the blast and the collapse before I could intervene.
ROOS: Wil got the people who did it.
The security guards are directed to the spot where Roos has chained up the unconscious terrorists.
While watching these proceedings, Nate seems almost embarrassed by the people offering thanks, if Nate could process emotions like "embarrassed." A middle-aged, silver-haired woman approaches them.
WOMAN: Ah, daar ben je. Kom binnen. We moeten praten.5
Scene Two
{Cannister + Slipknot}. {Scene Challenge >> 4 Agile + Brawny & 5 Normal}.
Inside. The TPIEC has many, many zones. Some very practical. Some very fancy. This one leans towards fancy. Plants hang from the ceiling. Dark green. Blue lighting. A filter designed specifically to sift copper dust from the air. Shadowy figures in the dim ambience would perhaps seem a bit sinister except for the laughter. This deep into the TPIEC, the fear brought upon by the explosion are dampened. This is for the haves, not the have-nots.
WILLEM: People here seem awfully calm to be inside a building that was just attacked.
WOMAN (KAYLA ELAINE): [She Shrugs] You know how it is...
- Have there been several such attacks, as of late? [6],4,1 >> Yes.
- Is Willem aware before getting here? [4],5,2 >> Yes, And... He has a secondary mission to try and find out the cause of the violence, one that is under wraps.
WILLEM: The Children are that frequent with their terrorism? [playing dumb]
KAYLA: Frequent enough. Tartan is a rough place to make a living.
NATE: Why do it then?
- Does Nate usually show interest in this sort of thing? [2],6,5 >> Yes. Though roughly unemotional, he is curious. Part of his programming.
KAYLA: Why, what else? Money.
ROOS: We are not here to discuss...
KAYLA: I know, here. [sets a strange metal tube on the table, a cannister with a small lock on one side ]
WILLEM: Wat is dit?6
KAYLA: A person I work with to get shipments out from reclaimed parts said it was smuggled into his boxes. His helper bots almost missed it.
WILLEM: Nate?
NATE: [looks at the cannister] The lock seems simple enough with an reverse-Eugiform calculation, but steps to get it open might be harder. Very precise movements.
ROOS: Tell me, and I'll try.
- {Normal Agile, as per the scene} 5,4,3 >> Success.
The cannister opens and three robo-mod boards are inside along with encrypted data chips. Roos holds up the boards and all three have a tiny, white spider logo clear even in the dim, blue lighting.
WILLEM: We need to meet your contact.
[NOTE] DOUG'S THOUGHTS
The plan is to roughly allot around 1.5 hours per session and call it after that time runs out, with a few "stretchy minutes" built in if I get distracted with too much lore or graphics. Looks like for me that will be 2-3 scenes, maybe 4 if I get on the ball.
Art will be sporadic, lore will be sporadic, and stuff will get re-used. Early sessions often take longer. Some of the art will be of much more primitive quality than others. That's ok.
I've added footnotes for my bad takes on Dutch. Some I just kind of know. Some I have had to look up. Some I just sort of made up. The language is obviously something like an Engels/Nederlands mix with heavy Engels.
I bolded a few words for myself, so that I can find them later if needed. These are key terms that will either be important in this story-arc or in the general campaign.
- Bounty Hunters. ↩︎
- "Tartan for the Tartans," in semi-poor, rally-cry styled Dutch. ↩︎
- Vijf = Five. Natum Five is just a name I came up with. Willem thinks of Nate as a "he" but Nate thinks of himself as "it" and "this one." ↩︎
- Straalpistool is the closest I could find to a kind of old school concept of a "ray gun." ↩︎
- "Ah, there you are. Come inside. We must talk." ↩︎
- "What is this?" ↩︎