2 More Quit

With a couple more players bowing out of playing, the game is now officially ended.

Thanks for playing and for the memories, everyone!

Rufiaus De Mourne III, an Un-Made Man

The crew had borrowed their employer's ship, Guardian Angel, and for Rufi they traveled to Bernadette.
While there the previous session's shopping occurred.

The night focused on Rufi and Lilly going to meet Rufi's old boss, Raymond "X-Ray" Xavier. X-Ray was the boss that Rufi unwittingly betrayed during the whole "Sasha incident." X-Ray had sent people after Rufi before, more to insult than kill, but now wanted a favor from Rufi. Or twelve.

Rufi and Lilly took the "mule" to an Italian restaurant. At the door two very large men made them disarm (though Lilly hid some Chinese stars on herself somewhere) before allowing them into the almost completely empty dining area. X-Ray sat at a table in the back, alone, chatting with a very nervous waiter.

X-Ray, a man who could never be considered slim but who also has a reputation for holding his own in fights even at his age (mid-50's), explained how upset he had been at Rufi's past actions, and how there was a little rodent (and much more) at stake here on how this meeting went. Rufi was cold but not rude, whereas Lilly was insulting about just about everyone (the guards outside, X-Ray, and Rufi.)

The Syndicate boss took it in stride, at times amused with Lilly and other times insulted. He made it clear to Rufi that he really didn't have a choice here - if he wanted Rapscallion back, and X-Ray off his case, Rufi needed to do some jobs for him. X-Ray detailed a plan where Rufi would go to work for one of X-Ray's rivals, a Patrick Sinclair, as a cover so that Rufi could seduce Sinclair's wife and publicly humiliate the Syndicate boss by letting the affair be made very graphically public.

Rufi agreed, saying that this job would settle things. X-Ray disagreed, saying that this job would have X-Ray no longer sending incompetent assassins after Rufi and would let Rapscallion go. This was more than Rufi was willing to accept, so under the guise of agreeing and leaving amiably, Rufi and Lilly hatch a plan to end this debt much sooner.

Rufi makes a break for the door while Lilly turns and throws one of her stars at X-Ray. The star hits true, causing some damage to X-Ray, whilst Rufi makes it outside to recover his and Lilly's pistols and goes all John Woo on one of the outside guards. X-Ray, a bit and tough Syndicate boss, pulls the star out of his chest and yells back to the kitchen "Plan B" which brings three gunsels out wielding imitation Tommy Guns. Lilly gets riddled with bullets before ducking behind a table to try to stop herself from bleeding out.

Outside the second guard gets a hold of Rufi, who fires the pistols he's holding into the guard's legs at an awkward angle and yet still hitting the guard. The guard, George who wears a bowler, squeezed Rufi with his beastly strength. The other guard, having pulled his pistol but under orders to NOT kill Rufi, clubs Mr. De Mourne III upside the head and knocks him out cold. Lilly, meanwhile, finds two of the gunsels have moved to the side of the table and have her in their sights before demanding she surrender. Lilly, wisely, does.

X-Ray, using a napkin to try and stop the bleeding from the Chinese star, looks on Lilly coldly. She asks what happens now, and X-Ray says that he still wants Rufi to do the job but now Lilly owes him as well (for the star and for him not having her killed.) Lilly has two demands, which X-Ray very uncharacteristically entertains - one, telling her whether he is Alliance or not (he is not, and finds the idea of him, a Syndicate boss, working with the government and law enforcement agencies very strange), and two that he not kill the chinchilla. X-Ray has the waiter check, and yes Rapscallion is still alive (though the cook had started shaving the poor critter!)

Lilly is allowed to limp away, showing great strength and endurance (and her Tough as Nails trait) as she carries Rufi's body to the mule. There she radios the crew about what happened and Stirner comes out to stabilize the two before taking them to a hospital.

---

All in all, not at all what I had planned. My apologies to the rest of the players who really did not get a chance to RP this session. Hopefully the NPCs you were assigned will still be useful if Rufi recovers and agrees to X-Ray's plan... but who knows, he may decide that a mission of covert revenge is more to his liking.

Mission Debriefing and Cortex Messages.

The game picked up with Guardian Angel back on Jiangyin and the crew getting a few days off before the next mission.

Captain Cal Watterson, from the start only having been given a probationary period as captain, finds himself in a long meeting with Mr. Alleydyne. For a perceived lack of control of the crew Cal is relieved of duty and tries to leave quietly the next morning only to run into Lilly. He says his goodbyes to Lilly and heads off, hopefully to greener pastures.

Both Rufiaus and Stirner have Cortex messages waiting for them, and while Wilhelm deals with his privately Rufi springs into action and enlists Lilly to help him go and recover his chinchilla, Rapscallion, from Rufi's old boss on Bernadette. Luckily for them Mr. Alleydyne has granted the crew permission to use Guardian Angel while he searches for a new captain (or tries to figure out who amongst the crew to promote.)

The night before found Becka, Kate and A.R. at one of the small villages on Jiangyin for a festival. Everyone had gotten their first paycheck, after all. Becka sang for a bit (before the mike was taken back, politely, by the band.) Some purchases of clothing and a few other sundries were made as well. Kate takes a collection (well, she takes Stirner's money at least to combine with her own) and orders a cleaning robot through Mr. Alleydyne (who agrees to cover the difference by taking the remainder from her upcoming checks.)

Rufi, upon learning of the crew's permission to use Guardian Angel, gets the rest of the crew to come with him on the trip to Bernadette. On route, Becka decides now's a good time to try out those new games and toys she bought. While trying to get the handle of a stick game she accidentally hits a button that locks the landing gear in the extended position and also chokes off the engine. A.R. is immediately on the ball and notices this, and Rufi takes charge sending A.R. and Lilly in space suits outside the ship for a little repair job on the hull. Ship successfully fixed, and Becka's actions a secret (or so she thinks, as Rufi's got the cockpit under recorded camera) the ship continues on to Bernadette.

What awaits Rufi and Rapscallion? Did someone say Becka bought a rocket propelled grenade? Tune in next week for more calamity!

Benton and Missing Wednesdays

I don't blame Benton - work is work and when you can't adjust your schedule, what can you do?

The question is, though, what do the rest of us do? A game that is supposed to meet weekly either consistently misses one player, or is often delayed.

I've suggested a filler game - someone else running something on nights Benton can't make it. That was met with, at least from one person, the idea that if Serenity isn't played we're probably more likely to just not meet. That has been the result, for the most part.

But I want to know from everyone - if even a few of us (like, counting me, at least 4 people) want to still get together on Wednesdays when Benton can't make it and play something else, I'm game. We don't need everyone to agree.

Also - if we had another time other than Wednesday nights that works for most of us better, we could try that as well.

I don't mean to try and be excluding anyone. But the majority shouldn't have to not get together because the minority can't make it.

February 10th - Shannon Webb and the Alliance Military

So this sessions started with the Captain sick in bed being treated by Dr. Murphy.
Alcohol poisoning - as in someone slipped some hard liquor in something he consumed and with his lightweight trait he was down for the count for the game.

Shannon Webb, 15 year-old stowaway and daughter of Guardian Angel's first contracted client, Mr. Allen Webb, was being held in the spare crew quarters. She was still wearing Kate's dress and underwear (which Kate deemed "non-returnable") but huddle in a corner.

Stirner came out of his days of meditation to learn what was happening on the ship and attempted speaking with the girl. With Rufiaus present, however, the conversation turned bitter and Stirner backed off, offering the girl one of his Buddhist texts to read.

Stirner also sent Lilly away with some medication to help her sleep. Lilly did go off to sleep, but promptly refused to tkae the medicine. She did, however, fall into a deep sleep and dreamed once more.

Kate came across Dr. Murphy and asked his opinion of Allen Webb, and the doctor told her that the man seemed reasonable and would probably be thankful for them returning his errant daughter.

Rufi called for the ship to be stopped, which Becka did, and asked for everyone to meet to discuss the stowaway situation. Rufi then welded the door shut, trapping Shannon inside.


Cal made an appearance, but promptly vomited in the sink in the mess (to Kate's disgust) and Dr. Murphy took the Captain back to his room. Mai remained, listening to the meeting.

Rufi tried listing options for dealing with Ms. Webb, but upon mentioning spacing the girl he found several crew members disagreeing (Stirner and Becka most notably), and moved on quickly to their other options of dropping the girl off on Jiangyin for the local authorities or continuing back to Beylix to return her to her father. Mai said she believed returning the girl to her father would be best. Others brought up that if they wanted to punish the girl, returning her to where she was trying to escape was probably the most fitting option.

While the ship remained stationary for over an hour, an Alliance patrol hailed the ship and after a brief conversation with Becka and Rufi demanded that they be allowed to dock. Lilly, who had been sleeping peacefully (well, her body was getting rest even if her mind was being tortured), bolted awake at Becka's shipwide announcement that the Alliance would be boarding the vessel.

Kate ran off to check on and stay with Lilly, the doctor remained with the sick Captain, and the rest of the crew went to the front entrance to meet the Alliance officers.

A Lt. Cmd. Halverson and Lt. Jameson, along with four soldiers, were at the airlock. Stirner invited them in to inspect the ship (earning a slap from Rufi), and the officers were informed that the captain and security officer were sick in bed (due to conflicting reasons) as well as that the ship had a stowaway.

Rufi and Becka lead Lt. Cmd. Halverson and 2 soldiers to the room where Shannon was held. Rufi undid the welding. Lt. Cmd. Halverson found Shannon in the room reading the book that Stirner had given her, and Shannon was very agreeable to the Alliance men and even covered for the few things the crew had said or done that might have gotten them in trouble. Becka thought the girl was very nice, Rufi was shocked by the change in attitude from the girl, and the officer was mollified.

Leading Ms. Webb to the Alliance Patrol Boat, the Lt. Cmd. thanked the crew for their gentle hand and conciliatory methods of dealing with the young woman. Shannon, on her way out, returned Stirner's book and thanked him for it.

Becka was all sweet and cheerful, and turning on her charm inadvertently (as is Becka's nature) she won over several of the soldiers. This, on top of Stirner's easy welcome into the ship, Shannon's composure when the Lt. Cmd. found her, and the general seeming eagerness of the crew to let the military go about their job, combined with Halverson's indifference to the importance of his post to make the Alliance leave the crew of the Guardian Angel go on their way without any further inspection of the ship.

Oh, and A.R. actually stuck around for all of this, eating protein paste.

The crew turned the ship back around and headed home. Next session we'll pick up on Jiangyin.

February 3rd - The Return Trip

I'm going to make this short - and encourage players, again, that I'd love to see people doing little diary or journal or log entries for their characters, in their character's voice, that we can post here in addition to summaries!

Guardian Angel leaves Beylix on the return trip to Jiangyin to check in with their benefactor, Mr. Alleydyne.
The business of the intruder on the ship - the one who tied up the captain - is momentarily shelved as there's not much more to do about it on the trip...
except for Rufiaus, who caught a tell from Mai and tries to press her on the subject later, privately. Mai is not forthcoming about whatever she may know, and Rufiaus is stuck frustrated at a dead-end.
What may have been a boring 7 day commute gains a level of intrigue as the crew starts to notice strange things.
Lilly is having bad dreams and not sleeping well.
Cargo crates have been moved around in the hold.
Doors to rooms are left ajar.
Clothing is tossed around the women's rooms.

The crew tries to nail down what is happening. Cameras that were installed are being monitored, several room by room searches are made of the ship - including some rather intensive inquiries into Rufi, Mai, and Lilly who, for various reasons, are suspected by one person or another on the ship.

Finally an annoyed Captain Cal goes to the cockpit and via the ship-wide comm demands that the stowaway come out and reveal themself (or selves) with a promise of no harm befalling them. After some more searching, the culprit finally shows herself.

It's none other than Shannon Webb, whom Lilly (being in a very bad mood due to a couple nights of no sleep) is ready to beat to a pulp. The crew sees that she is locked in a room and decides to turn the ship around to return her to Beylix before they get charged with trafficking minors across systems or some such.

Upcoming Session!

After a successful trip to Beylix, the crew of Guardian Angel begin their return flight triumphantly. What will happen (if anything) on the way to Jiangyin?

• will Becka fall prey to Rufi's charm?
• will Captain Cal suffer any more indignities at the hands of Lilly?
• will Kate snap after cleaning the mess one too many times?
• will A.R. ever leave the engine room other than to get food?
• will Stirner gain any true converts?
• the GM thinks the crew is missing something ...
  

All this and more! Stay tuned tonight!