AWAY MISSION

CAPTAIN’S LOG
STARDATE 48311.3

We’ve received a message from Narendra Station that a runabout
called the Susquehanna has gone missing in the Carina Nebula,
deep within the Shackleton Expanse. The Susquehanna was
investigating an unusual alien signal that originated from the nebula
when all contact was lost. We have been ordered to enter the
nebula, find the runabout, and determine the origin and cause of the
alien signal. Starfleet has also advised that Romulan and Ferengi
ships have been sighted in the region, so we should exercise
caution since they may well have detected the alien signal as well.

You've traced the signal of the combadges of the runabout Susquehanna to the planet of Seku VI in the Carina Nebula. While the Shackleton Expanse (Beta Quadrant, if I remember correctly...), is currently contested by the United Federation of Planets, the Romulan Star Empire and the Ferengi Alliance, you haven't encountered any other ships during your search.

As you beam down to the surface, you notice it's a barren, volcanic area of the planet, with barely any sign of life, mostly a few patches of some kind of plant. However, there is no sign of the runabout, nor any kind of structures or facilities in sight...
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:54, Mon 22 Nov 2021.

As soon as she materialized on the barred ground, Lt.Cmdr. Shremi Ansari unholstered her phaser and took a quick look around the immediate area. She kept her eyes open for any signs trouble.

Once more, Shremi felt the weight of her responsibilities. She wasn't a rookie security officer anymore... but the role of a ship's Chief of Security was still new to her. She was assigned to this post only a few months ago, not too long after a Starfleet investigation into her conflict with her commanding officer concluded. The investigation found that Shremi's act of insubordination was a justified one and her superior was punished for his breach of regulations... still, somehow, the promotion that followed felt a little like a punishment for Shremi, too. As if a junior officer that caused her superior to face disciplinary charges was an embarrasment to the Starfleet - so, they gave her a quiet promotion and transfered her to a completely different ship. Far away from her old crew and followed by a hushed rumours of a scandal...

Shremi didn't dwell on last months' developments, though - it wasn't the time. She had a job to do here.

And so, her eyes moved over the landscape, looking for anything that might pose the danger to the away team...

OOC: Any roll I should do now?

[OOC: can you please describe the away team? Is it composed just by the two of us or by other people as well? How many? What are their grades and specialisation?]

OOC: Bianca, I replied over at the OOC thread :)

OOC: Ok, let's see, I think to look around for something would mean an Insight+Security, target number 2. I don't actually know where looking around should be.

Bianca thinks that the Susquehanna is a specialist in casting signals, so there is a fair chance that he already discover or will discover soon this small group. However, maybe he didn't think about hiding signs of his presence, perhaps such as an antenna or or some sort of electromagnetic disturbance.
Bianca immediately searches for antennas or electromagnetic disturbances using her view and whatever suitable tool she has.

[OOC: 21:17, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 26 using 2d20 ((8,18)). Insight 9; Security 2: one success.

Am I doing it right?]
This message was last edited by the player at 20:21, Tue 23 Nov 2021.

OOC: I checked the full rulebook and yes, Insight+Security sounds right for this task.

Bianca, you did do it right, no worries :) You have Insight 9 and Security 2, so your Target Number for this task is 11. You need to roll equal or less than the TN, so you rolled 1 success.

If you had some sort of Focus relevant to the task, you'd also get +1 success for each die that rolled equal or under the Discipline being used (Security in this case). Although you rolled 8 and 18, so that's actually relevant in this case. Also, rolling a 1 gives you 2 successes automatically and rolling a 20 causes... trouble.

Overall, you got 1 success and the Task Difficulty was 2, so you needed 2 successes. So, Bianca failed at her task.

Now, for my rolls... Let's see how Shremi does:

22:28, Today: Shremi Ansari rolled 18 using 2d20 with rolls of 8,10.  Insight+Security.

So... Shremi has Insight 9 and Security 4, so TN = 13. 2 successes. No applicable Focus and the rolls wouldn't qualify for the bonus. So, Shremi succeeded :)

Also! Shremi actually has a Talent named Constantly Watching, which decreases the Task Difficulty of tasks like these (looking out for threats etc.) by 1. So, she actually needed only a single success to beat the task. So, she has one bonus success... which I save into our group's Momentum pool. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 21:42, Tue 23 Nov 2021.

As the group checks around the area, Shremi notices a sound over one of the boulders - it's like someone stepped on the other side, but only silence can be heard after that.

Bianca notices that Shremi is somehow alarmed and looks at him for indications of what is attracting his attention.

"There!", Shremi issued a warning, aiming her phaser in the direction of the boulder. "I've heard something move there!"

Her phaser still firmly pointed at the source of the sound, she glanced at the rest of team.

"Carthen, Lenaris", she ordered, "Let's check it out. Del, Natala, T'Prel - cover us..."

Having said that, she started moving cautiously toward the boulder.

Bianca tries approaching the boulder from the other side, walking a circular path.

I forgot to record each die, but Lenaris took a total of 8 damage.

When the two Romulans realize they had been spotted, one of them shouts "Retreat!", and they try to move away from you in the cover of some rocks, while using their disruptors to provide covering fire, while almost hitting all three of the frontal team. You hear Lenaris shout out in pain, and T'Prel jumping ahead "Lenaris!", as she is moving to provide first aid as soon as possible.

So, I had one of the Romulans to start the combat,

18:54, Today: GM, for the NPC Romulan Uhlan, rolled 22 using 5d6.  damage.
18:53, Today: GM, for the NPC Romulan Uhlan, rolled 13 using 2d20.  attack 13.

He had a TN 13 for Control+Security, aiming for Lenaris. His weapon has a damage of 5d6, and used to decode the damage from the table on page 5.

Since one of the Romulans acted in first turn, now one of the PC's are ready to act now. One of them is at Close Range, and the one who acted is retreating to Medium Range.

Bianca moves behind a boulder, to get partial cover, and fires back, hitting the Roman attacker.

[OOC: 21:10, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 11 using 2d20 with rolls of 3,8.  control 9; security 2.
21:15, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 10 using 4d6 with rolls of 2,3,2,3.  damage.]
This message was last edited by the player at 20:19, Tue 30 Nov 2021.

OOC: Okay, I read the combat rules and it looks like it's not yet time for Shremi to act now... Now it's another NPCs' turn. So, I won't be making an IC post tonight :)

Anyway, I checked Bianca's rolls and everything seems correct. Difficulty for shooting at the Romulan was 2, Bianca got 2 successes, so she hit him (her?). As for the damage the Romulan takes: Bianca rolled 2,3,2 and 3 on her Challenge Dice. According to the Challenge Dice table in the Quickstart, this means the Romulan takes 4 points of damage (2+0+2+0). So, his Stress stat is now reducted by 4... unless the damage is soaked by any Resistance (cover etc.). But this is a GMs' side of things, so I'll back up now and let our GM calculate all that :)

The Romulans are in full retreat, not willing to be engaged in a firefight anymore. Bianca still shoots one after them, with the phaser beam hitting ever so close.

(They are in both medium range now.)

Did the Romulans wear uniforms or other signage that may indicate who they actually are and perhaps what they may want?
"Why did they shoot without any warning?" Bianca asks her companions.

"With Romulans, is that really a surprise..?!?", Shremi replied, a note of anger in her voice.

True, Romulan Empire was not in a state of war with the Federation... nevertheless, the Romulan state wasn't the Federation's friend, either. And it wasn't like the Romulans weren't known for their underhanded tactics...

As the two Romulan soldiers started retreating, Shremi aimed her phaser and took a shot. She wasn't going to let them get away after sneak-attacking her team...

OOC: I'll be taking a minor maneauver of Aim before shooting, meaning I get to re-roll 1d10 if needed:

23:46, Today: Shremi Ansari rolled 20 using 2d20 with rolls of 19,1.  Shooting. TN 13, Control 9, Security 4

I got a 1, which means that Shremi scored 2 successes. I decided to reroll the other die and I got:

23:59, Today: Shremi Ansari rolled 1 using 1d20 with rolls of 1.  Reroll.

Overall, Shremi got 4 successes - so she succeeded at the test and got 2 additional successes that I'll be putting into the Momentum pool. As for the damage:

23:57, Today: Shremi Ansari rolled 27 using 7d6 with rolls of 1,4,4,6,6,4,2. Damage.

So, she deals 1+0+0+1+1+0+2 = 5 points of damage... assuming something doesn' soak this up.

Bianca follows Shremi's example and shoots as well on the fugitive Romulan.

[OOC: 21:49, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 18 using 2d20 with rolls of 4,14.  control 9; security 2.]
This message was last edited by the player at 18:40, Sun 05 Dec 2021.

T'Prel quickly treats Lenaris' surface wound. "Your wound is treated, nothing serious." she nods him, while Lenaris acknowledges her treatment. Meanwhile Natala asks you for confirmation "Commander, are we shooting at the retreating enemy?"

The Romulans wear their standard combat uniforms.

(It's worth to note that Shackleton Expanse is technically not within any empire, but is contested between the Federation, Romulans and Klingons, along with some Ferengi ships in the area.)

"Why did you shoot us without warning?" Bianca shouts.

"I wouldn't have hopes for them to reply to that, Commander!", Shremi commented at Bianca's attempt at communicating with the Romulans. No, the Romulans were too sneaky for that...

"Keep firing", she issued an order to the rest of the team, "Remember to set the phasers to stun. We don't want to cause any incident, but they did attack us. If the Romulans are on a hostile mission here, I want to know!"

The Romulans keep retreating through the rocks in order get out of the situation they got themselves into. Hanor shoots dangerously close to one of them, but they are running away ever faster.

17:51, Today: Romulan Uhlan rolled 24 using 2d20 with rolls of 18,6.  sprint 11.
17:48, Today: Natala rolled 23 using 2d20 with rolls of 14,9.  attack 11.
17:46, Today: Hanor Del rolled 10 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,1,4.
17:46, Today: Hanor Del rolled 11 using 2d20 with rolls of 2,9.  attack 10.

One of them is now at long range, the other is still at medium, and now it's the PC's turn once again.

Bianca shoots again, but the aim isn't particularly good.

[OOC: 22:44, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 23 using 2d20 with rolls of 6,17.  control 9; security 2 - shooting (stun) at the closest Romulan.]

21:37, Today: GM, on behalf of Romulan Uhlan, rolled 23 using 2d20 with rolls of 8,15.  sprint 11.

The other Romulan tries to increase the distance. Now one is at long, the other is at extreme range.

[OOC: 00:18, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 18 using 2d20 with rolls of 5,13.  control 9; security 2 - shooting (stun) at the closest Romulan.]

It's Shremi's turn right now, but if she doesn't write tomorrow, I will roll on.

Hanor and Natala keep shooting, while one of the Romulans manage to escape, with an accurate aiming Natala hits the other right in the back stunning him in the process. It seems the little skirmish is over, and T'Prel already put Los back to his feet.

14:44, Today: GM, on behalf of Natala, rolled 8 using 4d6 with rolls of 4,1,2,1.  damage.
14:44, Today: GM, on behalf of Natala, rolled 13 using 2d10 with rolls of 8,5.  attack 11.
14:42, Today: GM, on behalf of Hanor Del, rolled 8 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,3,4.  damage.
14:41, Today: GM, on behalf of Hanor Del, rolled 15 using 2d20 with rolls of 9,6.  attack 10.

Bianca approaches the Roman on the floor. Does she have anything with her that can be used like manacles or similar kind of restraint?

(There isn't any sign of it in the QS, I guess Cuellas could have one as a security officer. I guess your character could remember to take some in exchange of a Momentum...)

[OOC: OK, let's spend a Momentum...]

You haven't said anything, so I assume you bind the Romulan.

"Their presence are not surprising, but they seemed like a forward group of a much larger force. I suggest we proceed with caution." analyzes Los the situation.

"Let's bring this prisoner back to the ship and interrogate him."

Los hits his combadge "Lenaris to transporter pad, we have a Romulan captive to beam up." But after a few seconds, you get a negative response from the transporter officer "Hold on, we have picked up a distress call from the Susquehanna, and the captain issued an intercept order. We can't beam you up, but we should be in communications range."

"What shall we do with the captive?"

"Let's wake the prisoner up", Shremi decided, "I'd like to ask some serious questions about what just happened. In the meanwhile, keep your guard up - the one that got away could bring back some reinforcements..."

Bianca stays on sentry while the prisoner is sent up.

T'Prel nods at Shremi "Yes, commander." she then pulls out her tricorder and starts checking stunned soldier. After a few minutes she injects some drugs into him, which wakes him up. Meanwhile, the other's start scanning the area.

When the Romulan soldier regained consciousness, Shremi walked over to him. It was time for some... explanations.

"My name is Lt. Commander Shremi Ansari of the United Federation of Planets", she introduced herself in a stern voice, "Why have you attacked us? The Federations is not at war with the Romulan Empire."

OOC: Some sort of intimidation roll, perhaps?

Continue.

The Romulan looks at Shremi unfazed, seemingly ready to deny any sort of answer he might get. "I have no intention to tell anything to you, Starfleet." says with a defiant voice.

Some sort of roll, yes, on the Disciplines, Command seems straightforward, on Attribute, Reason, Insight or Presence should be rolled on your approach.

[OOC: Shremi, I think that this roll should be for you. If things don't go so well, I can come and help but as things stand I should stay on sentry while you deal with this Romulan]

OOC: All right, I checked and it seems that I need to roll Presence + Security. What's the task difficulty, GM? Also, will this be a normal task or an opposed task?

[OOC: if I support her, will Shremi improve her roll?]

OOC: It works like this - if you lend a hand in some way (not necessarily with the same combination of Attibute and Discipline... although it needs to make sense :)), you roll 1d20. And if I get any successes at all, then any success you score get added to the final result. If I fail, then your successes don't count. So, it's not that straighforward... but overall, yeah, you'd help :)

I don't have access to the QS right now, so let's just roll a normal difficulty test.

[OOC: OK, just roll while I'm on sentry and we'll see what happens]

OOC: Alright. Presence + Security = 12, task difficulty = 1, no applicable Focus. Let's see...

20:32, Today: Shremi Ansari rolled 26 using 2d20 with rolls of 7,19.  Interrogating the Romulan.

So... 1 success, it seems.

The Romulan eventally gives up. "Fffine... we... we crashlanded here... after our ship was attacked by you... We were the remnants... of the earlier expedition..." However, none of you can remember any direct attack on Romulans here, and the Susquehanna can't possibly have enough weaponry to bring down a Romulan warbird.

Bianca shakes her head, thinking "This doesn't make sense. Our ship didn't attack anybody on this mission and I can guess that it is the first time it reaches this part of the space..."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:29, Wed 02 Feb 2022.

"What are you talking about?", Shremi replied to the Romulan, "What do you mean, your ship was attacked by us? You mean, by another Federation vessel?"

The prisoner's words were puzzling at the least. Was there another Star Fleet ship in the area? But, if so, why wasn't it mentioned in their mission brief?

Unless that other ship was here on some classified mission...

Of course, the Romulan could simply be confused or lying.

The man seem to be a bit unfazed "Seems weird to me, that you don't have any clue of your other ships operation here..."

"The Runabout could not possible shoot down your warbird." as Los points out for the captive "On the other hand, until now, we were complety unawere of your presence here."

"The only other Federation ship in this area is the Susquehanna and we are looking for it. Do you mean that the Susquehanna attacked your warbird before we came here? Do you know where that ship is, now?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:31, Wed 02 Feb 2022.

Shremi raised her hand, signaling her team members to pause. They shouldn't be revealing all this information to a hostile trooper...

"Let's get back to the basic facts", she said to the Romulan, "Explain to us what has happened to you and your crew. Do you or do you not know for a fact that your ship was attacked by a Star Fleet vessel? Remember - if this is some misunderstanding, both of our crew will benefit from clearing it all up..."

"What else could down our ship? Only the Starfleet has advanced technology in this sector needed to destroy our ship. You won't trick me, we crashed, and you beamed down to our position afterwards."

T'Prel pulls you aside, and whispers "Commander, it would be advised to cut this conversation short. We were supposed to find the Susquehanna, not interrogate Romulans for every information they might possibly have. Soon we will have to decide where to start looking."

Bianca looks around for a Romulan bird of prey and tries gauging its conditions. If it is obviously damaged, she tries understanding the cause of that damage.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:58, Tue 08 Feb 2022.

"True", Shremi agreed with T'Prel, "Nevertheless, it's my job to keep all of us safe while we are looking for the Susquehanna. And the reason for these Romulans being here and their hostile actions could be relevant to keeping us safe. So, we need to investigate."

Shremi paused for a second, her antennas moving thoughtfully.

"All right...", she spoke up again, having decided on what to do, "I'll be finishing with the Romulan shortly. In the meantime, please try scanning for any sings of the he Susquehanna or its crew, Lieutenant. We were getting the signal from the crew's combadges, right? So, *where* are these combadges..?"

Having said that, she walked back to the Romulan.

"It seems to me that you're jumping at conclusions", she commented, "Your ship was downed by *something*, so you assuming it was us or another Federation ship. But... you actually do not know for sure that it was a Federation ship that attacked you, do you?"
This message was last edited by the player at 00:26, Tue 08 Feb 2022.

"Yes, commander!" T'Prel replies, takes out her tricorder, and starts scanning the area.

19:35, Today: TPrel rolled 18 using 2d20 with rolls of 12,6.  insight+science 14.

Your captive seems irritated by your question "You want to humiliate us, Starfleet? We are not blind, like you, humans."

T'Prel finishes her scans quickly. "Commander, the badges seem to be signalling a few kilometres from the magnetic East. There is also some alien signal from that direction, they must be close to each other. Furthermore, I'm picking up readings of a Romulan energy wave signature from the North. That must be the place where their ship landed."

Bianca finds an opportunity to speak in private with Shremi: "Interrogating this Romulan prisoner probably won't give us any more information. Maybe we can beam the prisoner to our spaceship and we can proceed with our investigation."

"Thank you, Lieutenant", Shremi replied to T'Prel, "It seems like we should start moving east, then."

Upon hearing Bianca's suggestion, Shremi gave the other officer an approving nod.

"I agree, this interrogation seems going nowhere", she said, "I'll contact the ship and check if we can have the prisoner taken aboard. If this proves to be a misunderstanding, we'll release him to his crew later."

(The ship has left temporarily, as they are chasing an another alien signal. They already contacted you about that.)

The group gets themselves together, ready to march out.

[OOC: does that mean that we still have the prisoner with us?]

[Yes. You are all still down on the surface.]

Bianca finds a suitable time to talk to her companions in private: "What shall we do with the prisoner?"

"Well, we have no option to put him into the brig for the moment...", Shremi replied, "Which is unfortunate. That means we have to take him with us... I'm absolutely not releasing him - not while his crewmates are out there."

She turned to the rest of the crew.

"Let's move out, people", she said, "And everybody, keep your eyes open and phasers ready... We could get ambushed again."

I take you are moving out to the combadge signals?

Bianca doesn't feel like a specialist explorer and, potentially, a warrior, if they run again across some Romulan, so she follows her companions avoiding to stay at the front of the group.

OOC: Yes, exactly. My intent is for the team to follow the readings to the location of the combadges.

The group starts to move for the direction of the combadge signals, taking their captive along with them, Los keeping an eye on him. The planet seems dead, with a lot of barrent rocks and derbies along the way, making it hard to move, but in half an hour, they reach the correct position - two Starfleet officers half buried into the ground from waist down. From first look, they seem to be dead.

Can we guess anything from their uniforms?

One of them is from science division, and the other is from operations, lc and lt.

Bianca attempts to reach quickly the area where she noticed the two Starfleet officers, to secure the location, as she's not a doctor, but wants to allow the medical officer a safe operation.

As well as the others, Bianca looks around for potential dangers, but finds nothing for now.

Bianca signals to the medical officer that it is all clear.

T'Prel approaches the bodies and scans them with her tricorder. "It seems they had a transporter malfunction, materializing half inside the ground, they died from the shock of being cut half." she analyzes.

"Can you identify them?" Bianca asks.

"Lieutenant Leonardo Müller, scientist of Susquehanna and Lieutenant Commander Joanne Norton, Chief of Security on the Susquehanna." replies T'Prel for the inquiry.

Shremi cursed under her nose, as she saw the two bodies... and the state they were in. Killed by a materializing in solid ground... now that was awful.

Turning away from the bodies, she looked around, searching for any traces of Susquehanna... or her wreckage.

OOC: Do we know how many people were aboard Susquehanna?

Bianca tries recalling whatever she knows about similar incidents. What can cause that kind of teleportation mistakes? That's definitely not a common, random computer error, but must have been driven or caused by some root cause different from just bad luck.

[OOC: do you need any roll?]
This message was last edited by the player at 09:00, Tue 08 Mar 2022.

There were 3 crewmembers of Susquehanna in total.

In reply to Bianca Carthen (msg # 81):
As much as possible. Since you are the science officier, and you have a tricorder, roll a reason+science.

I also want to try how threats work this time, but yet again, I don't have the QS at hand...

OOC: What do you need to know, specifically? I'll fill you in.

19:01, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 8 using 2d20 with rolls of 4,4.  Reason 10; Science 4.

Bianca checks her tricorder, and soon also picks up the strange alien signal T'Prel mentioned earlier. In such a short range, it seems it does a subspace electromagnetic distortion which scrambled the transportation process. It also explains why you were beamed down so far from the Susquehanna crew.

Bianca suddenly feels anxious, as she realises that she could have materialised within a solid as well. Can this distorsion be a cause of what the group is here to investigate? For sure it is very dangerous.
Bianca shares her findings with the rest of the group.

"Hmmm", Shremi commented, as Bianca presented her findings, "That does look a little... worrying. We should try to learn more of what exactly causes the distortion - or, at least, what area it covers..."

She looked up from Bianca's tricoder and glanced around the area once again.

"There's also the question of what happened to the third crewmember? And the runabout itself..?"

Bianca checks her tricorder and walks around a little, trying to understand if the distortion has the same intensity everywhere in that area, or if it seems to follow a pattern with highs and lows. In that case, Bianca tries to understand if there is a higher distortion point and/or a lower distortion point in the area.

[OOC: do you need another roll?]

(I'm trying to find out where did you got the idea, that there is a third crewmember...)

It seems the distortion is travelling in waves, and with walking around a little, Bianca can even  trace back the origin of the signal.

OK, let's walk towards the origin of the distortion.
What's the ground like, in that direction? Can we notice anything remarkable while we walk?

OOC: Didn't you say that Susquehanna had 3 crewmembers in total? We found two bodies, so there should be one more person (or body...) around somewhere... Or am I missing something?

Yes, I actually did, let's roll with it then!

The group sets out in the direction of the signal, but the terrain is much rougher than before, it takes quite some skill to climb among the rocks.

Make a Fitness+Security for travel, and an Insight+Security for notice against difficulty 1.

18:41, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 24 using 2d20 with rolls of 17,7.  Insight 9; Security 2.

18:40, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 14 using 2d20 with rolls of 2,12.  Fitness 8; Security 2.

While we wait for Shremi's travel roll.

As you move through the harsh, rocky hill, Bianca notices something weird - there is an end of a gun barrel sticking out from near a rock, following them!

[OOC: a gun barrel like it was in use in the past centuries of the Earth?]

The modern version.

https://static.wikia.nocookie....0&path-prefix=en

[OOC: sorry, I can't see anything in the link, but I can see that the text in the link says "Klingon disruptor rifle".... which I believe is an indication that Klingons are considering us an "identified target" and are probably ready to shoot. Does it sound right?]

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Disruptor_rifle

Note that just because Romulans and Klingons use disruptor rifles, these are on the market! On DS9 there was an episode where the Orion Syndicate tried to use Klingon disruptors for assassination to blame them, or how many sources did the Maquis got their weapons from. I just linked it as an example, but if I remember correctly, it is indeed a disruptor rifle.

[OOC: on the webpage I can see that there are different makes (Klingon, Romulan, Ferengi...) - can I understand which make it is? is the make Klingon or Romulan or... whatever?
Sorry, but on this topic I'm not very knowledgeable :) ]

OOC: I assume we don't need Shremi's Insight + Security roll anymore, as Bianca already noticed we're being watched? In case my roll would be needed, I'd like to call upon Shremi's Constantly Watching talent... which decreases the difficulty of rolls to notice danger by 1. Meaning, Shremi succeeds automatically :)

Anyway, here's my travel roll:

01:35, Today: Shremi Ansari rolled 21 using 2d20 with rolls of 19,2.  Fitness + Security.

Huh. No success there...

Actually, that's one success.

So, since everyone succeeded in their march check, there are no hindrances in this regard.

Bianca, I intentionally left that as vague. There is a good chance you are getting shot at, and I did not want to reveal by whom, also in the ST universe there is still weapon smuggling (Quark's friends for example, or O'Brien with the Syndicate), and third, in combat situations there are rarely a chance to recognise the exact type that fast. With your successful spot check you have a chance to react, but it might get messy.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:27, Mon 04 Apr 2022.

After noticing it, Bianca stops and turns towards the weapon aimed at her: "I have noticed that you are following us with your weapon, but if you have not shot so far it means you are not prepared to attack on sight, but you rather want to see if we come in peace or not.
We do indeed come in peace. We are not here to attack anybody, but rather to rescue and save.
I hope this clarifies our position.
Now feel free and safe to come out and let us know your position. I'm sure we can agree a mutually beneficial proposition."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:08, Thu 07 Apr 2022.

As Bianca spoke to the person that was following them, Shremi kept her hand near her phaser. Bianca's reasoning made sense... still, Shremi feared the reply to Bianca's words would come in the form of disruptor fire..

As Bianca calls out for the ambusher, you see four humans emerging from behind the rocks around you. "This is the last warning! Drop your weapons, and you won't come to any harm!" says one of them.

How are they dressed? Do they have any uniform?

No, they are dressed in common clothing. It's obvious, they don't belong to any military.

Bianca, moving slowly but showing no fear, puts her weapon on the ground and says: "As I told you, we mean no harm. We are here on a rescue mission. Hopefully you can help us."

When Shremi saw Bianca drop her weapon as ordered by the ambushers, the Andoran raised her hand to attract the crew's attention.

"Everybody stop!", she ordered, "Don't do anything!"

She turned to the ambushers.

"Do you think really expect us to give up?", she asked, "Just because you say so? What guarantee we have that you're not going to shoot us as soon as we give up our weapons?"

She glared at the ambushers, boiling inside.

"I have a better idea: if you mean us no arm, then explain yourself. Who are you? What are you doing here? And why are pointing guns at Star Fleet officers?!?"

(You are not in Federation territory.

Also roll a Reason+Command or Presence+Command check for TN 3. I used one threat to increase the difficulty.)

OOC: I'd like to add 1 point to the Threat pool in exchange for 1 additional die. With that in mind, I'll be rolling 3d20 for a Presence + Command check.

00:25, Today: Shremi Ansari rolled 30 using 3d20 with rolls of 2,10,18.  Presence + Command = TN 11.

Drat! So close...

"Starfleet has nothing to do with this place. You have no authority here." (That's why it's such a conflict expanse.) he starts getting increasingly suspicious, you can see his eye twitching. For a few seconds you can see he is thinking, then finally reaches his decision. "If you really mean no harm, we will take you to the colony."

Bianca nods with a more relaxed smile, picks up her weapon and puts it back in its holster and closes the holster, in a way that shows she is not planning to use it. Then, she follows.

"You have thrice the firepower and training than these bandits. No wonder the Federation is a pushover." your captive comments, before Lenaris silences him.

As you check out the weapons of your ambushers, it seems like used, crudely maintained Klingon disruptors.

They take you over a trail for a few minutes, then the scenery turns into a valley. Down there there is a yellow lake, while rudimentary dwellings are carved into the cliff face. When you take a closer look, you also see vehicles and machines all around, camouflaged under a combination of ground coloured mesh and some sort of metallic net. That could explain why your sensor couldn't pick up traces of the colony from orbit.

Bianca keeps following, walking a bit slowly, taking note of everything around her. She doesn't speak but also doesn't make any gesture that may be interpreted as a threat.

Your new associates take you into one of the dwellings on the cliffside. Inside you notice it's not state of the art equipment, but still pretty recent, Starfleet aligned technology is abundant. Computers, screens, you name it, with several people walking around or working.

They take you to a briefing room, where there leader already awaits for you. "Welcome to our humble colony!" he greets you "I'm Ero Drallen, leader of this mining society. You will have to excuse our rudeness, but one of the reasons we are out here, is to not get involved... with either of your... actions." he looks at your Romulan companion now.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:37, Tue 17 May 2022.

"We are investigating the location of the Susquehanna spaceship in this system. Do you know anything about it?
We also noticed that the teleporter encounters some technical issue in this system..."
Bianca doesn't seem to pay attention at anything else apart from her core mission, at the moment.

"So you say." Ero replies "I haven't heard anything about this spaceship. As for your transporter issue..." he is thinking for a minute, then continues "It started a month ago. Some of the miners found some sort of underground building with an alien machine in it. As they entered into the building, the machine came into working, and has been jamming a series of signals since then. As Starfleet, you might have the expertise to disable it."

"That may well be the cause of the disturbance and of all the problems. We'll be happy to help you on this."

"Very well. See if you can do something against the jamming. But what about the Romulan?"

"He was confused, probably by the same disturbance, and shoot at us with no warning, so we had to disarm him and we are holding him under control until he will be able to control himself again, then we will set him free.
Can you show us the device? I'm eager to inspect it."

Ero looks at the man that brought you in, and he nods. After that, Ero looks back at you. "Drev will show you the entrance."

Bianca follows, keeping her eyes open.

(Decide if you want to take the Romulan with you!)

The colonists take you to one of the mine entrances on the cliff face. The inside of the mine is well lit and supporting beams are already in place. Just as the indoors, it seems obvious they are getting technical support from somewhere. After a while you reach an elevator, which takes you further down. When it stops and you exit the elevator, you can instantly see what the miner found. As you look down further the cave, you can see in the distance the cave ends with a metallic wall, already breached by a hole in it.

[OOC: I suggest that most of the crew stays behind (with the Romulan) while Bianca investigates the alien artefact. Considering that my colleague didn't log in since the 27th April, maybe I can continue this adventure as a solo character until he's back? Can you scale it accordingly?]

Question is, what is the use of leaving the rest of the gang behind? Their sole purpose is to assist you to begin with, both gamewise and storywise. But it can be scaled, yes.

[OOC: I think it's better leaving somebody behind with the Romulan and I don't know if Shremi wants to do something different in the meanwhile. However, you know the adventure and the ruleset much better than me and you can advise accordingly. I'm happy to follow your recommendation.]

"Romulans. They're so predictably treacherous!" Weyoun, DS9 S7E1.

:D

No sign of the other player? :/
How would you like to progress?

Since you are at the last encounter anyway, I leave it up to you.

[OOC: better that most of the group stays back with the Romulan, hopefully understanding better what happens around here, while Bianca explores the alien artefact... unless there are NPCs with special skills that could be really helpful in this action.]

Ok, so can I get a declaration of intent?

Bianca approaches the metallic wall at the end of the cave.

As Bianca approaches the wall, she starts hearing a noise from inside, like an electric static.

Bianca takes a deep breath and approaches, slowly and cautiously.

??? Approaches what?

I guess you will look inside...

As Bianca looks into the hole, she sees the room is probably pentagon shaped. In the middle, there is a floating obelisk in the middle, with strangely glowing glyphs on it's surface. Around the walls of the room, she sees control panels, with their own displays.

Bianca approaches to the metallic wall and to the hole in it.

As Bianca looks into the hole, she sees the room is probably pentagon shaped. In the middle, there is a floating obelisk in the middle, with strangely glowing glyphs on it's surface. Around the walls of the room, she sees control panels, with their own displays.

How big is the hole? Can she go though it?
Can Bianca recognise the control panels and the symbols on them?

Yes, the characters can easily fit through it.

Bianca does not seem to recognize the characters, they are alien.

Bianca breathes deeply, then enters the alien room.

As Bianca enters the room, she notices, the room's shape is indeed pentagonal, as well as the floating obelisk. On the walls, there are five different sized control panels, some larger and some smaller. As her eyes adjusts to the darkness, she notices there are also a few smaller obelisks floating around the room. What is even stranger, there is no obvious entrance to this room - aside from the blown hole she entered.

How does the hole that Bianca used to enter look like? Is it like a damage a hole blown by some sort of explosion or heat ray or is it something designed and crafted by whoever built this room?
Bianca passes some time looking at the room and at the movements of the obelisks, trying to figure out their sense.

The mining colony leader said his miners opened up the wall (with drills). Other than that, there seems to be no obvious entrance.

Can Bianca make any sense of the movement of the obelisks?

Roll for an Insight+Science check for a TN3! I used up a threat to make this happen.

[OOC: use two Momentum for getting four dice rolls instead of 2
23:04, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 38 using 4d20 with rolls of 6,17,9,6.  Insight 9, Science 4, TN3.]

Bianca starts analyzing the obelisks. They seem to be a sort of combination of a control panel and a device, however, the power that operates seems to originate from behind the other consoles.

Staying away from the moving obelisks, Bianca approaches a consolle and tries understanding how it works.

The machines seem to be too complicated and alien for Bianca to make any sense.

Puzzled by the lack of obvious entrances to the room, Bianca observes closely the bigger obelisks, carefully avoiding contact, to check if there is any hint of hatches into potential compartments inside the obelisk.

Bianca can only see the light of the glowing inscriptions on the obelisk. Otherwise, it's completely flat, with no changes on it's surface.

[OOC: I assume that Bianca can't understand the inscriptions]

Bianca touches lightly one of the small obelisks.

As Bianca touches the obelisk it sends a sudden jolt to Bianca's hand!

Make a Control or Fitness + Security check against Difficulty 3, or take 3d6 non-lethal damage!

21:32, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 9 using 3d6 with rolls of 2,5,2.  non lethal damage.
21:31, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 33 using 3d20 with rolls of 16,2,15.  Fitness 8; Security 2.

That was painful!
Bianca moves on to study the control system again, using her Computer Exercise talent. After all, one of her values is Always Something to Learn...

Decoding the workings of the machine could take hours, if Bianca is quick, or maybe even days, if she is unlucky.

This looks like a great challenge to Bianca.

[OOC: do I need to roll?]

I'm not sure how extended tasks work, I would roll an Insight+Science for an arbitrarily large TN. I'm also unsure what this device does anyway, but I will come up with something. Let's just roll an Insight+Science for TN 3 now, and let's see how it goes. I'm also taking a 2 week break, so there might be no answer.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:51, Mon 11 July 2022.

22:32, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 47 using 4d20 with rolls of 10,20,16,1.  Insight 9; Science 4.

As Bianca starts working on it seems there IS actually some kind of logic behind the method of the ancient computers, even if it does not follow the ones of the known civilizations of the Alpha and Beta quadrants. However, after a half hour of working, the sound of the elevator starts again, and in a minute, she can hear a few shots, then her communicator starts working. "Commander, a group of Romulans attacked us, we are engaging them at the entrance!" she hears Lenaris' report.

Bianca thinks that it is probably the movement that is causing the singularity and she tries thinking what action can stop the movement in the room.In the meanwhile she hopes her companions can bring some logic and control in the minds of the Romulani, otherwise they'll have to flee.
Bianca anyway uses her tools and technology to document the incredible discovery, although the circumstances are pressing.

[OOC: do I need to roll anything?]

I wanted to try out opposed checks, but there is none at the quickstart. Without you at helm, I will roll one for the Centurion and Lenaris, to see which group got into an advantageous position.

17:13, Today: Romulan Centurion rolled 12 using 2d20 with rolls of 11,1.  presence+command.
17:12, Today: Lenaris Los rolled 5 using 2d20 with rolls of 3,2.  presence+command.

Ok, they had the same amount of successes, but the Romulans managed fare a bit better will the roll of 1, so I had them just retreat to the chamber you are in, taking the captive with them, so he is still with you.

You can hear the firefight still going on the outside, but the away team manages to hold back the Romulans well. Still they are being pushed back into the hexagonal chamber with Bianca, and take up defensive positions, but it seems no one got hurt.

Let's see, you have your tricorder, possibly a datapad too (??), and have Computer expertise, so let's say it takes 5-success minutes to make a superficial documentation of the area, for a Reason+Science check.

[OOC: 5 successes is a really difficult challenge... how much help can I get to increase the number of dices? Can I have some support from other companions? Can I use Momentum (how much do I still have?...) / increase the Threats? anything else I can attempt to increase my chances?]

Not really. 5 Successes doesn't mean you do it, it means you just do it faster, but scoring 0 successes will also succeed in this time (as there is no reason to fail here). You have 3 momentum right now (meta resources thread), from which you can buy 2 extra dice. I just want to show how urgent it is in the middle of a firefight.

[OOC: going with the two extra dices, then:
21:54, Today: Bianca Carthen rolled 28 using 4d20 with rolls of 8,5,3,12.  Reason 10, Science 4.]

I decided that I divide the 1 minute into 2 turns and have it played simultaneously, so ease some of the calculations of the shooting, and not have one side dominate the other until you finished. The end result is weird, since apparently both sides killed everyone, and only the Centurion is standing with his 8 stress. Is it ok with you, or we should try to roll it like a normal battle?

Hanor Del 11 2e
Lenaris Los 11 2e
Natala 13 4e
TPrel 12 6e
Centurion 12 6e
Uhlan 50 11e

In reply to GM (msg # 167):

[OOC: I'm happy to follow your proposal]

A minute long fight takes place in the room, while Bianca takes quick notes about the equipment there. The fight however drags on, more and more people are lying on the ground. At the end of the fight, there is a sudden silence. However, Bianca can still hear behind a console, there is still someone standing, cautiously walking on the other side of the obelisk.

Bianca, shocked by the development of the fight, cautiously approaches the source of the steps she can hear. She is ready to fight, if required, but she's not a fan of military solutions: she rather prefers technical solutions.