Session 3

Session 3 notes

4:25

Get off at next top, security cameras. Janick slips into the washroom to try to clean up the blood before the next train arrives. Something about Lorelai looking like on a date with John, and getting food.

Rowan goes to space port and waits for close to an hour before Yanick, John, and Lorelai show up at the ground transport terminal. Entire party has credentials to access hangar bay 27 where the ship is (the planet knows that we’re a party). People asking about how great their stay on Pharusa was look away when they see the spike thrower.

Getting on ship, party doesn’t find any evidence of Bijou being on the ship from internal cameras (although there is a mouse!). Rowan is more familiar with Aegis ship surveillance and doesn’t know the cameras very well.

External cameras (no audio): people come and go to and from the space yard, but it looks like they all work there. The refueling team refills the tank, but 2 hours before the party checks the cameras, a group of 5 individuals gets let in to the docking bay by a worker who was obviously coerced to let them in. They try to access the keypad and fail, and start talking amongst themselves. Bijou walks into the hangar bay, and then one of the guys plays “nice guy” and the 5 of them escort Bijou away. An hour later, the party arrives. The guys were obviously dressed up for a scuffle and a team (although unprofessional, in Lorelai’s opinion), but not military combatants wearing woven body armor.

John gets left on ship, Janick gives him back reloaded spike thrower. Lorelai has “only 6 knives”. Janick knows that the guys fit the profile of the Corvus military group lackeys. Corvus has fronts where you can speak to them (you can hire them for things), the Corvus offices, and also microbars the members tend to frequent. Lorelai has a communicator wristband from one of the killed Corvus (it’s password locked), but Janick says not to use it because it betrays the fact that they killed them.

5:15

Rowan hacks into the compad. A couple of pending messages are left, “change of plans” and “cover blown”: the prior messages say “meet me at hangar bay 27 in 2 hours“ and “hey, where are you?”. Rowan goes to talk to the help desk, talking about an incident with the ship and needing to speak to the guy from hangar bay 27, “Ian”. Help desk lady says he went home with a bad stomach bug a couple of hours ago. Rowan says “he bore witness to something”, at which point Lorelai shows up. Lorelai says we lost something very important to us and we know who took it. Help desk lady decides to send a message to Ian, and gets Rowan’s contact info to forward a reply to.

Rowan finds an empty terminal and hacks it to find Ian Butler’s address and personal phone number, the person who was assigned to hangar bay 27 for the week. Lorelai doesn’t notice anyone noticing them. After finishing hacking, Rowan calls Janick and invites him to go speak with Ian: Janick shows John to a crew cabin and tells him to call if he feels unsafe, and meets Rowan and Lorelai at the door to the hangar bay to call a space Uber (5 credits).

Party group chat! Janick changes the color to yellow and Rowan changes the emoji to fireworks, but Lorelai mutes it. Group call while Jed is 90 minutes away, telling him that Bijou is captured and to turn around. Grav trucks are all electric.

5:35

Janick/Lorelai/Rowan get to Ian’s apartment and make a call to Ian. Talking to Ian, he’s very clearly nervous and denying the incident in the hangar bay. Ian buzzes them up to his actual apartment. The apartments are lower-quality, with some of the lights flickering (he’s probably working galactic minimum wage). Ian looks scared to see that the party is fully armed. Rowan uses telepathic contact with cloaking powers to discern that he’s scared, especially when he opens the door, and he feels guilty about Janick wanting to get Bijou back.

Everyone comes in: he’s got a studio apartment with a kitchenette, which is a little dirty but not bad. He has a nice armchair in the room (which he sits in), and then some cheap Ikea-like furniture. He explains he was working his shift on the 20/30 blocks of the spaceport and that the group of guys came up to him, told him to open it, and showed him their guns when he refused at first and informed him that he needs to tell his supervisor he has a stomach bug. The guy’s name was “Gaius”, one of the Corvus thugs that hangs around the spaceport that try to get quick cash out of tourists. He’s gotten more aggressive as of late, but usually likes to take people’s money, not people. Janick mentions that it was probably an order from a higher-up.

Zooey Raptis is one of the leading Corvus representatives on the planet. Tends to get her way by force, definitely a big name on the planet. Upon mention of higher-ups and Zooey, Ian goes from relief about venting to shame about caving. Ian has friends that thought it would be easier to make money as a mercenary, and he’s lost those friends. One buddy of his tried to make him go to the warehouse recruiting place downtown (about a mile away) with him sometimes. Ian isn’t sure if that would be where Bijou is, but thinks it might be a good place to start (and Ian avoids it now).

Ian has let Gaius do stuff before because he’s not strong or a cop. Telling his supervisors would make them tell him to shut up, because there’s not a lot of authorities on the planet and Corvus isn’t to be messed with. He is concerned when he asked how they got his address and Rowan winks, but Janick lies and says the help desk lady let them look through the records to find him (which he doesn’t believe). Rowan puts his arm around Ian, which makes him very concerned, and tells him that they will do everything in their power to get their friend back. Rowan tips him 20 credits, which confuses him, after which Rowan says “thank you for your silence”, to which Ian agrees. Ian says his “stomach bug” might not fix itself for a couple of days, at Janick’s suggestion. Ian responds to the help desk lady’s email about a stolen item by saying it was behind a crate in the docking bay. Ian says good luck and that the Corvus mercenaries are touch (to which Lorelai laughs), but that they’re not all bad. Ian is in his early 20s.

6:00

The party starts going to the warehouse to scout it out, and Rowan finds a bystander to ask questions to. Rowan asks about a group of Corvus people going by with another person in tow, to which the old lady denies. Rowan opens a telepathic connection with the lady and finds suspicion and caution. Rowan can’t make her talk about anything and makes her really angry and distrusting.

Lorelai says she works with these people and says they’re not going to wait to get what they want, and that the party should either wait to group up or go forward. At this point, Jed and Aqui are 20 minutes out and are updated on where the party is going.

Not a lot of foot traffic in this part of town, but there is air traffic. The party notices a couple of people, but they notice the party being armed and, knowing that this part of town isn’t populated by upstanding people, go down side streets or avoid the party.

Janick asks Lorelai about herself. She says she’s from Pitrus in the Antilochus system (02.06, flying cities because the planet’s surface is not habitable: the cities are in super low orbit, like Bespin). Her sister was given the same training as she was, but wasn’t given the same “freedom” as she was and Lorelai’s goal is to find her. Lorelai hasn’t been further south than the Martinez system.

Lorelai asks the same question back. Janick met Bijou as he was leaving Chhaya, as she needed passage heading north. Lorelai asks about Janick’s military training: Janick was in the CCRN, serving most of his adult life as a pilot. He has done things that he’s regretted, but that’s behind him. Janick is glad Lorelai has never been to Chhaya.

The party settles down in a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. Lorelai asks if Rowan knows what the inside of the warehouse is like. Rowan knows the shipyards are modular and that he’s similar ones. The layouts are very gridlike, with wide lanes for grav lifts and cargo pods and such: lots of big, open streets between warehouses with large sight lines and few obstructions. This one might be a little different since it’s less rigidly maintained, with scattered boxes and stuff, but he’s not sure. The warehouses themselves are large and empty, except for possible shelves and cargo. The insides vary based on use, and a recruiting warehouse could look very different. There are at least 3 entrances: one for cargo, at least 2 for pedestrians (also, skylights).

Janick has experience flying recon drones, but doesn’t have one (the CCRN wouldn’t let him take one with him). Jedidiah parks the grav truck a couple of blocks away in a parking garage, which has a giant gouge in the side from something running into it. Jedidiah changes out of John Tucker’s clothes.

6:20

The coffee shop seems like a place that only regulars attend, so the owner is surprised to see so many new people. There’s Galactic Standard Time, which is based on earth’s hour/minute/second: a Galactic Standard Day is still 24h, but an individual planet’s day can be shorter or longer.

Party heads to the warehouse. Janick finds loading stations that are elevated, from which he can get a vantage point. Janick and Bijou did not set up “find my compad” with each other, sadly. Party didn’t see anyone leaving.

Warehouses don’t seem like they’re used at all: makes you feel very small, because they look like big barns. Looks like some of the crates have been looted. Jedidiah walks up to 2 bouncers by several grav vehicles, who say that they have “special guests” and that Jed should come back tomorrow. Jed goes back to the party.

6:35

Flashback to Bijou! The 5 people ask Bijou where John is and if the ship is her ship. The 5 people take her back with them “to sort everything out” in a packed grav vehicle. The place they take her has super tinted windows and temporary walls that don’t go all the way to the ceiling.

The Corvus ask questions about knowing how to contact Corvus, and John Tucker. They said that they got messages that we were going to go to Hangar Bay 27, hand over John, and get paid. Bijou always responds “I don’t know what you’re talking about”. Questioning goes on for an hour. Bijou is really confused, and kind of on the verge of tears.

Bijou asks who they are, and they say they are part of “the esteemed mercenary group Corvus” trying to do a good thing for the galaxy, that John Tucker is a bad person that they’re trying to bring to justice. They mention having a bad rap, but “different leadership styles”. They mention Zooey running a tight ship, and her sorting things out once she gets there. After Bijou doesn’t give any information, the guy angrily leaves the room and leaves Bijou alone for 20 minutes.

Tall woman, 6’2” walks in with lines of silver metal from the corner of each eye to her jaw, definitely a cybernetic implant. Surface-level visibility isn’t necessary, so it’s for intimidation/impression, but the cybernetics look very well made.

(From session 2): Bijou left early to bring back the weird cylinder-y thing that Aquila wanted.

Bijou says we were at John’s apartment and she went back early. Zooey asks about other people keeping tabs on the party since we got on planet, to which Bijou asks why Zooey’s people are spying on the party. After Bijou says she doesn’t care about John Turner, Zooey tries to strike a deal to get Bijou to go to the party and show the location of John, with compensation involved as well. Bijou says “meh” and asks if she can just go back. Zooey offers 8000 credits (4000 credits in hand, with 4000 more on the way), to which Bijou asks why Zooey cares. Zooey says John is finally useful now and very important to her. Bijou says she sounds like a bad person, and Zooey says enough people have said it that she can’t refute it, but that John is a bad person. Bijou tries to follow Zooey out of the room, but Zooey shoves Bijou back to consider the offer. As she leaves, there are several armed guards with rifles leveled that weren’t there before.

7:00

The party decides to stealth it. Janick gets a message from Bijou saying "we need to talk". The person on the other end wants to call Janick, but Janick doesn't want to answer, but does with "why can't you come back to the ship?" It's Zooey, talking about knowing the party is on planet, and having a few questions. Zooey gives the phone to Bijou and puts the phone on speaker. Apparently, Janick is the only contact in Bijou's compad.

Bijou says she was "captured", but Zooey says they mistook her for John Turner and that she's been non forthcoming. They sliced into her phone. Bijou asks if Janick has made a deal with John Turner, to which Janick asks who John Turner is. Lorelai and Rowan vote yes for the deal, and Jedidiah and Janick vote no. Jedidiah starts sneaking to the warehouse.

Zooey talks about John making people suffer by getting rid of their jobs, promising not to kill him and saying he'll go home (guaranteed). Zooey talks about his politics and his goal to make their lives miserable, and his skill. John's contacts at Aegis made it hard to get off-planet work. The Rods of Asclepius probably work with Corvus as private military sometimes, but Corvus's reputation as a bully (even in the Galactic Hegemony days) and causer of political unrest on other planets causes neutrality between the two groups. There are more honest/rigorous groups of Corvus that take their job more seriously, but these Corvus are not it. There are cells of more militaristic Corvus people (including Chhayan cells specializing in navy and ship boarding) that even the CCRN uses. The Corvus headquarters in the Martinez system sends out orders, but these are a lot more independent.

The Corvus branch on Pharusa took advantage of politicians willing to do backwater deals to run a more sinister branch, but some Corvus branches are actually very good and noble, like paladins. Friendship with one Corvus branch might help with another, but won't guarantee it.

Rowan speaks up and says we'll call back in a few minutes. Rowan tries to convince the party that they should turn John in, but Janick wants to preserve his honor and Lorelai doesn't want to work with the Corvus people.

Level up!