Session started at 2:15 pm on 9/3/05
Attending players: Mike, Nate, Griffin , John, Eva Presiding GM: Curtis
Major NPC's: Harry Bryant, unnamed man
(Each of us go off to talk with Curtis one at a time to do our individual character introduction.)
(Rae's introduction) After teleporting to Percepi {in the Lalande 21185 system} I manage to hitch a ride on a mystic transport to New York City, Earth after a very unpleasant run in with some echos (I hope its not following me!). I explore the city and spend the night in a tree in central park {out of the reach of muggers}. When leaving the park three men in suits with some sort of laser guns try to kidnap me. I flee but one of them manages to hit me with his laser gun (7 wounds). If I meet them again I don't think I can risk being shot another time. When I land about 10 minutes later, far off in a suburb I am greeted by a man calling himself Harry Bryant. He says that he saw what happened and followed me. He must be some sort of mage, I guess. He offers to help me since the suit wearing men work for one of his enemies. I'm not super sold on this, but it seems better than being hunted constantly and he mentioned he could fix it so I couldn't be tracked {then I can flee him as well if all goes wrong}. He doesn't seem to be planning to hurt/kidnap/dissect me, but he does suspect I'm not just a normal human. I agree to go with him. He gets me an ID {"Rae Denison"} and takes me to the Earth's moon colony with him. He tells me he has meetings he must attend and if I want to come with him on his trip to retrieve some artifact from some asteroid {he's very vague} I should meet him back at his company's headquarters in the "evening". I go off to explore and hopefully find a book store.
(Curtis makes all of us swear the laptop oath out of character.)
(We make mean jokes about Jesus out of character.)
I manage to find a book store and buy an electronic book that will help me learn to read English. After wandering around for a bit I return to Bryant's office and talk to him. He tells me we'll be heading out this evening if all goes well, otherwise I can stay at the hotel he booked for me. At "2100" we meet Matt and Bryant introduces me to him.
(Meanwhile, Maximilian and Vadril Korlax head to a VIP landing strip in some spaceport (separately). Vadril passes through an extra security gate and the security lets him in when he shows his ID card. Maximilian approaches security and they demand his ID, he backs off and hangs around waiting.)
Matt, Bryant, and I head into the spaceport and head down towards the VIP landing strip. (We pass Max, who hasn't gone through security yet.) At security Bryant shows them his ID and says that we are with him they let us pass through. {I also hear Bryant whisper to the guard that the guy "Max Cohen" who is down the hall is with him as well, though he may not know it yet. The plot thickens...}
We meet Dr. Korlax and Bryant tells him he's early. The doctor stays back in the spaceport lounge to wait for us.
A ship lands at the port we are waiting at. It is really, really big and kind of ratty and unfinished looking. It has one symbol marking the outside of its hull: a crecent {might be a moon?} with a sword hanging above it.
A creepy droid, mechanical man disembarks from the ship. He has see-through flesh and gives the general impression of being unfinished, like the ship. Matt heads for the ship but pauses when he sees the guns on the ship that are trained on the entrance plank.
The droid greets Bryant. "Greetings prospective employer. I have arrived for my interview."
Bryant is getting agitated. He quietly tells Matt to hurry up and fire "the thing". The door of the ship begins to close. Matt shrugs and sets off some sort of device that blasts the ship with a wave of electricity. The lights on the ship go off, the door stops closing, and the droid falls over. Matt runs for the ship's door and leaps inside.
(Matt races through the inside of the ship and installs a chip somewhere deep in its main computer room.) About four minutes later the ship and droid power up again. The droid gets back up.
The partially closed hatch opens again. Bryant asks the droid if it is ok, it says it is. Bryant asks the droid to take us on board the ship and take us to a pre-arranged spot. The droid rattles off coridinates which Bryant confirms. The droid asks about his compensation for the trip. Bryant asks what it thinks is fair. The droid quotes back a price. Bryant seems relieved and agrees to pay the droid's price cheerfully. They have a short exchange that I didn't quite follow and then shake hands. Bryant goes off to talk to someone {not sure, perhaps the doctor?}, saying he will be right back.
(Curtis and Mike go off to talk in private.)
(Bryant talks to Max, trying to convince him to come with him. Max is extremely distrustful. When Bryant says he doesn't know who Max is, Max senses that Bryant is lying. Max tries to grapple Bryant but misses. Bryant is amused by Max's distrust. Max "lights up". There is a lot of fire involved in this and Max ruins his gloves in the process. Max demands the truth from Bryant. Bryant backs away and admits he knows who Max is. Bryant tells Max some information about what is going on. Max babbles something about revenge and games, but agrees to go along with Bryant. Max lights a cigarette as they head twords the lounge.)
(Bryant stops in the lounge to talk to the doctor. Max leaves and heads to the landing strip. The doctor joins Bryant and they return to the landing strip.)
The doctor, Max, and Bryant join us at the landing strip. Max is very nervous. Matt asks Bryant about his payment. Bryant pays him and asks if he will come with us in case anything goes wrong. He's looking nervously at the droid.
(Matt talks to his boss via his data jack. He decides to take the job and go with us. He sends his mom an email telling her he will be off world for a bit.)
People talk about money for a while... its immensely boring and difficult to follow.
We all get on the ship. The ship takes off. Bryant asks the droid when we will be starting "the thing up". I find a more spacious part of the cargo hold and stay out of the way.
Bryant asks about food. The droid responds "Do you require food?" Bryant is a bit upset.
We land again. Bryant gets some food and other supplies while the droid is figuring out something about our trip.
I hang around in the spaceport and read my book while things are arranged. It's not bad, though I'm not all that fond of this cheap electronic paper thinggy.
(Max and Vadril discover that everyone has lost all contact with Percepi colony. It's all over the news. Sadly I was too busy ready my book to notice.) (The droid researches why he was hired by Bryant's company.) (Vadril does some research about how the ship and Bryant's company are related, and generally what's going on.)
After a while we get back on the ship and take off. I stash some of the food that Bryant brought back in the freezer for later. We jump to far away. It is kind of unpleasant. We appear at the location of the asteroid. Its a single star system, but we're relatively close to the star. There is one large asteroid and some other smaller ones floating around as well. I've never been out in space before. It's too bad there's artificial gravity on this ship.
Bryant tells me that we're looking for something on the largest asteroid here when I ask. D.E.E. begins scanning to find "something" at Bryant's request.
We land on the asteroid. Everyone except me puts on space suits to head out onto the asteroid. Max isn't using an air tank with his suit. Matt comments on this and Vadril seems surprised by it as well. Max is a bit stand-off-ish about it. I guard the cargo bay. It's in one piece when they come back, I succeeded. Heh.
(The folks outside find some sort of dead man with a gross rotting, withered, twisted hand. The take the man back to the ship.)
They come back carrying a man's body. He is not in a suit. Bryant goes and gets a kitchen knife and cuts the man's hand off. The "dead" man screams and sits up when his hand is cut off. I'm not sure I like the way this is going. When he starts getting angry I point out that we thought he was dead so why would he need his hand?
He is bleeding but not as badly as I would expect from a knife wound. Bryant starts talking to D.E.E. about "ejecting the cargo". If Bryant is going to freak out at every weird thing how are we ever going to find out what's going on? He is really turning out to be a disappointment.
The man starts talking to us. Vadril tries to help the man, but I'm guessing he doesn't know much about first aid. He must be some other sort of doctor. The man says he doesn't remember his name. We talk to the man. He is confused and impressed by D.E.E.. He seems to think it was 2050-ish the last time he knew. He's surprised when Matt tells him its 2299.
Bryant is getting freaked out by the hand, which has begun to move. He drops it and it starts wiggling on the ground. Its flesh begins to twitch and bubble and it grows rapidly into a twisted creature with the hand in place of its mouth (think Cthuloid-ish). D.E.E.'s mechanical voice sounds over the intercom, "It would be best if you leave the cargo hold."
End of Session