Travelling the Lanes with Osman Celik, Log 06

Morning on Allenby B557455-B, 013-3466, Old Gaepri, Residential District

A lone Cr900 bottle of liquor stands on a small table in Osman’s apartment. Osman is having breakfast, pacing the room, and occasionally pauses to stare back at the bottle. He sighs, pockets his hand computer, grabs the bottle, and leaves the apartment.

“Carderas Assets HQ, please.” says Osman as he climbs into a air taxi.

Driver reaction: 2d6: [6, 5] = 11 Enthusiastic.
Possibly a chance for some chit-chat, maybe about the news.

Custom Random News Headline (51,35): Escaped bioweapon, on a red zone planet

The drive nods and strikes up a conversation. “You hear what they are saying happened on Gough?”

“The terraforming accident?” questions Osman.

“Nah, that’s the official line. My pal in the service told me it was a bioweapon experiment gone wrong.”

“Bioweapon. Sure, could be…” Osman trails off more focused on his next steps. The Driver continues chatting about other elaborate conspiracy theories they believe are destroying the galaxy.

Morning on Allenby B557455-B, 013-3466, New Gaepri, Carderas Assets HQ

Mythic Meanings - locations, general: Tall, Echo

The air taxi pulls up to a narrow glass building that reaches quite a ways up - like many of the natives on Allenby. Once inside the interoir is lit with a sterile blue glow and Osman’s boots echo across a mostly empty interoir featuring an reception desk and panel of elevators.

“I’m here to see Duchess Valencia Carderas.” says Osman cooly.

“Do you have an appointment?” asks the receptionist.

Osman places the bottle on top of the reception desk.

Receptionist reaction 2d6: [3, 6] = 9 Intrigued.

“One moment, please have a seat.” says the receptionist as they tap an earpiece. “Call Valencia Carderas. Hello, I have an individual downstairs that I think you will want to know about.”

Osman takes the bottle back and sits down on a stainless steel bench. He hears a whirring sound, looks up, and notices a camera is pointed at him.

Valencia (presumably via an assistant) reaction: 2d6: [1, 1] = 2 Violent. Immediate attack.

Guards surprise, 1d6: [2]
Osman surprise, 1d6: [5] surprise achieved

ESCAPE AND AVOIDANCE A party which has achieved surprise may always avoid an encounter by so stating. — Book 01, Characters & Combat

Initial range; 2d6-5: [1, 4]-5 = 0 (1: Short)

Besides the bench and reception desk is there anything else Osman could use? 2d6: [2, 5] = 7 Yes, but
Going to assume it is like oversized, extremely heavy planters. He can’t move them but he could run to them if desired.

Moments later the elevator bell rings, the doors open, and two extremely large people dressed in dark black formal suits step out. Osman frowns and ducks behind the bench, attempts to turn it over as an obstacle, and makes a run for the door.

The bench must be heavy, so Throw under 7 (STR 9, -DM 2): 2d6: [6, 5] = 11 Nope.

They look directly at Osman, pull out a pair of SMGs, and open fire. Glass is shredded to pieces and people on the street start running in panic. Osman is out the door and running for his life. He darts down an alley…

• Daily Legal Encounter (5-) 2d6-5: [6, 6] = 7 None. (-5 DM as a “shots fired” modifier)
  
• Daily Person Encounter (5+) 1d6: [5] Yes.
  
• Random Person: (1d610) + 1d6: ([6]10)+[5] = 65 “GM’s choice”
  • Reaction: 2d6: [6, 6] = 12 Genuinely friendly.
  • Adventure Crafter, Character Identity: Athlete, Thief
    
  • Adventure Crafter, Character Descriptors: Arrogant, Helpful

… and sees a air/raft hover off the ground.

“Get in.”

Osman hesitates and looks behind him again.

“You got another option? Otherwise, get in. I’m your guardian angel.”

Osman climbs into the car and the pair head skyward to the traffic lanes.

“Who are you?” asks Osman.

“We have a mutual friend… and enemy it seems. You are either really brave or extremely dumb to waltz into Carderas like that.”

“Where are we headed, the starport?” Osman takes a look around and infers their destination from their surroundings.

“Yes. Nivelle to be exact.”

“Nivelle? That’s clear across the subsector. I’m not going there.”

“You are a pilot right? I need a pilot. I hear you need credits too. I can help with that as well.”

Mythic Meanings, starships: Automated, Colorful

The vehicle passes through the starport checkpoints and descends towards a docking bay. On the pad is a ship painted “safety orange” and a set of robots are working on the ship.

“How did you know to find me? You work for Havva?”

“You ask a lot of questions, son. You run your mouth like that at Carderas? No wonder they wanted to shut you up.”

“Run my mouth? I didn’t even get to talk to anyone.”

“Run with my crew for a bit and you’ll learn to take care of yourself. The pay will be good and, at least for tonight, no one will be shooting you.”

Osman considered his options. They seemed extremely thin at the moment. The air/raft came to a rest near their starship. One of the small robots interacted with the ship and a landing dock lowered down.

“One job. I pilot you to Nivelle and you get me back here?” said Osman.

“Could be one job. Could be more. Right now you’ve angered a crime family that wants to shoot you on sight apparently. Why you would want to come back here beats me.”

“You bring me back here or no deal.”

The air/raft, now docked inside the ship, came to a stop. The driver exited the vehicle and Osman followed.

“Look, I can bring you back here when the heat simmers down. I hear you are good pilot, why would you want to be dead instead?” said the Driver.

“I have family.”

“Best we leave them out of this.”

“What do I call you?”

Custom Random Space Opera Names: Jet Reth (lol, what even is this name?)

“Captain will do for now.” says the driver.

One of the small robots, with narrow legs, hastily walks towards Captain Jet Reth.

“C-C-Captain Reth, repairs are complete and the ship is ready to depart.”

Reth pats the robots on the head and it walks itself over to what appears be a purpose-built docking station for the robot itself. The other small robots follow suit and lock-in to their own stations.

“Ready to earn your pay? We’ll need docking clearance and navigation solution to Nivelle. The jump gate to Pershing should be open. I assume you can work out the rest?”

“Your charts are up to date?”

“Just downloaded the latest data. That is assuming these buckets of bolts did what I asked.”

“Is this the ‘crew’?” Osman makes a show of putting sarcastic air quotes around the word crew as he says it.

I this the whole crew, unlikely? 2d6-1: [5, 4]-1 = 8 Yes.

“Yep, that’s them.”

“What the hell do you do exactly?”

“I get into places that don’t want to be gotten into.”

“Ok. Just show me to the bridge.”

The pair climb several ladders until they reach an area with some familiar navigation equipment.

“That’s a military grade sensor computer… where did you get this stuff?”

“I have friends too, Osman.”

“What happened to your last pilot?”

For a moment the Captain looks distant. “They had to leave the crew. It was their time.” after a quiet moment Reth continues “So, the seat is yours. You can adjust it… you know play with all the knobs later if you like but get us moving first.”

“Yes, Captain.”

GM Notes

Osman definitely doesn’t do things I would do but to me the spirit of Traveller is playing the character. Osman has enough raw ability to be good at many things but he’s also fairly young (in the grand scheme of things) and naive. If it wasn’t for the surprise I think he’d wound up seriously injured at the Carderas HQ (possibly even dead if I thought the dice wanted that strongly enough.)

This whole Captain Reth storyline is just purely what came to mind with the random tables rolls. A random person encounter, that is one of the blank entries and the reaction roll is a 12? What else could it be then someone dropped into Osman’s world ready to change their life? The Adventure Crafter character suggestions painted a picture to me of one of those brash, bold smuggler captain types. I just ran with that first picture that came into my mind.

Was Havva Taş having Osman watched and stepped in? I don’t honestly don’t know and I’ll leave it to the dice to tell me. For now we get to go visit another world (and maybe another ruleset.)