Lizard and Lunk

The continuing GURPS adventures of eight men who really should find better uses for their time.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Jailbreak! (Part 1 of However Many)

17 & 24 November 2009-

I have to link these together, since last week was chock full of technical difficulties, and we eventually gave the enterprise up as fruitless. In essence, last week laid our plans for this week, which have so far (barely) survived first contact with the enemy.

Our plan was to stow away in the freight containers going to the penal asteroid, then take over the ship upon landing. That part went great. Despite being notoriously pugnacious, the Drazi fighter crew didn't want to die uselessly for some anonymous human prisoner, and so they gave up without a fight. We then took their vacc suits and entered the base, which seems to be on a down shift since we encountered no resistance. From there, we divided up responsibilities: the two Minbari would stay in the ship, while the rest of us (who could fit our heads in the Drazi space helmets) went and liberated the prisoner. On our way to the prisoner barracks, we planted explosives on the communication tower, so that we could prevent the base from calling for help on the off chance that we would get discovered.

Once we got to the barracks, we realized that our guy was not in residence, so we decided to look in the mines. We encountered a group of workers and guards, who Kevin (also a Drazi) tried to bluff, but unsuccessfully. Although we found out that our target was back in the control building we landed in, the conversation took a "boring" turn, and Craig sniped the Drazi leader with his laser rifle while our guys in the ship blew the communications tower and switched on our war surplus Minbari communications jammer. Craig was lethal with his laser rifle, blasting two of the guards through their face-plates before they could even get off a shot. The slugthrowers we borrowed didn't penetrate the suit armor of the other Drazi, but they kept the enemy at least partially distracted- until one of the guards shot Schmitty with his own laser carbine. Luckily, Schmitty stayed conscious long enough to put on an emergency suit seal before he passed out, but he was down for the count. The last guy went down when a group of five miners from his work gang joined the fight on our side, and they killed him with a mining drill (ouch!).

Once they blew the tower and set up the jammer, our Minbari decided to rescue the target themselves, but we'll have to see how that develops nest week.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

How Much for the High Explosives?

2 November 2009-

After a series of busy weeks for me (the GM), we were back on track with the B5 campaign. the PCs had arrived at Freedom Station, and had discovered a Narn bar owner who knew a lot about the comings and goings around the station, and was willing to help for the right price. He set us up with the name of a Centauri vehicle mechanic who had supposedly been to the asteroid prison, as well as the name of a human junk dealer who might be able to get us some of the unusual supplies one might need for this sort of expedition.

Logically, the PCs split up, with Craig's SQuG (Spy of Questionable Gender) going with Jeff's Minbari telepath to question the Centauri, and eBill's and Schmitty's characters to shop at the human's junk shop. This was probably the worst possible division of labor, because the Centauri didn't fall for Craig's smooth talk at all, and the human just wanted to help. It ends up that the Centauri needs a starship part that our pirate buddies might have, and that he might grudgingly divulge some information after that item is found. The human, on the other hand, was so accomodating that our shoppers basically spilled their guts to him while shopping for the items we'll need. Anyway, he's going to price a bundle of gear for us that will include some jamming gear, some explosives, and some more serious small arms, so we'll see how we do from there. Then it's off to the hanger to hijack a Drazi prison shuttle. Woot!