GM: Stras Acimovic
Players: Jory Bowers, Andi Carrison, and Sean Nittner
System: Scum & Villainy
What do you do with them?
Which one, David or Burden, the Ponydog? Both!
Bhaz brought Burden on board into the cargo hold. He seemed to like us, and she told the previous owner she’d take good care of him.
Faye rushed David, the clone, into a seat and like a flight attendant helped him strap in. He was very obedient until she was about to leave and then he reached out and grabbed her wrist “Zero, where are you taking me?” Faye looked perplexed, then smeared the sigil made of makeup on her head away, and told him, “That’s not me. I’m a person” (which she instantly felt terrible about). She pointed to Bhaz and Burden “Where talking you away. She’ll tell you about it” and then fled to find a place to hide on the ship.
Bhaz watched Faye be very uncomfortable but at least not super rude. She tried to make David comfortable, where as Laren was annoyed that she wasn’t treating David like cargo. Bhaz persisted in being gracious to our clearly harmless guest. In the galley he fell right into motion, assembling a meal and food with expert precision. Bhaz told him he didn’t have to do that and he stopped, as though he had been caught doing something wrong. Laren entered, annoyed that Bhaz was still talking to him and then way more annoyed that David used Laren’s pâté. He took the sandwiches angrily and stalked off.
Hate eating sandwiches, Laren went and found Faye, who was getting high on Emerald Dreams in the engine room, which she tried feebly to hide. Lauren asked if she was okay and Faye, struggling to remain cogent, dodged his questions.
Flashing back to the galley, once left alone David resumed making food, and finally fed himself once the others were are done.
Three awkward days of travel
“So you’d never believe this, but I didn’t actually get all the details of this job before accepting it.” – Faye. And thus a discussion about what to do with someone who might or might not want to be here.
And then we had the discussion about what David is. Is a clone a person? “They are people-ish”. We disagreed on some fundamentals but agreed to go forward with the job, there was nothing else to do. It was a good conversation I can’t encapsulate here, you should watch it!
We decided to pick what to do with David when we arrived. But what if we can’t make up our mind when it happens? Faye picks. Nobody (besides Faye) likes this plan. So it comes to this, rock-paper-scissors… which we threw mutual annihilation.
Faye’s final position “I think we should wing it.” “That sounds like a terrible plan, but I think we have to go with it.” – Bhaz.
On our way there, Faye, when she wasn’t inebriated, did sneak up on David to see what he was doing, and she’d find him twisting wires into little figures…of Burden.
Lauren gradually warmed up to Burden. Leaning into him when nobody was looking.
Bhaz kept trying to make David feel comfortable, but he resisted most of her attempts at conversation. Finally he asked Bhaz a questions “Why does Zero stay with you?” “We call her Faye. She stays because she wants to. Because we’re a team.” The answer confused him however and he went back to his blank expression.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Oh, wait. The other thing.
When we arrived at the stated location, we saw a massive black frigate, Sah’hiir in make. A powerful group of Xeno merchants, known for their ansible network (or FTL communications systems). In the TV show version of the show we all knew it was called the Void Key.
When we entered, Lauren leading the way, we noticed the ship was warmer than we were used to and had some strange smells in the air. We were lead to a Sah’hiir, an 8′ tall entity, clad in black robes and their face covered with a nearly featureless golden mask that still revealed metal feathers from behind it. When we approached, one of the many attendants greeted us “right on time, I assume you have the goods.” Laren knew the correct forms and bowed appropriately, which Faye tried to follow but failed, and did it too late.
Laren also accepted their generosity and was happy to drink of the Sah’hiir wine and we sat pleasantly, though Faye declined “no thanks, I don’t drink.”
The small talk person was full of things like fine wine and comments on recent events. Another was there to tell us that the warn temperature was just the temperature we were going to deal with. Another was there to tell us that what they did with David was not our concern.
Faye, very high on Green Emerald, and very against this entire endeavor, made the meeting very awkward by interrupting and asking rude questions, all of which put extra pressure on Laren to keep the deal in one peace. There was 8 credit on the line here!
We agreed to walk back to the ship together (Faye made up a lie about all of them needing to enter the ship together, thumbprints that had to come from living thumbs and all), along with the individual that had been shutting down Faye, and they tried to interrogate him about what David would do. He answered some of the questions and inferred that clones who weren’t imprinted didn’t have the artificially shortened lifespan, and that he enjoyed his job, and that David would have a similar job, that he was “chosen”. It still wasn’t enough though to win Faye over into believing she wasn’t selling David into slavery.
As the conversation got really awkward, the Sah’hiir speaker said “oh look, your ship, perhaps you wish to put your thumbs on things.”
Are we okay with this?
Inside we had some discussions about the value of eight credits vs. human trafficking. We came to an impasse where Faye didn’t want to finish the job, and then when pushed to the edge about whose fault it was that we took the job without knowing what we were in for, blamed Laren.
Bhaz tried valiantly to keep them from fighting with each other, but the shit was on now! Faye then kept goading Laren “You should have known better. You knew the Sah’hiir bow, you knew what we were in for!” Laren stood up straight and got in Faye’s face. “This is not my fault. I don’t take jobs that I don’t know about just to fund my drug habit! You’ve been useless this entire trip!” As be berated her, he backed Faye into the wall and got very close to her. Faye tried to poke Laren in the trust and blame him again but Laren grabbed her writs to stop her “this is not my fault!”
Cutting away, Bhaz entered the galley where she found David cleaning up. She told him why he was here, or what the Sah’hiir were paying us to bring him to do. David thought on it for some time and then put his hand on her shoulder “It will be okay.” As they walked out the camera lingered on a plate with one each of our favorite sandwiches and a letter that said “Thank you”.
When Bhaz returned to the hold Faye was yelling at the top of her lungs “You only care about your nice things, and your space caviar, and how pretty you are, and your fancy shirts than make your shoulders look even broader, and all your fancy stuff!” Laren caught her other wrist (she was trying to poke at him with that hand too) and became very loud himself “I don’t only care about fancy things.” He looked intensely at her as though was going to say something he did care about, but instead blushed, and then drop her wrists, and turns away.
Bhaz walked right on past with David. They are having their feelings. I’m busy. She handed David over to the Sah’hiir speaker and Faye said she would go with the speaker and David to “collect they money for the cargo!”
We get paid
As we walked through the Sah’hiir ship, Faye whispered to David to ask her about why he called her Zero. “That is your designation.” Faye asked more about what that meant, and if it meant one of them had some kind of status or authority over the other. He then turned and for the first time we saw real human emotion on his face (concern in this case). “We do not impose upon each other.”
She agreed and then asked if you wanted to do this. He responded with a question of his own. “Why do you do what you do?” She persisted though and asked again (mostly because she didn’t have a good answer for him) and he said he didn’t know what he wanted, but this seemed good enough. As they entered he said “They called me brother, perhaps this can be my family”.
As we entered the Sah’hiir stood up (strangely, albeit) and seemed excited. Money was pressed into Faye’s hands and they asked her to leave promptly. It was going to get weird in there!
Payoff
Cred: 8
Heat: 6 (Iota system)
Entanglement: to be found in downtime
Downtime in the Iota System
Twin Stars of Iiota burning brightly we landed on Indri, the industrial world of the Iota system covered in acid rain and otherwise toxic atmosphere. People moved around in gas masks. This was Faye’s kind of place. “Welcome to the orange sky of Indri!”
Upkeep: 1 Cred (paid… no more messing around with this)
Burden had to be locked up to allow the maintenance to be done and our crew quarters to be installed.
We did downtime actions!
- Faye indulged her vice (retroactively, all the time she spent on the ship high)
- Laren satisfied himself with the professional ladies of space (Indulge vice as well). Laren usually feel he has to adhere to different rules of propriety, and with all the tension he had with Faye, he needed a release.
- Bhaz indulged her vice (pleasure) as well, by spending time with dock workers who related to her and made her feel at home and welcome (with a working persons background). She went to a dive bar called the Jump Drive, filled with smoke and music and people gambling pennies. Bhaz was drinking, smoking, and cavorting. There were plenty of Cobalt folks here making union talk along the lines of “damn those Malklaiths.”
We flashed back to the ship and saw Burden perk his ears up and outside we saw another ship docking, the same ship that has been after us the whole time.
- Faye talked to dock workers trying to find a job and when she heard a new ship came in from the Rin system, and asked her friend Ora, an info broker, about helping to cover her tracks. [Lay Low]. She also tried to convince Ora to help her find out about the Malklaith ship. To which she laughed…very, very hard. Finally Faye agreed that she would investigate the Black and Green ship herself, but any chance that Ora had a job for her [using the I Know a Guy move to get a job]. Sure, there was some plant matter that needs to get to Amaranth before it dies and Amaranth is on the other side of the Iota suns. Normally an easy job but right now the suns are burning bright! While Ora and Faye were out, Faye was contacted by Ur-Bot who gave her an encoded message from Conclave-01
- Laren found Bhaz and Burden playing with each other, and saw how agile her parkour moves were, and asked if she could teach him how to do that [Prowess Training]. They bonded over running around and wrestling.
- Bhaz took that same energy and applied it to her fellows in the Cobalt Syndicate, training them and doing it without the same mirth that she had with Laren. [Indulging Vice]
Faye wasn’t content to learn all of the nothing that Ora had to offer, and so she did the very sensible thing, and skulked onto their ship! And in there she found that they had EXTENSIVE information about the crew including the genetic sequencing data Faye inadvertently left on Lithios. And she also found Kor! [Desperate skulk. Bad outcome].
Meanwhile in the Badlands
Faye had passed on the missive from Conclave-01 so Laren and Bhaz were out in the badlands, filled with abandoned factories and the rusted metal carcasses of ships. Out there, they met BarHazuk, a very large ur-bot who’s body had become patchwork over the ages of having to repair himself. He greeted them with a happy metal grinding sound “Human Friend! How is that fine little ship that we fixed up for you? And Laren, have you been practicing your growing things?” [BarHazuk is fascinated with gardening].
In awkward but adorable ur-bot fashion BarHazuk said “where are my manners?” and invited them inside where he told Bhaz and Laren about a ship that entered the Rin system recently that carries a concerning number of ur-bots on it. There is a rumor of an object (pre-cursor artifact?) that would allow someone to directly control a large number of ur-bots and he suspects that since they all match that model number, this person is seeing out this object.
The Prime has sensed this and his fear is great. This object should be left along, but if they are going to wake it, it would be best if we woke it instead. If you can find it and retrieve it for us, well that would be good. It’s dangerous and time sensitive, but the ur-bots have no way to get it themselves. They couldn’t offer credits but they would offer us parts for our ship (maybe a six cred ship part!)
Run for your life
Faye saw Kor and ran in terror, but she could not lose him. The she ducked around a corner and tried to topple boxes on him, but he cut right through them. Then she pretended to surrender and when he put his guard down fired her blaster at him, but he deflected the bolts with his blade. Then she tried to run again but he caught her. Then she tried to break free from him but he held her fast.
And when there was really nothing else she could do, Laren, Bhaz, and BarHazuk showed up, fired some blaster bolts of their own and which freed her from his grasp, and then they all ran back to the ship and flew like the wind out of off of Indri and away the from the Malklaith ship. Thank you good engines. Thank you cloaking device. Thank you ship hull and factory buildings for not caring to much about that last coat of paint we just scraped off!
Scum and Villainy on Air
What Rocked
As Laren was making one of his only emotional connections with Faye and she’s too embarrassed to accept, so they both say “Oh, I should probably go -” and break away uncomfortably. It was pretty amazing.
The moral quandary of what to do with David was a wonderful one. I’m so glad we took the time in game to have it.
Chester and Phyllis Atherton! The best of all aliases.
Bhaz and Laren exercising together in a friendly fashion and then Bhaz becoming very stern about training the members of the Cobalt Syndicate to fight. Similar training, very different Bhaz.
Kor is indeed a terrifying villain. He’s stronger, got more resources, has power over the Way. He creates all the dread that Darth, er, that a powerful Mystic should! Barely getting off world at the end was great.
BarHazuk. I mean c’mon, who doesn’t love a friendly robot? “Humans!” Also, re-watching the video I think it’s hilarious that Stras present Bar as this slow moving, cane using ur-bot who we then immediately were like “lets go run away from things together!” I feel like it’s as if Jyn met Saw Gerrera on Jedha and immediately said “c’mon uncle Saw, lets get booking!”
What could be improved
I think I fought a bit too hard to be free. When Kor caught Faye (or maybe when he caught her for the umteenth time) instead of running I wish I had just gone into his custody and had a good quip to go with it. The flight was cool, but a break out scene would have been cool to. Then again… (/spoilers)
