Gambling in Sulfri

 

The Finders Trail’s Characters

Pirrip - A sweaty cacogene with extending limbs and a hydrolic bicep. He’s taking the role of caravan clerk and has a habit of gambling.

Fane Many-Moons - An imposing, but fragile, chimera synth with a single green eye. She’s the caravan oracle and is preoccupied with Urth’s moons and satellites.

Symmeon - A sneaky synth powered by blood. His priest outfit got him hired has a healer, although he was programmed an assassin.

Samar Xan Hevran (NPC) - Leader of the Hevran caravan, she’s a fierce True-Kin looking for the fabled city of Oralens.

Jamik (NPC) - A quiet and careful New-Coyote, the right man of Samar.

Day 10 - Gambling in Sulfri

After leaving Jasa xon Jaxa, the caravan slowly make it way in the mountain town of Sulfri. Samar, head of the expedition, announce that the caravan is staying in town for a day in order to resupply the food, water and fuel necessary for the next leg of the journey. After the speech, Jamik catches up with Pirrip, Symmeon and Fane for a couple of chores. Pirrip, official clerk of the company, is in charge of the rations while Symmeon is asked to gather the medical supplies. Jamik also asks Fane to help the Cartographer find the device he needs to complete some calculations. The Cartographer, a small and grumpy mycomorph with a strange helmet-device, doesn’t feel keen to share what he is actually looking for.

Pirrip takes the lead and finds two young and inexperienced farmer to supply the food at a slight discount, while Symmeon tries to find “medical supplies” - although he has no clues what he’s really looking for. He ends up with a dozen syringes and a chilling bandage. The Cartographer is nowhere to be found. Pirrip, bored, takes Fane to the Falconport as she mentions her interest for the ziggurath-astroport.

While climbing the long stairs leading to the top of the ziggurat, Fane notices a old blind women chanting in an unknown language. Spheres and lights are orbiting around her, not unlike the movement of the moons. Intrigued, she ask what would happen if one moon went missing? The blind women stuttered for a short while but resumes her dance. Fane notices the strange answer and goes meditating.

Meanwhile, Symmeon finds the Cartographer going through bins of various electronic devices in the bazaar. He sneaks in but fail to understand what these device do or what the merchant is arguing about. Something about a Hyper Compass? Symmeon asks the Cartographer, but the grumpy guy doesn’t share. He then takes notice of 2 shiny black synth skulking in the market, visibly on the lookout for suspicious trades and whatnot.

Pirrip, wandering in the Falconport, fancies the various ships docked there. He notices a large black frigate, in perfect shape and can’t help but speculate on the ship’s value. He asks the 3 shiny black synth who completely denies the question and ask him to leave.

They finally meet at the Pale Camel Club, a shady karaoke joint where Pirrip went gambling (and lost a lot of money) a couple months ago. The insatiable gambler introduces Fane and Symmeon to a local dice game. Pirrip and Symmeon manage to lose the first two games to a True Kin and a New-Scorpion. Pirrip is sweating furiously.

Fane decides to play and use her Augury gift to get a read on the first 5 rounds and that gives her a clear advantage. Her opponent, Purplebeck, tries to cheat but get caught by Symmeon and chaos ensue. Weapons are drawn, insults fly and the owners barges in, asking the cheater to pay double his buy-in. Fane eventually win and Pirrip is now a happy man. They leave the table with 40 more credit while Fane, unsure about her use of Augury for financial gain, takes the karaoke stage and sings a melancholic but soothing opera for the crowd.

They leave the club and join the caravan late in the evening. Symmeon, who has previously used his syringe finger to sneakily extract the blood of a gambling True-Kin, injects the liquid in his own systems and feels a new energy surging inside him.

The next morning, the Iron Slug caravan leaves Sulfri on a desolate highway going north but Samar notices that 4 members have left the company. Fane investigates and found that some of them just considered the endeavor too dangerous. Better off without them.

Two days later, the caravan gets attacked by a large pack of Phthalo-Jackals, which they noticed tracks the day before. Symmeon stabs and throws his javelin while getting bit here and there. Pirrip, using his hydraulic bicep, punches the small creature left and right until the bionic arm jams for good. Fane, taking her new opera skills to combat decides to use her imposing stature to hinder their morale, with more or less success.

They take good care of the pack until their leader, a disgusting and large two headed jackal, rushes toward the Cartographer who luckily falls under the vehicle. Pirrip fires his prismatic pistol from afar while Fane shoots a green laser from her single eye. Scarred and bleeding, the pack leader bites our imposing opera singer but Symmeon jumps on the ship and fires the heavy weapon mounted on the Iron Slug, delivering the killing blow.

Sadly, two caravan member died during this encounter and five suffered considerable wounds, including Pirrip who has a bloody dislocated mouth. Symmeon, our fake medic, silently kill a badly injured patient, knowing all too well that we would never be able to treat him. He also fails to treat Pirrip who’s hydraulic bicep kicks in and punch the medic for considerable damage. Bloody and tired, the caravan stops on the ruined highway for the day.

GM Notes

It was super interesting to see the player finally try out their character, both in role-play and mechanically. We played 5e for a year and jumping in this “simpler” system was fantastic. I encouraged the players to try things without caring for skills/spells/abilities. I also went a bit crazy with the NPC and we all had a blast. I was worried that the stranger sci-fi lore would be less intuitive to get in, but the players seemed hooked and curious.