Tasks and trade

The crew set about finding more work and equipment.

Simon

Decides to spend time training but gains no new talents.

Abraham

Goes to the local trade guild, he eventually comes back with a stim-pack (as a trader he could roll twice, which is good as the first roll came up with a useless trinket)

'Betty' and Zia

Both go and see the sights and both come back with a rumour,

1. "The famous philosopher/explorer Cornelius Columbus has not been seen lately"

2. "Strange alien outposts have been seen in wilderness area's of frontier worlds"

Rafflesnap

Goes back to the enclave for more work.

The Cabaal Enclave have been putting together evidence and clues for the past 50 years on trying to find the Enigma Sceptre.
The Sceptre belonged to a mysterious race of aliens known only as the Enigmas that are long dead, many thousands of years ago they colonised Florax and their leader held the Sceptre and is rumoured to gift the holder with charasmatic power and luck.
The Cabaals leaders are hoping this can help them expand their influence.

 The Sceptre is located in some ancient tombs but within a stone sarcophagus that can only be opened by hacking with the right intrusion software, it has taken the Enclaves software specialists 20 years the write the software in 'Enigma' format.

The only problem is, the tombs are located in a wilderness area inhabited by raiders . . .

If you go down to the woods today . . .

Raul Nightblade owns a small cabin in the woods, he stays here alot, he has various hidden cache's of supplies, weapons and money around the area.
He is guarded by hitmen that he has trained.
Everyone knows he stays here and where it is but no-one goes after him, the rare ones that have are never seen again.

Rauls woodland cabin

First few turns . . . (Standard)

'Betty' takes a Goon and makes directly for the cabin but remains low and hidden, Simon takes the second Goon and starts flanking around to the left.

'Betty' and a Goon head in.

Simon flanks.

The turn after the first few (Standard)

Simon and his Goon sneak up to the rear of the cabin, peeking in he see's Raul relaxing, 'Betty' and his goon sneak up to a hedge and lay in wait.

Simon then puts a Frakk grenade in through the window, a dull thud issues from within the Cabin.

The two hitmen turn towards the commotion but 'Betty' pops up from behind the hedge and guns one of them down, the Goons shots go wide.

'Betty' lies in wait.

Simon peeks in . . .

The shooting starts.

The next turn (Standard)

'Betty' and his Goon trade shots with the Hitman who has hastily sought covour behind the drums, Simons Goon starts moving around the cabin as Simon climbs in through the window.

The cabins interior is ruined by the Frakk grenade blast and so is Raul, his mangled body laying in a twisted heap on the floor.

The fire fight outside continues until the Goon looses his nerve and retreats deeper into the woods.

Simon checks the body

The firefight continues.

The Last turns (Standard)

'Betty' puts down a hail of shotgun fire, the Hitman looses his nerve and runs into the cabin for covour, and he is met by Simon!

Simon charges at the assassin and the two fight with fists and feet, the Hitman fends off Simon just long enough to make a run out of the cabin door and onto the dirt road, but as he does so the Goon flanking the cabin guns him down.

Simon goes hand-to-hand.

Gunned down.

Aftermath

With Raul dead and all his Hitmen dead they have fulfilled the Enclaves job.

They receive a payment of Quality food and booze (very nice) and a few crates of novelty stuffed animals (of which 'Betty' takes a liking to and decides to keep one)

They also receive a rumour from the Enclave . . .

"We hear shady reports of a power growing beyond the border of UNITY space, nothing is certain about this but we cannot ignore it"

After a few days of rest on the ship Simon takes a dislike to the new guy Abraham, they are heard arguing and Rafflesnap steps in, he sits them down to resolve this issue but gets nowhere.

But report of their activities around the death of Raul Nightblade have made an impression and an admirer joins the crew (they gain a Goon)

Finding the Next Job

Rafflesnap ventured out with Simon and Zia to find someone who could give them some sort of work.
The world of Florax is dominated by the Florax Nation with two other smaller nations on different continents, but within the nation a few enclaves exist.

The Cabaal Enclave needed someone to do some rather shady and dangerous work for them, some of their lower ranking political leaders had been assassinated, they know who the assassin is and where they reside but no-one is willing to go after Raul Nightblade.
They asked Rafflesnap if he is willing to go to Raul Nightblades hide out and cause as much damage as possible and hopefully kill Raul himself.

Rafflesnap saw the oppotunity to gain some influence with a powerful group and agreed to take the job.

While they were in talks with the Enclave 'Betty' had been sent out to find new members for the crew, and he was successful and signed on Abraham Creed.

Abraham Creed
Is an ex-UNITY beaurocrat who has turned to trading and is motivated by a new found faith.
Spec.cir: Talent-Brawling

Right . . . Time to break out the paint brush again.

Escape from Glaven

The bad guys consist of three Glaven security force members, two with shotguns and the other with a handgun and suppression maul. They knew Rafflesnap was helping Zia and suspected he might try to get her offworld in his ship, and decided to leave a guard.

Simon and 'Betty' had successfully rescued Zia from custody, they had hastily escaped and met up with Rafflesnap and were now heading for his ship.

The last stretch of street to the starport.

But Glaven security awaits . . .

Turn one (Standard)

Rafflesnap and the crew decide to head right and flank around the buildings, Glaven security see's their move and reacts to intercept them.

Flanking right, But security reacts!

Turn two (Standard)

Rafflesnap, Zia and 'Betty' retrace their steps and head back to the main street while Simon moves up the rear of the buildings to provide cover, he lays down some fire on the security trooper but fails to hit.

Simon opens fire!

Rafflesnap, Zia and 'Betty' retrace their steps.

Turn three (Standard)

The trooper that came under fire from Simon advances and opens up with her shotgun, this puts Simon out of action, Rafflesnap, Zia and 'Betty' cross the street and head for an alley, 'Betty' opens up with his shotgun but finds no targets.

The two troopers advancing down the street gun 'Betty' down.

'Betty' is gunned down.

Simon takes a hit.

Turn four (Standard)

Zia opens up with her handgun but fails to hit anything, Rafflesnap does find a mark with his handcannon, one of the security troopers is sent flying by one the hefty rounds

(Forgot to photo this turn)

Turn five and six (Standard)

Rafflesnap and Zia make haste and run for the star port, one of the Glaven security troopers fires a few round from his hand gun as they flee but does not manage to hit them.

The running starts

Escape

Aftermath

Rolling for injurys, Simon ends up with a Dramatic scar and 'Betty' gains a Mental scar (like he needs more mental problems!), we assumed they crawled away in the confusion to the starport.

I have made a small starmap and gave three destinations they could travel to, Rynn, Zim or Florax. Florax was chosen, and eight days later the Staramus landed ot the worlds starport.

Little did they know that Glaven security had not given up on them and had followed!!

A few grunts were left to guard the ship while the crew ventured out . . .

The Chracters

Finally got the miniatures done to start playing 5 parsecs from home.
From left to right
Simon, Zia, Rafflesnap and 'Betty'

5 Parsecs from home!

I have just got hold of '5 parsecs from home' and 'fivecore'.

I decided to give this a go after reading some other blogs that have tried this game.

Basically its an RPG in the future, the rules are simple but allow a vast variety of in game actions.

The game says its simple enough for someone who has never played wargames/rpg's to pick up quickly, so . . .

I have asked the missus to give it a go.

Firstly we needed characters,

Rafflesnap

An alien troubleshooter, was a wasteland nomad and is motivated by power.

Alien abilities: resilence, mental influence and no concept of aggression.

Talent: sharpshooter.

Zia Goffastoff

A mundane hacker from the lower class's of a mega-city who is motivated by survival.

Simon Bates

Also coming from the lower class's of a mega-city, he is a mundane soldier motivated by freedom.

Talent: runner.

'Betty'

An unhinged mercenary hailing from an industrial world, motivated by survival.

Flaw: over eager.

Grunts: 4

Ship: worn freighter 'staramus'

How they met: in trouble with the authorities

Armoury

Old fashioned blade

Handgun

Handcannon

Shotgun x2

Autorifle

Frakk grenades x6

Sonic wave emitter

As a bit of a backdrop we are starting on the world of Glaven, Zia has been accused of hacking into local government files, she denies the accusations but needs someone to fight her case. The only one she could find willing is an alien called rafflesnap.

The case went badly and Zia was sentenced to life in prison, Rafflesnap took pity on Zia and decided to take her off world in his ship, he hired two guys to get her out of custody.

Simon was eager to get off world as he had deserted from Glavens army and MP's were after him.

'Betty' basically got into trouble wherever he went and decided it was time to leave.

They both signed up with Rafflesnap as a means to get away from Glaven.

I decided to roll on the oppotunity mission table and got Escort with the opposition being enforcers (Glaven security forces).

Nice outcome.

Just waiting for the models to arrive, then our first game will be on.

More to come . . .

Down time

Was hoping to have posted a lot more in the past few months but with life getting in the way and my wargaming partner refurbishing his whole house, its been a bit difficult to play any games. We have been talking recently of starting the gaming up again, hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later.