out into the black

[Maenoferren]

I have started running my serenity/firefly roleplay game.
SO far the team have sold a herd of cows and associated by-products, heard about an escaped lunatic (possibly the survivor of a reaver attack, not that they exist of course), heard about various grusome murders, heard a bout a young man, whos new wife has run off to Athens,escorted a young lady to town, stopped a bank robbery, lost the young lady whilst sopping the robbery

Fear not readers it would seem the young lady was possibly kidnapped and was last seen getting on a train heading North (into the mountains)

Our brave crew quickly lifted off and gave chase. a quick fly along the side of the train at 180mph and then over the top and back down the other allowed them to spot the young lady.



A plan was quickly hatched to drop Alice onto the top of the train and he would investigate the situation. He quickly found the kidnapper in question. Shepherd Bell was also dropped onto the train and made her way along to have a chat with the young lady.


SHe persuaded her to leave via the hoist onto the roof at which point she froze. the captain dropped back until the ship's door was hovering over the spot where the young lady lay clinging on like a limpet. Toad assisted her onto the vessel and the door shut just as the train rounded a bend and the tunnel appeared. Some super flying meant the ship shot upwards and over the top of the mountains.



As they lost comms, Alice decided they needed a chat with the kidnapper and a punch up began  :roll: 



He then dragged the unconscious man through the train an under the open  hatch. a few minutes later as they came out into the open, the ship appeared and the man was hoisted aboard the Jo-Lyn.



A few chats later the young the lady was returned home and the kidnapper dropped off near home, he had admitted to the crew that he was using the killings and attacks to cover the theft of his neighbours cattle and sell them in Greenwater.

The crew then went to investigate the killings near Dry Gulch, they arrived after dark, landed and headed towards the town, which was all in darkness and eerily silent.



Seconds later a bullet ricocheted near their feet. the muzzle flash coming from the darkened buildings.

Once the towns folk had ascertained that they were not intent on pillage, they were allowed in to hear the stories of the attacks and the mysterious rancher who had been living beyond his means, when they informed the townsfolk that the same gentleman had admitted stealing cattle a number of men melted away, only stopping to get a rope and their weapons as they left. Moments later the sounds of receding hoof beats were heard.



The crew headed back to the ship only to realise that they were being trailed by something in the darkness. it leapt straight at the captain who was borneto the ground by its massive weight, luckily ALice was there to help and killed the massive dog. Shakily they returned to their ship, locked it down and returned with a mule to pick up the dog. None of the townsfolk had ever seen or heard of a dog of this size, speculation then occurred as to whether the animals and people killed over the past few months were caused by the massive animal.

Unfortunately we will have to wait until next week to find out where their investigations lead them  :wink:

[nikharwood]

Excellent stuff Maenoferren...are you using the Serenity / Firefly RPG for this? I got a copy in the Haitian Relief bundle from RPGnow agesa ago - and single-handedly have failed to give it a proper read-through...might just have to correct that  

Using any figures? It'd be very coolio to see this in 10mm...hmm...

[Maenoferren]

HI Nik, guess the system I am using lol
we are using 10mm figs on and off, but as it was a rush game I hadnt got round to painting them yet 

[Squirrel]

Sounds like great fun Maenoferren - you'll have to keep us up-dated.

Cheers,

Kev

[republic of tolworth]

Firefly always felt like watching a game of Traveller to me.

For me that's a good thing

[Maenoferren]

THanks for the comments guys
We are playing again tomorrow so will let you knw what happens then.... basically they are going to be in some deep do do's

[Luddite]

.... basically they are going to be in some deep do do's

Shouldn't that be, 'basically they are going to bee woo lohng and end up in some deep mi tian gohn'?   

Not that i'm a dyed in the wool Jone Yee at all...

Absolutely love Firefly so i'm insanely jealous that you're RPing it.  I've struggeld unsuccessfully to find a group sinc ei moved 10 years ago.

[nikharwood]

HI Nik, guess the system I am using lol

Hmm - SW right? 

[Maenoferren]

Hi Luddite, there is a spare seat at the table if you are interested
I must admit there was definately a few moments of Da shiong la se la ch'wohn tian, especially when the big scary things jumped out 

HI Nik... how did you guess

When I Have calmed down from this competition, I will write up this evenings escepades, which involved exhuming bodies, chasing space craft, investigating fires and shooting dogs

[nikharwood]

Sounds great  - looking forward to reading it 

[sixsideddice]

Wow I really enjoyed that Maenoferren.

I`m a huge fan of Firefly and its great to see something so cool based on it.

Thank you 

[Maenoferren]

Cheers six, hopefully I will get to write up Mondays game tonight

[Maenoferren]

Well we are back safely in Dry Gulch
After a returning to the town with the large and very dead dog, the team were invited to a dance. They willingly agreed and off they went with the captain making his way to the groaning tables of food, the engineer hunting out jugs of home made lemonade, the shepherd teaching the locals some very interesting dance moves which seemed to require a pole? As for Alice, he chased anything in a skirt. The team very soon got round to discussing what to do in the morn.

Obviously if it was Reavers they would need to see some bodies. A quick chat with the mayor of Dry Gulch informed them that there was one body interred in the town's cemetery, the rest of the deceased were buried near their ranches. The young man buried in Dry Gulch was travelling to the outlying ranches when he was killed. They then decided that the only way to be sure was an exhumation, they cleared this with the mayor and all agreed to do the deed in the morning when it was light.

As people made their way out of the dance hall, the characters realised that the hall had an inner door which kept light in, a  walk across to their lodging house meant they were outside when some form of craft flew across, without running lights, and some form of mis-firing engine. They watched it travel across the lake and disappear beyond the mountains, They wondered whether the Reavers were back, they couldn’t tell what kind of ship it was, but a superb roll from the engineer meant they could tell that the port engine was the one that wasn’t working properly.

In the guest house they again noticed blackout curtains, armoured doors and windows barred, as was the chimney. This guest house could withstand a siege.
More biscuits, fried chicken, lemonade and coffee later, they got to question the landlady, she was able to tell how the only survivor was from the James ranch, young Jesse was found tied to a tree surrounded by the mutilated bodies of some 40 of the 45 ranch hands and family that lived there, 5 were never found. His mind was gone “poor boy” he wouldn't speak and sat curled up rocking backwards and forwards. He was brought back into town for his own safety. A few night later he disappeared, the following night a rancher from out of town was found mutilated, Poor Jesse hasn't been seen since. However the trail of murders continued around the lake. People were found part eaten, both inside and outside their houses. The conclusion the folks in Dry Gulch came to was Reavers.

The next morning dawned without any gruesome murders, Reaver attacks, mad dogs and irate fathers (well Alice was in town). So all the weaponry they had surrounding them wasn’t required.
The mayor and undertaker arrived after a hearty breakfast. The mayor informed the characters that a huge fire had been seen in the mountains about three hours after they said they had seen the craft fly over.
However one task at a time.

They all made their way into the graveyard, where a canvas screen had been erected and a chuck wagon available for an impromptu morgue. A couple of hours of digging got the body out and onto the slab. He had been severely mauled by something. The shepherd measured bite marks and lacerations, but they weren't human. Possibly a bear or some form of big cat? Alice was sent to get the dog for comparison. He decided the head was easier than the whole body, so chopped it off and took it to the shepherd. A quick measurement of the teeth showed that the creature that mauled the person was not this dog, but the teeth marks were similar to those on the body. The Shepherd then went and had another look at the body, on closer inspection she found that the body also had cut marks on the forearms, had the person been cut to attract a wild animal?

The crew then decided they would need to go and have a look at the other ranches and check those bodies, to see if they had human bites or animal bites.
So far they had decided the following:
Someone was for some reason making it looked like the area was being attacked by Reavers, but for what reason? Mineral rights under the area?  Make people sell cheap? They had decided however that until proved otherwise they believed that Reavers had nothing to do with it.
They asked the Mayor if the ranchers who left during the night were back, but with the distance travelled they wouldn’t be back until the evening until the earliest.

Jo Lyn lifted off to investigate the other ranches, but on the way they decided to take a detour to the mountains and see if they could find the source of the fire, possibly a crashed ship. The search located a burn area some 30 feet across, a whole area had been denuded of anything burnable and it would seem that someone had lit a massive fire, but a quick check showed that the fire was located so that its light would be reflected off a cliff face studded with mica, which would reflect nicely along the valley and out over the lake. A quick search located only one set of footprints, who had lit the fire and why was it lit, they couldn't decide on this so decided they would keep an eye on the area and set off to locate the graves in the destroyed ranches.

As a precaution they climbed to about 5000 feet as they headed  south towards the James ranch they noticed half a dozen riderless horses grazing. They dropped low and landed about a mile away. They took the mule and headed towards the horses, not far a way they found the remains of the riders, tied to trees and mutilated beyond recognition, some had been partially eaten too. A quick check showed similar evidence to the body in town. As the shepherd was checking the last in the line, she realised that this one was still alive. He was rushed to the ship and put straight into the med lab. He was badly wounded and on the verge of death. The shepherd managed to stabilise him and waited while the drugs took effect.
The rest of the crew took the opportunity to drive the remaining 5 miles to the James farm. They arrived to find the place a wreck.
The bunk house was partially burned down, the doors and shutters hung on their hinges. A search of the are came up with the following. A large number of rounds had been fired from outside the buildings, the buildings were pockmarked with bullet holes (Reavers didn't use guns did they?) the Bunkhouse was partially burned down. It had one door and this was the area burned. Crude, rusty and blood stained weapons were also located, dropped almost as if they were expected to be found?

As they were doing their search the man on the ship suddenly sat bolt upright, The shepherd rushed to his side, large syringe of sedatives in her hands (just in case) he grabbed her shoulder and tried to tell her something...
“They came  out of the.......(much gurgling) and then even with the best efforts of the shepherd, he unfortunately passed away.
The shepherd contacted the rest of the crew to warn them that 'they came from the lake' (where she got that from nobody knows!!)
Therefore as the James ranch was near the lake Alice kept watch on a nearby hillock with 'Thelma' his favourite weapon, Toad (the engineer) dug the holes and the captain kept watch, whilst eating his stash of fried chicken. A couple of hours later, with the help of Alice the bodies were exhumed and returned to the Jo-Lyn.  One had definite bullet damage and the other although partially eaten had tell tale cut marks. Putting it all together, this wasn’t Reavers, it was too well planned, use of firearms, the people were attacked by animals, and not canibalised.

As the light was beginning to fall, they decided to return with the bodies of the people from the town and come up with a cunning plan to see if they could entrap whoever was doing the killing. They radioed ahead to say to the mayor they were inbound and that they had the mortal remains of the townsfolk.

As they landed they took the mayor aside and asked if there was an empty house they could use to attract the killers, they mayor was not happy with this and suggested they use old widow Jones' place a couple of miles north of the town. Their initial idea was to barricade themselves in the house and attract the killers by showing lights and setting the fire to smoke, instead they decided to sit in their ship and keep a watch above in case the mysterious craft flew over again. At around 3am sure enough passive sensors  picked up a craft at around 10, 000 feet on the same heading as the one the night before. A quick scramble and the soon caught up with the mysterious craft. This one was however broadcasting an IFF beacon. A quick chat with the captain of the vessel proved it was a Poisson rouge as toad so elegantly put it.

As they were heading back towards town, they decided to pay a visit to Mr Michael Hunt, the kidnapper, however they noticed a light leaking out from the house doorway. They made a wide circuit and then headed back again on the same heading as the craft the night before and at the same rough altitude, as expected they crossed the Hunt ranch, and sure enough the light was still shining.

They landed a couple of miles away and waited a couple of hours to see if anyone came a calling.
As they didnt they loaded the mule up with as much weaponry as was humanly possible. Alice and the captain wore the ships night vision goggles as they headed towards the ranch. As they got about half a mile out something very large galloped across in front of them, just on the range of the captain's night vision goggles. It wasn't a horse or a cow, it looked more like a very, very large dog.
They got to the ranch without any upset, and the light was still shining. MR Hunt didn't seem worried about Reavers!

As they burst into the main house guns drawn they found it empty. Food and drink still on the table! A search of a storm cellar by the captain and Alice found a whole chest of money and bills of sale for a large number of cattle. They decided that they might need to look after at least some of the loot, just in case it was stolen, but thought they had better not tell the shepherd of their plan, just in case she saw a flaw in the plan.

The rest of the house was empty. Toad and the shepherd stayed in the main house, whilst the captain and Alice searched the out buildings and barn. A search of the barn found a number of cattle hanging up, inexpertly butchered, offal and chunks of meet filled large plastic bins. Somebody seemed to be feeding something large with meet judging by the amount in the bins.
As they moved across to the bunk house, they heard heavy breathing coming from within. On the count of three and a nod they yanked the door open, weapons at the ready. A huge dog leapt to its feet and launched itself at the cage within. They checked the room and found 10 cages 6 held massive dogs, 4 however were empty. A quick check  showed that various levers operated the cage doors so that one person could let the animals out one at a time or all at once. It seemed that they had located the place where the dogs came from.

They went back into the house, using the secret knock, collected all the drugs in the shepherds medical bag, luckily there was enough to drug the remaining dogs. After they were all asleep they were shot (One wonders why they bothered drugging them in the first place???)
deciding nothing more could be done that night, they heard a long howl from somewhere nearby.
Making their way quickly way back to the house, a huge dog loped towards them. It got within yards before dying under a hail of lead.
As they barricaded themselves in for the night, Alice took a look out the window using the starlight scope on Thelma. About 200 yards out lay a body. The crew decided it was too dangerous to check in the dark.

Next week we will find out who it is and what happened to him

[Squirrel]

Excellent stuff Maenoferren. I'm looking forward to the next installment already

Cheers,

Kev

[Maenoferren]

Cheers for the comments guys, next week, gunfights, dogs and a meeting with a reaver?