Prepost Log 9 , art and XP

I know i am early but i figure since i was already in the mood i go ahead and post the art for this up coming section. When the spirit strikes you you got to go with it.. Log Entry: The huntress. There is a heaviness that weights in the heart of an exile. Yes I get home sick, it been four years since my departure from the clans, so when I have time to kill, I hang out at the bars in New Ports near the space port hoping to catch the latest rumors about what is happening in the Dixon system. As luck would have it, the freighter Maelstrom crew had made it known that they had Clan folk as passengers that had disembarked at Pinnacle Station. At first I thought that it could have been my uncle Spider but it had been over a week with no effort on his part to contact me, so I have returned every night for the past week to the Trou Noir the favorite waterhole of the crew of the Maelstrom in hope of getting more information. At this point I was more worried that Clan folk may have come to find me. As I was purchasing a round for the chief engineer of Maelstrom and his snipes, as reward for gossip about a possible gunfight between Clan folks and parties unknown, a petite woman bearing a truth seeker tattoo on her cheek walked into the bar. Truth Seekers are a Space Clan cult whose members have dedicated their lives to searching out the truth and insuring justices is done. They are incapable of uttering even the whitest of lies and will not break any vow or oath even if it means their death. Their presence on Styrigia was trouble. The woman did not seem too dangerous; she was young, maybe mid-teens and very petite. Even wearing a Skein suit and a holstered laser pistol she screamed easy mark, a target for every predator on the planet. And as my bad luck would have it, two of those predators had caught her scent and were rising from their table. I had nicknamed the two, Bad teeth and Badder teeth, and they were regulars at the Trou Noir, from what I had deducted over observing them for the past week, the two were into ambushing drunken spacers that left the bar. The Crew of Maelstrom was a tight group, that came and left together also the crew presence had served to make the bar too crowded for any other spacers from choosing the place as a watering hole. The Terrible Twins were starving for a victim. The single girl would be perfect mark. Heck they were so anxious they did not care that the bar was crowded, well this is Styrigia, while the girl was cute, she would find no white knight coming to her aid. Survival of the fittest at its finest, so what could I do but get up and race across the bar. I managed to reach her just as the two began to trap her between them. I tapped Bad Teeth on the shoulder, and calmly spat, “Excuse me.” He looked at me and hesitated, his companion, Badder teeth growled, “Boy this is none of your business, get loss.” “But it is, this girl here is my cousin, and it been years since we’ve seen each other. We have a lot of catching up.” I countered as I place my hand on her elbow and started to guide her away. Bad teeth moved to block our escape; he rubbed his chin and spat, “I know you, You’re Artemis’ toy boy. She not here to help you.” He started to reach for his auto pistol, but stopped as a barrel of a laser pistol was pressed up against the bottom of his chin. The young lady had managed to draw her weapon unseen, Badder teeth was in the process of drawing his gun, when he noticed that my machine pistol was already drawn and pointing at his gut, not even his Skein suit was any protection for a burst of bullets at point blank range. The Bar was silent, the little scene had caught everyone attention, the terrible twins raised their hands and slowly back out of the bar. As they left everyone went back to partying, and me and the Truth seeker made our way to empty booth the twins left behind. She looked at me, studying my face for a few seconds. “You’re Rodworth of the Shimout Clan.” She announce with a tone that reflected how please she was of herself for recognizing me. I nodded. “I’m sorry, you look familiar, but it been a while since I been home. You are?” I apologized “Jenny of the Iron Monger Clan, I am a little disappointed that you do not remember me. You beat my brother Laz during the clan gathering five year ago in the finals of Zero G combat completion. I was the little girl that ran out and kicked you in the chin.” She looked down, and I couldn’t tell if she was sad that I did not remember or if something else was troubling her. “So Jenny what brings you to the arm pit of the frontier?” I asked hoping that it wasn’t me. “I’m here on a blood hunt!”, she announced as raised her face so her eyes met my. Space for the most part is boring, the really dangerous moments are few and far between, and we of the clan find our minds looking for things to keep us from growing insane. Clan folks concentrate on personal improvement, hobbies and grand ideas, while concepts like honor is a bit simple for us; revenge is just the thing to keep us occupied. A blood hunt was the act of seeking vengeance for death of love one, tales of such hunts are the meat and candy of many of our stories. Suddenly I found myself nervous, who were they hunting for. “A blood hunt? Who would have drawn your ire, my dear?” asking as formal as possible. She blushed and replied, “Well the captain of a pirate ship, named Shawn Blackheart. He and his crew jump a courier ship, my brother Laz was the pilot and they kill him.” And lower her head again. I felt like so a heel, here I worried about myself and this girl had travel have way across the frontier to avenge the death of her brother. “I heard that there were more of you? And that there was a fire fight on the station?” “Yes, I and my companions had found Blackheart’s crew lounging at the bar on the station, and a fight broke out. Unfortunately after questioning a survivor of his crew, I discovered that Blackheart had come down to planet to seek medical assistant.” “And your companions?” I asked. “Dead, kill during the battle.” “And you follow him down to planet, any idea where he at.” I wanted to help her but I had to find out what kind of commitment we were talking about. “Yes his crew man was very helpful and gave me an address that I believe is in this dome. Unfortunately I am unfamiliar with this place and I ducked into the tavern hoping to recruit a guide. And thank Infinity I found you to help. It was pity that I had to finish off the survivor of Blackheart crew, I would have loved to thanks him for bringing me such luck.” She beamed, which gave me a shiver in my spine. This little girl tortured and killed a man and almost seems happy about it. She showed me the address she was given on her chronocom. The address was familiar, just a block from Artemis old apartment. I look at Jenny and said, “Place is not that far, I am surprise that a famous pirate like Blackheart is hiding out in a dump like this. Let go.” I took her arm and headed her to the door. Just as I open the door I caught the glint of light, I push Jenny to the floor just as auto pistol open up. Bullet spray the bar, causing the crew of Maelstrom to dive behind anything they find for cover. Sticking low, I shouted to Jenny to stay down and follow me to the men room. I had a sneaking suspicious about who was behind this and that at least one of two would be covering the back. Jenny gave me a hand getting out the high place window in the men room, it let me out behind trash dumper in the alley and I found Bad teeth position there his gun and attention focus on the back door. I sneaked up behind him and club him on the head with the butt of my auto pistol. He went down like a two legged Vrush, and I opened the back door releasing a river of escaping customers. Jenny was the last one out and she hugged me. “I glad you were not hurt, because of me.” “No problem little sister, let get out of here before this one partner figures out what happen.” I said as I pulled her off me. The Blackheart apartment was just a stop away on the tram, as we walk toward Blackheart place, Jenny turn to me. “You know Rodworth, you have been the topic of many of discussions among the clans over the years. There are a few that are amazed that you turn your back on your clan, other even more surprise that you fled your union with Dora Star Beam. Me I am glad, Dora is not worthy of you, but there a few among the Truth Seeker that have vow to find you and return you to meet your obligations.” “I surprise, I would have figured that it would have all blow over by now. With my brother being head of the Shimout clan, Dora would have loss interest and the engagement would have been called off.” I reply with a shrugged. “But your brother is not clan chief, your grandmother still rules. And there is a little matter of a theft of funds. Dora is still very interested in your union and have you assume your rightful position as head of Shimout’s clan” My brother not Clan chief yet! Why? Before I could ask we found ourselves in front of Blackheart apartment building. “We’re here!” I announced. We drew our weapons and head up the stairs to Blackheart apartment, when we got to it the door was not even locked. We entered quietly. The place was a mess, a single LED lite the apartment and we found Blackheart huddle beneath a blanket on his living room couch. He looked like death warm over. His hair had fallen out in large clumps and was scattered over the apartment. His face and hands covered with sores. The whole apartment smelt like vomit, and Blackheart looked at us barely acknowledging our present, but he began to speak. “You’re too late, I’m done. It was a fiendish trick your friend pulled on me and my crew. Aye, when he saw that he was caught he pulverized his cargo and release it into the cabin of his ship. Plutonium is bad enough, a mere gram could kill millions, but the Californium his ship carried is million times worst. We tracked all over that ship getting radioactive dust on our suits, oh I was mad when we found nothing, not knowing we were cover in our booty and we carried it back on board our ship. It wasn’t till a radiation detector was trigger a few day later on our way home, did we realize that we were dead men. Fine trick indeed! Oh I did not give up easy; I’ve seen every doc and sawbones I could find. Spent every credit I had, they all said the same thing, I’m finished, no hope.” Jenny did not say a word, she walk up to Blackheart, he looked up and did not even lift a finger as she cut his throat. What could I say other than say “let go!” As we walked to the tram Jenny turn to me, her eyes were moist but her tears were not for Blackheart, “Rodworth, I am sorry, but when I get back home I will need to tell everyone about you. You know I cannot lie and they will want to know how my hunt went. They will come for you.” She grabbed my hands, “But maybe there is a way, Marry me. I going to be head of my clan with my brother gone, I’ll make amends for your transgressions. Dora will not challenge me and you will be safe from her.” I smiled, “You must have a dozen suitor darling, a lot of them must be tons better than me, and heck of a lot less trouble.” She looked at the ground and then turned to look me in the eyes. “Not anymore, any suitors I had accompanied me on the blood hunt are now dead. You are the only companion that I have, this was going to be my marriage trial for them, and you managed to complete it.” With that she kissed me. I have kissed a few women in my life, some like Dora have incited my passion, but only one has ever captured my heart, and she was my Red, Artemis. Jenny was like kissing my sister, her offer was tempting, but it paled in comparison with Artemis. “It a really good offer, if I had any brains I would take it. So many things would be solved, but my heart is not my own. I would be doing you a great disservice. Sorry!” Jenny turn away and her voice was almost a whisper, “It’s the woman that the ruffian spoke of in the bar. You know she cannot protect you, the hunters will come and they will kill anyone that gets in their way, they’ll bring you back one way or other.” We rode the tram in silence, and I kissed her cheek as I left her at the gate of the space port. “Good flying Jenny Ironmonger.” I shouted to her as she walked away. “Good luck Rodworth, may Infinity find a way to keep you and the one you love safe.” She shouted back and then she was gone. They would be coming and there was only one thing I could do..

Excellent story.  Consider the creativity award for this week done, but we need to share it around in the future. I especially like the "turning your cargo into a trap" trick.  I almost said "turning your booty into a trap".  Hehe... Of course, now I'm wondering what the "only one thing (you) could do" was.  Were you lying to Artemis about your reasons for dumping her?

Session 9 Log: We set up a plan to shadow Rodworth to his interview. We're scattering all around the train and keeping our eyes on him. We approach the station and a Vrusk is handing out free samples of a "Juice Cup". 'Sax takes one and its full of green jello. He drinks it down and it tastes like a bucket of chemicals and pseudo-flavorings. Joseph confronts a dralasite who is being an ass, blocking up the aisles. The dralasite, Stache (who has a big porn stache), gets amorous and starts hitting on him. After a minute or two (and a couple failed PER rolls), Stache starts leading Joseph off the train. Joseph hits him with a Spray Hypo loaded with staydose...and down he goes. Joseph shaves off the offending mustache while Stache is down and out. So far, no one has seen any oddities or tails that would be following Rod. We arrive at the CDC dome. The dome is well decorated and architected. The whole place is aesthetically pleasing. James gets asked by a tourist on how to get back to Newport. James, being unsure, directs him to Rod for directions...which he supplies. Rod enters the dome and finds the right place for the interview. He's led to the interview office. It's a standard place, a single table and 2 chairs. He gets questioned on his choice of career as a cashier. After a few minutes, he's given a many hour aptitude test, of which he does well. He gets the standard run around about "it'll be a few days and we'll get back to you" and leaves the building. As we leave CDC and approach PanGal, the train slows as everything starts vibrating and eventually comes to a stop. Eusyl crawls up to a hatch and looks out toward the front of the train. There is a large smoky dust cloud that looks like a bomb has damaged the track. Rod and Eusyl convince the robo-conductor to reverse the train back to the CDC dome. We take 50 SGI out of the common fund and rent a ground car and head home. Halfway between Glitter and Capitol dome, the vehicle tubes get bombed. We end up stuck in the tube. Balta'sax loots the dead for small equipment. We get our car over the median and drive back to Glitter dome. We hit up the vehicle rental to return our car and get an Explorer. On an external monitor, we see the logo from the Mysterious Note and the newscaster says that they're trying to overthrow the government, but the Styrigi won't budge. We get the last, awful explorer on the lot. Eusyl does a quicky set of repairs, amazingly well. We load up 12 passengers, at 10 SGI a head, and head off to the Capitol Dome. We make a quick 120 and use it to pay for the explorer rental. We jump on the Uni-Dome tram and head home. When the lift arrives, it's full of wrestling Dralasites. We await the next lift and head home...Captain Draze catches the next tram and follows us back to the apartment. We come across another crashed hover cycle, seemingly under the same circumstances that the other we encountered earlier in the week. We get back to Scooney's and chat. On our door, we find a note saying "I'd like to talk" with a quicky-pic of the circuit board we sold off. Rodworth puts a "NO" symbol on the note and we head in. A bit later, Rod gets a call from the "group" and he asks us to put up a person for a while. He negotiates for 4 IR goggles and Jammers. A vrusk we recognize, Krimmek, shows up at the door, looking for a place to stay for a while, maybe a week or three. We put him up in Yaz's room as he's on vacation. Soon after, someone knocks on the door and gives us our IR stuff. After we go to sleep, someone breaks into Rod's room. 4 guys in black skeinsuits jump in and Rod tosses a smoke grenade. They freak out and start toward the window. Rod opens up a burst of AP fire and they turn back and attack. As soon as we can react and head toward Rod's room, more ninjas burst into the front door. Eusyl tosses a Tangler and Kyle pops one with his Rafflur. Balta goes to dual wield and attacks one of the invaders. He tags him with his sonic sword but misses with his electric sword. Joseph goes into melee as well and gets clocked hard in the head with a rifle butt. He looks in bad shape. We go back to Rod just as his bad guys toss some kind of grenade into the room. It's an incendiary grenade, which sets his room ablaze. He was under the mattress, so he was protected from the fire. The guys in the main room see the guys try to retreat and we press our advantage. Balta'sax gets real lucky with his electric sword and kills one of the invaders. As they retreat, they toss an incendiary grenade that hits Eusyl and Balta-sax with the sticky flaming goo. Joseph catches a small splatter from the grenade, but manages to avoid the full blast. Rod starts dragging the unconscious guy from the flaming room. People in the hallway come out and grab their fire extinguishers and put the fire out in the hall. We go into Rod's room with extinguishers and put the fire out. Rod loses his basic stuff (but not his standard gear) in the blaze. Scooney moves us to new quarters. We tie up and unmask the survivor from Rod's room. He's full of blue cyberware, marking him as a BlueBoy. We are all shocked... <fade to black>

company Logo for NEON TYGER Troubleshooters

So what are we at for experience after this session?

All expected players were on time. +1 xp Well written log. +1 xp Good background story. +1 xp Still no objectives complete this time... so close... This sets you all to 68 xp.

ok where does the exp go lol sorry newbs

We on for tonight?

I'm in and here's a quick post to catch Yaz up.. Note delivered to Eusyl via Scoonies Eusyl, Sorry for the disappearance, Lakir's folks came calling. Let's just say they needed a racer who wouldnt say too much.I can't really talk to much about the race, let's just say it was a private event, and enough to say I came in second place. We are headed back now and I expect to be back tomorrow. Hopefully not too much has happened since I left. Say hi to the guys for me. Yaz +++ Yaz would have disappeared right after Nilo and before all of the blowing up parts. 

im in as well

as am I

I plan to be there. To answer James's question, you can change your total experience at the top right of the first tab of your character sheet.  The experience spent is auto-calculated when you increase your stats, abilities, or skills.

Scott, Is 13 exp the official count? Curious, should we start work on our "Spacer" skills soon?

we still need the log and the art to get all the points guys....

       "I'm a firin' muh lazer!"     /   0  -|- ==>  *pew* *pew* *pew*       /\                                     Art done. Comedy...hey, it could have been a fart joke.