AAR [5m] Corporate Espionage. 2020-09-26 @ 1400 gmt

[ChrisDDickey]

LFG: Corporate Espionage
GM: Chris D
Organized by: Bloodbeat.
Difficulty: 5 Med 4 or 5 players.
Time: 2020-09-26 @ 1400 gmt Saturday at 10am Eastern.
Reward: Half priced spices and rations.
Notes: This involves an investigation. We MUST FINISH ON TIME, as there is another session starting 4 hours after this one.

Rumor: http://www.fasagames.com/forum/viewtopi ... =58&t=2073
Ever since the recent Pastry Festival on Skyreader Island, the spice trade has been booming. Many of the spices that S’Lyan’s Spices — a t’skrang company dealing in exotic spices —has been trading in for years are now redoubled in demand. Who doesn’t like a dash of sweet F’Riezal in their gooseberry tarts?

But S’Lyan has a problem. The secret sites along the Coil River where he’s harvested the raw spices for several seasons are now bare — someone’s picked all the buds and then trampled the plants into the ground.

So, S’Lyan is looking for a group of investigators to assist them. He’s contacted a friend of friend in Throal — Bloodbeat — to help. She’s looking for others to accompany her down to the Coil River to investigate.

[Rathan01]

Name: Malonin "Mal" Tyrnith
Last time you (player) played: 2020-09-20
ECR: 5
Discipline: Archer 5
Quote/Unique: I shoot arrows and I know things.
Notable Abilities: Putting holes in places there shouldn't be holes.
Disarm Traps(skill): rank 1, step 8
Navigation(skill): rank 1, step 8
Tracking: rank 1, step 8
Downtime: Craft Weapon (rank 3, step 10)
Primary Character

[Anoush]

Name: Bloodbeat II of Syrtis
ECR: 4
Last game played: Sept. 17

Discipline: Nethermancer
Quote/Unique: Tsch!  I hate birds!!
Notable Abilities: I talk to dead people, and make enemies wish they were anywhere else but here.
Downtime:

• Alchemy Step 9 (rank 2 + perception 7)

My request

[Serespar]

Name: Nib
Date of Last Game Played: Friday, September 18, 2020 [ Tremors ]
Circle: ECR 6
Discipline: Windling Wizard ( Journeyman Rank )
Unique: A friendly flying astral sensitive and spell slinger
Perma Party Spell Buffs:
- Energy Shield ( Avoid Blow + 4 and Steel Thought + 4 [can default even if you do not have the talent] )
- Mage Armor ( Physical Armor + 3 )
- Quicken Pace ( Move + 6 )
Downtime: Talents and Skills that other characters can use over downtime;
- Research Talent ( Rank 2, Step 21, Step 24 with Library access for a cost of 20 SP )
- Item History Talent ( Rank 3, Step 14 )

Primary character

[redwraith]

Name: Redsun
Date of Last Game Played: 2020-09-20
Circle: 5
Discipline: Archer
Unique: Troll investigator.
Downtime: Research Rank 1 Step 11 (step 14 with library access)


Note: Primary Character.

[bronzemountain]

Name: Juniper
ECL: 5
Discipline: Shadow
Quote/Unique: "Power to the people!"
Notable Abilities: Streetwise, generally charming and good at finding secrets
Downtime: Drugs, poetry slams, volunteering, romantic entanglements
Last Game Played: 2020-09-09
This is a secondary character.

[Xzandrate]

Name: Lazulin
Date of Last Game Played: 2020-09-16
ECR: 6
Discipline: Raider (5)/Sun Herald(2)
Unique: Combat and combat related accessories, and the guiding light of the sun.
Downtime: Research 3(9)

Secondary Character

[Anoush]

Please join me this Saturday, 9 am CDT (2 pm GMT), for Corporate Espionage: Mal, Nib, Redsun and Lazulin.

[ChrisDDickey]

---AAR---
Player Rewards: 5 Med.
Mal: 4,000 lp, 475 sp, 3 TIPS.
Bloodbeat: 4,000 lp, 475 sp, 3 TIPS.
Nib: 4,000 lp, 475 sp, 3 TIPS.
Redsun: 4,000 lp, 475 sp, 3 TIPS.
Lazulin: 4,000 lp, 475 sp, 3 TIPS.
(PM me if you want me to change this for Alternate rewards)


Journal Bonus: 200 lp, 119 sp.
GM Rewards (Mazor) 4,000 lp, 475 sp, 3 TIPs.

Alternate rewards:
Half priced spices, rations and other foodstuffs.

Downtime:
Mal: Craft Weapon (rank 3, step 10)
Bloodbeat: Alchemy Step 9 (rank 2 + perception 7)
Nib: - Research Talent ( Rank 2, Step 21, Step 24 with Library access for a cost of 20 SP )
- Item History Talent ( Rank 3, Step 14 )
Redsun: Research Rank 1 Step 11 (step 14 with library access)
Lazulin: Research 3(9)

Afterword
First off, I have to apologize for not getting to the end of this adventure, I should have either not tried for such a tight timeslot, or I should have at the very least setup on table two so that it would not matter if we went over time. I had a vague idea that setting up on table one would force me to keep the adventure moving fast, but I totally failed on time management. Sorry.

Also I know that this ended up being a very unsatisfactory adventure. Encounters where the "opponents" are not really trying to fight, but are merely trying to run away before they all get killed is a very unsatisfactory encounter, however that was originally merely one of the several ways the encounter could have developed. But after the PCs took out two opponents before most of them even noticed you were there, there was really no reasonable way the opponents could have hoped to prevail in a straight up fight, so they had no choice but to merely attempt to survive, which inevitably leads to the unsatisfactory, PCs kill people merely trying to run away scenario.

What was worse, that scenario is usually longer than a straight-up fight, so we did not get a chance to even finish that encounter. When we ended it, the encounter was still in doubt. Two opponents dead, one captured, and two still trying to get away. T'Skrang Nethermancer underwater vs T'Skrang swordmaster underwater was the lynchpin to the escape. Lazulin (in the boat) does not have Sailing skill so we can't just say that he automatically brings the boat to shore when others are trying to tow it into swifter currents. Arguments could be made on both sides as to what would have happened afterwards, but for simplicity lets say that the since the get-away was not foiled before time ran out, they got away.


So my understanding is that PCs bring a captive T'Skrang (plus two corpses?) to Skyreader Island and accuse them of despoiling.

The two opponents who escape to Kampung Gajah and the captive in Skyreader all loudly and frequently accuse the PCs to anybody who will listen of murder, ambush, attempted piracy (row boat), and excessive use of force. They claim that nothing they are accused of remotely justifies this level of violence against them.

Query, I can't remember, was the one and only guy who as (rather quietly) asked to surrender the dead beastmaster? Or was it the captive thief? I remember that nobody spoke to them at all (made neither demands nor requests) until after two of them were already dead, but I can't remember if any of the survivors were EVER asked to surrender!

Since things progressed this way (and it did not have to happen this way, so this ending was merely a possibility, not forgone conclution), there really ought to have been an hour long rollplay at the end with accusations and counter-accusations, and the captive asking if there was a Questor of Mynbruje who could verify his truth, then asking if there was a Questor of Mynbruje OTHER THAN REDSUN who could verify his truth. Then demanding Redsun swear in the name of Mynbruje to tell the truth and use empathic sense to verify his truth. It could have been great roleplaying and possibly a bit of a pickle for certain members of the party. Things progressing this way means we ran out of time before the best encounter on this path even got started. I really wish that we had time for it, and I apologize that we did not.

Among the statements they swear to

• The Jub Jubs the PCs slaughtered were indeed owned by their dead beastmaster friend. The trees the Jub Jubs were eating were not owned by anybody, but were "for the common use". They (the beastmaster being dead) make no claim that the PCs were wrong to kill the Jub Jubs, but they do make the claim that their dead friend did no wrong by instructing his pets to eat the leaves off of those trees.
• They were ambushed without warning
• No member of their party attacked anybody until after they themselves had been attacked, and then they only attacked people who had specifically and directly attacked them. Even after seeing their party members murdered, most of them simply tried to escape rather than attack the murders, and even after showing such forbearance, the PCs continued to do their best to murder them.
• At least two of the three (maybe all three) will swear that nobody demanded their surrender until they were at the boat and leaving
• All of the above they will swear to upon the passions, and will call anybody who disputes these statements a liar.
• They stay silent upon their own motives and actions except as above (but see below).

I think it would have been a great roleplay. I look forward to the journal entries, particularly that of the Questor of Mynbruje's.

For future reference, both Suppress Curse and Dispel Magic have a range of Rank x 2 yards, I think everybody forgot that.


Further Information:
Interrogating a captured Adept, the players found out that persons who had been despoiling the sites were some retired Adepts from Kampung Gajah who want to get into the spice trade, the new owners of "Gaban Spice Manufacturing" of Kampung Gajah. It is assumed by many that they were out to stifle their nearest competitor.

The PCs brought their captive back to skyreader island and accuse the "Gaban Spice Manufacturing of Kampung Gajah" with ecological crimes and despoiling wilderness (serious crimes in Barsaive recovering from the scourge). Public Opinion is against the spice company survivors, particularly among purifiers and those many who venerate Jaspree.

The captive and the two who escape accuses the PCs of murder and excessive force. No legal authorities anywhere choose to get involved, but a not small measure of Infamy for excessive violence attaches itself to the PCs reputations.

[ChrisDDickey]

AAR has been greatly expanded. So if you have not read it since it went up, read it again.