Pelican Tracks -- Entry 8
Sep. 19th, 2014 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaAs much as I never want to see Nortrig again, I can't say as it hasn't been very, very good to us. Despite the fact that Nortrig rubles aren't the most stable of currencies, we've got an entire cargo hold full of the them. The conversion fees won't even make a dent. In short -- we're disgustingly rich.
Our plan was to maybe sneak this professor and his family out of Nortrig but we were anxious to be on our way so a lot depended on a short dinner meeting. Wrench and I stepped out to meet the Professor at a local restaurant. Soon the Professor joined us and proceeded to help us with the menu which seemed mostly made up of various spirits. I suppose it's the stress of living in a war zone but people in Nortrig like to drink and drink heavily. As I was conducting business, I tried to keep consumption down and even Wrench, in a surprising display of caution, keep the imbibing to a minimum.
Once we got down to business, the facts were simple. We wanted to leave immediately, the Professor claimed he needed about a week to get his stuff ready. Since we were fairly flush and getting people out of jams has sort of been our thing, I decided to offer the ride free of charge so long as he and his family showed up the next day. The Professor agreed to think on it and we parted ways.
On the way home, we got mugged. In this slightly paranoid country these could've been muggers or possibly secret police and in any event foreigners who injure or kill nationals will probably not go down well. So I let them take my wallet. Then we casually trailed them back to a rough-looking saloon. The bouncer at the door tried to turn us away but I find a calm persistence can overcome a lot of bluster.
Inside I asked to see the boss. Again, I got a lot of funny looks, but I simply waited and eventually a stunning woman named Nadia called me over to her table. She asked what we wanted and I explained that I'd been rolled and that I wanted my money back. Although I didn't out and out say I could've killed my assailants and only refrained out of respect for her organization, I think I conveyed that well enough and eventually she asked for a description. This I provided and a few minutes later, my wallet and its contents were returned -- minus 10% which was more than fair in my estimation.
Having dispensed with minor unpleasantries, Nadia and I proceeded to talk business (such conversation entailing a surprising amount of alcohol). I was prepared to ship anything they wanted anywhere far away from here. She had a different proposal where I would bring a bunch of stuff to a nearby mining colony and then return to Nortrig to collect payment. We'd be traveling with a couple of Nadia's lieutenants to make sure things went well. Nadia offered a considerable financial incentive, but all of us were rattled by our arrival into Nortrig. Leaving and then returning and then leaving again didn't seem like something we wanted to deal with. Nadia upped our take to 25% but I could tell it wasn't sitting well with Wrench and I knew Sanna was clawing at the walls to get away. So I poltely turned down her generous offer and we returned home.
Back on the Pelican we explained everything that happened. Sanna stood by our decision. She also supported the decision Wrench and I worked out to let her get a quick smoke in while we were grounded. I was very much against it, but Wrench convinced me that among the numerous smells surrounding the landing field, a little black weed wouldn't be noticed. So Sanna's mood improved markedly.
Next morning we're waiting for the Professor to show up when there's a knock at the door. It's Nadia, she's offering 30%. She's pretty desperate to get this deal done and 30% is just a boatload of money. I'm pretty interested in that money but also super-interested in not being in Nortrig anymore. So I tell her to come back in a couple hours.
I make a short pitch to the crew. Wrench isn't thrilled and Sanna is pretty much dead set agains or at least threatening to do the mission and then leave the crew first chance. Can't find a replacement for Sanna so this seems dead in the water. Then the professor shows up. He simply can't go right now. He has a cousin in the Finance Ministry who is subtly re-arranging the Professor's assets so that he can collect a pile of cash to start over elsewhere. Without the money he can't make a go of it, but it'll take at least a week to make all this happen untracably. We can't wait around on the landing field for a week, but we could make a short trip to the mining colony with Nadia's goons, come back and then be on our way with the Professor. Sanna really did want to help out the Professor and his wife and children so...
One tense conversation later, Sanna agrees that if we want to help the Professor we should do the job. She has also, in no uncertain terms, declares that she'll never fly into a war zone ever again and she'll quit if I ask. Fair enough. So I go back to the Professor and let him know it's on and after he leaves, Nadia returns to the good news that she's hired the Pelican for her run.
The ship is loaded down with "medical supplies" and two guys, Wolf and Imvar get shown to their bunks. We've already worked out a rotation that keeps our guests under the most observation we can. Our two passengers have travel papers that should see them out and back and all we have to do is drop off their shipment, load up with anything available so as not to come back suspiciously empty-handed and return home. We exit the country with only minor formalities.
Turns out, our passengers were pretty much straight-up guys. Their heavy duffles appear to have been filled entirely with booze so we mostly sat around and drank and played cards. From Imvar, I got a much better handle on how to work the low-level corruption that saturates Nortrig. I also got a look at those travel papers of theirs and spent some time practicing how to copy one. There are a couple of interesting wrinkles, but I'm pretty sure I can now make better papers than the Ministry of State.
Soon we show up at the mining colony where our "medical supplies" are gratefully waved through -- those supplies are desperately needed for the plague going around. Wolf rounds up some guys to get the goods offloaded and Imvar and I go find a factor who needs to move some ore to Nortrig in a hurry. This is a straight-up speculation. I front the money for the ore and we sell it off back in Nortrig, but the wartime economy means that as long as it's not seized as "materials of strategic importance" we'll turn a nice profit on it.
The ore is available, it's just on another mining platform. Sanna navigates the treacherous outcroppings and pulls a pinpoint landing. We dispatch the crew to go load up the ship and we provide everyone with masks and serious protective gear. This all goes fairly smoothly and once back on, we carefully sterilize the crew's clothing so we can avoid catching anything.
The return trip is also quite uneventful if tedious. There are a number of stops but most of these are formalities and once the import duties are paid it doesn't take long for us to return to our starting point. The local harbormaster has a cousin who works for one of the industrial concerns and we unload our ore to them. We return to Nadia's headquarters where we are, pleasantly, not double-crossed. Sanna, Wrench and I return home with bags full of cash when we are jumped at the airfield. Sanna simply whips out a gun and our muggers suddenly have somewhere else they want to be.
In the morning, the Professor and his family show up. I take their travel papers to doctor them up and Sanna actually goes out to purchase some of the local spirits. While I appreciate that liquor is legal just about everywhere, I think I'd rather have her stoned than drunk. Still, she comes back with a small assortment.
I finish up my alterations to the travel papers, slip the harbormaster a small bribe and we're off. We breeze through the checkpoints and now Nortrig is just a dwindling speck behind us belching out the occasional battlefleet.
The big question is what to do with all this cash. When Sanna was threatening to leave, she mentioned going off and becoming a farmer. It's not a career I can see her excelling in and the crop she knows best, she's likely to smoke through before she can sell it. It did give me an idea though. With this cash we can set up a station like Second Sunrise and grow all the black weed we want in international airspace. Then we just use the Pelican to make deliveries. Needs a bit more fleshing out but I think it's got a lot of possibilities.
* * *
So this was the closer for our first game. We might come back to the Pelican and her crew in the future, but we've reached a good stopping point so we'll switch over to something else. I will be taking over the GM reins and running a few sessions of Apocalypse World (which I've been dying to do for some time). Hopefully I won't kill everyone first session.
later
Tom
Our plan was to maybe sneak this professor and his family out of Nortrig but we were anxious to be on our way so a lot depended on a short dinner meeting. Wrench and I stepped out to meet the Professor at a local restaurant. Soon the Professor joined us and proceeded to help us with the menu which seemed mostly made up of various spirits. I suppose it's the stress of living in a war zone but people in Nortrig like to drink and drink heavily. As I was conducting business, I tried to keep consumption down and even Wrench, in a surprising display of caution, keep the imbibing to a minimum.
Once we got down to business, the facts were simple. We wanted to leave immediately, the Professor claimed he needed about a week to get his stuff ready. Since we were fairly flush and getting people out of jams has sort of been our thing, I decided to offer the ride free of charge so long as he and his family showed up the next day. The Professor agreed to think on it and we parted ways.
On the way home, we got mugged. In this slightly paranoid country these could've been muggers or possibly secret police and in any event foreigners who injure or kill nationals will probably not go down well. So I let them take my wallet. Then we casually trailed them back to a rough-looking saloon. The bouncer at the door tried to turn us away but I find a calm persistence can overcome a lot of bluster.
Inside I asked to see the boss. Again, I got a lot of funny looks, but I simply waited and eventually a stunning woman named Nadia called me over to her table. She asked what we wanted and I explained that I'd been rolled and that I wanted my money back. Although I didn't out and out say I could've killed my assailants and only refrained out of respect for her organization, I think I conveyed that well enough and eventually she asked for a description. This I provided and a few minutes later, my wallet and its contents were returned -- minus 10% which was more than fair in my estimation.
Having dispensed with minor unpleasantries, Nadia and I proceeded to talk business (such conversation entailing a surprising amount of alcohol). I was prepared to ship anything they wanted anywhere far away from here. She had a different proposal where I would bring a bunch of stuff to a nearby mining colony and then return to Nortrig to collect payment. We'd be traveling with a couple of Nadia's lieutenants to make sure things went well. Nadia offered a considerable financial incentive, but all of us were rattled by our arrival into Nortrig. Leaving and then returning and then leaving again didn't seem like something we wanted to deal with. Nadia upped our take to 25% but I could tell it wasn't sitting well with Wrench and I knew Sanna was clawing at the walls to get away. So I poltely turned down her generous offer and we returned home.
Back on the Pelican we explained everything that happened. Sanna stood by our decision. She also supported the decision Wrench and I worked out to let her get a quick smoke in while we were grounded. I was very much against it, but Wrench convinced me that among the numerous smells surrounding the landing field, a little black weed wouldn't be noticed. So Sanna's mood improved markedly.
Next morning we're waiting for the Professor to show up when there's a knock at the door. It's Nadia, she's offering 30%. She's pretty desperate to get this deal done and 30% is just a boatload of money. I'm pretty interested in that money but also super-interested in not being in Nortrig anymore. So I tell her to come back in a couple hours.
I make a short pitch to the crew. Wrench isn't thrilled and Sanna is pretty much dead set agains or at least threatening to do the mission and then leave the crew first chance. Can't find a replacement for Sanna so this seems dead in the water. Then the professor shows up. He simply can't go right now. He has a cousin in the Finance Ministry who is subtly re-arranging the Professor's assets so that he can collect a pile of cash to start over elsewhere. Without the money he can't make a go of it, but it'll take at least a week to make all this happen untracably. We can't wait around on the landing field for a week, but we could make a short trip to the mining colony with Nadia's goons, come back and then be on our way with the Professor. Sanna really did want to help out the Professor and his wife and children so...
One tense conversation later, Sanna agrees that if we want to help the Professor we should do the job. She has also, in no uncertain terms, declares that she'll never fly into a war zone ever again and she'll quit if I ask. Fair enough. So I go back to the Professor and let him know it's on and after he leaves, Nadia returns to the good news that she's hired the Pelican for her run.
The ship is loaded down with "medical supplies" and two guys, Wolf and Imvar get shown to their bunks. We've already worked out a rotation that keeps our guests under the most observation we can. Our two passengers have travel papers that should see them out and back and all we have to do is drop off their shipment, load up with anything available so as not to come back suspiciously empty-handed and return home. We exit the country with only minor formalities.
Turns out, our passengers were pretty much straight-up guys. Their heavy duffles appear to have been filled entirely with booze so we mostly sat around and drank and played cards. From Imvar, I got a much better handle on how to work the low-level corruption that saturates Nortrig. I also got a look at those travel papers of theirs and spent some time practicing how to copy one. There are a couple of interesting wrinkles, but I'm pretty sure I can now make better papers than the Ministry of State.
Soon we show up at the mining colony where our "medical supplies" are gratefully waved through -- those supplies are desperately needed for the plague going around. Wolf rounds up some guys to get the goods offloaded and Imvar and I go find a factor who needs to move some ore to Nortrig in a hurry. This is a straight-up speculation. I front the money for the ore and we sell it off back in Nortrig, but the wartime economy means that as long as it's not seized as "materials of strategic importance" we'll turn a nice profit on it.
The ore is available, it's just on another mining platform. Sanna navigates the treacherous outcroppings and pulls a pinpoint landing. We dispatch the crew to go load up the ship and we provide everyone with masks and serious protective gear. This all goes fairly smoothly and once back on, we carefully sterilize the crew's clothing so we can avoid catching anything.
The return trip is also quite uneventful if tedious. There are a number of stops but most of these are formalities and once the import duties are paid it doesn't take long for us to return to our starting point. The local harbormaster has a cousin who works for one of the industrial concerns and we unload our ore to them. We return to Nadia's headquarters where we are, pleasantly, not double-crossed. Sanna, Wrench and I return home with bags full of cash when we are jumped at the airfield. Sanna simply whips out a gun and our muggers suddenly have somewhere else they want to be.
In the morning, the Professor and his family show up. I take their travel papers to doctor them up and Sanna actually goes out to purchase some of the local spirits. While I appreciate that liquor is legal just about everywhere, I think I'd rather have her stoned than drunk. Still, she comes back with a small assortment.
I finish up my alterations to the travel papers, slip the harbormaster a small bribe and we're off. We breeze through the checkpoints and now Nortrig is just a dwindling speck behind us belching out the occasional battlefleet.
The big question is what to do with all this cash. When Sanna was threatening to leave, she mentioned going off and becoming a farmer. It's not a career I can see her excelling in and the crop she knows best, she's likely to smoke through before she can sell it. It did give me an idea though. With this cash we can set up a station like Second Sunrise and grow all the black weed we want in international airspace. Then we just use the Pelican to make deliveries. Needs a bit more fleshing out but I think it's got a lot of possibilities.
So this was the closer for our first game. We might come back to the Pelican and her crew in the future, but we've reached a good stopping point so we'll switch over to something else. I will be taking over the GM reins and running a few sessions of Apocalypse World (which I've been dying to do for some time). Hopefully I won't kill everyone first session.
later
Tom
