Begin a Session(31)Seemingly unrelated situations are shown to be connected
"Hi hon, I'm Darlene and I'll be taking care of you today. What can I get you?"
"Anything cheap and filling. I'm on a budget."
"Sure thing. Say, that's a fancy suit you have on."
"It's House Serrato battle armor."
"You're with those Serrato people? Did a ship just dock? Usually there's a bit of fuss when a new ship arrives."
"I didn't come in my own ship. I was kidnapped and marooned, I'm working my way back to Port Koshiba to reunite with my unit. Do you know anyone who's heading out that way?"
"We get merchants from Koshiba quite regularly, they buy ship parts and refurbished ships here. I'm sure you could find work with one of them in exchange for passage."
"Are there any on the station right now?"
"There's one due in a couple of days. The captain usually comes in here for a bite to eat when he arrives, I can put in a good word for you."
"I'd really appreciate it, thanks. The name's Dal-Karus. Say, there are a lot of guards about. More than you'd expect for a station this size."
"Oh, there was a shootout a couple of weeks ago. Some pirates came aboard the station and got into a fight with a local gang. The guards have been doing double shifts ever since."
"Who won? The fight, I mean."
"The pirates. Flew off before the guards could even start looking for them."
"Is there a bounty on them?"
"No, they were small-time, not worth calling in bounty hunters over. Two of them came in here though, before the shooting I mean. I spoke to them for a while. To be honest, one of them didn't seem like a pirate at all..."
Momentum:6 → 7
"The crew says there's a ghost on Deck 7. I want you to prove that there isn't one."
"He's taking the piss." says Eris to Jett.
"You're taking the piss." says Jett over comms.
"I'm serious. The crew are starting to refuse assignments on Deck 7, things are getting out of hand."
"Well I can't prove there isn't a ghost - what if there is one but I just don't see it?"
"There's no such thing as ghosts! Ok, fine, just investigate Deck 7 and see what shows up. When you turn up empty-handed I'll give you information on how to find Pyla."
"Ok, I'm coming over to dock."
Swear an Iron Vow(Heart)—4 vs 8|9 08a - Ghost Hunt
"You're not going down to Deck 7." says Callsign(61)Ogre Ogre. The behemoth of a man blocks Jett's path.
"Look, the captain has asked me to look into the ghost. Don't you want me to get to the bottom of it?"
"I'm not having some outsider picking through my things." says Ogre.
"Unless there's a ghost in your things, you have nothing to worry about."
"I said no."
"I saw a woman. She was staring right at me, stood completely still. I looked down to turn on my communicator, and when I looked up she was gone."
Unable to check the scene of the supposed haunting, Jett is conducting witness interviews in the ship's canteen.
"Ok, and what makes you think she was a ghost?" asks Jett.
"Everything went cold when I saw her. Something was off about her. She was staring at me, but it was more like she was staring though me."
"Ok, that's all, thank you."
Deck 7 is home to the living quarters, and several people had reported seeing a strange woman walking around at 'night' (as designated by the ship's artificial day/night cycle), things being moved, things going missing, and a variety of other small mysteries that all got attributed to the ghost.
Jett really needs to take a look around in person. He heads back to the stairwell where Ogre is standing guard.
"Look, I understand that you don't want me going in your cabin, so why don't you accompany me while I take a look around? That way, you can see for yourself that I"m not touching your stuff."
Compel(Heart)—3 vs 4|1 Momentum:2 → 3
"Fine. Lead the way, detective."
"So, have you seen the ghost yourself?" asks Jett
"It's just spacer's tales." replies Ogre.
"Let's hope so." says Jett.
He reaches a corridor where there have been multiple sightings and starts to look around.
Gather Information(Wits)—5 vs 6|1 Momentum:3 → 4 08a - Ghost Hunt +1 (3/10)
"Well?" says Ogre.
"This is a crossroads in the main corridor. The main corridor spans the entire length of the deck, but where do these side corridors go?"
"Left takes you to food storage. Right is just storerooms and maintenance access."
"Let's check out the food storage first. There have been reports of food going missing, among other things."
They walk down the corridor to food storage. Jett opens the door, then closes it again.
"You're not going to look around?" asks Ogre.
"I don't need to look around, I just wanted to see if the door is kept locked" replies Jett. "Let's head back to those storerooms."
They make their way back down the corridor. Jett tries the storeroom doors but they are all locked. He opens the maintenance access panel and looks inside. There are a series of crawlspaces going along the wall, as well as up and down to other floors.
Jett investigates the crawlspaces. Ogre is too big to follow, so he waits by the access panel.
Gather Information(Wits)—4 vs 7|1 08a - Ghost Hunt +1 (6/10) Momentum:4 → 5
Jett notices that the crawlspace seems recently used - there is hardly any of the dust and grime you'd usually associate with a maintenance area. He rounds a corner and sees a woman working on the wall wiring.
"Who are you?" she says suspiciously.
"I'm Jett, the captain asked me to look into this ghost."
"You think it's in the walls?" says the woman.
"Do you?"
"I do hear stuff down here sometimes. It sounds like someone's moving around, but I know I'm the only one working this sector. Voices, too. Humming."
"Voices plural?"
"Yeah. It sounds like people whispering, but I've never been able to make out what they're saying."
"You ever try to follow the sound?"
"Once, but when I started moving closer, the sound suddenly stopped."
"And you've never seen anything strange?"
"Someone keeps unlocking the maintenance hatches on this floor. But I haven't seen a ghost or anything like that."
"Interesting. I'll let you get back to work."
Jett heads back to Ogre.
"Find anything?" Ogre asks.
"Maybe." says Jett. "Let's go to another spot where a sighting took place."
"So, she was seen standing right here." says Jett
"Hmm." says Ogre.
"Whose cabins are on this corridor?"
"Names are on the nameplates outside the door."
"Ogre?"
"Yes?"
"What's your real name? The one on your door?"
Ogre sighs. Given Name(7)Aparna Family Name(54)Vega "Aparna Vega." he replies.
"So this is your cabin?"
"That's me, yeah."
"Have you seen or heard anything?"
"No."
Jett studies Ogre's body language.
Gather Information(Wits)—4 vs 6|4 Momentum:2 → 3
"You're hiding something." says Jett. Ogre's body stiffens. "There's something in your cabin, isn't there? Something connected to all this."
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"I can get the captain to have your cabin searched. You can't hide whatever it is forever."
"Look, drop it or I'll batter you."
"You could, but then the captain would want to know why. Whatever you're up to is going to come out one way or another. You can save everyone a lot of effort if you just cooperate now."
Compel(Heart)—5 vs 5|10
"Look, I know I can't hide it forever. But if the captain finds out, there's going to be trouble, maybe even blood. You have to help."
"I'll help you, I promise."
Ogre looks at Jett for a long moment, weighing up whether he can trust him or not. Finally, his shoulders drop and he opens the cabin door.
Inside there's a girl sitting at the desk eating cereal. She's maybe in her early twenties. First Look(76)Slight First Look(18)Athletic Initial Disposition(7)Friendly "You told?" she says.
"He figured it out." says Ogre. "Don't worry, he's a good person, he's going to help you"
"So, what's the story?" asks Jett.
"I got marooned by my crew on a derelict. I got the power working so I had life support, but the e-drive was busted. There was food enough in the derelict's storage for a couple of years, so I started working on fixing up the ship. Six months later, the scavengers showed up. I didn't know if they'd kill me or not so I hid. I stowed aboard their ship and started living in the walls. I've been waiting for them to make dock ever since so I can escape."
"And Ogre's been helping you?" asks Jett.
"She reminds me of my sister. I couldn't just turn her in." says Ogre. "You have to help her, Jett, you promised."
08a - Ghost Hunt +1 (9/10)
"I'll help her. You can have a ride on my ship, I'll drop you at a friendly port. What's your name, by the way?"
Given Name(18)Brianna Family Name(56)Savela
"Brianna. Call me Bri."
"Right, Bri, let's go get this cleared up with the captain.
"So, it was a stowaway?" says the captain after Jett finishes his report. "Well, we'll have to throw her out of the airlock, of course."
"There's no need for that, captain. I'll take her off your hands." says Jett hastily.
"It's a matter of principle. Someone has to pay for the food and other items she stole."
"You can take it out of my cut." says Ogre.
"You going soft, Ogre?" says the captain.
"She's just a kid. And technically, according to the scavengers code, we did steal her salvage." says Ogre.
"Fine, you can take her." says the captain to Jett. "Ogre, you're going to account for every penny's worth of stuff that went missing."
"There's also the matter of Pyla." says Jett.
Fulfill Your Vow(track)—8 vs 9|8 08a - Ghost Huntcompleted
"Well, about that. You see, the sightings all revolved around a tall older woman with long black hair. Our stowaway here is a short young woman with cropped blonde hair. I don't think this is going to satisfy the crew."
"You know how rumors spread around these ships. They'll go away when the sightings stop." says Jett.
"I'm not convinced they will, but you've done me a service so I'll help you. The nearest large settlement is called Port Koshiba. There's a cartographers guild there, they should have a route to Pyla available."
"Can you give me a course to Koshiba so I can find it?"
"I can, but you need to finish the job I hired you for first. Get to the bottom of this woman with long black hair. Otherwise, you can find your own way there."