Traveller: Session 46

 

 

 

This session was run on October 26, 2023.

 

140-1118

 

This session began with the travelers tackling the second portion of their employment with Scarlett Penn. They had been hired by the journalist to transport her to Soar and to serve as the camera crew for a wedding between the daughter of the Rikasawa family and the son of the Marishiiri family.

They decided that Marvin, H’han, and Zarf would serve as the cameramen, while Aryanna and Arenui performed any other tasks that might come up during the wedding. Aryanna decided to function as security and came dressed in armor with a shotgun. This caused a bit of a stir with the guests, but the wedding was on a public beach and she was not breaking any laws.

M’han covered the groom’s entrance, getting some great shots of him making his way down the aisle. Zarf set up perfectly to get the bride’s entrance, while Marvin captured the groom’s reaction to seeing her dress. Once the bride and groom were settled in at the front, the priest began administering the vows. The traditional Vilani ceremony called for long promises given by the couple which were accepted by the fathers of each family. During the exchange of vows, Aryanna’s attention was drawn by a woman rummaging in her purse and Arenui noticed that Penn seemed to be focusing her attention on the groom’s father.

As the two fathers rose to approach the altar, a man stood up and shot Baron Marishiiri in the head. Aryanna ran forward yelling for him to drop his pistol, but the assassin turned and shot Baron Rikasawa in the chest. Zarf had been focused on Marishiiri at the time of his death and captured the whole thing. Marvin had been filming the crowd and got the shooter in frame both times he fired.

Aryanna shot the assassin with her shotgun as Arenui flew up next to her and took the spare pistol from her belt. While he was airborne, Arenui noticed a boat making its way towards the shore at high speed. He yelled a warning to the others that more trouble might be on its way. Zarf stopped filming and tried to tackle the assassin, who was bloody but still standing, but missed. The assassin shot Aryanna, but her armor absorbed most of the damage.

Aryanna, deciding that there was no chance that the assassin was going to surrender, shot him again. This time he went down. Zarf took up his camera again to cover the approaching boat, while Arenui moved towards the water with the pistol in his hand. Towards the front, M’han set his camera to auto-record the boat and started moving the survivors in the wedding party to safety. Marvin ran back towards their vehicle to get his weapon. As he moved down the aisle, he could see security running towards him from their standoff position.

As the boat screamed towards the beach, Arenui could see that there were two heavily armored men in the cockpit wielding laser rifles. He fired at the man standing in the bow of the boat, but missed. Zarf came up beside him with the pistol he took off the assassin and fired at the man as well, but the low-powered bullet bounced off the heavy armor. Aryanna tried to perform first aid on the bride’s father, but it was clearly too late to help the man. Marvin continued running towards the van while M’han urged the family to get away from the shooting site.

When the boat hit the beach, the two armored men jumped off and started making their way towards the downed assassin in the seats. Aryanna pulled Penn back a row and they took cover behind the chairs. Zarf fired at the armored men, but missed again. Faced with superior armed and armored foes, Arenui decided that discretion was the better part of valor and retreated… for now.

One of the two men from the boat moved up to the unconscious assassin and started pulling him back while the other engaged the security team with his laser rifle. Security returned fire, but their submachine guns were not able to penetrate the heavy armor. Unable to penetrate the man’s armor with his pistol, Zarf pulled back and started filming the action again. Marvin finally reached the van and retrieved his gun while M’han continued to usher the guests to safety. Arenui, realizing the boat was empty, decided to fly out and take a look. He saw a rocket launcher on the seat and grabbed it.

The armored man engaged with security took down one of the guards with his laser rifle while they continued to fire on him with no effect. His partner continued to drag the assassin across the beach to the boat. Marvin attempted to shoot the man shooting the guards, but was not able to penetrate his armor with his gun. Arenui, hoping to prevent the assassin’s escape, flew above the boat and fired a rocket at it. Unfortunately, he was unskilled in the weapon and completely missed the boat.

The security guards gave up their attack and dove for cover as the armored man hit another with his laser rifle. Zarf and Marvin both continued to fire on him, but missed. Aryanna began crawling towards the closest wounded guard. Arenui, still hovering above the boat, took careful aim.

As the first armored man managed to pull the assassin on to the boat, the other began withdrawing. Zarf kept firing at him, but was unable to hit. Marvin sensing that his weapon was useless against the armor, resumed filming the conflict. Aryanna treated the downed guard and stabilized him. Arenui fired his carefully aimed rocket and completely missed the boat again.

The armored man on the beach turned his attention to Arenui, as the rocket-armed droyne was clearly the biggest threat, and shot him with his laser rifle. The shot killed Arenui instantly, he burst into flames and fell into the water below. With Zarf’s pistol fire bouncing ineffectively off his back, the man got on the boat and sped away.

Aryanna patched up the other injured security guard before the cops arrived and determined that the two fathers were beyond help. Ultimately, Penn was happy with the quality of footage the travelers captured, both of the wedding and the dramatic fight that ended it. Aryanna angrily confronted her, accusing her of knowing that there was going to be an assassination attempt. Penn reluctantly agreed to up their fee to 12,000 Cr. From 8,000 Cr.