Actual Play: Firefly "Old War Horses" Session 3 Dirt

Session 3: Dirt
Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Dramatis Personae:

• Captain Ramsey Zook, played by BR (absent)
• General Samuel Zook, played by BR (absent)
• Bang Buckwheat, played by BB (absent)
• Prospero Jones, played by J (absent)
• John Havelock, played by A
• Dr. Winston Stuart, played by H
• Lots o' Alliance Guards and search dogs
• A Polite Tong Headman and his Unruly Gang

Note: This session was inspired/stolen shamelessly from The Signal's (Season 3, Episode 14) Badger's World (Season 1, Episode 7).

Planet: Persephone
Town: Eavesdown Docks

After escaping the mysterious black ship that attacked them last session, the Ning Po lands on Persephone, in the Eavesdown Docks.

When Captain Zook mentions the disease, Steel Gangrene, that has broken out on Ita, Winston remembers working with a guy who fought at Sturgis on a Medical Ship. It was abandoned in the fighting, now floating among the wrecks there. It's got medicine that can help heal the disease on Ita. By the end of the week, the disease will have more victims on Ita. Persephone to Sturgis to Ita would take about a week. 

While Zook and the rest of the crew get the ship repaired, John and Winston were told to head over to the Eavesdown Docks and prep the cargo for the ship to pick up prior to the lease on the depot slip reverting back to the depot.

Both John and Winston notice that there are a lot of Alliance Guards at the Eavesdown Docks Bonded Container Depot (Complication: Lots o' Alliance Guards D6) but they get by them with the pass (Asset: Pass into Persephone's Eavesdown Docks Bonded Container Depot D6).

They go to Depot Slip No. 2337, an area with tall chain link fencing and enclosed for privacy with screens on the fencing. There's a touch-screen entrance lock and they put in the code, entering 2337.

Inside, they find a pair of Type 47 Cargo Containers and a large blue tarp on the ground. There's no sign of a cargo.

Looking under the tarp, it's just a pile of dirt. Their instructions, when they got the job, was to move the cargo in the yard into the containers but there's nothing but a big pile of dirt.

John figures out that the cargo is the dirt. And it's "not just dirt, it's top soil, highest quality, fertile, well worked, naturally built up over a century with only organic compost topsoil." Vastly superior, naturally developed than processed dirt. On the Rim, it's worth it's eight in gold. And with an export premium you wouldn't believe.

Opening the containers, they find two Level IV Mass Shifters and start moving the dirt because time is at a premium.

Before long, they notice more Alliance Guards around outside, searching for something (Complication Lots o' Alliance Guards D8) and some of them have search dogs (Complication: Alliance Dogs Sniffing Things Up D8). That's when they uncover the three dead bodies, buried in a shallow mass grave in a corner of the pile (Complication: 3 Dead Bodies D8).

Not knowing what to do with the bodies (and loath to leave them behind to be discovered later -- and pointing toward the last people in #2337, them!), Winston starts rolling them up in sections of the blue tarp.

Some Alliance Guards come to #2337's door and John goes to talk to them. He shows them the pass and that they're just emptying the Depot before the lease is up. He uses some jerky as a prop to appear just a yokel (Asset: Packet of Tasty, Tasty Beef Jerky D6). 

The guards look past John into the yard and see one of the corpses on one of the mass shifters "talking" to Winston (Asset: "Weekend at Bernie's" Dead Body Disguise D6) and the corpse "waves" at them, with Winston's help.

While still suspicious, the Alliance Guards leave, but not without more of them showing up to search the whole depot (Complications: Lots o' Alliance Guards D10, Alliance Dogs Sniffing Things Up D10, Alliance Over-flights D6).

Back to the job, Winston and John continue loading the dirt into the containers, with the blue-tarp-wrapped corpses hidden from view.

They're almost done when there's another interruption at the gate. A gentleman outside politely asks to speak with them and a rougher voice demands it, not-so-subtly promising violence. 

When John goes to the gate, he meets a polite Chinese gentleman and his entourage (Complication: Polite Tong Headman and his Unruly Gang D8). The gentleman asks about his missing nephew and two of his nephew's friends. One of his men, pointing to a shame-faced gang member standing behind him, left them around here. Obviously to John, the three were killed by the Tong and buried for later retrieval. Unfortunately, the Depot Slips all look the same and the murderers got confused. Add in the Alliance Guards, as equally obvious looking for the three bodies, and things get more complicated!

The gentleman asks if John has seen them. With Winston working hard in the background, making lots of noise with the mass lifter, John admits that he hasn't and they're in a rush to finish up before their lease ends tonight.

The gentleman seems to believe John and he and his crew move off. John quickly locks the gate and they do a speedy effort to finish loading the dirt. 

They drag the bodies into one of the containers and load in the mass lifters as well, signalling Captain Zook to come get them ASAP!!!!

As the Ning Po hovers over Slip #2337, they load the ship, watching the Alliance and Tong crawling all over the Depot. Loading the cargo with minutes to spare, they immediately blast off into the black, left with a three body problem and the feeling that things just don't go smooth.