Episode Two - Walking Miss Daisy Part 2

With Vinca in the sick bay, Davin and his crew decided to remain on the planet.
Upkeep
6 Credits (no payment for Vinca as he's in sick bay. Jeela is also in the sick bay but only because she's having a sulk so I decided that she still needs paying even if she will accept it reluctantly). They now have 3 Credits left so they better get hunting for pay.
Jobs
Davin Kinall went trading and managed to pick up a bargain - a technical book which he gave to Porro (+1XP)  
Vinca Jissard simply recuperated in the sick bay. He'll be ready in Episode Three.  Garm Izel also went trading but wasn't so successful, buying what amounted to a pile of scrap worth 1 Credit.  
Porro Thif went looking for a patron and bumped into Arrik Chattza again. While he was grateful that they had managed to bring his mother to him, Arrick now realised that Miss Daisy was not safe while she remained on the planet. He had arranged to fly her off from the starport but needed an escort to accompany her to the awaiting starcraft. He was not aware of a plot by Unity but was worried that they might make another attempt try to grab her. Porro smiled to himself. At least he wouldn't have to convince her to go with them this time!
Jaa Maduel went sight-seeing but stopped by a street-food stall, ate a dodgy deep-fried sagunza burger and got food-poisoning so went to the sick bay. Hopefully he wouldn't restart his argument with Jeela.
Jeela Dystra stayed in the sick bay, looking after Vinca.
Drinna Kiles went with Jaa to explore parts of the city that were new to him and was given a faulty sonic wave emitter. Hopefully with a few Credits spent on it and a bit of TLC, Porro would be able to get it going again.

~~~

Rolling for the opposition, I got Mutants but only four of them (rolled a 1 and a 2 +2). Would Unity be recruiting Mutants?
In his preaching, Arrick has recently been focusing on the abomination of mutation - a sure and certain sign of the depravity of the universe. The president has been listening and so has put in place laws that restrict the movements of the mutant community. Naturally this has not gone down well with the this already discriminated against section of the population. Time for revenge. Well not quite time, I had to delay things to paint up some mutants - wonderful figures sculpted by Eli Arndt for his Loud Ninja Games and sold by Alternative Armies.

The set-up (inspired by Spacejacker...though not as good)

Davin and his team entered the starport (on the left side of the board) aiming for the airlock door (in the centre of the righthand side).
Other than a few hospitality robots the place was deserted - a sign that all was not well. So Davin, Garm and Drinna decided to fan out to take out any enemy while Porro kept  close company with Miss Daisy.
Meanwhile the mutants took their positions near an entrance by the airlock.

The mutant band consisted of their leader armed with a shotgun (second from the right) and three all armed with rifles. I must work on my camera skills!

Things started slowly with Davin and his band moving cautiously along the corridor, unaware of who had caused the desertion of the starport or where they might be.

Reaching the end of the corridor, they entered the main thoroughfare of the starport unaware that the mutants were reaching the far end of the same hall...or at least, some of them were.

While two of the mutants were looking for cover in the main hall, the other two were creeping through a store room, looking to approach from the flank.

The mutant leader and his lieutenent reached a low wall and took cover behind it ready to take a potshot at the friends, or preferably Miss Daisy.  The other two continued their flanking movement, avoiding the attentions of a cleansing-bot.

As Davin reached the wall the mutant leader let fly with his shot gun but missed with both barrels. Davin returned fire with his rifle and hit the mutant but he was unable to penetrate the mutant thick hide. Stunned, the creature staggered back away from the wall.
Now that the mutant was more out in the open, Drinna took the opportunity to fire with his shotgun and took the leader out.
  

Shaken by the death of his leader, the lieutenant paused to take in the situation but the hesitation was enough to give Garm time to rush up to the open doorway and fire his blast rifle. The shot hit its target and burnt the second mutant to a frazzle.

With the two mutants down, Davin urged his team and Miss Daisy to hurry to the airlock and so, throwing caution to the wind, they headed towards the door, unaware of the danger they were in.
As Porro and Miss Daisy broken into the open, the other two mutants jumped out from the side corridor, firing their rifles. At pointblank range, the outcome was obvious, Miss Daisy was hit!

As the frail body of the preacher's mother crumpled to the ground, Drinna sprang into action.
"Nooooooo!" He burst out from his cover and rushed across the hallway and fire at the two mutants, hitting both of them and killing both of them outright.

The mission had failed.

Episode One - Walking Miss Daisy

The crew decided to remain on the planet. So far they hadn't upset anyone so life could be quite peaceful.

Upkeep

6 Credits. They currently have 6 Credits left so need to find some work.

Jobs

Davin Kinall went to see the sights and bumped into a personal trainer who helped him with his fitness regime (+2XP)
Vinca Jissard accompanied Davin on his sightseeing and received a hot tip for an opportunity mission
Garm Izel decided to do a bit of training (+1XP)
Porro Thif went off with a few trinkets that he had picked up here and there and managed to trade them in for a repair kit
Jaa Maduel also did some training (+1XP)
Jeela Dystra went looking for a patron. She already had two that she could call on but bumped into a new one (a throw of 6).
In the main square she listened to a rather dishevelled preacher zealously challenging the authority of Unity. When he had finished his sermon, she approached him to ask for some clarification on his claims. He welcomed her interest and asked if she might be willing to help him.
The preacher, Arik Chattza, had caught word that Unity were displeased with his ministry and were seeking to shut him up. They had tried to do so before through various means but failed. This time they were trying something different. They planned to kidnap his widowed mother and hold her hostage. Obviously they didn't want it to be known that they were behind the plans so they had recruited three bounty hunters to carry out the deed.
Arik asked Jeela if she would go to his mother's home in the shanty town on the outskirts of the city and bring her back to him. Knowing that they need a few credits and hoping that his state of dress did not truly indicate the level of his wealth, she readily accepted the offer.

~~~

Miss Daisy is a frail, elderly lady so I gave her a move of 3", equal to that of Porro Thif but slower than everybody else.
She has also learnt not to trust anybody. She will need to be convinced by Davin and the team that they have come to rescue her (I decided on a difficulty roll of 5+ though Porro and Jeela's +1 on persuasion rolls will help)
 

Miss Daisy was in her home (indicated by the red arrow) as the crew arrived at the southern edge of the town. 

To the north a carrier crawled to a halt and disgorged three bounty hunters, who quickly took cover behind rusting shacks.

The three bounty hunters - the leader in the centre armed with her hunter's rifle while the other two carry shotguns. Their instructions were to capture Miss Daisy; not harm her. Their plan was, therefore, to advance slowly along each flank and then close in on Miss Daisy.

Davin (hand gun) decided that he and Porro (rifle) should visit Miss Daisy and

explain the danger that she was in. Porro's persuasion skills should help that task. Meanwhile Vinca (rifle) was to shield the left flank, Jaa (hand flamer) and Jeela (shotgun) the right flank and Gorm (blaster rifle) the centre. Davin and Porro would then lead Miss Daisy along the safest route.

The initial turns involved both parties simply advancing, making as much use of the cover provided by the various buildings and rock formations.

Porro soon reached Miss Daisy and tried to convince her to go with him...and tried...and tried...and tried...how hard can it be to roll 4+? It actually took five attempts.

The bounter hunters took up positions, ready to pick off their foe. The leader took a shot at Garm but missed and, sticking his head above a rock, got hit by Vinca and was downed.

Another bounty hunter took up position behind a shack and shot at Garm but only managed to stun him. Vinca decided to creep upon him and surprise him.

Vinca jumped out and fired his rifle at point blank range and misses. Now he was in for it. The bounty hunter blasted both barrels of his shotgun at Vinca and also missed.

Who would be able to act again first? The bounty hunter and finally Vinca was hit.

But as Vinca fell to the ground, Garm aimed his blast rifle at the bounty hunter and disabled him.

Despite losing the other two members of his party, the final bounty hunter's morale remained steady and he sought to fight on. But before he had a chance to fire a shot, he was caught in a pincer movement by Jaa and Jeela and was caught in a hail of bullets.

Finally Miss Daisy decided to believe Porro and to go with him. Did she really have any choice?!

And Porro accompanied her through the township, wondering he he still needed to do some more work on his persuasion skills.

For a first game, it seemed to work well. I felt that the bounty hunters were a little outnumbered. The rules say that you roll two dice and choose the higher number. I threw a 2 and a 3. it is not linked at all to the number of figures that they are facing.

I wonder if it might be worth experimenting with the system taken from 2HW where you roll dice which decide whether the enemy has one less, the same amount or one more than their opponents.

Next post, we'll discover how Vinca is and how much the crew earned from their efforts.