[Five Parsecs / Rogue Stars] Raedwald’s ‘Prima Luce’ campaign (p2: Turn 2)

[Tactalvanic]

Nice Narrative

great use of squigs to.

Look forward to the next

[Raedwald]

Thanks for the kind comments all, I’d not checked this board for a while so it’s a pleasant surprise. 

When I rolled up the sand runners as opponents my first thought was ‘what nice lizard minis can I buy?’  But as I needed six, the squigs I already had came to mind. I very rarely get games in, and unexpectedly, they’ve ended up featuring in almost every one (sci fi or fantasy) that I’ve played in the last few years!

@zemjw - I’m sort of in the same boat. The campaign’s not so much stalled, it’s just taking me ages to get terrain and minis painted up for Turn 2… perhaps that is stalled actually. 

@ithoriel - CP Models have some great stuff, I’ve got them earmarked if I roll up certain other opponents in the future.

@Bullshott - Thank you, I’ll look forward to seeing, if you’re going to post.

@Tactalvanic - Many thanks! I’m hoping to play Turn 2 before the end of the year.

[Bloggard]

great set of crew figures and paint-jobs.
fantastic narrative b/ground and aar - do hope you can keep it going.

[Raedwald]

Campaign Turn 2

Photos attached at the end. All of the events, and even most of the details in the following narrative were generated by the 5PfH and Rogue Stars systems.

Pre-game
Aboard the Prima Luce, while young Melyora continued her recovery in the sick bay, Carinci the Tech repaired and cleaned up Garusddin’s trusty shotgun. Meanwhile Captain Medari sent Garusddin, with Jeslar and Parn, to put feelers out for potential new recruits, who might share the crew’s values. In one bar, they heard about a Theran scientist who’d just left service aboard an Imperial interstellar cruiser, and together the three tracked him down for an ‘interview’.

Talos Patracheus did not disappoint. An astronomer from the Seventh Fleet science division, he’d fallen out with his immediate superiors and been discharged. With no appealing work available, but keen to make a quick fortune, Patracheus had no qualms in trying his luck with the Prima Luces.

Medari, having paid off some more ship debt, managed to find potential employment from two sources. The first was a shadowy figure who hinted at a connection with Parn. Little did Medari know, this was Verjigorm, the Chaos corrupted gang boss who had caused the destruction of Parn’s gang. He was offering an admittedly dangerous, one time only contract, before abstracting himself off-planet. The other offer was from a representative of a spire noble, which came with health insurance and private transport to the site, on top of reasonable pay. Even if Parn hadn’t totally freaked, Medari had decided to take on the noble’s job. Would they ever hear from Verjigorm again?

It transpired that the noble’s job involved infiltrating a huge Clan Denairastas complex within Hive Vivane, that was being heavily guarded by military contractors. They would make contact with an informant who would share some files and intel before showing them a safe route out. A lightly guarded entry point had been identified, opposite a rundown food plaza in a lower level of the hive. It was usually manned by only a couple of mercs, and the plan was to kill the lights in that dome, create some distractions, and sneak a couple of the Prima Luces through to rendezvous with the informant.

An innocuously branded delivery transport carried the crew deep into the hive, to arrive close to Hawke’s Food Plaza. They climbed out at a distance and stealthily fanned out towards the entry point of the Denaitastas complex, as the agreed time approached for the lights to be killed.

Jeslar the scavvy, punk/accountant Parn, and Tech Carinci circled round to the left, while Patracheus and Garusddin moved up in the centre, and Medari approached from the right. To all their dismay, a third Merc had been stationed at the entry point, all three were fully armoured and looking alert, and worse yet, an enormous combat droid could be seen just inside the complex.
“It’s time Captain, do we bail? This wasn’t in the plan.” croaked Garusddin through the comms, just as the lights went out and the dome plunged into darkness.
“Stick to the plan,” replied Medari, “draw them out so Parn’s team can sneak through.”

Game 2
As the Prima Luce’s moved up, the crying of a small child rang out from the centre of the food plaza. “Get that kid out of here!” yelled Medari, as he and Garusddin took up positions where they could just begin to make out the barricades through the gloom. As Parn, Jeslar and Carinci advanced up to some rubbish piles on the left, Patracheus (Pat) sprinted over to the wailing boy, soothed him and directed him towards the emergency lights in a distant exit tunnel.

As the three mercs ducked into hidden positions behind the fortified barricades, the lumbering form of the droid could be heard advancing out of the complex. It emerged from the darkness quicker than expected, as Pat chivvied the boy to run for it, Medari waved his arms to get the droid’s attention. He immediately felt some regret at this, as it pounded towards him and opened fire with its built in heavy bolter. Shots tore through Medari and he went down.

The boy finally scuttled off, and Pat drew back to join Garusddin beside one of the food booths, as the droid advanced into the food plaza. On the left, Jeslar had crept forwards through the rubbish piles, but still couldn’t make anything out behind the barricades.

At this point, the combat droid appeared in front of Pat and Garusddin, and without hesitation Pat opened fire with his colony rifle on automatic. Sparks and fizzing came from the droid’s torso as it toppled off balance and fell, however it immediately rose as Pat continued to pour fire into it. Further shots ricocheted off the droid’s chest and arm as it relentlessly advanced, one finding a mark; with the glow from its power fist flickering then going out. Nevertheless, as it reached Pat the fist was raised, and Garusddin recklessly discharged his shotgun, creating another big dent in the chest plates. As the fist swung around, Pat narrowly dodged it, smashing his rifle butt into the droid’s leg, with little effect, then up into its face, which to all their surprise made it lose footing again, and crash onto its back. Garusddin steeled his nerves, which had been shaken when Medari fell, and together with Pat they pounced on top of the droid to batter it. Another blow to its head from Pat’s rifle butt finally saw the lights die from its eyes, and servos whir as it shut down.

Pat and Garusddin’s adrenaline fuelled elation was short lived, as the mercs behind the central and right-hand barricades opened fire, having honed in on where the sounds and muzzle flashes had been. Garusddin dived behind the food booth, while Pat hunkered behind the prone droid as best he could, as machine gun and automatic rifle fire pattered all around him.

Back on the left, as all this broke loose, Jeslar noticed a rat scurry by, apparently with blister packs of pills strapped to its back. He could have grabbed for it, but now was not the time. (This was a ‘You want me to check that out?’ Battle Event). Instead, he steadied his breathing, and taking his time took very careful aim at the merc gunner behind the central barricade who was lit up, blazing away. As Jeslar’s finger moved to the trigger of his needle rifle, the machine gun fire spontaneously stopped and the gunner disappeared into hiding again. Uttering some scavvy expletives, Jeslar adjusted his aim to the distant right-hand merc firing the assault rifle. Again, taking time and care, he lined up the shot, and moving to squeeze the trigger, that merc also ducked back into cover, reloading his empty clip as he did. More extreme expletives followed from the frustrated scavvy.

Pat received this change more favourably, and grabbed the opportunity to steady himself and dash over to a hidden position by one of the other food booths, from where he could make out the barricades through the murk. Meanwhile, Jeslar’s cursing had been overheard by the left-hand merc, who’d spotted the hidden scavvy amongst the waste, and was taking aim at him. However, Parn and Carinci had also crept forward by now, the former priming and lobbing a stun grenade over the barricades. It overshot slightly, but caught the gunner in its blast of irritants, flashing and high pitched whines. This had limited effect on the armoured gunner, but did light up his position, and provided sufficient distraction to the left merc, whose shot at Jeslar harmlessly whumped into the rubbish piles near his head.

Seeing the muzzle flare, Carinci locked on with her targetter, and embedded a needler shot into the merc’s chest plate. At the same time, Pat got a clear sight of the gunner in the centre, and put a well aimed bullet into his shoulder, between the armour plates, knocking him down with a wound. The Prima Luces sustained the assault, with another stun grenade lobbed in by Parn, catching both the left merc and downed gunner. Jeslar scrambled forward to the barricade and gunned down the left merc at point blank range. The right hand merc called out a truce offering, they simply weren’t being paid enough for this, but it was met with more scavvy curses from Jeslar.

Gritting their teeth, the mercs fought back, the right merc narrowly missing Pat with a shot, while the gunner got to his feet, and letting rip with his machine gun as he moved forward, took Jeslar down in the hail of fire. The right merc emptied another clip, firing at Pat’s position, and hearing the click, Pat and Garusddin seized their chance and dashed up and through the barricades. Pat sprayed fire towards the machine gunner as he ran, until his rifle malfunctioned and jammed. Meanwhile, Garusddin blasted the right merc in the arm with his shotgun as he wheezily ran past. The merc’s rifle fell to the ground, his arm a bloody mess, as Garusddin disappeared into the complex.

Parn and Carinci, having rallied themselves from the loss of Jeslar, kept the gunner occupied; Carinci emptying a needler clip in his direction, as Pat continued after Garusddin. The wounded right merc, well trained in unarmed combat, had other ideas though, and chased after him. Using his good arm, he grabbed Pat by the shoulder, but Pat rammed his rifle butt back hard into the merc, cracking a rib and knocking him to the floor. Having reloaded, Carinci continued to fire at the gunner, sending needler shots into both of his arms, the machine gun falling from his grip. Meanwhile, Pat was overcome by wrath, and started pounding his trusty rifle butt into the prone merc’s head, the second blow smashing the optic lenses but otherwise doing little harm.

Remarkably, the resilient gunner shook some life back into his numbed arms, retrieved his machine gun, and staggered round into the complex to save his comrade. Seeing the soldier loom out of the shadows, Pat regained his senses and quickly fled into the facility, to meet with Garusddin and the informant at the planned rendezvous point. Grabbing the opportunity, Parn and Carinci dragged Jeslar back to safety, before circling around to haul the bloodied Medari away also.

Post-game
The rendezvous went to plan, with Garusddin and Pat receiving some coded info and data slates before being ushered through some rubbish shutes, much to their distaste, and thereby escaping the Denairastas complex. Passing the info on to the spire noble’s representative, a man named Santos, the Prima Luces received their pay, and opened communication channels with him for future opportunities. Garusddin had also spotted and swiped some Rage Out pills while in the complex, as an added bonus.

The other Prima Luces had returned to the transport, where, bundling Jeslar and Medari in, they were met by the boy Pat had saved, and his father, who in gratitude, insisted on them taking a finely crafted wreath of carved spider designs. As they set off, Jeslar came round, pulling his mangled slug pistol from a chest holster, the gun having saved him from a bullet through the chest. Medari had not been so lucky, but true to his word, Santos had him shuttled straight to a private lower hive clinic for emergency treatment. The doc made a good job of it, and Medari was able to make a quick recovery.

Incidentally, the three mercs also recovered, although it would be a long process for the one Jeslar had gunned down, while the droid was fine after a quick rewiring and trip to the panel beaters. With no leads, and a desire to hush up the breach, the merc company let the matter go.

The spider wreath sold to a collector for a handsome profit (cashing the story point earned during the game). The Prima Luces had all learned so much from this mission, the whole team really grew in their professionalism (campaign event), with Patracheus in particular prospering, in part from his improved diet since joining the crew (character event).

Thus ended campaign Turn 2.
Having gone into the game with fairly low expectations; having to get through a defended position - it turned out to be incredibly enjoyable, unpredictable and thrilling to play. Loved it, and although it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, I’m continuing to have an amazing time using Rogue Stars, which is fitting brilliantly with the 5PfH campaign. Hope it made for a tolerable read.
Thanks,
Raedwald

Photos:
1. Crew of the Prima Luce, L-R: Parn, Carinci, Jeslar, Garusddin, Patracheus, Medari.
2. Denairastas’ Mercenaries with Combat Droid (plus Boy, far left background).
3. Initial set up.
4. Initial set up.

More photos in following post.

[Raedwald]

Campaign Turn 2 - additional photos

5. Patracheus sees off the boy.
6. Patracheus and Garusddin face the droid.
7. Jeslar charges the barricades, supported by Carinci and Parn.
8. Patracheus and Garusddin break through the barricades.
9. Patracheus’ wrath.

Cheers,
Raedwald

[Pattus Magnus]

Great figures! The narrative is engaging, too.

[ithoriel]

Great write up and a nice looking game.

I'm enjoying the sudden outbreak of 5 Parsecs campaign reports popping up on LAF.

[Kourtchatovium104]

Great minis, pictures and story! 

[hubbabubba]

Great minis, pictures and story! 

What he said.

Excellent painting but your photography is really good. Well played.

[Raedwald]

@Pattus Magnus, @Kourtchatovium104 - Thank you! I’m glad my self indulgent write ups are of interest to some, I know it’s probably far too excessive for most people browsing. 

@ithoriel - Me too! Cheers.

@hubbabubba - Thanks, I love seeing your stuff on LAF, have been drooling over your latest Five Parsecs post  .
I don’t really know what I’m doing with the photography to be honest, but moderns phones are very forgiving.
Although I stick to the LAF attachment limits, my stuff always seems to get shrunk loads more as it uploads, so the resolution is often pants. I’ll try a little experiment here exceeding the limits to see if it ends up a sensible size.

*EDIT: Well, ignoring the limits didn’t prevent the upload, but they still shrank loads and ended up only marginally larger/better res. I might replace some of the images above when I get time. Cheers.