Editing SGA 2005 Archive (section)

=Serenity=
; Game System
: [http://www.serenityrpg.com/ Serenity RPG]
; Pitch
: ''Serenity'', on its way to Sihnon to disembark Inara, has detoured to Persephone after the events in "Objects In Space" in order to make arrangements for salvaging Jubal Early's ship. After a long, difficult negotiation with Badger Mal sells him the location of the ship in exchange for a good downpayment and a cut of the profits.

: Simon, having been shot and generally beaten up by Jubal Early, comes down with a severe case of the flu due to his weakened immune system and opts to stay aboard Serenity and be sick while the remainder of the crew heads out to take care of a very important event - Kaylee's birthday!
; Game Master
: Edmund Metheny
; Players
: 6
; Characters
: Captain Mal Reynolds (John Powell, 1st game; Dennis Poor, 2nd game)
: Pilot Hoban "Wash" Washburn (Johnny Bliss)
: First Mate Zoe Warren (Sophie)
: Mechanic Kaylee Frye (Laura)
: Public relation agent Jayne Cobb (John Reiher)
: Shepherd Book (Ed Freeman)
; Date
: October 10 & 17, 2005
; Technical Notes
: 
; Recaps
<blockquote>
<p>'''Part 1:''' While Inara was gone and Simon was sick (and worse, nursed by River!),
the rest of ''Serenity'''s crew celebrated Kaylee's birthday. A pleasant
perspective at first, this turned into a shopping marathon followed by a
karaoke evening in the preppiest bar one can find on Persephone...
Kaylee, Jayne, Wash and Mal got pretty plastered; Shepherd Book and Zoe
had the dubious pleasure of stacking them like cordwood on the Mule and
hauling them back to ''Serenity''. But as soon as the crew walked or
staggered in, a dozen nattily dressed goons showed up in the cargo bay,
pushing a groggy Simon. Mal and the crew angrily sat down in the galley
as told. A big samovar was sitting in the middle of the table.</p>

<p>Their old friend Adelai Niska walked in and greeted them suavely. But
behind him walked a woman dressed like a babushka in black, her head
wrapped in a scarf; her face was that of a kindly grandmother, her body
that of a tractor puller. "Adelai!" she called sharply as  she whapped him in the back of the head with her purse. Niska seemed
to shrink a bit and stepped back. The woman introduced herself as
Alexandra Niskova, Adelai Niska's wife.</p>

<p>In a lilting Russian accent, she explained that she was unhappy that the
relationship between Niska and Captain Reynolds was no longer business,
and had become personal. She wished to make amends and restore a
business relationship. She and Niska had a short, vicious argument in
low-spoken slavic, which ended when the woman pinched and pulled Niska's
ear, with a vicious: "Adelai!" Grudgingly, Niska stepped forward and
muttered and apology for the "misunderstanding." Wash, still pretty
drunk, got up and tried to throw his teacup at Niska, but was clumsy and
ended up spilling it in Mal's lap instead.</p>

<p>Mrs. Niskova was not offended, but she did point out that Mal too had
some responsibility to bear in the feud with her husband. Not because
he had put Crow through his engine, no; that she found understandable.
No, it was because Mal, when offered the chance in the original
dealings, had refused to find out what were the contents of the train
cargo he was to steal for Niska. Mrs. Niskova felt that she could offer
a new job, one for which she would answer all questions, and which Mal
and his crew would be able to take without remorse: an Alliance payroll job.</p>

<p>An Alliance cruiser was scheduled for what appeared to be a routine
patrol on the border; but secretly, it carried 60,000 platinum in
unmarked, untraceable funds, earmarked to pay Alliance informers and
covert operatives. The Alliance-operated facility where it should
normally refuel in a few days was "unfortunately" forced to close for
maintenance so that the cruiser would have to refuel at a privately-run
station. The Serenity could be there two days ahead if it left
promptly. Mrs. Niskova wanted the money stolen and delivered in a town
called Tamartaha on Beylix, to the priest of the "onion church".</p>

<p>As payment, Mrs. Niskova offered, on the one hand, to call all accounts
quit; and on the other, to supply Mal with a computer worm that would
remove Serenity's name from the short list of Firefly-class vessels the
Alliance was investigating in connection with numerous bulletins on the
Cortex (transport of known fugitives, theft, smuggling, robbery of St.
Lucy's Hospital on Ariel, etc.) While the Alliance would eventually
figure out that its database was compromised and would start its
investigation from the beginning, it would buy Mal a few months. As a
final bonus and incentive, she assured him that if, upon delivery, he
decided that he could not in conscience support the use to which the
money was to be put, he could keep the entire sum. She did put the
condition that no Alliance personnel be killed, as she didn't want to
attract attention to the Organization.</p>

<p>Mrs. Niskova and her thugs left Mal and his crew to discuss the offer;
they decided to take the job. They obtained stun weapons -- molecularly imprinted sonic rifles -- from their old
friend Badger, covered by an expense account from Mrs. Niskova. After a
discussion of various wild schemes to rob the cruiser, they decided to
get there early, refuel, and leave Shepherd Book and Zoe there to watch
for the cruider while Serenity waited in the black nearby. The cruiser
would be staying at the refueling facility, the Hard Burn J, for about
12 hours during which the crew of 16 would get R&R in shifts.
Serenity's shuttle would approach one of the cruiser's other airlocks
away from the docking ring; Kaylee would override the airlock control
and Mal and Jayne would go in to search for the money.</p>

<p>Things went relatively smooth at first. When Book and Zoe spotted the
Whitfield, they signalled Serenity. The first two personnel rotations
seemed relatively crisp, so Mal decided to wait a bit, hoping to get a
watch officer that was less vigilant. The third watch brought back
three enlisted men and an officer who seemed to have had pretty intense
R&R, so Mal decided to move. Wash did some pretty fancy piloting to get
the shuttle in position, and Kaylee opened the airlock. Mal, Jayne and
Kaylee boarded and started looking for the loot. Meanwhile, Book and
Zoe spotted the captain heading back to his ship. Book distracted him
by trying to strike up a conversation, and Zoe cold-cocked him from
behind (the captain, not Book). Meanwhile, on board the Whitfield, Mal
had a bit of a problem when the crewman he had knocked out fell on the
control console and accidentally started the undocking sequence.
Fortunately, Kaylee and him managed to avert disaster while Jayne
located the money.</p>

<p>After picking up Book and Zoe, they ran from the Hard Burn J, leaving
the bewildered crew of the Whitfield to a likely court-martial. An
uneventful trip took them to Beylix, the landfill planet (it's HoL!)
Beylix Control didn't know of any town called Tamartaha, however. But
when asked about the "onion church", they said it must be Tumbletown --
a town of destitute scavengers living in an active cell where waste was
dumped by the spaceship load. (Did I mention HoL?) Although Serenity
couldn't land there, they were able to land nearby and take the Mule.</p>

<p>In Tumbletown, they looked in vain for the church - until someone told
them it had just been destroyed the day before. All they had to do to
find it was follow the plume of smoke. They did, and found the ruins of
what had been a beautiful church. Around the wreckage were a few bodies
of priests and children. Suddenly, Zoe spotted movement in the debris!
She and Jayne managed to pull a little girl out of the ruins. The
wounded girl wept, repeating over and over that men in black had come
and taken everyone away before destroying the church. (No, no hands of
blue!)</p>

</blockquote>
; Player Thoughts
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; Additional GM Thoughts
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