One-Shot: Scum & Villainy

Last night, we played a li'l ol' one-shot of Scum & Villainy. Here's the story.

Our crew works a Stardancer ship called the Aurora (none of the crew likes that name particularly, but it was all they could agree on). They usually take jobs helping people get from place to place, often people who are traveling incognito or trying to escape from the watchful eye of the Hegemony.

The crew:

• Lyran Wolffe, aka Stat. Wolffe is the scion of House Krisnath, and was in line to be the heir, and then wound up disinherited, largely for being too progressive for the Hegemony types. His sister Ditha continually makes it impossible for him to rejoin the family, even if he wanted to. He's the Stitch.
• Dara Prednis, aka Vapor. Vapor is the child of colonists and grew up on a boring-ass farming world in the Iota system. She's in it for the thrill: she likes to gamble, likes to fly fast, and was thrown out (rather, gently encouraged to pursue other avenues) of the Starsmith's Guild. She's the Pilot. 
• Oo'wu'd'woo'oo'oo, aka Dwoo. Dwoo is a xeno, a member of a race called the Bembat. The Bembat were only recently discovered (or maybe admitted) to be an intelligent race. Before that, they were considered a delicacy in polite society. Dwoo himself is an adherent of a Xeno cult worshiping the cosmos, and is proficient in the Way (and is therefore a Mystic).
• Kit. Kit probably has a legal name, but he doesn't know it. He grew up as a wanderer, moving from place to place and wound up selling himself and engaging in other criminal enterprises. Kit is gorgeous and knows it, and is something of a pleasure addict. He's a Scoundrel.
• Yola Black, aka Gear. Black is the ship's Mechanic. Machines talk to her, and so she keeps the machinery squeaky clean (herself, not so much). She grew up on a series of ships with her mechanic parents, until they kind of nudged her into finding her own work. 

The crew is friendly with Alor, a barkeep who owns a bar/truck stop on Warren, the capital world of the Procyon Sector. Alor is the ex-husband of Alanda "The Banshee" Rile, the Pirate Queen, but the two of them are still friendly and the crew's relationship with Alor means that Alanda is generally cool with them, too. On this particular day, the crew is hanging out at Alor's bar looking for work. Alor doesn't have anything for them, but he notes he has a message from Alanda, who, as it turns out, is looking for the crew.

The contact her, and she tells them that she's got a line on a Nightspeaker in the area. Nightspeakers are scary-powerful practitioners of the Way (and largely responsible for hunting Dwoo's faith down and eating them). They usually wear masks, and Alanda wants this one's mask. She isn't willing to tell the characters why, but she is willing to pay handsomely. She figures that since they're not known for this kind of work, maybe they can zip in and zip out without the job leading back to them (or her). The Nightspeaker just put down on Baftoma, a world mined into oblivion by the Hegemony. The crew agrees, and sets out.

They decide they'll try to trick the Nightspeaker, using the goodwill that Stat engenders as a doctor. They'll try and get him to take off his mask, nick it, and run like hell (this is kind of the MO for the crew generally). They land on Baftoma (taking minor damage to the hull, which makes Gear grouchy), and head out towards the settlement where the Nightspeaker's ship has landed.

Stat sets up as a doctor and asks if anyone needs his services; settlers queue up because there's not really a lot of medical help here. Kit, meanwhile, pretends to be a surveyor and checks over the mining scaffolds, looking for the Nightspeaker and whatever might be valuable. Gear and Vapor check over the ship and determine that the damage is minimal, while Dwoo reaches out with the Way and tries to pinpoint the Nightspeaker. He feels something, but it's the mystic equivalent of staring into the void. The Nightspeaker has seen him.

Stat sees the Nightspeaker walk up to him (and the crowd parts). The Nightspeaker demands to know where the Bembat is, and Stat lies well, saying that he doesn't have any Bembat, and isn't it illegal now anyway? He convinces the Nightspeaker to follow him around a corner (on the implied promise of maybe selling him some Bembat), and Kit follows, trying to remain out of sight.

Dwoo crawls through some of the vents, trying to get the drop on the Nightspeaker, but his attention snaps upwards and he gestures to the vents, shaking them. Stat, figuring the jig is officially up, stabs the Nightspeaker in the shoulder with a syringe of drugs. The Nightspeaker intones one syllable, and all of them feel the void clawing at their minds. Everything goes black for a moment, and when their vision clears, the Nightspeaker is not there.

Dwoo reaches out with the Way again, and finds the Nightspeaker heading back to his ship. The characters start scrambling after him; Dwoo uses the Way to propel itself forward and winds up close enough to the Nightspeaker to engage. Dwoo threatens, and the Nightspeaker responds; Dwoo unsheathes his lightblade and attacks.

They fight, but neither can really land a solid blow. Stat rushes in and swings at the Nightspeaker; he blocks, but the exchange sets up Dwoo for an opening and it stabs the Nightspeaker in the shoulder. Meanwhile, Gear and Vapor run past the melee and find the Nightspeaker's ship, which is pure black and glassy, and feels oddly soft and smooth to the touch. They manage to hack the security to get in, and find that the ship talks to them. Gear is used to being able to talk to machines, but this one can think. It tells them that if they don't tell their friends to stop attacking the Nightspeaker, it will pump the ship full of chlorine gas.

They relay this, but the battle doesn't stop. Dwoo telekinetically hurls a rock at the Nightspeaker, but it shatters on a force shield he's putting up. Stat pulls out some magnetic apparatus to try and dislodge the mask, but the Nightspeaker flings him away and into unconsciousness. The ship does indeed pump the cabin full of gas and it burns at their skin, but both Gear and Vapor have portable space suits that keep their lungs clear. They try to hack the ship to make it work, but can't, and Vapor shoots the control panel in frustration. Outside, Kit manages to rig up a device to wedge the door open, and despite nearly getting a facefull of gas in the process, frees Gear and Vapor.

Dwoo charges at the Nightspeaker, but at the last second slides under his legs and tosses a detonator into his face. The force field absorbs the worst of it, but his mask is dislodged. Vapor tosses her grappling hook to Gear, who quickly rigs a gas-powered gun and hands it to Kit. Kit fires it and snags the mask, and everyone runs like hell (so that part of the plan worked).

The Nightspeaker doesn't pursue them (being injured, after all), and they get back to their ship and zoom the hell back to the Cove to get paid. Alanda gives them their money, and they note that the back of the mask has markings that look like a star chart. They aren't sure exactly what Alanda is after, here, but what's the difference? They got paid, and they've got the Cred to fix their ship and keep it flying. Can't ask for more than that.