5 Parsecs Mission 5

Step-by-step breakdown of the fifth Mission in my Five Parsecs From Home campaign. 

Crew names are often abbreviated G to M, as explained in: Crew Roster, which also tells you about my team and a bit about their ship. See also the Index of my Five Parsecs articles for a list of previous Missions and other content.

Pre-Battle:
Decide Whether to Travel: - Checking out our options, we look up Daret Vol 5. The Daret Vol system has basically no salvage laws, so we could make some money there salvaging wrecks in the local rings. But looking into it further, we realize they have similar import laws to Aceso Menrva Prime, so we won't be able to sell anything there, either. That mostly defeats the purpose of leaving Aceso Menrva Prime. We need to offload our current cargo somewhere before we can start packing in salvage. Back to the drawing board.
 

Upkeep:
Crew Upkeep - 2
Ship Debt - paid 8
Ship Repairs - none needed
Medical Care - none needed

 Assign and Resolve Crew Tasks: -
Train - K
Trade - J,L
Explore - H,I
Repair Your Kit - M
Decoy - G

Noteworthy results from Tasks: -
J trades for an Instruction Book (bonus XP).
L trades for useless junk, because he doesn't always make the best decisions (and he had stripper money burning a hole in his pocket, due to his side job in Campaign Turn 4).
H'xex gets in a bar fight for 2 XP.
Inshubur picks up some local maps that score us a clue closer to the Strange Brain of the Skulker.
Moreva tries to fix the damaged combat armor, but can't quite get it ready in time for the mission.


Battle:
Job Description: Next step of the "The Strange Brain of Skulker" Quest chain. This is NOT the Finale.

Deployment Conditions:  - Gloomy: Maximum visibility is 9”. Characters that fire can be fired upon at any range, however.

Notable Sights:  - Loot cache: Roll once on the Loot Table (p.131), it is 6" to the south of the center of the table.

Objective: -  Acquire: An item needed for the Quest is placed at the center of the table. A crew member must move into contact, take a Combat Action, and then move off the table. If the carrier becomes a casualty, roll 1D6: On a 1, the item is destroyed. Otherwise it can be picked up by spending a Combat Action at the location they fell. If you drive off the enemy, you can pick up the item at your own leisure.


Enemy Type: -  K'Erin Outlaws  (accompanied by a Precursor Wanderer)

3 regulars with Military Rifles , 1 specialist with Shotgun,  1 LT with rifle + Blade    

Also: 1 Unique: Precursor Wanderer


Green arrows are the PCs movement. Red arrows are the Enemy movement. Blue arrow is the the Objective being pulled out of the back of the wrecked truck. The Red X's are dead Enemies.  Everything is approximate, as my notes didn't really cover exact positioning, and and I only took pictures at the start and end of the Mission.
 

Round 1: - We all rush towards the bridge to get the object. The enemy does the same, but most of them aren't that close. H'Xex opens up on the Precursor Wanderer, but their Luck saves them. They are at least driven back significantly. Inshubur opens fire, and takes out the enemy shotgun specialist.

Round 2: - The Kid runs forward and grabs the datafile (objective) from the back of the shot-up truck. There's no longer anyone in charging distance, so H'Xex uses his Jump Belt to rocket out into the middle of the river and picks up the Loot Cache. Inshubur covers him on overwatch.

The enemy Precursor comes running back around the truck and shoots the Kid from point blank, but the laser is a glancing blow that only stuns him. A K'Erin Outlaw also runs onto the bridge. Their view of the kid is blocked by the Wanderer, so they shoot Leonidas instead, stunning him. Two K'Erin rush to the water's edge to shoot H'Xex. Inshubur kills one of them, but the LT stuns H'Xex and forces him back.

Leonidas gets his wits about him, and vaporizes the Precursor Wanderer. Juniper calmly crosses the street and unloads from close range on the K'Erin on the bridge, immolating him with eerie blue plasma flame.

Battle Event between Round 2 and 3 - Lost heart: The enemy has had enough of this fight. At the end of the next round, they will leave the field. (Which makes sense, as they've lost 4 of their 6 soldiers this round.)

Round 3: - Juniper kills the enemy LT, leaving a single K'Erin Outlaw on the field. He rolls 3 dice (4 of his buddies that fell in the previous turn, -1 die for stubborn), and bails. It's good that he did because H'Xex was stunned and within charge distance.

Analysis: - A few weird rules holes popped up in this battle.

Gloomy reduces range to 9", but anyone who fires can subsequently be shot at from further. Presumably this is muzzle flash giving away your position. But if fire during Slow Actions in one round and then Dash or Jump Belt away in Quick Actions the next round, the muzzle flash argument seems laughable. It would make more sense if the targetability was for an amount of time, or limited by location, maybe. Maybe we're supposed to be assuming that until you fire no one knows you're there at all, and then once you've shot they're now looking for you? The rule works just fine for a solitaire mini game, I guess, but it seems a little illogical and wouldn't work for an RPG.

UPDATE: Checked with the game designer on his Discord. He says it's intended that muzzle flash reveals you for just 1 Round. 

Stunned K'Erin PCs get contradictory. They must move to brawl if within normal movement, per page 16. They can't initiate a brawl if stunned, per page 40. If attacked by other brawlers "the attacker receives" a bonus die. Stunned NPCs do not initiate brawls, per page 41. Maybe they move to base contact and remove a stun marker but don't actually roll for brawling? That would seem to fit the spirit of the instructions, so I guess that's what I'll do when next it comes up in play.

UPDATE: Checked with the game designer on Discord. He says if they start their activation stunned, K'Erin PCs don't have to to rush into a brawl. Their rage is momentarily pacified by the close call.

The Stubborn ability on the K'Erin Outlaws is a little unclear if they ignore just the first dead Enemy per Battle, or the first dead Enemy per Round. I'm going with round, as that seems more impactful.


Post-Battle:
 

Resolve Rival Status: - Having been properly bloodied, they do not decide to cause trouble for us in the future.

Determine Quest Progress: - Success! Our next Quest Mission will be the conclusion of this Quest. The information we wanted was on the datacrystal in the wrecked truck. I checked, and we do NOT have to change planets to conclude the Quest.
 

Get Paid and Benefits of Success: -  6 credits, and a roll on the Loot Table: Combat Armor!  (So if I get the other set fixed next Turn, I'll have two characters in this.)
 

Battlefield Finds: - Nothing! Wa-Waaa.
 

Gather the Loot: - Damaged Unity Battle Sight,  and a Damaged Seeker Sight


Experience:  G.0 H.3 I.4 J.3 K.4 L.4 M.3   - First Kill: - I    Rookie: K   Unique: L

 Purchase Items: - Handgun for The Kid

 Campaign Event: - During routine maintenance, the gravitational adjuster got knocked out of alignment. Your ship suffers 2 points of Hull Damage.

 Character Event: - The Kid asks Leonidas about manliness and danger and if its okay to be scared. Turns out, it is. They both gain 1 XP. I'm sure it makes for a memorable and very special episode of the TV show.


Tick Story Clock: - Clock is at Zero. Next Turn the first Story Track Event happens!