Eternal Lies - Saving the world at a cost (Significant Spoilers in final part)

 

After 48 sessions, our run through of the Trail of Cthulhu roleplaying game's Eternal Lies campaign came to an end. This was a journey we started in February 2021, and we had one hiatus during that flow. Sessions were all played out using Zoom, with character sheets on Google Docs. I mostly used Dice by pCalc and other folk used real dice. As a group we had a high degree of trust, having played together for a long time, and also knowing just how good a set of hands we were in with our GM, Rich. We're all GMs, and we all have a love for this kind of game and setting.

Inherently, there's no way I can write this without some degree of spoilers, so please be warned. That said, both Paul (my fellow player) and I had read the campaign before we played, but it didn't reduce the enjoyment and by the time we got the one of the big reveals we'd pretty much forgotten what it was. I'll flag when the big spoilers are going to land in the text below. 

Eternal Lies is an epic, sprawling campaign that travels from (in our case) the area around New York. to Savannah, Georgia, to LA, and then on to Mexico, Malta, Ethiopia (Abyssinia), Thailand (Siam), and Tibet. It is purist noir in style (the horror is genuinely bleak and terrifying) but we found ourselves having to adopt a pulp approach in some situations to get through, partly has we had two players. Although Gumshoe's investigative and general abilities scale reasonably well to a party size of two, the physical pools (health, athletics, fighting skills) are a little less well scaled, probably as we (as players) focused on getting hold of as many skills to investigate with as we could.

The ending came about a fortnight ago, but I didn't feel up to writing this post until now, as the ending came with a sting in the tail. It all happened in character and was incredibly good, but I - and I think Paul - were left feeling somewhat shocked. It was a stark reminder of why we use dice to randomise outcomes, and how they can flavour the feeling of the game. We'd had so many lucky escapes in the past, but this time it wasn't to be, despite us trying to stack the odds as much as we could in our favour.

Playing the game

I've mentioned to tools we used above, but it's probably worth discussing how the sessions and campaign played out. Our sessions were nominally 1945 through to about 2215 in an evening, so around two and a half hours. In practice, we usually played for around two hours as real life tended to mean that one or other of us arrived around 8pm. We didn't have a set day for the game, and organised ad hoc each time we met. I've played at home, from hotels and outside in the garden. Because we used Zoom rather than a VTT, it meant it was as easy to use my iPad as my MacBook. It kept you very focused on the other people in the game.

We tended to play through a chapter, then have a break for Rich to plan the next steps, then go again. There was a period in 2022 when things got a bit hairy, and twice Paul and I managed to have real life things mean we both missed the same day and told Rich late, and the game went on pause for a bit. I'm so pleased that we returned to it. 

The best campaign reference point I could give is Chaosium's Masks of Nyarlathotep (which I've part run twice), but that is much more epic pulp. This was epic noir for me. The flavour of each chapter was very different, and shades of other genres seeped in. Savannah felt Southern Gothic, LA terribly impersonal like you could be chewed up and spat out, and you could feel the heat as we headed out into the desert in Ethiopia to the hottest place on earth.

Having two players made it very intense, but it was one of the best roleplaying experiences that I've had. Paul had an antiques dealer called Ben, and I had a reporter turned society wife called Lotte, a refugee from Nazi Germany.

Our characters became Yin and Yang, and fiercely protective about each other. I think that there was probably a degree of love that built, but didn't really go anywhere because Lotte was married (albeit the events of the campaign were forcing that relationship into slow path of self-destruction) and Ben was too much of a gentleman. It would have been interesting to have seen how the fast forward scenes at the end may have changed if Lotte had survived the climax of the scenario.

Yes, Lotte died. Off screen. Quietly. In the company of someone she detested yet realised was as much a victim as a villain. 

The campaign is epic and sprawling with a huge number of clues and connections to be made. Gumshoe gives you the clues but you need to piece it together. I started by using Miro (Scapple as out as this was the period when I was using a Chromebook before I returned to macOS) but I rapidly realised that this was becoming too complex to map out easily so I reverted to taking just taking notes on my reMarkable. Looking at the app version as I write this, I have 105 pages of notes, some of it a travelogue, and some of it an attempt to make connections. 

In the last three chapters of the game (Thailand, India, the return home) both Paul and I extensively went back through our notes, as if our characters were going over the case. We were searching back to the start of the campaign to find out what we had missed. It was there, but there was real route back to it until we learned some things later on and made connections. On reflection, part of me wishes that I had continued to use Miro, but by the time I had those regrets it was too late (especially as I accidentally erased the shown flow above).

I'll move into spoiler territory following the next picture, be warned. 

 

The story.

From the start, the campaign doesn't pull any punches. We saw creeping horror and the consequences of becoming involved in this story in Savannah when we met people whose minds had been broken by the previous attempt to stop what was happening, including a mathematically gifted cultist. We were attacked on a road as we tried to leave by a group of Asian men whose significance we only realised when we reach Thailand.

This immediately made our characters realise that there was more to this than the simple challenge of 'find out what happened to my father and why he changed' that our patron, a Chemical Industry Magnate called Janet Winston-Rodgers had set us.

Los Angeles followed. We moved from the heat and languid humidity of the South to a clearer, sunnier place, but the horror was there just as much, touching into the glamour of Hollywood and corrupting it with sex and drugs. Lotte came very close to dying when a hoodlum was waiting for her with a gun in her hotel room (Gumshoe's point blank gun rules are pretty brutal if you're at their mercy). This prompted a change in her, a hardening and reversion of her character into what she used to be. Ben saw something horrifying and corrupting that wouldn't leave him. We found paths on across the world, and realised that something very big was happening. We met people with regrets and half stories. We killed for the first time, in defence, but it was a line passed.

Well, the sensible thing would have been to walk away, but with characters that have drives of curiosity and duty, we couldn't. 

Mexico City initially felt a bit like LA but more Latin America. This heat and light shifted again in my head from the descriptions Rich gave as our aircraft landed and we headed into town. We were tailed by a local private detective who later joined us (for a brief spell, we had a third player, Nigel, but health and the challenges of slipping into such an established game meant he dropped back out). A break in and search of an apartment again found traces of occultism and then were were horrifically attacked by birds. That was pretty terrifying. Shades of Hitchcock but worse.

We had confrontations with gangsters, as we discovered that a new drug being sold was intimately linked to this cult we had discovered, and then we saw the costs on those that embraced this icky decadent corruption. And killed again. 

We ended up in the Yucatan peninsula, not knowing who to trust, but finding an ancient religion, betrayal and hypergeometry. No, that's not the term that the scenario or Trail of Cthulhu used, but my character started with science education and it felt apt for a gate between space and time. I've loved the way that Delta Green uses that kind of terminology for years. We met an entity/god that told us the name of our enemy, Y******c. We had little reason to doubt the truth of this, but remained skeptical. We nearly died, several times. Someone tried to bomb our aircraft too. 

Returning to Boston and New York, we were faced with decisions. Lotte realised that she could lose her marriage if she continued with this. Her husband, Jack, wasn't taking it well that she was travelling the world with another man. What would it look like. But the need to follow the story consumed her.

Getting home showed what could be lost. Ben faced similar challenges.

We took a liner across the Atlantic to Liverpool, then a train to London. Ben looked up the entity that we had met at the British Library, I followed up details of the contact that we were looking for. Another liner to Sicily, then a ferry to Valletta in Malta. A photo for posterity of the two of us as we arrived. Lotte was ill when we arrived for a few days*, but it didn't stop us trying to find our path. Ben sketched details of what we saw, as he often did, and Lotte used her Leica to take a record. Both had journals that left details of what they'd found and both had left photographed copies with Janet Winston-Rodgers. 

*There was a point when I was toying for Lotte to have become pregnant with Jack when they met up but events ensued and I never really followed that through. However, as the time between the next few chapters isn't huge, she could have been pregnant when we came to the end game. 

We tail the suspect to his wife's tomb and find his child in hospital. We meet a Knight Templar, dedicate to fighting an entity called N***********. For some time we wonder if this is the entity that the cult is actual worshiping as we remained skeptical. A journey through catacombs underneath the city, and Lotte ends up with a ritual to open a hyperspace gate installed in her head after an encounter. Her mind becomes increasingly addicted to connecting these lines in her head to the hypergeometric principles she me before. If she ever does, a gate will open.

We destroy the cult's warehouse and source of the drug, at cost. Both of us get shot. We capture the person of interest and interrogate him. We realise the source of the drug is still there so return with dynamite. Ben feeds a thug with explosives into the source, narrowly escaping being consumed himself. We escape, scarred, scared and injured and the Knight Templar heals us although Ben does need a hospital. We let the person of interest live, hoping he will focus on his son, but partly fearing the worst.

We take a ship from Malta to Alexandria, where we spend some time recovering and studying. We discover that the potential contact in Ethiopia (Abyssinia) is likely at the hottest place on earth, Dallol. It also has a volcano that erupted in 1926. We take a boat through the Suez Canal to Abyssinia and disembark. The place is full of Italian troops and we pretend to be Spanish. We spend a night at the Hotel Internationale posing as a couple, sharing a bed but not touching each other. Lotte finds herself regretting that the day after but not saying anything to Ben. Transport is secured with an Italian NCO, and we meet an archaeologist who was involved in the earlier expedition, which the volcano destroyed.

A Dhow to Mersa Fatma, more photos. It was a potash port but mostly the trade is gone. We take a train to the end of the line, having found out that the professor we seek still lives. The railway hasn't run in years but we persuade the owners to let us use it, and get attacked on the way by raiders. We meet a native whose people have focused on containing what the expedition disturbed. There are suggestions they cause the eruption. We travel to the village and beyond to Dallol. Ben is not himself; Lotte doesn't know it but the connection that he has established to the entity is playing out. What we see there is best not repeated, but we have to turn back as we realise that the two of us cannot solve what we see here. The brutal heat, the beating sun just drains the life from the place and us. This is not a place for humanity.

Another boat, this time to Aden. Ben meets a strange old man who gives him and book and tells him "G*******h is a buffoon". That was the name of the entity that told us of our opponent. Passage booked five days hence. Ben reads the book. Horrific images. Lotte starts to doubt Benjamin. We burn the book and it corrupts the very room we are in. We sleep together again, but nothing happens.  On the boat to Siam, we see the Mexican who joined us. He has drowned. He wasn't really there. Was he?

Arriving in Siam (Thailand) we are met by a guide, arranged by our patron. We break into the house of the contact we know and find evidence of the cult, albeit with a slightly different form. The contact arrives home and we interrogate and intimidate him. We arrange to meet the head of the local organisation. I reach out to an old friend who lives here; Charles "Charlie Boy" Pierce. He gives us a safe haven. We head into the labyrinth around the club we are to meet at. Rich gives us a fantastic impression of the complexity, noise and feel of the area; I am lost before I know it. 

It's a fight club. We realise our contact has betrayed us, and we are taken behind, stripped and searched. Ben is beaten unconscious, Lotte pretends to faint, but is then drugged.

...

We wake, alone, naked in sandy pits with grates above to the sound of the sea and clear skies. Ben escapes, and manages to free Lotte. We find our clothes and items, including weapons. There's an old woman on a porch in a house on this island. She seems broken but we cannot speak Thai. At least, we think it's Thai. We realise we are being hunted. Our contact kept his promise, in a way. The woman were were to meet is here, but she has changed and is hunting us. We will be the menu.

Ben acts as the sacrificial lamb, just outside the library in the house. I shoot her in the back of the head. Ben makes sure she is dead. We burn the body.

...

We are on an Island in the Indian Ocean, the mainland of Siam isn't far off. 

Time is strange here and Lotte starts to obsess about Ben as he tries to build a boat, topless. There's a raw hunger here. Is it sexual? Is it cannibalistic? 

Lotte reads the tomes in the library. We need to go to Tibet, to a sacred mountain no-one has climbed. There are hints at N*********** again, and claims there is a lie at the heart of the ritual. Lotte skims a book called 'The Revelations of Glaaki', which points at 'Y*******'. There's more. The ritual was multilayered. Not everything was clear. Possibly the cult leader was the only one who knew what was happening.

...

Charlie Boy arrives in a boat and rescues us. He brought a policeman. We suspect him initially, but it seems genuine that he found out where we'd been taken. He translates the woman's notes. Ben sleeps on the couch. Lotte sleeps in the spare room. The notes reveal more doubts.

We return to our initial contact's house, toss a coin, and Ben shoots him dead. Lotte and Ben go for a meal as we are done here. The cult organisation is broken and there is no way we can practically get to the source of the drug here. On balance, more of a win than a loss. 

Then we leave for Tibet, via India. We aren't who we were. Lotte doubts that a return to normality is possible, even if we succeed.

We arrived in Calcutta and send letters home. Plus a set of films that have been developed with our journal notes in. We get first class train tickets to Delhi. Lotte feels strangely detached from the bustle, colours and noise of India. There's a focus here, find a guide, get to the mountain. We know that a team from Siam came here, climbed but couldn't find what they wanted. They came at the wrong time...

The only guide who will help us is a drunken man, broken by his past. 

We drive slowly through the countryside, but somehow the pressing deadline of getting there when the stars are right takes away all the curiosity and joy that we'd get from this pilgrim tale. Time presses. We reach the mountain, and the holy lake at the bottom. We all have a moment, bathing in the lake. For Lotte, it's a moment of peace, memories of hope and lightness. For Ben, it's a return of his curiosity and sense of beauty and wonder. Our guide finds his way again, turning from the addiction and rejection of life that his lost family triggered. He can go no more with us, just gives us advice, and we prepare for the climb ourselves.

We slip off the path early the next morning, loosing the rest of the pilgrims as we prepare to trespass on the mountain. The climb is arduous, but Lotte's experience of climbing and trekking from her youth helps, along with the advice she soaked up from our guide. As we reach to top, the earth moves, shaking as if to register the sacrilege.

We see signs of Y*******, and then face an awakening vision. Ben sees his sister betraying him with his rival, running his shop. His rival kills his sister. Lotte sees her husband Jack throw himself off a skyscraper in a geometrically wrong - and yet so right - New York.

A ravine opens and the scent of the drug wafts up, carried on an unnatural heat haze. We start to abseil down, but Lotte slips, only saved by Ben's second rope that she'd almost chided him for insisting on because they were hurrying. We are attacked, and fall. The spell is triggered to summon G*******. Toad-like it manifests, in shards of glass. Lotte falls to her knees and time stops.

The pretender is vanquished but the gaze of another has turned upon the world, a ritual worked through, and G******* flees. The earthquake starts again, Lotte freezes. Ben runs. Then falls. Awakens, looks for Lotte.

Back on the mountain summit. a strange sickly green tinted aurora covers the sky. Ashes begin to fall. Ben finds Lotte's hand buried in rubble, rescues her and somehow revives her. Was it the coffee from the campaign stove? We descend safely.

Below, chaos reigns. Dead pilgrims. Violence. Ashfall. Ben and Lotte at the end of the world.

We dream badly as we struggle back towards home, we see bad things happening at home. There is panic. There is violence. Unnatural lightning strikes. We manage to get a boat down river and then a ship that will take us across the Pacific to Long Beach, California. The journey is fraught.

Los Angeles is quiet, deserted streets, echoing to distance sounds of gunfire. Bodies and abandoned cars lie in the streets. We make it to mansion of the man who led what was left of the Hollywood sex and drugs rituals. We find him dead by his own hand, and the aspects of Y****** that had manifested ossified. We find a painting that we'd remembered while on the mountain top. It matches what we saw.  The library lets us know that the world is going to end. A paired ritual was cast. The mathematician in Savannah was the key; the focus of the coming apocalypse was him. 

Our patron does not answer calls, and nor do our family members.

We steal a small aircraft and Lotte flies low across America, heading for Savannah. Ben guides using a road map as we follow the interstates. Somehow we get there and land.

It's worse and we can feel the Gaze. Lightning, refugees, bodies. Things slipping through the angles of reality. We'd dosed on iodine, and covered with sunglasses and scarves against the radiation. In an old truck we finally reach the burned out Joy Grove Sanatorium. The mathematician is within, the last of the nurses describing him as 'Satan himself' before she died with a mercy killing from Lotte.

We find him in the operating theatre. Insane with understanding what has been done to him. Wanting revenge on the world. We need him beyond it to avert the Gaze and what will follow. He can't be convinced. He is terrified about going to a dark, cold, lonely place. Arguments failing, Lotte offers to go with him because he can only cross the gate willingly. Ben plans to grab her as the other steps though, but fails, left with the ghost of a hand fading away and a cry of "I need her more than you" from the mathematician.

Lotte, mind blasted, finds herself in the landscape of the painting. Cold, desolate, alone with a madman who reveals he cannot die. She will. There is no hope of recovering enough of herself to reopen the hyperspace gate. She can still grasp the theory but her will and resolve are gone.

Ben considers ending it all but realises that Lotte will kill him if he did.

...

A month later, Ben has talked to Jack, who hung up on him. There are food shortages, but perhaps normality will return. He survives day-to-day by himself.

...

A year later, he is still isolated from society, working as a gas-pump attendant. He is staying away, not reconnecting with his past life. He's trying to make sense of the notes so he can publish the story that initially motivated Lotte. Returning to his room, he finds Lotte's compact mirror on his side table. He looks around, calls out for her, but nothing. He opens it, looks at himself and cries, breaking down.

...

A decade later, he is back in New York, running his business again. The story has been published as a piece of genre fiction. He has told Janet Winston-Rodgers what happened. 

Reflections

The ending was bitter-sweet. Paul had to roll a '9' for Ben to grab Lotte on a D6. That may sound crazy, but he had enough adds left to give the roll a +7 modifier, which meant that he could only fail on a '1'.

He rolled a '1'. He later said that for a moment he considered cheating.

I'm glad he didn't. Although this stunned and shocked us, I think that it felt apt. Lotte should have died on the mountain top, but Ben just managed to save her. She followed her drive of Duty to the end. Between them, they both cheated death many times. It was a victory at a cost, a cost that both of them were always willing to pay.

Apparently, we were one argument away from convincing the mathematician to step through the gate on his own, but at the point Lotte made her offer I could see no other way.

This is the best mythos campaign I have ever played or run. The beauty is that the mythos is on the edge, never front and centre. It was easy to separate player and character knowledge. The NPCs and locations felt very real, and very different. It felt lived in and dangerous. There were moments of beauty.

Playing as a duo enhanced this. It probably meant that when Nigel joined us for a while, it was hard for him to break into the game. By the end, we knew how each of our characters would reach. I loved the hint of tension between them; something I doubt that either would act on, but it felt real. 

I'm missing the campaign, but so glad that I played it. Thank you Rich and Paul!

The End?

21 June 2025

  

Traveller - The Jägermeister Adventure - Ep 2 - Hunting around Star Town! (Spoilers, AI)

Last night we had the second play session of the Jägermeister Adventure, a short bounty hunter campaign for Traveller from Moon Toad Publishing. I was away with work, but planned to run from my hotel room. Unfortunately, there were complications.

Characters.

Saul Emzer (Graham) - the only professional bounty hunter in the group, a guild member well aware of his own shortcomings. Saul knows his aptitude is the down and dirty part of the missions. He isn't the brains, and he certainly can't fly a ship, but when the trouble goes down, he's a man of action, and of stealth when needed. Saul has brought the rest of the team together to support him and fill out the skill gaps. He doesn't like to think of himself as the leader, but he's the one with the official guild membership. He's made some big scores in the past.

Gibert Chang (Andy) - hailing from the Meriden system's Harmony habitat, the home of an obscure religious sect, Gilbert sought freedom by joining the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service. He grew up with good understanding of space construction and has supplemented this with a wide range of technical skills, becoming a professional spacer. He describes himself as the potential getaway driver, but is officially the ship's engineer,  and he comes with a broad (but not deep) range of experience and a well-used but cared for vacuum suit called Nadia.

Arturo "Lucky" Javed - Lucky's life has been a lot of ups and downs, probably more of the latter than the former. He aspired to be an intelligent agent but was kicked out of that career early on following a serious injury. He then took to a life of petty crime, struggling to make do and stay out of trouble. Eventually, a role came up on a Merchant vessel, but he kept his hand in with the underworld to try and make some money on the side. He knows Gil of old following a job that went sideways. Lucky is the one who is likely to make contact with any criminal elements that the group may need to deal with.

Pen Gata (Neil) - has spent his life in space, with a broad range of spacer skills that means he's the pilot and astrogator. Once again, he's a broad specialist rather than a deep expert. (The character was built with package generation so has a less developed life path).

The Jägermeister - a 100dT Jump-2 streamlined courier capable of 6G thrust, the ship is also their home and Assured Courier's GmbH's main asset. The crew mostly live aboard, as it's a lot more pleasant than the desert world of Ikeran where they're officially based (and have a rented office). The ship is usually located in one of the downport's long-term parkways. She's armed with a single triple turret with beam lasers and a missile rack. 

Session notes.

I was well prepared for the session, having read both of the first two episodes in the campaign and made sure the assets were set up on Roll20. I'd planned to run for perhaps two and a half hours, but we ended up only playing for a single hour thanks to the ropey internet at the hotel. 

Unfortunately, I was booked into a different hotel than usual, and the end result was that the connection kept on dropping out, which is not a good thing. Everyone was there, but I felt like I was mostly absent. We managed to play enough to close out the remaining threads in the first part of the campaign, but I called a close when I realised it probably wasn't going to get any better. We switched to Discord midway through, which meant I had to splice two recordings together for the session for Tabletop Audio. Unfortunately, Discord didn't solve the problem.

Some great roleplaying and analysis from the players, a lot of which I missed.

Next section is from Tabletop Recorder. The tech issues mean that it mostly lost track of names for the characters and the summary is written from the perspective of the group. However, it's a pretty fair summary of what went on.

Summary of the Session (lightly edited AI synthesis of the transcript).

In the fervor of their second session, our intrepid adventurers delved deeper into the complex quandary surrounding Edric Voss, a scheming fugitive whose plots led them on a chase across the galaxy. The Grand Library of Kahn, wronged by Voss's theft, employed the party to track him down, leading them to the bustling hubs of Ikeran in the mysterious byways of Star Town.

The clues were convoluted, with Voss's movements cryptic, picking up various items – potentially as decoys or essential to his unknown endeavors. A suspect was marked to have assisted Voss, inciting desires of revenge and legality among the party, though concrete actions on this front were still pending. Utilizing advanced disguise drugs, Voss had manipulated his appearance, complicating the pursuit further. Only through skilled medical analysis, provided by the expedition's resourceful medic (Pen), the group ascertained the nature of these cosmetic subterfuges, though their results remained uncertain and impermanent.

Amidst technical surveillance strategizing and considering various pathways, the team contemplated the implications of Voss's choices of transport—was it the liner he arrived on - The Angel of Kahn - or the Free Trader he'd bought the ticket for that he planned to exit with. Debates unfolded on whether to intercept the fugitive at his alleged hotel hideout or at the spaceport, musing over the potentiality of him misleading them with false leads. What they did know was that the liner was leaving that evening, and the Free Trader in two days time.

Finesse and strategy filled their planning, considering the interactions with legal authorities, the use of deception or coercion with the liner's captain, and even the extreme measure of a bomb threat to delay departures. The risk of confronting an altered Voss and the implications of his potential destinations – possibly hinting at his allegiances or intentions – peppered their discourse.

Real-time decisions took on urgency as their quarry's departure loomed imminent. The crew struggled against time and bureaucracy, wrestling with the options of false alarms to delay the liner, negotiating under pretenses of greater security, and deciding on the lawful path to follow depending on intergalactic jurisdictions and ethical margins.

Each step offered a myriad of possibilities, with the stakes high and the pathways muddled with legalese and the pressure of fleeting time. In the end, the resolution remained uncertain, their moves shaping future encounters and potentially steering the fate of the pursuit. With cautious optimism and a readiness to adapt, the party closed another chapter of their galactic odyssey, ready to face the unfolding cosmos with resilience and keen wit.

In a bustling session filled with strategic manoeuvring and technical huddles, our valiant adventurers continue their relentless pursuit of the elusive Edric Voss. The party, divided in their tasks, finds themselves entangled in a mix of virtual and physical hurdles.

As the session recommenced after changing to Discord, the Referee sets the scene with Pen, a diligent member of the crew, racing on an e-scooter along the starport as the massive liner, The Angel of Kahn, soars into the boundless skies, leaving a sonic boom in its wake. The rest of the team, stationed around the town,  decides to scrutinize a hotel where Voss was suspected to have stayed. 

As they consider their approach to uncovering Voss's room, they contemplate whether to sneak in or acquire permission. Opting for legitimacy, they approach the hotel’s reception, leveraging their semi-official status. Information about Voss's stay remains elusive, and further conversation reveals that Voss skillfully booked the room under a different identity, complicating their search.

Upon convincing the nervous hotel clerk and obtaining a key card inadvertently dropped, the group makes their way stealthily to the suspected room. They discover telltale signs of rapid and strategic use of the space - a used disguise kit and hair dye in the sink, but no personal belongings indicating a hasty exit. The window lock unscrewed suggests Voss might have slipped out unnoticed.

Determined, the adventurers comb through the room but find no additional evidence of Voss’s whereabouts or intentions. The discovery that the window had been tampered to allow an inconspicuous escape aligns with their theory that Voss has potentially shifted his disguise and location. Their investigation at the hotel concludes with suspicions but no concrete results about Voss’s current whereabouts.

The session transitions to discussing the necessity of tailing Voss’s next anticipated move, possibly involving heading towards Bulari, the Angel of Kahn's next stop, before he can further obfuscate his trail. The realization dawns that these minor clues pile up to a broader picture of a cunning adversary continually staying a few steps ahead.

Ending due to uncertain connectivity and plans to regroup, the players coordinate their next meeting, hopeful that refreshed strategies and improved logistics will aid them in their galactic chase in the next session. The adventure’s complexity thickens, woven with the threads of urgency and the elusive nature of their quarry, leaving our heroes poised on the brink of pivotal decisions. 

Fortunately, Pen has prepared the Jägermeister for fight, and they plan to race and try to get ahead of the Angel of Kahn.

18 June 2025

Traveller - The Jägermeister Adventure - Ep1 - Chasing the Librarian (Spoilers, AI)

Last night we had the first play session of the Jägermeister Adventure, a short bounty hunter campaign for Traveller from Moon Toad Publishing. We'd had a separate session zero where characters had been generated. We were using Roll20 with the integrated Traveller compendium and the official Mongoose sheets. I was recording the audio as part of an ongoing test to see how Tabletop Recorder works, hence the AI warning above as the summary at the end of the post is drawn from that test.

Characters.

Saul Emzer (Graham) - the only professional bounty hunter in the group, a guild member well aware of his own shortcomings. Saul knows his aptitude is the down and dirty part of the missions. He isn't the brains, and he certainly can't fly a ship, but when the trouble goes down, he's a man of action, and of stealth when needed. Saul has brought the rest of the team together to support him and fill out the skill gaps. He doesn't like to think of himself as the leader, but he's the one with the official guild membership. He's made some big scores in the past.

Gibert Chang (Andy) - hailing from the Meriden system's Harmony habitat, the home of an obscure religious sect, Gilbert sought freedom by joining the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service. He grew up with good understanding of space construction and has supplemented this with a wide range of technical skills, becoming a professional spacer. He describes himself as the potential getaway driver, but is officially the ship's engineer,  and he comes with a broad (but not deep) range of experience and a well-used but cared for vacuum suit called Nadia.

Arturo "Lucky" Javed - Lucky's life has been a lot of ups and downs, probably more of the latter than the former. He aspired to be an intelligent agent but was kicked out of that career early on following a serious injury. He then took to a life of petty crime, struggling to make do and stay out of trouble. Eventually, a role came up on a Merchant vessel, but he kept his hand in with the underworld to try and make some money on the side. He knows Gil of old following a job that went sideways. Lucky is the one who is likely to make contact with any criminal elements that the group may need to deal with.

Pen Gata (Neil) - has spent his life in space, with a broad range of spacer skills that means he's the pilot and astrogator. Once again, he's a broad specialist rather than a deep expert. (The character was built with package generation so has a less developed life path).

The Jägermeister - a 100dT Jump-2 streamlined courier capable of 6G thrust, the ship is also their home and Assured Courier's GmbH's main asset. The crew mostly live aboard, as it's a lot more pleasant than the desert world of Ikeran where they're officially based (and have a rented office). The ship is usually located in one of the downport's long-term parkways. She's armed with a single triple turret with beam lasers and a missile rack. 

Session notes.

This was a little rushed for me. I had to be in London for work and the train was delayed on the way back (stuck behind another train that had issues). I did re-read the scenario on my iPad, but I was very conscious that I was late to my own party. Fortunately, Graham let the others know that we'd be starting around 20:30 not 20:00.

Roll20 behaved, as did Audio Hijack, although there was an annoying fractional lag for me with my voice coming out of the speakers a fraction of a second after I said it out loud. Need to work that one out a bit more.

Tabletop Recorder seemed to work well. The language it generated is a bit flowery for me, but there's a decent summary and the transcript is accurate. It did get confused and decided that Graham was a character along with Saul. The summary below is only very lightly edited.

The session is the opener for the campaign. The characters end up in pursuit of Edric Voss, a wanted former librarian from the Grand Imperial Library on Kahn. A scramble across the starport and Star Town followed, with each of the characters leaning into their own skills. The session should have been doable had we had the full time, but we cut it with a choice of investigating the hotel were Voss may be or checking out the Liner he'd arrived on.

This episode needed some extra preparation up front. I ended up taking the Ikeran Down star town map and annotating the PDF on my reMarkable with all the location names. I also had to sort out some numbering gaps for the buildings (ie no purpose) which included making some closed businesses or relocated ones. Finally, I sketched out the route that Edric Voss would take through town and made a note of the likely times he'd be at each location.

The challenge with this episode is that it is designed to play out as a chase; there's every risk that the players could end up feeling frustrated if it isn't done right as this is an opener. There is some proper investigation to be done, and overall they did really well, but the prize isn't Voss at this time. This is the hook.

Next section is from Tabletop Recorder. It's a bit flowery for me, but it does give a decent feel for the session.

Summary of the Session (lightly edited AI synthesis of the transcript).

Deep within the cosmic tendrils of the Ikeran system, aboard the Jägermeister, our band of spacefarers prepped for the unknown. Gil, a man whose youth among the stars birthed a habit of meticulous precaution, roamed the vessel's corridors, checklist in hand, ensuring every bolt, panel, and system was locked, loaded, and logged. His method, the Point-and-Call system, might have grated on his crewmates' nerves, but efficiency was a sacrifice none could afford to scorn. 

Meanwhile, Saul was busy personalizing his stateroom, an arsenal of varied weapons neatly mounted on the wall, his treasured real potted plant placed just so, creating a small sanctuary amid the sterility of space. With his expertise leaning more towards terrestrial tactics than celestial navigation, Saul busied himself with essentials like scouting the whiskey reserves and ship exits. 

Arturo, not quite as productive, found himself lost in the digital sea of local celebrity gossip, an amusing though admittedly unprofitable way to pass time. Far from his realm lay the intricate mechanics that Pen, the hired engineer, checked with devout concentration, ensuring the ship remained a bastion of readiness, prepared at a moment’s notice to leap across the starlit void. 

The symphony of their tasks was underscored by the Gregorian chants favored by Gil, a choice that set the ship’s ambient mood somewhere between solemnity and reverence. But peace was punctuated by the chime of a new bounty notification on the ship’s AI. Saul, somewhat reluctantly positioned as the makeshift captain, and Arturo were the first to glimpse the alert through the complex web of the ship's terminals. The bounty? Edric Voss, a librarian wanted for absconding with priceless data from the Grand Imperial Kahn Library. The price on his head was hefty, promising a handsome payout of 500,000 credits, with a potential bonus if the data returned remained pristine and unaccessed. 

The crew weighed the dangers against the financial windfall. Gil pondered the librarian's capability for danger, while Saul entertained the bounty’s challenges with a mix of excitement and tactical forethought. Pen and Arturo speculated on Edric's potential routes and hideouts, considering the capabilities of interstellar transit and the archives' influential reach. 

As they deliberated, they navigated the layers of information, piecing together Edric's last known movements and the intricate politics at play, uncovering a tapestry of celestial intrigue and high stakes that extended beyond the confines of their ship and into the dark, starry yonder. Each brought their unique perspective, skills, and quirks to the table, assembling a plan, not just to capture a rogue librarian, but to possibly unravel a cosmic mystery that could set them against the very stars themselves. 

In the bustling confines of the Jagermeister, the crew deliberated on the whereabouts of Edric Voss, the elusive librarian with a bounty on his head. Saul mused over the various ships Edric could have taken, to which Arturo agreed, pondering why he was particularly fixated on the Angel of Kahn. Gil, ever the strategist, opined that Edric was likely not aboard any ship they suspected, including their own. Pen confirmed with assurance that a stowaway would have been noticed given Gil's thorough checks. This triggered a deeper analysis of their situation. Amid discussions, Pen took on the task of verifying ships logs, gleaning that no jump-capable vessels had arrived since the warrant's issuance — this narrowed down their options and provided a clearer direction. Saul suggested the potential of searching a recently arrived liner, theorizing that Edric could be aboard or possibly heading to Minerva, known for its discreet ports and shadow markets. 

While Gil delved into the bounty's data packet, Arturo raised the importance of understanding what Edric potentially stole. The type of data could reveal the likely buyers: would they be weapon manufacturers, political brokers, or scientific entities? Gil proposed that the data might contain compromising material on someone from the aristocracy. 

As the crew formulated their approach, an unexpected sonic boom signaled a new vessel's arrival. Could it be carrying Edric? Gil, while examining the library data, suggested that if they understood what motivated Edric's theft, it might guide them more accurately towards his whereabouts. 

With the assumption that Edric was disguised, Saul communicated with starport authorities using his contacts. He aimed to access passenger manifests and surveillance footage to identify anyone matching Edric's description. However, ensuring discreet operations, he opted for tactical stunners over lethal weapons, anticipating close quarters interaction should Edric be found in a crowd. 

Through their competent teamwork and the blend of each member's expertise — from Gil's methodical data analysis to Saul's street-wise interactions and Pen's sharp piloting skills — the crew of the Jägermeister closed in on the fugitive librarian, their minds as sharp as their resolve in the vast and unforgiving cosmos. This meticulous pursuit through both digital landscapes and physical realms accentuated the blend of intrigue and adventure that awaited them at every turn of their cosmic journey. 

In the bustling starport, Saul and his crew strategize their next steps in pursuit of the elusive Edric. Pen offers his driving skills, referring humorously to his potential recklessness, sparking a light banter among the crew. Pen and Saul opt to utilize the scanning system at the starport, comparing incoming passengers to their target's description, hoping to spot Edric discreetly blending in. 

Gil, tucked away behind his screens, assists remotely, navigating systems and offering tactical guidance, suggesting Saul and Pen might have better luck scrutinizing new arrivals from an overlook. This digital vigilance pays off, and through the surveillance feeds, Saul spots an individual matching their target's description, draped in a distinctive long black coat. Eager to pursue, they take their air/raft, a flying vehicle, with Pen at the helm despite his self-professed lack of driving finesse. 

A high-speed chase ensues through the dusty, pressurized streets of the frontier-like Star Town, with Arturo monitoring from the starport. Gil, keen on precision, assesses and plans behind the scenes, messaging tactical suggestions as the pursuit intensifies. Saul, ready for confrontation, mistakenly confronts a decoy, a local draped in the same black coat as Edric, who reveals he was paid to misdirect pursuers. 

Chagrined but undeterred, Saul and his team regroup, sifting through further surveillance to pick up the trail. Arturo spots Edric boarding a shuttle bus to Star Town in a lighter, reversible jacket – a clue to his intentional misdirection. This discovery narrows their focus to Star Town, leading Saul, guided by Gil's tactical insights and Pen's logistical support, to continue their hunt on the bustling, arid streets, pivoting their strategy towards stealth and deduction in the urban sprawl. 

The team's coordination, blending ground operations with strategic surveillance, reflects their adaptability and the high stakes of their cosmic chase. They grapple with the deceptive and elusive tactics of their quarry, each member playing a pivotal role in the thickening plot, navigating through layers of deception to stay hot on Edric's trail in a challenging and unpredictable environment. In the bustling starport of Star Town, the crew of the Jagermeister, led by Saul, had their hands full. After discussing their pursuit of Edric Voss and identifying their roles, the crew ventured forth with distinct tasks at hand. Gil, trusting his religious upbringing, opted to visit the Lady Luck Chapel, while Pen subtly observed the locale from a nearby bar. Meanwhile, Saul and Arturo energetically navigated the crowded streets and businesses, striving to gather any information that could lead them to their elusive quarry, Edric. 

The crew, working collaboratively, strategized their next moves in precision. Saul and Arturo, adept in their familiar domain, employed their investigative instincts and street savvy to trace Edric's steps, discovering his attempts to veil his movements through various changes in appearance and travel plans. 

Their investigation revealed Edric's clever strategies, noting his hire of an e-scooter, alterations in attire, and even a booked high-passage trip on a ship leaving in two days, possibly as a decoy. The team's persistence paid off as they gathered crucial leads from local businesses and surveillance, all the while pondering the broader implications of the secrets Edric harbored and the motives behind his actions. 

This cosmic game of cat and mouse intensified as the crew pieced together Edric's trail, navigating through the chaotic waves of the starport's society and industry. Each member leveraged their unique abilities, tapping into local contacts and digital networks to close in on the target. The expedition through Star Town was not just a chase but a complex operation requiring finesse and guile, drawing upon the profound capabilities and sharp wits of Saul, Arturo, Gil, and Pen. As the pursuit continued, the mysteries surrounding Edric Voss slowly unraveled, offering glimpses into what could be a much larger and possibly dangerous revelation. 

In the bustling atmosphere of Star Town's starport, Saul and the clerk at 'We Will Fix You' have a vital exchange about Edric Voss, the elusive target of their pursuit. Saul, carefully considering the cost, agrees to a payment of 100 credits to gather more details on Edric's plans and whereabouts. The payment equates to the potential benefit they could gain from the crucial information. 

Saul finds out that Edric has procured a sophisticated disguise kit from a local shop—this kit includes potions and gadgets for altering skin tone, hair color, and even eye color without undergoing cosmetic surgery. Despite its legality, the existence of such a pre-packaged kit is concerning due to its potential use in evading facial recognition systems. The kit is popular at fancy dress parties, emphasizing its effectiveness in changing a person's appearance significantly. 

The conversation turns strategic as Gil analyzes the implications of Edric's purchases. They know he's trying to change his appearance, but crucially, Arturo observes that his biometric data remains unchanged, implying that despite cosmetic alterations, features related to his biological makeup, like DNA and fingerprints, remain the same. This information is crucial since, as long as biometric security measures are involved, Edric's real identity can still be confirmed. 

Pen, contributing to the team's analysis, ponders the practicality of Edric's actions, considering the extensive measures he has taken to disguise his identity and movement, including booking a high-passage trip under his own name, a move that might be intended to mislead or misdirect them. 

The team learns that Edric has also visited various other establishments for additional resources - business centers, scooter rentals, and clothing stores, suggesting he is preparing for complex travel plans or further disguise. They weigh the possibility that Edric might use his altered appearance strategically while retaining his original ID for specific purposes, deepening the mystery surrounding his endgame. 

As the session winds down, the crew decides to focus their investigation on two main leads: the hotel where Edric booked a room and the potential use of the high-passage liner. They acknowledge the challenge ahead, recognizing that while they have pieced together significant insights into Edric's tactics, his next moves remain unpredictable. 

The discussion closes with plans to reconvene the following week, leaving the crew poised on the edge of a crucial breakthrough in their high-stakes spacefaring chase. As they part, they agree to discuss their next steps online, ensuring they are coordinated in their continued pursuit of Edric Voss.

11 June 2025

Books in May 2025

May saw me read less books than the previous month, but as I was deep in administration for the North Star convention for the first two weeks on the month, I think that wasn't unexpected. I did manage to read 10 books and 2,003 pages, which brings the year-to-date figures to 57 books and 13,075 pages. That means I've hit the target for the year (52 books, one a week) which I expected to as it was set as a baseline.

I read four roleplaying related books, three novels, a short story and two non-fiction books.

The roleplaying books were a re-read of Deepnight Legacy for Traveller in preparation for running it at North Star, and then the Solemn Vale roleplaying game line (the Wyrd Abacus engine). I covered the main Solemn Vale book in a first impressions post here, and then followed that up with Tales from the Wyrd (a collection of adventures set in Solemn Vale, which seemed very useful) and Summer of Strange. The latter is set in the USA in the 1980s, and is a blend of the young adult based genre that was popular in films at the time. It's set in small town America, and the players will take the characters of young adults (17 to early 20s) who encounter strange and horrifying things. Eventually, the town is doomed by some kind of event (three examples are given) and the only chance of stopping it is the actions of the players. Nasty things can and will happen. Overall, I prefer Solemn Vale to the Summer of Strange, but they're both very good.

The non-fiction were both audiobooks. First up was Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum. This was a (quite depressing) look at the rise of autocracies and oligarchs across the world, and how democracies are failing to react to prevent themselves being vulnerable to them. The second was How Democracies Die by Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky. This was written in the shadow of Trump's first presidency and discussed how democratic norms could be dismantled in the USA, especially as many of them are unwritten conventions rather than codified in law or the constitution. It's scary to see much of what these books warned against happening now.

The fiction books started with the second of Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May mysteries, The Water Room. This is a slow-paced and fascinating investigation into the murder of a woman who appears to have drowned in a dry room. I enjoyed how this twisted and turned.

I followed this with A Spy at War, by Charles Beaumont. This was a sequel to A Spy Alone which I read back in September. Both of these novels are dealing with the influence of Russia on the UK government and institutions. This novel is a sequel and is mostly set in Ukraine during the current war. Overall, I enjoyed this and will keep an eye out for any more books by the author.

Mickey7, by Edward Ashton, was the final novel that I read. This has recently been turned into a film, but I'd had the novel in the to-read digital stack for a while. It's a slightly darkly-humorous story of a man (Mickey) who has volunteered to join a colony expedition as the 'expendable'. This means that they have scanned his brain and memories and can create a new clone-body when he dies. Hence Mickey7. We're seeing the story from the perspective of the seventh iteration of Mickey, as the colony struggles to survive at its new home. There are also tensions, as the religious beliefs of some of the crew and the captain are that this technology is an abomination and that Mickey is a soulless monster. The pages turned easily in this, and I've just started the sequel.

Finally, I read one short story, Human Resources, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is set in the same world as Service Model, albeit slightly earlier. The protagonist is a Human Resources officer in a company that has shed most of its workforce because of the use of near sentient robots. It's a creepy view of the slide towards the collapse of society as the character knows it.

Overall, a good month. I'd probably rate The Water Room as the best of the fiction (Mickey7 came close) and How Democracies Die as the best of the non-fiction (if only because it taught me a lot about how the US governs itself).

1 June 2025