(G222 21/11/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI) 23

(G222 21/11/2014  via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI) 23

DAY 82 (wed) cont ...

Meanwhile, a subspace message came through from Neelix. It was in essence a shopping list, and rather a
large one. Many people were requesting, if it wasn't too much trouble, if they could find, coffee, tea, soap,
brown rolls, insoles, fresh fruit, work gloves, face cream, hand cream, ice cream. Hundreds of items.

Neelix also warned not to do anything illegal like replicating local currency. Trade goods and things such
as gold and diamonds was another matter.

Kirk assigned Crewman Sandra Paterson to the shopping task and she set to work with the bases trading system
to buy as much as she could that was on the list.

Kirk looked for Burung eggs and found that they traded for 50,000 FS each on the local market. He contacted a
robot called Megatrader500 and cut a deal to buy one for 75k worth of replicated diamonds. Somehow the
robot knew when he saw replicated goods and considered them not worth as much.

Kirk started churning out diamonds from the replicator, a costly thing in terms of energy use, but still the
most viable tradable item he could think of.

Just then though he received Mioen's communicator message and worked out she was with some Vidiians. The details
of that adventure are in the previous report. By the time he'd sorted all that out he'd paid a further 30k FS to
officer 6-ZYT to smooth everything out.
(10k for being involved in explosions on the base and 10k over irregularities in their docking paperwork.)
Mieon protested but Kirk shrugged and replicated more diamonds which he then traded to Megatrader500 for cash.

Once he had the Burung egg in his possession he ran it through the transporter and tried to feed the resulting
data into the replicator. It was too difficult a task though, and he realised that writing replicator programmes
from scratch would take weeks potentially, especially for something as complicated biologically as a Burung
egg.

With a sigh, Kirk adjusted his plan and together with Dell and Mieon he took a wander down to the shipyards.
Here he talked to a being called Shield Trader Guromax in Hanger 43, but eventually he realised that on this
moon base that the smallest shield generators available were larger than the Aeroshuttle itself!

Grumbling he headed back to the AS and trying to salvage something from the trip he checked over the shuttles
warp engine to see what could be improved there. Clever as he and Dell were though, they had done nothing more
than basic warp theory at the Academy and didn't really know what they were looking at.

With nothing better to try he sent a subspace message to Torres to see what she needed and a while later she
sent back a list of mainly tech stuff, but also person toiletries.

They spent the rest of the day trading diamonds for stuff. Kirk took over the trading, with the help of Mioen
and ordered Paterson to spend some time on Piloting theory.
Kirk also purchased exotic alcoholic beverages, cakes, crisps and biscuits.
Mieon purchased some nice jewellery.

They also managed to get their hands on 50 kilograms of refined dilithium.

They left the moonbase that night.


DAY 83 (thu)

At first they had decided to head back to Voyager. They had not managed to get the shields, but the hold was
packed full of goodies.

They had assumed that the planet of Ruma Burung was completely closed off, blockaded by the Babi-Ijo, but this
was not the case. They Babi were not stopping small ships, as Rumbleton found after a few scans, and they could
land on the planet if they wished.

It was 0200 hours ship time when they landed, on a shuttle pad that stood up above the forest canopy. Three local
officials met them, led by Port Master Bwak.

The Burung Mera are bird like people, covered in feathers and beaked, but humanoid in general form. Kirk requested
that before they did anything else they get some rest and Bwak agreed.

At 1000 they awoke and met with the Port Authority again. They had been assigned a 'Handler' called Buto. This
was how it worked on Burung Mera. They are an inquisitive race and greatly interested in alien species. They
fact that they had never met humans or orions before caused a minor sensation on the planet.

Buto led them up to a pleasant tree house for refreshments and an hour later introduced them to a team of
scientists who asked them lots of questions about their race and homeworlds. They took some photos and Kirk
handed them some basic data on the Federation.

A further hour later a camera crew showed up and filmed a piece about the visitors for Bwak City TV. Once the
crew left they handed them some free Burung Mera Data Terminal so they could keep up with the local media
and reply to 'tweeps' send to them from admiring fans.

It was all rather a whirlwind and Kirk was glad when they finally got down to business with Buto.
As they ate lunch and looked over the beautiful forests of Ruma Burung Buto told him that they would give
them the shields they wanted and even fit them for them in exchange for the safe return of 100 of their
eggs.

Kirk was at a total loss as to how to arrange this, but Buto contacted some of his friends in the military
and told him that if they could get to the Babi-Ijo's home planet quickly they could coincide their egg
raid with a counter attack that was being planned by high command.

By 1600 they had fleshed out the whole plan and Kirk decided to give it a go.

As they flew past the moonbase and headed to the Babi-Ijo homeworld they were approached and boarded by a small
picket craft. A Babi-Ijo, a Kazona and two marines of unknown species entered the AS and arranged tourist
visa's for everyone. As usual the price was extortionate and Kirk gave them a handful of diamonds that seemed
to about cover it.

They were give permission to land at the town of Hamport, which was their target, or rather the bank there
was. It was guarded and had a forcefield over it, but Kirk's plan was to do away with the forcefield and
robotic guards with EMP grenades.

At 1800 they had landed and started scanning the town. From their scans they deduced that the forcefield
was powered by shield generators some distance away from the bank. The generators serviced not just the bank
but probably other buildings as well. They estimated that 20 to 50 lifesigns were currently at the location
of the bank. More scans revealed that the shield generator shielded itself and that the forcefield was sent
to the bank via underground cables.

The Babi-Ijo port authority was crossing the landing pad towards the AS. It was time to put the plan into
action.

(G223 28/11/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

(G223 28/11/2014  via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

DAY 226  (23 Marpenoth)(October) cont...........

It took a while to get everything ship shape again. The boat hadn't suffered to much at the jaws of the
turtle since it had mainly been biting Gurudor. We welcomed Mr B back on board and continued on our way.

As we rowed I took in more of the surrounding lands. I was looking out for beavers but nature seemed to
be pretty sparse on this Plane.

So far I am greatly disliking the place. The Vast Swamp is a dangerous, smelly and unforgiving area.
Add to all that a perpetual night and you have quite the most horrid place I have ever been and I've been
around a lot of pretty nasty places!

It's difficult to tell time here too, but I judged it was about six o'clock in the evening when we all
decided we'd had enough rowing. I found as good a camp site as I could and so here we are. I am writing
this now from the dim light of one of the everburning lanterns.

I've just spent the last two hours looking for beavers, but to no avail and have returned to camp to
eat the last of today's rations. After that I'll get some sleep. Thank Silvanus for my magic bedroll,
as I doubt I'd get any rest in this awful place otherwise.


DAY 227 (24th Marpenoth)(October)

I've come to the conclusion there is no peace to be had in this Plane. Let me here recount today's
adventures.

We arose, ate breakfast and started loading up the boat with our pots and pans. I decided to have
a very quick look around the camp for tracks thinking I would again find nothing.

Instead I happened upon a tall purple skinned humanoid that looked like he had eel in his ancestry.
He was lurking in a bush, perhaps having his morning movement for all I know. He wasn't happy to see
me although I did say 'Excuse me.' and cast some sort of lightning bolt at me.

I repayed this rudeness with a 'Sudden Stalagmite' but this only slowed him down a little. He then
ran at, and stung me. I fell to the ground and slipped into a dreadful nightmare.

The others tell me that they heard my cries and rushed to my aid. Sylvia was first to arrive and
bravely put herself between me and the creature. As Gurudor ran up she cast 'Sanctuary' on me.
Mirabella shot at the nasty fellow from the boat and Sylvia summoned her magic weapon. It managed
a few blows against my friends, but Gurudor slew it with several massive strikes from his two handed
sword.

I was dragged to the boat and dumped onboard. When I awoke we were already casting off from the
shore.
'Did you loot it?', I asked. Sylvia smiled and showed me a big bag of gold.

After rowing on for some time we found that the beacons had lead us to another jetty from which
a path, in its turn, let to a gate house of some gloomy building.

I turned into an eagle and had a fly about, but could not see much except for an empty courtyard
and some roofs. Mirabella had a sneak about as well but came back with a shrug and not much
to report.

Not the stealthiest of fellows, Gurudor rather ruined all our prep-work by stepping up to the
entrance and shouting, 'Is anyone there?!'.

With a sigh, Mira skulked in. Myself and Sylvia followed. There was a set of steps leading
up to another ruin and a heavily overgrown courtyard. Just as Sylvia approached the building
some kind of winged nasty swooped in and attacked her.

I cast 'Avoid Planar Effects' on her and she cast 'Daylight' on Mr B's collar but even then we
couldn't get our eyes on the thing as it flew back into the darkness.

Something then cast 'Ray of Enfeeblement' on Gurudor and Sylvia and they were both so weakened they
could hardly walk in their armour. Sylvia glimpsed something though and cast 'Searing Light'.

I strode through the overgrown courtyard, it was no hindrance to me as a druid, and went through
a hole in the wall. I spotted one down a corridor and cast 'Hypothermia' at it. It tried to get
away but by that time the others arrived and it was slain.

(G221 14/11/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

(G221 14/11/2014  via Roll20 - AP(GM), JF, Mira, Guru)

DAY 225  (22 Marpenoth)(October) cont  ....

Perhaps because I had no great desire to go back to the gloomy lands of the Plane of Shadows I found
things to keep us busy for the rest of the day.

The four armed thing we dragged through the portal and I dumped it in the main room. It was a fascinating
and immensely impressive being and would look incredible once I had stuffed it.

All other bodies were buried though, under the supervision of Gurudor.

Our short foray into the lands of Shadow made me think that having something on our side that could hear
and smell very well would be useful. There is magic that druids can use to 'awaken' creatures so that they
become sentient, intelligent and can talk. I'd never tried it but it sounded like a good idea. It can't be
used on Nature's Companions though, so Mr B was out of the equation.

With that in mind I changed into an eagle and took a scout around the local area. I was looking for dogs
really, but I saw a robed figure walking about so landed and turning back to human form, hailed them.

As the figure came closer I saw that it was hooded, carried a bow and was female.
I wanted to keep my distance, but she drew closer,
'Ahem! This is a dangerous area you know!', I tried as an opening comment and piece of general advice.
'I know that.', she replied.
'Where do you live?'.
She didn't remove the hood, but replied, 'This is my home.'
'What are you doing?', I said, but had already assumed she was out bagging a rabbit for the pot.
'Hunting.'
'Ah yes.', I said, stepping back nervously. I hadn't liked the way she had said that.
Not really sure I was going to like the answer I asked,
'And ... er ... what are you hunting?'
'YOU!'

She pulled back her hood to reveal her hair was made of snakes. Even without my books I realised she
was a medusa. As she gazed at me I felt my limbs harden, but with a colossal effort of will I shook of
the sensation of my whole body hardening and changed into an eagle, flapping into the air as fast as my
feathery limbs could take me. She'd managed to hit me, but thankfully my druid constitution fended off
her poison.

I flapped home and landed, breathing a long sigh of relief. I'd been right in the soup with that medusa
and I could have ended up as an interesting ornament in the swamp, a scratching post for deer and a
noteworthy landmark and warning to passing travellers. I still shudder to think of it.

Next I talked to Kithguard, and bribing him with a decent dinner got some information from him. The four
armed beast was a Ghirrash. His name was Jherremor. The ferryman had been Sithreal and his two headed
hound was Ephmeral the dusk beast. The ferry followed the beacons apparently to a place where the
'willing disciples to our cause' went.

The others attended to their various activities, sharpening swords, smoothing out dented armour and
the like while I skinned, deboned and stuffed good old Jherremor. My greatest masterpiece!

Tired now. Going to washup and turn in. My last night with Lavinia before I go once more.

DAY 226  (23 Marpenoth)(October)

These swamps are pretty nasty, I realised, and decided to search only around the immediate vicinity of
Wisphaven from now on. I saw alligator tracks, snake marks and other things, but then spotted a beaver
dam. Beavers have very good hearing and sense of smell so I approached and using my magic talked to
the dam owner.

He was a nice enough fellow. In my mind I dubbed him 'Noddy' after an old school friend who talked the
same slow thoughtful way. He was just a home type though, I suppose most beavers are, and was not to be
lured away to a life of adventure. It seemed unfair to force him to come to the Plane of Shadows so I
left him to it. My skill with magic was not yet quite ready for awakening creatures anyway.

So, we banded together once more, our supplies all ready and our loins girded, myself, Mira, Gurudor
and Sylvia went through the portal. Mr B leading the way of course.

I tried a few magical experiments first. I cast a 'Avoid Planar Effects' spell to see if I could then
cast a light spell. I could, and with no 'barrier' to break through to do it. I deemed the 'APE' experiment
a success.

We set about exploring more of the building on the other side of the portal. Upstairs was a sort of
throne room and observatory. The walls were high and there were shuttered openings just below the ceiling.
Looking more closely at the throne we saw it was carved from obsidian.

Sylvia, our resident expert on the Plane of Shadows whispered, 'This is the Dusk Lord's Throne. He was the
ruler of Sansendale, which Archendale conquered in DR 1232.'
She didn't know any more than that, it was just something that had bubbled up from amongst the kittens and
puppies in her brain, a half forgotten lecture from her university days.

The irrepressible Mirabella sat down on the throne, planning something amusing no doubt, but this triggered
the appearance of two ghostly creatures that formed from the surrounding shadows.

Sylvia attempted to turn them, with no effect other than a flash of light. I tried a new spell I'd read
about called Shadowblast, a spell I'd researched ages ago and forgotten about until now. I hoped it would
be useful and it was. For use against denizens of the Plane of Shadows it proved effective and one of the
ghostly creatures was blasted to nothing by it.

The other tackled the last one. Sylvia and Mira closed in on it while Gurudor simply tried to wrestle
with it. It was difficult to hit, but not impossible and Sylvia was the one to land the final blow.

Once everything had calmed down I opened up a shutter and looked out across the landscape. I could see
dim lanterns marking a path through the swamp. I suppose this was the route of the ferry.

Back down the stair then and further looking about revealed nothing more than lizardman tracks. Back at
the boat we loaded it up with out gear and each took an oar. Following the beacons we headed further
into the swamp. At no point did anyone say this was a bad idea although I'm sure I wasn't the only
one thinking it.

We followed the beacons for eight miles, stopped for a late luncheon, then rowed on for another eight.

Just as I was thinking of asking the others if they fancied stopping for the day the boat hit something
so hard that we tipped almost all the way over and Sylvia and Mr B fell out.

As we got to our feet I could see the head of some giant angry turtle creature trying to pull the front
of our boat down into the water. It pulled half of its great ugly bulk onto the fore cabin and breathed
scaling fetid steam onto us. It was blistering and painful but I managed to summon up a batch of crocodiles
and sent them to fight the dreadful thing.

Mira targeted it with her bow and shot arrows at it and Guru charged straight for its jaws. Sylvia climbed
up onto the boat and tried to turn the turtle-beast, suspecting it was undead, but to no effect.

We all tried to fight it as best we could, me with my army of crocodiles, Gurudor with his sword and
Mirabella with her arrows. Mirabella ran and jumped on its back, but could find no weak spot though she
could keep her footing.
Guru was so badly injured by hits snapping jaws that he retreated to the cabin and was healed by Sylvia.
He did managed to 'Bless' us all before he left though, which helped our attacks on the beast.

I cast 'Hypothermia' on it. That, the crocodiles and the savaging that Mr B was doing while swimming around
it eventually finished it off and it groaned a terrible bubbling death sound and floated back down into the
swamp.

(G220 07/11/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), MI) 22

(G220 07/11/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), MI) 22

And so Ensign Kirk and Madame Swankee got down to business over the 10kg of chilli powder.

Soon Mieon was bored though and wondered back into the bazaar. She noticed that quiet a few heads turned
to follow her, but no one was aggressive. The market was busy, filled with mainly Babi-Ijo traders and
races from other nearby systems. There were Kazon and Norlot guards and plenty of robots going about
their business.

As she ventured deeper into the bazaar she noticed she was being followed by a black robed figure.
She sat on the next bench that she found and beckoned the figure over.

The fellow seemed to be prepared to talk and introduced himself as Huntuw but would not show his face.
When she used her suggestive powers to get him to reveal himself he pulled the hood back just far enough
to show he was hideously disfigured, his face a patchwork of skin.

'My race are afflicted with a dreadful phage my dear, we travel far and wide in search of a possible
cure. Races we don't know about greatly fascinate us. I wonder if I could take a blood sample from you?'
'No!', yelped Mieon.
'Would you come back to our starship?'
'No!', she repeated. But she did ask if he knew anything about shield systems and he said his race
of people had some fine shields they could sell her in exchange for samples.

He took her to a nearby place to eat. She ordered something vegetarian, thinking that it would be
harder to posion or drug and he told her more about his race. They were know as vidiians, he was
a Honatta, a sort of servant, and his master was a vidiian called Yvante.
She told him a little about the federation then asked,
'Why are you so scared of Yvante?'
'Scared? Not at all. He is a wise and noble master. A great artist among our people. Would you come
and meet him in our hotel?'
She said no, but agreed to meet him on neutral open ground so they took a taxi to the one only green
area on the moon, the hydroponics gardens.

On a bench Yvante waited for them. Another robed figure, he greet them, 'Pleased to meet you!'.

Mieon decided to contact Kirk at this point and when she told him she was meeting with some vidiians
he yelled at her, 'Get out of there!'

As she started to make her excuses to leave they took out their Vidiian Harvesters and stunned her.

....

She woke some time later in a small room, on what felt like a starship of some kind, lying on a hospital
bed. The room was dark and gloomy and cluttered with medical equipment. A dull fug of smoke filled the
air.
A gurgle drew her attention to a body on a bed on the other side of the room. Here lay a Kazon, wired into
several machines with all sorts of tubes sticking into his body. She tried to wake him, but all he could
do was flick his eyes open a little and point at the door.

Mieon went and looked at the door. There was a keypad there and it did not look too complicated. Using
her wide experience of poking her finger at computers she managed to open the door. In the next, equally
dull, gloomy and dirty room she found another hospital bed with an alien tied down to it.

She released him and he took a test tube stand from one of the lab desks in this room. Mieon armed herself
with a microscope, planning to use the base as a bludgeon.

There were two more doors here and she tried the lower one, which lead into the ships cockpit. There were
two seats, a central console and a (currently blank) viewscreen. Around the sides of the cabin were other
consoles. At one of them was a vidiian, clutching a wound in his side and frantically punching buttons on
it. Mieon rushed in to attack.

The vidiian trapped her in the viewscreen end though by raising a forcefield, but he was neatly skewered
on the end of the alien's test tube stand when he came charging in. The vidiian made to flee and from
the other room, pursued by the alien. Mieon then heard a series of crashes followed by a spludging sound
of something heavy landing on something meaty.

She smashed away at a console next to her, but it wasn't until the alien came in and hit buttons randomly
on another console that the forcefield was lifted.

Using her powers of console poking she brought the viewscreen to life. It showed the interior of the
hangar, but a small boxed out area showed another vidiian (that looked like Yvante) frantically cutting up
another member of the aliens race and stuffing the pieces into a cool box. The alien cried in despair and
made to go get revenge, handing the Vidiian Harvester to Mieon.

Not really knowing what the thing was, or how to operate it, she pointed it at the corpse of the vidiian
and pressed some buttons. Somehow she managed to teleport its reproductive organs across the room where they
hit the wall at a reasonable velocity with a messy splat.
Finding she couldn't repeat this feat, she dropped the device.

The left hand door, the one she hadn't tried yet, did not yield to finger poking though and they took
some bottles from the lab and threw them at it. None of them were acid though, as Mieon had hoped.

Next she picked up an electric meter of some description and stuck its probes into the keypad. She set
the device to maximum, which did indeed open the door, but gave her a nasty shock.

The next chamber was similar to the last and a cupboard held all of her stuff, so she retrieved her
phaser, comms badge and grenades. The next chamber was the largest yet, a sort of cold storage area for bodies and
bits of bodies. The other vidiian was here, but seeing them enter, fled into another room.

He spoke to them through a coms port on the door telling them to 'Just get out!'. Mieon wanted revenge though
and tried to open the door.
Suddenly a forcefield surrounded them. Mieon used her powers of fascination on the vidiian but then the alien
(translated via the comms badge now) pointed out to her,
'We are running out of air!'

Mieon released the fascination and the forcefield dropped. Next the larger doors to her right started opening,
revealing a cargo bay below. Beyond that light was coming in from the hangar through open cargo door. The
vidiian was inviting them to leave.

Mieon decided that this was a good idea, but before she left, she shot up the door then threw grenades into the lab.
As they left the ship she threw more grenades into the cargo bay.

With alarms going off everywhere they were scooped up by an approaching security detail. A guard robot called
'Officer 6-ZYT' took them to the shipyard guard booth.

During their interview with the guards here she learned that the alien was from the planet Treebad and was called
Vanoost. He was confused and scared, seemingly from a planet without warp technology and not aware that their
was life beyond his own planet.

When she'd used her charms to secure her release, he asked if he could come with her, so she took him back to
the AS where she met up with Kirk.

Ensign Kirk told her that after he'd realised she'd been taken by vidiians he'd hunted out their ship and
even managed to wing one of them with a phaser shot. The comm badge had not given her location until she'd
left the vidiian ship and he'd deemed it sensible not to beam her out of police custody, but had kept a lock
on her just incase.

Vanoost went for a lie down. He looked pretty exhausted. Crewman Rumbleton gave him the once over and reported
back that the treebadian was ok apart from the loss of one of his kidneys.

(218 24/10/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI) 21

(218 24/10/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI) 21

DAY 80 (mon) cont ...

The first thing Kirk did when he got a moment to himself was write up some notes on what was needed
done on the Aeroshuttle.

''
[ ]Adapt kirk alpha 1 to incorporate auto removal of any weaponry or additional items that were not carried onto the
   ship or are not authorised by me.
[ ]Fix shields
[ ]Get power core upgraded and engines (probably tied together)
[ ]Improve weapons
[ ]Fix hull plating
[ ]Increase replicator limit, if possible.
[ ]Add protocols to kirk alpha 1 to auto protect the ship if we leave it.
[ ]Find out from Chakotay what resources are available.
''

Meanwhile, rather concerned about finding herself a place on Voyager Mieon started enquiring how she could get
some firearms training. She located Kirk by asking the computer and after talking to him went and discussed things
with Chakotay. He decided to attach her to the Aeroshuttle crew as an 'Envoy' under Ensign Kirk's command.

Kirk decided to go along with the Deck Six Armoury schedule until such time as he drew up his own. This allowed
them to go along to holodeck training.

During this day they were told that Telek R'mor of the, Romulan Astrophysical Academy was due to leave, back
down the worm hole he had come from and that this was the last chance to send some messages home.
Mieon had nothing to say to anyone back in the Alpha Quadrant.
Kirk's letter was to the point, but uninspired, along the lines of,
'Hi mum and dad! Not dead. All going fine.'

Whether this message was to get back to his folks, or anyone's folks, they would never know, but R'mor said
he would do his best.

After getting off shift, Kirk and Mieon met again at Sandrine's, the holodeck bar that Lt Paris was running
most evenings. Paris took an instant interest in Mioen and talked to her as much as he could.

Kirk had asked her to keep an eye out for B'Elanna Torres, the Chief Engineer, so when she arrived Mieon tried
a bit of the old charm. Torres was more interested in talking about wormholes with Ensign Kim though.

Kirk and Mieon went back to their respective cabins at 2000 hours.

DAY 81 (tue)

At 0700 hours Ensign Kirk and 'Envoy' Mieon reported for duty at the D6A. Mieon held the equivalent rank of
Crewman so basically anyone could order her around.

There was firearms training, then Kirk reported to Chakotay and they put together a crew for the Aeroshuttle.

The crew would be as follows:

Ensign Kirk - Aeroshuttle captain
Crewman Sandra Paterson - Pilot. While not a skilled pilot Paterson would be taking intensive training courses.
              There was a real pilot shortage onboard - hence the use of Noxus previously. However
              the cardassian was tired of being a target for beatings from the Maquis portion of the
              crew and was laying low in his cabin, rarely coming out.
Crewman Dell        - Engineering.
Crewman James Rumbleton - Science station and trainee medic. Rumbleton would be taking the science station on board
              and due to the other skills shortage on board would train as a medic.
Envoy Mieon        - Operations. While not familiar with Starfleet regs, Mioen knew her way around a console and
              was competent enough with comms and sensors.

Chakotay briefed Kirk on the Aeroshuttle's first official mission in its new role. While he encouraged Kirk to use
his initiative and to a certain extent select his own missions when not required to do anything specific for Voyager
he pointed out that they were passing a star system known as Rivo and that its inhabitants were known to be sufficiently
advanced to have shield technology. He suggested Kirk might be able to trade there to get one for the 'shuttle.

The 'shuttle was not only unshielded but painfully slow, so they started getting ready to go as fast as they could.
Details of the Rivo system below:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


The system of Rivo has two main populated planets : Rivo-2, home to the Burung Mera and Rivo-3 the
planet of the Babi-Ijo.

Rivo-2
------

Known Locally as 'Ruma Burung'. Population: 3 billion. Tech : Warp, Transporter, Replicator

This is a small M class planet, about half the size of earth. It has low gravity, but a stable atmosphere.
It is mainly forests and mountains. The planet is almost totally covered in trees and rather than concentrated
cities, the planet is covered in endless treetop villages.

The dominant species of Rivo-2 are the Burung Mera, a race of plump feathered avian humanoids. The gravity
on Rivo-2 is light, about the same as the Earth's moon, so it is an easy place for the BM to fly in.

They are aggressive in their nature but apart from the long running war with the Babi-Ijo they are not
by nature war like.

Most of the technology of the regional species is not their own, but discovered in archeological sights
of an ancient and dead race. It is thought this race died out when the Babi-Ijo ate them all.
Their is some evidence to support this.

Burung Mera recognise each other via plumage and non-language skwaks. Humans are in essence faceless
to them. They can recognise individuals of other races via their voices, but this is nullified when
using the universal translator. With more than a few people to deal with it is best to wear different
colours to avoid confusion, assuming their are no obviously visible differences such as size.


Rivo-3
------

Known Locally as 'Ruma Babi'. Population: 45 billion. Tech : Warp, Replicator (Low level)

The Babi-Ijo are a war like, lazy, gluttonous race of pig faced humanoids. They enjoy eating so much
they often resort to cannibalism and will eat any other species they can catch.

The planet is mostly barren desert, with vast cities that gather around the small seas and salt water
lakes around the planets equator. The planet is a large ball of rock, it has no iron core, but it is
far enough away from the star of Rivo to not suffer too much from the solar winds.

However, species not local to the planet should take precautions against radiation.

As the planet has no plate movement, there are never any earthquakes or volcanoes. This has meant that
the Babi-Ijo build perilously tall skyscrapers.

The Babi-Ijo are lazy and corrupt. Graft is endemic in all industries and professions.

They use a currency based on food. The planet is made up of 12 different nations that are federated
into one planetary wide empire. Each nation has its own currency but these are prone to hyper inflation
and pretty much worthless. Food stamps though are used for most trading and are stable, as each stamp
can be traded for a meal.

The Babi-Ijo store food in buildings much like a bank. Each food bank is shielded with a strong forcefield
that prevents transporting and heavily guarded with robots and mercenaries. This is to prevent local
criminal gangs from stealing food and food stamps.

Many food items are rare and are traded for huge amounts.

Babi-Ijo recognise each other by smell and thus all members of a humanoid species look much the same
to them so using scent as a disguise is a viable option. They do not see colours and cannot focus.
This makes them terrible shots, so weapons fired by Babi-Ijo usually have (unreliable!) auto-aiming.

The 17th Rivo War
-----------------

The two planets of the Rivo system are currently at war. The Babi-Ijo are winning and have almost
succeeded in completely blockading the Burung Mera planet and moons.

The Babi-Ijo are too lazy to fight themselves and build endless armies of robots and hire mercenaries,
mainly Kazons and Norlots.

The Burung Mera favour suicide attacks, and are expert bomb makers, often implanting bombs inside their
own bodies.

Since the Burung Mera have recently developed transporter technology the Babi-Ijo have bought forcefield
tech from out system to counter it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dell started putting together as much data as he could on the planets in it and ran search algorithms
on key words such as 'shield'.

Research was done on weapons that might be traded, but it was decided that this might not be such a good
idea and probably run foul of the Prime Directive.

Instead they replicated 20kg of various exotic spices for trade.

As the ship's day rolled around to 0000 hours, Kirk and Dell went over forcefield protocols for the
'shuttle and Mieon read up on Babi-Ijo culture.

DAY 82 (wed)

The Aeroshuttle launched from Voyager at 0800 ship's time. Crewman Paterson managed to keep things under
control despite her minimal amount of training.

At 2000 hours they arrived in system and were hailed by a patrolling Babi-Ijo vessel, a smallish picket
ship.
'Unknown vessel, identify yourself!'
'I am Mieon of the Federation Vessel Aeroshuttle. We are here for .. er .. trading..'
'If you are trading.', grunted the Kazon mercenary at the other end, 'Then follow this route we are transmitting
to you.'

The route lead to a base on a moon orbiting the Babi-Ijo home planet. They docked in one of many hangers and filled
in the required paperwork. There was some confusion over 'System of Origin' since they were from the other side
of the galaxy.
Talking to the robotic harbourmaster and sending through their ships logs eventually got them permission to trade
at the base.
'Patching you through to the MTT system now.', said the robotic voice and their computers were given permission
to use the bases trading system.

Kirk put together ten trades of 1/2 gram samples of spices and set the price at 350 FS (food stamps). About the
same price as a pair of shoes. He had no takers though.

After that they took a look at what shield systems were for sale. What was cleared for civilian use seemed to
be total rubbish. Prices ranged from 50,000 FS to 2 million. All were too big to be fitted into the AS.

They waited two hours, but there was no interest in the spices so Kirk decided to take a walk around the public
market that was in the centre of the base and took Mieon and Dell with him.

As they left the hangar a robotic security guard told them they could only take pistols beyond this point
so Kirk had to leave his trusty phase rifle behind.

The market had shops surrounding it, mostly small affairs built into the bulkheads. One took their interest,
'Madame Swankee's Exotic Alien Emporium'.

It was run by a, frankly, fat and ugly Babi-Ijo woman.
'Head towards the ship yards if you are after shields.', she shorted, but she did admit she would be interested
in sampling some of their 'alien' spices.

Saffron she said she might buy, vanilla she didn't like, cardamom was ok, but cloves and cinnamon she thought was
horrible. Thinking these people probably went in for strong flavours he went back to the AS and replicated ten
samples of the hottest chilies on the replicator system.

On his return she tried the Savina Jalapeno, which she liked a lot. The next one was even hotter, but she had
some kind of allergic reaction to it. As she frothed at the mouth and gagged Kirk sedated her with his
Medical Tricorder.

Mieon rushed out and brought back a security robot with her.
'Can you do anything for her?', she pleaded.
'I am a security robot madam.'
'Can't you call someone?'
'Does this woman have insurance?'
With the last of her strength Mrs Swankee reached into the till and pulled out 2000 FS.
The bot put in a call and five minutes later a medical robot arrived.

Once she was back on her feed, Kirk went back to the AS once more and replicated 10,000 FS and 10kg of
Savina Jalapeno. He gave Swankee 2000 FS to cover her medical bills and a further 500 by way of apology.

(G215 26/09/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD, MI) 20

(G215 26/09/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD, MI) 20

DAY 78 (sat) cont....

Kirk instigated a point to point transport remotely from his location. Not a very easy manoeuvre to do, even
for a fully trained Ensign, but Kirk had spent a lot of time writing programs to help with this sort of thing.

They arrived in the area where the prisoners were being held and shot out the locks of the cell. For some reason
Noxus shot the lock of a third empty cell.

Kirk, using his Tricorder, set up some forcefields within the Aeroshuttle to start 'pushing' the Norlots out
of the ship. This was partially successful. Another tricky thing to do remotely.

Mieon started to use her mystical powers and enthralled a group of Norlots. They were weak minded folk and
listened to her, enraptured, as she talked of matters of no importance.

Meanwhile, a squad of six Norlots arrived at the holding cells. Noxus experimented with his wide beam phase
rifle, but it had little effect on such heavily armoured troops. When he saw Kirk take out two of the Norlots
in the front rank with well placed headshots he realised what was the best tactic.

During this time Mieon was doing her best to use her mystical powers to hold off the Norlots from doing too
much damage onboard the Aeroshuttle.

Ensign Mannus and Crewman Paterson, the two Starfleet prisoners, picked up alien carbines and joined the battle as
another squad of six Norlots arrived. The firefight was short and brutal, only two Norlots survived to make
a run for it and Crewman YYY was badly injured and unconscious.

Once she'd been stabilised though, Kirk flexed his teleporting skills once more and beamed everyone back
to the ship, including Crewman Sendine who had been captured earlier.

When it looked like the ship might get away, the plasma turret started firing at them. Kirk returned fire
by beaming bags of replicated grenades into it. He then beamed a bag of fifty grenades into the bases
nuclear reactor and ten at the Norlots on the landing pad.

This was enough to keep the Norlots occupied long enough for an escape.

DAY 79 (sun)

The Aeroshuttle arrived back at Voyager at 1200 hours. Vedik had arrive first and had helped with the
visit of Talvath from the Alpha Quadrant. He had left though, by the time the shuttle arrived and
Voyager was ready once more to get under way.

The crew and passengers of the shuttle went to med bay to be healed and checked over. At 1800 most
of them were released to rest in their cabins or do as they wished.

Noxus felt fit enough to do a bit of hairdressing and his first client of the day was Crewman Paterson
who seemed to have taken a bit of a shine to him. She left a 50 gram tip.

When he got to his cabin he found that his monkey was sad, so he fed it some human food and it seemed
to cheer up a bit.

Meanwhile, Mieon had a meeting with Captain Janeway. The Captain was always interested to welcome and
talk to visitors onboard Voyager and was greatly interested about how Mieon had come to the Delta
Quadrant, but alas the young Orion knew nothing.

A crewman showed Mieon around Voyager, her cabin and the messhall. She met Neelix in the messhall and
he made her some fried chicken.

Back at her cabin she got together some paper and a pen, to start keeping a diary. She also drew
some simple pictures to put up on her cabin walls and make it more homely.

Before he turned in for the night Kirk traded his loot to the Quartermaster, talked to Lt Andrews and
Chief Engineer Torres.

DAY 80 (mon)

Noxus awoke to find his cabin full of monkey poop once more.

Kirk reported to the D6A and was informed that Commander Chakotay wanted to talk to him.

This is what he had to say:

''
The captain has given me permission to refit and use the Aeroshuttle for Away Missions. Tuvok is planning
an 'Elite Force' unit. I am thinking something along similar lines, but with a more diplomacy and trade
leaning.
Towards this end I've decided to give it a small crew and send it out to initially look for dilithium
deposits and trade opportunities. This will run in conjunction with Neelix in the Baxail. He is over stretched
at the moment and it would be good to take up some of the burden of supply and diplomacy.

To be honest I've got my doubts as to who to put in charge of this, but I remember you're behaviour on
Markov-Kalto and I generally approve of your actions on Treebad. So, I'd like you to take charge of the
Aeroshuttle and get it in order. I'd recommend increasing its Warp Speed although how I'm not sure what
with the energy issues we have on Voyager.

Keep Noxus as your pilot, and keep an eye on him. Take OG with you, might be useful for the diplomatic
side. And draw two Starfleet Crewmen from the roster.

I'd recommend one from engineering and another from ops, but that's up to you.

You'll form the crew of the Aeroshuttle in effect. Once you've got your crew sorted out, I have an easy
away mission lined up as a sort of trial run. I'll send along the details later.
''

(G213 12/09/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD, MI) 19

(G213 12/09/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD, MI) 19

DAY 78 (sat) cont....

The Aeroshuttle was currently not fully functional, but with every other craft in use it launched from
Voyager with Ensign Kirk at the Operations station, Noxus as the pilot and Crewman Michael Sendine at
the Engineering station.

Noxus piloted them well to the Hamras system where the romulans were last know to be and it took 12
hours to get to the planet.

At 1800 the Aeroshuttle reported a life sign floating in an escape pod drifting past. They teleported
the being onto the shuttle. It appeared to be a female orion, a species usually only found in the Alpha
Quadrant.

Carefully they carried her through to the crew area at the aft of the shuttle, although Noxus did
manage to bang her head on the doorway as they went in.

When she finally regained consciousness they managed to gently get some sense from her. She said her name
was Mieon, that she was indeed an Orion and she had vague memories of being a slave girl. Other than that
she knew nothing. She had no recollection of how she could have come to the Delta Quadrant or anything
much about her life up to this point.

They replicated her some clothes so she could change out of her life support suit and continued on their
way.

An hour later they were hailed by a small shuttlecraft. It was Videk. They had just finished repairs to
the shuttle and were going back to Voyager as fast as they could. He also reported that the two Starfleet
personnel they had been with had been captured by pirates and were being held on a nearby moonbase.

Videk sent them the quadrants and they continued on to the moonbase, arriving around 2300.

Scanning from orbit they could tell the base was shielded, but they did pick up two Starfleet comms badge
signals coming from the accommodation block.

Three small spaceships approached them. Kirk opened a comms channel,
'Greetings ... uhhh... can we land?...'
Mieon pushed him aside and said something incoherent.
A blunt headed alien in heavy looking armour came on the screen and said,
'Identify yourself, alien vessel!'
'This is a captured ship, we are looking to come down and trade!', improvised Mioen.
'Understood. Land on Pad C. Co-ordinates to follow.'

Noxus landed the Aeroshuttle while Kirk replicated three crates self-sealing stem bolts for
trading purposes.

Once they landed though they began to realise they had misjudged the way the moon base operated and
were met by a squad of mean looking Norlots in space suits.
'Puny aliens! Surrender at once or be blown to smithereens!' they declared over the comms channel.
'I guess we could surrender... but...', said Noxus.
'Just don't lot them on the ship, they might take the cargo.', said Mieon.

Their discussion was interrupted by another loud demand,
'You have one minute to surrender or face utter annihilation!'

Kirk replicated a button and transported to the location of the prisoners to check that it was possible.
Noxus and Mieon discussed further options, but Crewman Sendine said,
'I'm more worried about that plasma turret that is pointing at us!'

In the end they surrendered. They were told to come out with their hands up. Norlots are just as happy
to keep their spacesuits on as not, so since there was no atmosphere on this moon, the crew of the Aeroshuttle
had to don theirs to exit.

Mieon was first out, and saw a squad of twelve Norlots. They were short and stocking humanoids, dressed in
armoured environment suits and holding large snub nosed projectile carbines.

Kirk and Noxus teleported into the moonbase, into a store room. Noxus started opening the crates, as always
very interested in acquiring other people possessions.

As he wondered what to do next, Ensign Kirk heard Mieon on this comms badge.

'There are three of them on board the ship. We should get out of here real quick!'

(G219 31/10/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), Mira, Guru)

(G219 31/10/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), Mira, Guru)

DAY 225  (22 Marpenoth)(October) cont ...

In the dusky gloom I could make out a boat leaving the jetty. No more than a dark blob in sea of even
greater darkness. In what little light there was from our party I saw Mirabella leap onto the ship.

Gurudor shouted at me this up to the others. There was a man on the deck of the boat and he said
'Who sent you?'
'No one!' declared the halfling. She gulped though, when she saw a two headed dog sniffing at her.

I turned into an eagle and took to the air. Flying over the boat I could see the man was a shadar kai.
I had no idea what the dog was, but I could see four skeletons sat at the oars. Gurudor unsheathed his
bow and fired at the shadar kai, one arrow zipping into the water and another finding its target.

I decided to go for a big spell to begin with and cast Flamestrike. I felt some sort of magical block
on the spell, but with will power I struggled past the block and managed to cast. The blast injured
the shadar kai and the dog and destroyed the skeletons.

I flew down to forty feet. The shadar kai tried to hide from me, but I could still see him. Sylvia
had cast a Magical Weapon and a glowing shillelagh was pounding away at the poor hound.

Thinking that any other spell I cast that involved light would hit the magical 'barrier' (most likely
a property of the Plane of Shadows itself) I opted for Magical Stone. But part of the spell requires
that the stones are thrown. I'd rather forgotten I was currently an eagle!
In the spirit of research then I grasped them in my talons and threw. They fell in the water and
pattered harmlessly on the deck.
The last stone hit the shadar though, although I doubt he hardly noticed it.

I landed on the boat, and noted that Gathan had climbed up the side. The boat had moved a few dozen
feet from shore and he had swam across.

I turned back into a human and clumsily attacked. I dropped my sword, shield and backpack as I
slipped on the deck so I merely kicked the shadar kai in the chest as he came at me.

As Gathan also attacked, the shadar kai struck him down and the lizardman collapsed in a bloody
heap. As the combat continued Mirabella, who had jumped over the side a one point to get away from
the hound, tried to make it back on board, but slipped and fell back into the water.

As the shadar kai went to finish off Gathan, I picked up my sword and attacked. My scimitar bit deeply
into his flesh and he fell to the deck dead.

The magical weapon had killed the hound at the other end of the boat and pummelled it into a bloody heap
of bones and fur. The fighting over, me and Mirabella rowed the boat back to shore. Mirabella whispered
to me, 'Don't tell the others about me falling overboard!'
I nodded and smiled. Well, I won't tell the others, but I've noted it here!

Anyway, once Gurudor and Sylvia were on board we explored the cabin and looted the place. There was a
chest that had treasure in it including a small dragon bone lyre and some sort of writing on a parchment
no one could read although it included some musical notation.

After that we discussed our next move and during the lull in the excitement I took some soil, water and
plant samples, putting them in my specimen jars.

Sylvia motioned to us that she had heard something though and we went over to the east where we found a
caged lizardman. Once we'd established we were friendly we let him out. He didn't speak common but using
me phrase book and Sylvia's Comprehend Language spell we established his name was Steersissk of the
Sharptooth tribe.

After that it was decided to pop back through the portal. Mira had been cursed by the shadar kai during
the combat, something that I'd not noticed so we waited until to wore off. While we waited she argued
with Gurudor over something ... I'm not sure what as I was looking at my specimens, but they swapped a few
sharp words.

Well, anyway, we went back through and looked to one of the doors to the north of the main chamber.
Once Mira had opened it Guru went in, but I noticed something. Something pretty nasty looking, big, with
four arms.

As Guru went it, it revealed itself and said,
'You are not supposed to be here! Good! I need fresh meat!'

With that he made a grab for Mira but she fended it off and the fight began. I cast Bear's Endurance on
Gurudor and then started filling the place up with crocodiles.

The beast made another grab for Mira as everyone rushed in to the melee and picking her up it stuck her
onto a meat hook that hung from the wall. Poor Mirabella! Although she writhed in pain from the spike
in her back, because she is so very small, she was not going to die.

Sylvia moved round the creature to help and heal the poor halfling. The beast went for its next target
and grabbed at Guru with two arms while it ripped and rended at him with the other two.

I continued with my tried and tested tactic of being a crocodile ring master and having summoned seven
of the blighters sent them in to attack the beast, their jaws snapping and tails slapping.
Well, there isn't much that can stand against the attack of seven crocodiles and down it went, underneath
a hail of blows. You could hardly see the thing for crocodiles.

The creature defeated then, we found a pair of wooden chests in the room which had some treasure in them.
The whole lot we took back into the Lost Refuge, or should I say 'Wisphaven' as Lavinia now wanted to call
it.

Exhausted from all the fighting, we decided to call it a day for adventures into the Plane of Shadows.
Sylvia healed Gathan and he regained unconsiousness. Syvlia could currently understand his language as
she'd cast a spell earlier to talk to Steersissk. Gathan seemed quiet annimated when he was back on his
feet and had a lot to say. When the others asked what he was ranting on about Syvlia said,
'Oh he's just happy to be here!'
She revealed to me later though it was more along the lines of,
'Why won't you smooth skinned idiots just let me die?'

(G217 17/10/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), Mira, Guru)

(G217 17/10/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), Mira, Guru)

DAY 227 (24th Marpenoth) cont ...

They made an attempt to run for it, but everyone seemed to want to get one last hit in, so without
really meaning to, they got back into a brawl with the monster.

Cale struck at it with his scythe and took most of the beasts blows as Fhu healed him. Elmo shot it
a couple more times and Mathmoss jumped on its back to stab it one more time. Finally, bloody and
beaten, Cale struck it one last time with his scythe and knocked it down. The bullette a final
growl and died.


.....



[And here we must leave them for now! Lets now catch up with what I was doing over in Cormyr.
Mathmoss and Cale had wasted a lot of time getting to the Moat House in Homlett, but then, it was
a difficult time to be traveling about and if adventuring was easy, then everyone would be doing it.
Just to prove that I'm really no better, lets get back to my story then ...]

DAY 225  (22 Marpenoth)(October)

I too had been procrastinating and for days had been feeling I was 'nearly ready' to enter that
dreadful portal but always seemed to come up with 'one last thing to do.'

Today I flew over to the lizardman camp again for one last word with K. As I flew over I saw a
mounted and armoured human talking to him. He was not aggressive though and once I'd landed and
turned back into a human I introduced myself. He said his name was Gurudor and that he was infact
looking for me! It turned out he was a paladin of Mystra and had been sent by Tunaster Dranik to help us.
Once that was sorted out he asked for direction to the Lost Refuge and away he went.

I then went had a pow-wow with K and after talking for a while we both agreed that it would be a good
idea for him and his tribe to occupy the Lost Refuge. This would help guard our back and help keep safe
the folks we were leaving behind.

Including the ones that had already joined us ..

(Nakal, warrior, Nanti, warrior, Jatol, maid, Cupcay, boy)

.. the lizardman tribe numbered 89 souls. How they were going to arrange themselves inside the
Lost Refuge was up to them, but I left it to K. He said they would be along in a day or two
once they had broken camp here.

After that was all decided I flapped back over the refuge and arrived back at the guardhouse.
Even before I could tell them about this new paladin I had Sylvia over and talking to me about poor
Mira who was sulking in the corner. It turned out that something down below the refuge had nibbled her
and in all likelihood she now had lycanthropy!

Well, Sylvia knew she could deal with it on the next full moon with a carefully cast 'Remove Curse'
spell, but Mira did seem worried and rather ill-informed although Sylvia had tried to make things
clear to her, or so she had said anyway.

We were still in the middle of that when Gurudor Silverfeather turned up. I explained the situation to
him and then showed him the interior of the Refuge, where we held Gathan and Kithkin and where the portal
to horribleness was.

For a moment I thought he was going to go a bit 'Destryl' on me when I showed him the prisoners but it
turned out we were misunderstanding each other. If I have to get rough with a prisoner I usually threaten
to 'Set the Badger on them' and if that doesn't work then I have nothing else. It seems Gurudor is prepared
to slap them about a bit but would never go as far as Destryl did.

Having agreed that we examined the portal. As I was explaining the dangers and considerations of the portal
to Gurudor he stuck his hand in it. I yelped in concern, but he seemed none the worse once it was removed.

I tried to council caution but it appeared our new companion was a man of action and he bravely stepped
though. Not wanting to be seen as a coward I also stepped in. After that we summoned together the people that
had expressed an interest in exploring this area and in we all went.

Myself, Sylvia, Mira, Gurudor and Gathan all went in. Lavinia, Jiggles and Shump all preferred to stay behind
and guard our exit.

We found ourselves in a dark and ruined version of the building we had just left. Mira explored outside and
we followed. As we approached a jetty beside a river (or lake, it was too dark to see) we were attacked by
a group of shadow lizard folk. We were 'loaded for bear' though and between Guru's melee attacks, my crocodiles
and Sylvia's Searing Light spell we killed off our attackers pretty quickly.

We had over-reacted, yes, but I can admit I was full of fear of this strange and dark place and although
she would never admit it I could see Sylvia was nervous. Mira seemed a little lost, but was being brave.
Gurudor was impossible to read, since he had a full visored helmet on, but I should imagine he was enjoying
himself. Paladins are like that.

(G216 03/10/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, Mira)

(G216 03/10/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, Mira)


DAY 223 (20th Marpenoth) cont...

Recovering in the Abbey, Cale was finally visited by Mathmoss at 11 o'clock. After some discussion
Mathmoss returned to the inn.

DAY 224 (21th Marpenoth)

Mathmoss indulged in one of his favourite sports - namely - chatting up serving wenches and did
get a bit of conversation out of one called Glenda, but that's all he got.

He took her out to another place called the 'Hardluck Poet' at three in the morning (once she'd
finished her shift at the Boar's Skull Inn. He escorted her home after an hour or so there and
he stole a kiss at her door, but she didn't seem to care for it.

After a sleep, around noon, Mathmoss headed back to Homlett. I wonder if it was just to kill time
as much as anything else as Cale was healing. He arrived at midnight.

DAY 225 (22nd Marpenoth)

Using his Hat of Disguise he entered the village and then the Inn of the Welcoming Wench. There
are no hats of disguise for horses though and as Mathmoss lead in faithful 'Clompy' the head groom
noticed that this was the very same horse that had been owned by 'those ruffians that had attacked
our druid.'
A bribe sorted it out though.

Mathmoss went to his room after that and in the morning hired Elmo Oats, for the price of an axe
and some armour, to be his guide to the moat house. First they headed back to Goldenfields to
pick up Cale.

DAY 226 (23rd Marpenoth)

So, another day passed in Goldenfields, the 'Breadbasket of Waterdeep'. Cale healed at the abbey
and Elmo and Mathmoss drank at the Boar.

Glenda was serving there again but didn't have much to say so Mathmoss left her be. Later a nice
plump girl called Hyacinthe came on shift and he tried his luck with her but got nowhere.

With Mathmoss, the desire was always there, but never the ability, sadly, when it came to women.
If you wanted something stolen or someone killed quietly in the night, he was your man, but when it
came to wooing fair maidens, he was sadly lacking in skill.

DAY 227 (24th Marpenoth)

In the morning Mathmoss asked about the inn, chancing his arm to see if there were any adventuring
clerics about and as luck would have it he met one called Fhu'Shion Dhie'Vise.

This was an older gentleman with a huge black bushy beard and a booming commanding voice. He seemed
happy enough to join them in an adventure to take on evil in the Ardeep Forest.

Later Cale joined them, still rather frail, but well enough to travel, but Elmo recognised him at
once as 'that bounder that attacked our poor old druid!'

Elmo would have been prepared to let by-gones be by-gones if Cale promised to appologise to the
druid when they got back to Homlett but Cale was having none of it, feeling that he was very much
the wronged party.

On hearing this, Fhu got up to leave, being acquainted with Jaroo and Elmo also said goodbye. It
was only after chasing after them and smoothing things over for an half an hour or so that Mathmoss
prevented their adventuring party from falling apart before it even got out the tavern!

And so they gathered their things, took one last swig of ale, and set off. They were only a couple
of hours into their adventures when they were attacked by a bullette. You may remember these
creatures from when Oz and Alduin came to the area, large burrowing beasts, covered in hardened
plates of hide and with endless supplies of appetite and stupidity.

It leapt up out of the ground right there on the path they were following and attacked. It first
went for the horse, but when it came under attack it went for Cale and very badly injured him.
It didn't help that Elmo accidentally shot him with an arrow during the chaotic melee either.

Fhu cast Briar Web though which held off the beast just long enough to heal Cale and get him
out of the way. Mathmoss leapt onto the creatures back and stabbed it. It rolled over and he
jumped off.

The bullette shook itself, growled, and charged at them again.

(G214 19/09/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), Mira)

(G214 19/09/2014 via Roll20 - AP(GM), Mira)

[This from another source...]

As so it was that, undaunted by her previous encounters, that Mirabella, accompanied by Sylvia,
continued clearing the undead infested basement.

They cleared the room of 4 skeletons, taking only minor injury and proceeded to open the door at
the far end, after checking for noise and traps. ( This was to be a tactic employed at every door
they encountered.)
This door led to a short, 10 foot long corridor, ending in another door. Again, the duo listened
and checked for traps, and they found no traps and heard no sound. However, when they opened the
door, they were confronted by 2 Ogres.

After a bit of back and forth combat and Sylvia receiving an extremely heavy blow that may well
have felled someone of a lesser constitution, the duo decided to lure the Ogres back to the pit
trap the previously encountered. With the Ogres hot on their heels, they managed to make it to
the pit trap unkilled. Luckily, the Ogres, being of a large size, were slowed by having to squeeze
through doors that they were able to run through. With the 2 ogres on one side of the pit and our
heroes on the other, they managed to kill one of them and heavily wound the second. However, the
second ogre then jumped over the pit and made to strike them down. Luckily, Mirabella was able to
dispatch the ogre with a number of well placed arrows, causing it to fall backwards into the pit.
After taking stock of their wounds, healing up and catching their breath, the duo retraced their
steps and searched the “ogre room”, and found a few items and some gold in a large pile of bones.
They then continued their search and entered a room that had some sort of feral beast in it.

Despite our heroes not knowing what it was, they managed to kill it. Mirabella noticed that her
blows were having no effect on the creature and only Sylvia’s magic weapon was having an effect.
During this battle, Mirabella was bitten a number of times.
This almost concluded their search, with only a couple or rooms left to search. However, in one
of the last rooms, they came across another Ogre!
However, our, now battle hardened heroes managed to dispatch it with relative ease and declared
the basement “clear”.

(G212 05/09/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), Mira)

(G212 05/09/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), Mira)


DAY 223 (20th Marpenoth)  (October)

In the morning they met up and planned the days activities. Between them they had a notion to
ask around Goldenfields and try and decern the meaning of 'MH'. What it could be and where.

Goldenfields is a large complex of farms centered around a fortified abbey. The wall around the abbey
encloses a small town of about fifty buildings including the inn they were staying in. Outside the
wall were ten farms of various sizes. Including the farmland the area of Goldenfields could be said
to be about twenty square miles.

Before the horde had arrived the outer farms were all prosperous and well populated, heavily patrolled
by mounted guards from the abbey. But when reevers from the horde of Obuld Many-Arrows had arrived the
farms had been abandoned and the farm folk relocated to the shelter of the abbey.

With the horde moving off though, the folk were drifting back to their burnt out houses and beginning
repairs.

Mathmoss said he would scout about outside the walls and leave the abbey and inside the walls to Cale.
So, they split up, saying they would meet up later that day at the Inn.

Now, what Mathmoss got up to, I do not know as he never told anyone, but I do know that Cale started
by talking to the innkeeper and then went on to the abbey. Cale decided to go straight to the top and
talk to Tolgar Anuvien, the Lord of Goldenfields.

The guards wouldn't let him into the main abbey building but a cleric by the name of Brother Maynard
came out to talk to him and offered him tea in a guard house.

Cale started talking and told of his story, of helping protect Waterdeep, meeting Mathmoss and Pensato
and seeking adventure had accepted a quest to go to Hommlett. He then told Maynard he was looking for
something called 'MH' that was not too far from Hommlett.

'Why do you not ask in Hommlett?' inquired the cleric.
'We were not made welcome there.' said Cale in rather an understated tone.

Maynard left and came back half an hour later with a dusty tome.
'Now, this text is rather out of date.', he said, 'But I think I know where your MH is. Firstly though,
if I could ask you to make a small donation to the abbey?'

Cale gave one gold, but when Maynard raised an eyebrow he made it up to ten.

'Very well. MH must mean "Moat House", this is a ruined building about half a days journey from Hommlett.
According to this historical text, it was once a forward base for a group known as the 'Cult of Elemental
Evil'. They were interested in subjugating all the lands in this area and building a Temple to their evil
god. This never happened as Waterdavian forces came and put a stop to it.
The Moat House fell into ruin and this book makes no more mention of it. I do know, from my own knowledge
though that the Cult of Elemental Evil were a splinter group linked to another evil group called the
Vanguard of Sertrous. You may or may not remember the yaun-ti incursions of two years ago? I am lead to
belief this Vanguard had something to do with it also. Does this help?'

Cale nodded and said that it did. He thanked Maynard and went back to the inn to wait for Mathmoss.

At noon he had his lunch in the main room. He noticed a cloaked and hooded female figure watching him
but did not approach her. When he went to his room, after a few minutes there was a knock on the door.

The women came in and sat at the table.
'Who are you?' asked Cale.
'My name is Reva. What business do you have in Goldenfields?'

Cale gave an evasive answer. He noticed that she fiddled with a ring and he felt a rush of magic wash
over him but he resisted it.
'You are strong.', she said, 'But look into my eyes.'
Cale looked everywhere but her eyes and resisted another urge to go against his will.

She leant in to kiss him and he grabbed her, wrestling her to the ground. She clawed at his face but
missed. She then seemed to fade and blur, but he retained his grip on her and she could not get free.

Cale pinned her and tried to grab at her sword. She cried out in some language he did not recognize.

A hooded man burst in and cast a spell that broke Cale's will.
The man said,
'Come with us, calmly and in silence.'
Cale could no nothing other than what the man suggested.

He was lead through the streets of Goldenfields to a house on the north west wall. He was lead downstairs
into a cell. He saw that is was a reasonably large chamber, with three torches on the wall providing light.
There was a woman chained to one wall and what appeared to be a sleeping heap of clothes on the other side.

Reva asked all the same questions she had asked before. Who had sent him. Why was he here. But Cale was no longer
under the power of the suggestion and remained evasive.

She warned him,
'You are better off talking to me. If the master comes down to question you, then you'll be in a bad way.'

She left him in the cell for three hours.

He looked at the chained female and saw that she was unconscious and covered in blood so he left her alone.
Now, perhaps an adventurer with more initiative might have tried to heal her wounds, or investigate the pile
of clothes, or take a torch from the wall or anything indeed to try and escape, but Cale was often prone to
bouts of passive indecision and merely calmly waited until his captors returned.

And so, later in the afternoon Reva returned and asked,
'What is your business in Goldenfields?'
She was met with silence, so tutted and turned to leave, knocking on the locked door to be let out.
Cale went in for the grapple once more and grabbed her. She slashed at him with her long nails.

Two snake headed men change into the room and one of them bit Cale in the arm. He felt poison course
through his body, but his strong constitution fended it off.

'Just let me go!', hissed Reva, 'You don't realise it, but I'm your best friend here! And also the least of a threat.'

Cale went for the dagger at her belt but couldn't quite get it. The two snake headed men tried to get a hold
of him, to drag him off Reva but he was too agile and his grip was too strong. They drew their scimitars and started
to whack him with the flats of their blades.

I should imagine their was an element of comedy in this struggle as Cale held onto the woman and dodged blows from
their swords. When a sword struck him it would clunk off his head or shoulders.

Both of the men also managed to bite him again, which was less amusing and as he weakened the woman suddenly turned
into a snake and slithered out of the door.

Cale took the opportunity to leap out after her though, and once he was free to use his fancy footwork there was
no catching him. He was straight up the stairs, shouldering doors out of the way and smashing out of a ground
floor window before the snake people could react.

The crash through the window was all his system could take though and he landed in an unconscious heap in the
street.

He awoke on a bed in a small room. There were three other beds in the room and weak autumnal light filtered
in through a single high window. Brother Maynard gave him a smile and came over.
'What happened to you?'

Cale told him everything he remembered. He gave the location of the house he was held captive in.

'Well', mused Maynard, 'It sounds like you encountered Yuan-ti. The Vanguard are here in Goldenfields then?
That is worrying. We owe you thanks then, for alerting us to their presence.'

At six o'clock Cale found that he was very weak from the poison in his system and Maynard advised him of what
his options were. Magical restoration would be expensive, but a stay in the hospital would be much cheaper.

He had is stuff sent over and organised a message being left for Mathmoss.

At nine o'clock Maynard informed him that the house had been raided, but had been empty. There was a dead
woman in one of the cells with her throat cut but other than that nothing.

At ten o'clock a guard captain came to take his statement. Cale told the whole story, including the fact
that Cavu had sent him.

(G210 22/08/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), Mira, Al)

(G210 22/08/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), Mira, Al)

DAY 220 (17th Marpenoth) (october) cont....

And thus, Mathmoss left town on his horse. He went back towards Waterdeep on the main road for about
two miles.

Now, to refresh your memories, you may remember that about a month ago (DAY 196) Fenrir had spilled
his guts about the location of Gertrude the White to none other than Meleghost Starseer, joint head
of the Waterdeep Inquisition.

The results of this are not fully known to me, but one of most interesting things about this tale is
that Gertrude herself appears in it.

While riding along the main road, in the misty distance he saw a lone figure dressed in white robes
and leaning on a staff or spear. As he got closer he could see she wore a blindfold but seemed not
to stumble.

Now, Mathmoss is not usually in the habit of helping old ladies but he must of sensed who he was
dealing with because after talking to her and finding she was on her way to Goldenfields he offered
to accompany her.

'You know it is very dangerous around here, how can you find your way if you are blind?' he asked
'Oh, I am not blind!', she replied, 'I wear the blindfold because I am tired of the smell around
here. I can see perfectly well with my ears.'
Mathmoss didn't know what to make of this, but even went so far as to allow her to ride on his horse.

By the end of the day they arrived at the outskirts of Goldenfields. They stopped at an abandoned farm
and Gertude took great interest in the box that contained what was left of Cale.

'Open it.', she said.

Once open, she begane a divine ritual, the bit of corpse began to reform and before Mathmoss's eyes
Cale was reborn, dressed only in bloody tatters.

He was confused at first, but Gertrude reassured him.

All cale could remember of death was tight rows of orchards with streams snaking across a perfectly flat
plain. In the distance he had seen perfectly laid out cities and roads but had not got close to them
before he had been ushered back to the material plane.

He borrowed some clothes and a scythe from the farm.

Gertrude gave some advise to Cale before toddling off to the gates of the abbey at Goldenfields,
'There is greatness in you, young man. If you are true to yourself, to your inner goodness, then you
will achieve wonderful things.'

Cale nodded in thanks and rested for a while to let it all sink in.

As it approached midnight they too headed for the town gates. There were twenty mounted guards
at the front of the gate. They were a little wary of these new arrivals at first but once they
had talked for a while, their commander wrot them a two-day pass and let them in. He recommended
that they stay at the Boar's Skull Inn.

DAY 221 (18th Marpenoth) (October)

Cale borrowed some money from Mathmoss and opted for the common room. During the night a drunken
old tramp first tried to kiss him and then to rob him.

Cale snatched the dagger of the old man when it was drawn, but gave it back. When the tramp started
shouting another man in the room yelled,
'For God's sake, shut up!' and whacked the old man over the head with a chamber pot.

In the morning Cale tried to wake the old tramp, but he was incoherent. He lay the dagger beside the
old man and left.

Cale and Mathmoss had breakfast then went and purchased a chain shirt from the armoury. They then
headed back to Hommlet.

That night Mathmoss broke into Freddorick's house with ease and after looking around found some
copied out journal entries, which read:

***

26th Flamerule 1376DR
'And so they left today. Osbourne seems determined and ready for anything. I wish him well in his
quest to get all the clues he'll need for Kingsholm but I do wonder if he's as clever as he thinks
he is. Alduin seemed lost and a long way from home, but strong at least, good in a fight.'


5th Eleasis 1376DR
'I sent a letter to Dana today. If she comes to Hommlet we can travel together. I think I have a good
idea where the last Yuan-ti portal is.'

12th Eleasis
'Dana arrived today. Good to see her! She brought news from Waterdeep. Apparently Fenrir Thunderstaff
was freed and pardoned, but later the Thunderstaff Villa was attacked by gargoyles. Links to Yuan-ti?
This was the fellow that was linked to Osbourne and Alduin. Also some stories of an attack on a villa
in Castle Ward. A house that was being used by the Yuan-ti, or so Dana thinks.
What does it all mean? Do I even want to know?'

8th Elient
'Word from Waterdeep is grave indeed! Orcish Hordes and Luscan pirates. And all that on top of famine
and disease. My research into finding the last of the Yuan-ti portals is finally done and I have
located it. As we had suspected all along it is not far from Hommlet.'

10th Elient
'My spy in Waterdeep informs me that the Sea Wyvern is back from Candlekeep, but Osbourne Tern was
not onboard. What transpires now? I wonder if they found Marten? So many questions! This means they
only have Bertran to find now. I wish them luck, but I cannot wait any longer. I will start gathering
supplies now. And pray.'

27th Elient
'I don't know if me and Dana are ready for a delve into a dungeon, but it seems the best idea. The
Yuan-ti are hot on our trail. Whatever Osbourne and Alduin have been up to really has them stirred
up now! I think they will be here any day now and I need to pre-empt them. Who knows what is on the
other side of the portal? But I have a nice surprise to give them, so I can only hope we survive.
I think even getting to the portal will be hard if what I have heard about the MH is correct.'

***

After that they set up camp in the forest about half a mile from the village and off the road.

Mathmoss took the first watch and slithered up a tree. A few hours later a man dressed in plate
armour and a dog approached the camp.
The man said to the dog, 'You were roight, Ted! There is someone there!'
Ted then looked up at the tree and the man shone is lantern on Mathmoss.
'Can I help you?', inquired the ninja.

The man seemed puzzled but said, 'You know, you'd be much safer in the village.'
'Who are you?' countered Mathmoss.
'My name is Sir Martinus, Holy Knight of the Order of Aster.'
'Oh well, my name is Bert. Him on the ground is Ernie.'
The man looked them over, 'Bert and Ernie eh? You look like outlaws to me.'
Mathmoss shrugged.
Seeing nothing more to be gained from this the man bowed and left.
'Come along Ted. I'll bid you fine gentlemen travelers good night.'


DAY 222 (19th Marpenoth) (October)

At three o'clock in the morning the camp was attacked by what they could only identify as big
hairy wolf type things. Cale fought them from the ground while Mathmoss shot at them from the
trees. Once they had killed four of them the other two ran off.

It was to be a rough night for them, as an hour later a nice little fox turned up and started
sniffing at the dead wolf creatures (as a druid I would guess these things were wargs). Cale
put out a friendly hand to it, but it suddenly turned into a huge dragon!

They ran for it after that and set up camp somewhere else as the dragon ate up its tasty early
breakfast of four fresh wargs.

They set off once more for Goldenfields and arrived back at the Boar's Skull last thing at
night.

(G211 29/08/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD) 18

(G211 29/08/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD) 18

DAY 75 (wed)

xxxxx

Action Report from Neelix to Captain Janeway: Planet Unnamed Class M.

Firstly I would like to ask permission to name the planet Kirk-Evoras. Due to their bravery in
saving my poor old Biaxial while we were on the planet.

Anyway, my dear Captain, we set off for Kirk-Evoras, leaving Voyager at 0700. It took 6 hours to
get there. Good old Biaxial is slow, but steady.

At 1300 we landed on a carefully selected verdant area of the planet, packed full of fruits, vegetation
and grains. We quickly loaded up many crates of food before the incident occurred.

I don't know if it was because Evoras was using some of the vines as target practice for her phaser, She
is certainly a good shot and seemed to have fun shooting the branches and catching the fruit as it fell,
but once the smaller wildlife fled from the noise, it maybe attracted the attention of larger animals.
Firstly we were attacked by large hairy jungle hounds. I would have helped fight them off, but a troop
of monkeys leapt onto the Biaxial then got into the cargo hold and I went in to chase them out.

I did notice though that while Kirk was shooting the hounds, Evoras was perhaps a tiny bit confused as
to which weapons to use and swapped from her dual wielded phasers to her swords and then back again.
Once she'd sorted that out though she joined in holding back the hounds.

A few were stunned but more came and then two gigantic hairy jungle bears! They made a terrifying noise
and their attack drove Kirk back to the ship. He threw an incendiary grenade in an attempt to hold them
back. Along with the bears I could see, flitting in and out of the undergrowth, tall blue skinned alien
hunters. The shot at us with arrows as long as spears, but not many hit anything vital.

Evoras was cut off and made a run for the doors and attempted to jump over a hound to get in, but ended
up prone on the gangway. She scrambled up and got in.

When a flaming angry bear got into the cargo bay things got a bit crazy. It lashed out at random, killing
monkeys and injuring Kirk and Evoras.

I got into the cockpit and called through to ask if I should take off. Ensign Kirk yelled back, 'Yes!'
so I closed the cargo bay door and lifted off. I heard a lot of commotion back there but in the end Kirk
and Evoras killed the hound and bear. That just left the frightened monkeys to deal with.
The whole place was full of smoke and smelled of burnt bear. I really should clean out my air filters.

I flew level at 200m for a bit, but then noticed one of the alien hunters was clinging onto the ship
and trying to break into the cockpit window with a rock!
'Raise your shields!' suggested Kirk, but sadly Biaxial has no shields so he opened the cargo bay door
and with Evoras holding onto his belt leaned out to shoot at the hunter.

I skimmed along at treetop level while Kirk shot at the alien and ducked back in as rocks were thrown
at him. When he was badly injured the alien howled and leapt off the ship and landed in a treetop.

After that I went straight up. Kirk stunned the monkeys with grenades then we tossed them out in a
clearing further away and went into orbit.

I put the dead hound and bear into cold storage. It would be a shame to waste good meat after all.

We got back to Voyager at 2000. All of us reported to med bay for a check up and to get our wounds
dressed.

End of Report.

xxxxx

DAY 76 (thu)

Today both Ensign Kirk and Ensign Evoras were both on duty.

Kirk got off at 1900 and went and spent two hours helping out in Engineering, trying to earn brownie points
with Torres.

Evoras has volunteered for extra duties so worked in the med bay between 1900 and 2100.

DAY 77 (fri)

xxxxx
Summary of Court Martial of Ensign Paul Kirk.
Presiding Officer : Captain Janeway.
Prosecutor : Lt Tuvok
Defence       : Cmdr Chakotay

Kirk prepared with Chakotay from 0600 to 0900. At 0900 the proceedings began.

The charge was:
'Behaviour unbefitting to a starfleet officer. During the investigation into Vidiian activity on
the planet of Treebad-3 Ensign Kirk used torture to procure information from a Vidiian prisoner
and then teleported the individual into the sea which most likely resulted in his death.'

Kirk's defence boiled down to,
'I was aware it wasn't starfleet, but I had to do it to protect Treebad. The ends justified
the means.'

Tuvok's argument boiled down to,
'There are two distinct charges here. One of torture, which while not palatable is logical. Millions
of lives were at stake. But once the information was gathered the prisoner was no longer required. Kirk
endangered the prisoners life purely out of mischief. I have calculated that given the distance the Vidiian
would have to swim he was 98% likely to have died as a result.'

Noxus was called for the defence and told of the events as he had witnessed them.

The judgement:

(extract)
Janeway : 'Do you have anything you have to say before I pass sentence?'
Kirk    : 'I needed information quickly. Their were bombs about to go off.'
Janeway : 'That was one thing. But why the transported misuse? You already had the information you needed.'
Kirk    : 'I felt it was the safest way of continuing with the mission.'
Janeway : 'I'll do you a favour and take you on the benefit of the doubt and choose to believe you didn't
just lie to me there Ensign. No. It was nothing more than a wanton act of cruelty. You could have a great
career in front of you Kirk if you temper your Behaviour. Reflect on your actions. I hope you make better
decisions next time.'

Sentence:

The Court Martial entered into Permanent Record. On Report for one month. Stopped Relicator Rations
for seven days.

xxxxx

Still, Kirk and Evoras were big hits in the messhall that evening. The bear meat was delicious!

DAY 78 (sat)

Ensign Kirk worked in Engineering and on his MATSE project.

Ensign Evoras worked in the Science Lab. There was an endless supply of data on the Data Quadrant
to categorize and analyse. While scanning through some of it Ensign Kim got lucky and found a wormhole.

Voyager scanned it further and found it to be very small, no more than 30cm wide. A probe was sent
in and got stuck, but Engineering reckoned it could be used as a message booster. It was thought it
would be crushed in 72 hours though.

Chief Torres and Ensign Kim worked together to figure this out and messages were sent out. A response
was received from the Alpha Quadrant.

After much 'science stuff' Kim and Torees managed to get some voice comms and talked to someone who
admitted to being a Romulan onboard a science vessel by the name of Talvath.

Talvath was initially rather reluctant to talk or even believe he was being hailed from a Federation
ship in the Delta Quadrant.

Luckily, thought Janeway, I have two Romulans on board who can back up our story. Videk and his wife
had left just yesterday on a run to a Norlot system. They had gone with some Starfleet officers in
a shuttle. It was meant to be a routine visit but they could not be currently reached by subspace
comms.

Captain Janeway decided to throw together an away team and sent out the Aeroshuttle to go fetch
them.

(G209 15/08/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD) 17

(G209 15/08/2014 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, LD) 17

DAY 69 (thu)....cont....

At noon they were both discharged from med bay at full health. Noxus went to mooch around the cargo
bays with QM Conner and Kirk went to his quarters. Finding them empty though he then went and chatted
to Neelix who mentioned he was going to a trading post near Gorbatt-2 soon.

Kirk also talked to Lt Andrews about MATSE and his 'Kirk Alpha' programms. He got the message that
he needed to get more into Torres's good books if he wanted official help with his projects but Andrews
let him have a couple of free hours a day, skipping some training to do his research.

At dinner time Kirk talked to Kes in the messhall and Noxus continued his charm offensive and used some
of his precious rations to buy Crewman Del a chocolate sundae.

Next he replicated a book called 'History of Humans : A beginners guide for alien races' with some vague
notion of talking to Torres about it. She dismissed him though and said,
'I thought you were a hairdresser!'
She'd been awake for 48 hours working on the Dilithium Refinery and was in no mood for people presenting
her with their personal schemes.
When Kirk approahed her about MATSE she yawned in his face and said she hadn't read it yet.

DAY 70 (fri)

Kirk was on duty at the D6A while Noxus hung around and did a few haircuts at the hairdressers. In
some ways this scheme of his - of cutting peoples hair - was working, in that he seemed a lot less
threatening as a hairdresser than he did as a cardassian spy.

At lunch time Kirk was called to one side by Lt Andrews and informed that he was to be courtmartialed.
Kirk was surprised to hear it, but Andrews told him it was because of the torture and probably slaying
of a capture Vidiian (The one that Kirk crushed in a forcefield then teleported out to sea).
Andrews agreed that it seemed that while that was a court martialing offence it was not a problem all
the Vidiian's he had killed during firefights.
Andrews seemed to be on Kirks side anyway and relayed the trial would be in one week and the Captain
would be the prociding officer.

Kirk called up Tuvok to be his defence officer, but it turned out he would be the procecutor so he
asked Chakotay instead and he agreed.

While all that was going on, Noxus was badly beaten by Seska and a gang of ex-Makia starfleet personel
in a quiet corridor as he returned from the hairdressers. He woke up in med bay, it seemed not everyone
was prepared to let him be.

When the doctor asked him what happened he made up a story of falling down a ladder. He went on to
ask the doctor to revert him back to a Cardassian, but the doctor strongly advised against it, suggesting
that this would really stir up the Maquis on the ship at a time when the were still trying to integrate
with the rest of the crew.

That evening while he was preparing his case, Kirk was notified by Neelix that he would be going with
him to Gorbatt-2. Noxus would also join them as co-pilot.


DAY 71 (sat)

Neelix's ugly cargo ship was called the Baxail. They set off at 0600 hours, arriving at a trading moon
that orbitied Gorbatt-2 four hours later.

xxx
Gazeeter Entry:
Gorbatt-2 is a Class M planet only recently descovered warp. They allow trading with alien races on a moonbase.
The Gorbattians themselves run the moonbase. They are large and hairy but peaceful enough.
xxx

Neelix lead them to a trade bazaar close to the space port. They loitered around near Neelix for an
hour or so, but Noxus grew bored and wandered off. Five hours later Kirk was nearly asleep, nodding
off while sat on sacks of grain.

Noxus found himself near a slave market, slavery being legal around Gorbatt. He spend some time
looking around the stalls, but had forgotten to bring money and his attempts at barter ended in
failure.

Just then a green skinned female alien ran up to him, 'Help me! Help me!'.
She was a runaway slave and was being chased by a burly Gorbattian guard. Ever the gentleman Noxus
pulled her through the crowd away from the guard and pushed her down an alley.

He then stopped the guard who pulled out a baton and attacked. When the guard pulled his gun and
found that it had jammed Noxus took the opertunity to run down the alley as well. More guards
were coming though.

The alley came to a dead end with only one door. Noxus barged through it and found himself
in a dark and smoke filled area. Small gorbadians were running around with laser rifles and
electronic style armour. He could hear a lot of gun fire in the place and the sounds of a lot
of running.

Not really realising where he was, he shot back at the small gorbadians and even went so far as
to throw an incendiary grenade. Sprinklers went on and the lights went up. A voice called
from a door, 'Over here! Fire! Exit this way!'

Noxus went through the door and entered a cafe area. It slowly dawned on him that he had been
in a childs laser-tag game area. When the police and fire crews came and questioned him he
was arrested.

Kirk and Neelix found out about this when the Gorbadians came and told them to come and get
him. Forms were filled in, the trade negotiations cut short and they left as swiftly as they
could.

Four hours later they arrived back at Voyager.


DAY 72 (sun)

The next day Kirk could not resist writing a scathing report about Noxus and his incederay grenade
being used in a child's play area.

He was on a half day. During his shift the Captain came in and discussed a few things with Lt Andrews.
When Kirk asked what it was about, he replied, 'Don't worry, it wasn't about you.'

Andrews went on to say he had read the MATSE Design Spec. He liked it on the whole he said, but
the problems will not come from the technology, which is all in existance in various forms, but
from the culture of Star Fleet. He explained,
'Star Fleet has gradually became less miliatry in out look. We could all go about in big mech suits
and carry massive cannons, but this is not the way Star Fleet wants to portay humanity to the rest
of the galaxy. Voyager is a science vessel, not a military one, so first you must break through
that barrier. I think you are right though, for what it is worth, we need a heavily armed force
to deal with all the dangers of the Delta Quardrant. One that doesn't care what we look like, but
just cares about saving us from destruction. You'll need to get this past Torres to get it in
production. She is incredibly busy at the moment so won't see it as a priority.'
Andrews gave him a smile, 'You'll need to bake her a cake to get on her good side, assuming she's
got one!'

Noxus, meanwhile, was cutting hair and planning plans. In the evening he started work on a Holo-program
for a dark and very hot room...

Both of them followed with interest what was going on currently on the ship's internal messaging
system.

Commander Chakotay had spotted a nebula on long range scans. Not finding Neelix's latest coffee
substitutes from Gorbatt very palatable and wanting to increase the ship's energy reserves she
declared, 'There is coffee in that nebula!'

At 64 million km Omicron particles were detected.

Closer to the nebula cosmic dust was attracted to the ship. They came to a dead stop at a distance
of 7000km, but it was discovered the transported could not penerate the nebula.

At max shields and full thrust, Voyager entered the nebula and the barrier closed behind them.

Noxus was in the messhall while all this was happening and noticed Neelix and Les kissing in the
kitchen.

Everyone on board felt thumping resonate around the ship as things started to hit the hull and
drawing energy away.

Voyager reversed coarse and hit the barrier. At this point the Captain raised the Red Alert and
Kirk reported to the D6A.

Phasers were used on the barrier but it was undamaged. A torpedo ruptured it though and Voyager
slipped back through into open space. 11% energy reserves were reported as lost.

Kirk went off shift at 2100 hours. He heard from one of the Delany sisters that Tom Paris had
a sort of party going on in the holodeck so he went along to take a look.

It was program Paris-3, an 'olde worlde' Franch tavern called Sandrine's. Kirk played some pool
and chatted to the Delanys.

Meanwhile Noxus took his monkey to the med bay and asked for medical data on it. The doctor
sighed and transfered all existing data on it to his datapad. Noxus then spent the rest of the
evening in the company of his monkey.

DAY 73 (mon)

Kirk reported to the D6A at 0700 hours. The Doctor and Torres had, apparently, worked out that this
'cloud' was a living entity. Kirk spent the rest of the day standing to, at Yellow Alert as the ship
returned to repair the damage it had done.

At 1300 the ship re-entered the nebula. Voyager was put on Red Alert and the shields went up. Kirk
felt a lot of rumbling at the D6A. Noxus remained in his quarters, confined there, as ever, when any
kind of alert was on.

Various things happened on the bridge and the ship was hit by beams from the entity. Engineering
vented fuel and the thrusters were put into Emergency Shutdown. Once things had settled down
the Captain ordered a damage report.

Kirk formed part of a damage repair crew that were sent to fix Electro-plasma leaks on Deck 14 and
the Optical Data Network.

Noxus was slightly injured during all the tossing about and reported to the med bay.

Already tired, but lots of work to do, back at the D6A, Kirk was happy to see Neelix and Kes come
around with trays of snacks and nibbles. Having missed lunch, he tucked in.

Once more Kirk found himself waiting on station while the bridge crew tried to figure out what to
do. In the end it was the Doctor who solved the problem by suggesting the hole in the 'cloud' was
'stitched' by phasers like sutures in a wound.

A Class 4 micro prope was launched as a diversioon and Voyager went in to repair the wound. There
was a lot of rumbling and tossing about on all decks. Once the wound was successfully healed though
they returned once more to open space.

Energy resevers were down 20%. It was 2200 hours.

Kirk was tired, but decided to go try Sandrine's again and was surprised to see Noxus also there.
Noxus was trying to make friends by the look of it, with mixed success.

Kirk tried to get in with Torres, but didn't come across well.

DAY 74 (tue)

Kirk reported to the D6A at 0700 hours. He and Crewman Anderson were sent right down to Engineering
though to help with repair work. Torress seemed to be quiet impressed by Kirk's work.

Noxus spent the day cutting hair and felt that he really was making headway (sorry!) into appearing
less threatening to the rest of the crew.

Still, after his last away mission disaster, Neelix didn't really trust him. He was planning another
supply run and while he was happy to have Ensign Kirk come along as an escort he prefered to try
out someone new. Since they would be landing on a jungle area of a planet to pick up fresh fruit
and veg, Ensign Evoras, an expert in zoology and biology was assigned.