Best only one person does it else you will drag the average down... best lying skill available there is 11.
Personally, I think that approach is somewhat foolish- they'll only ask you what you really wanted, at which point the person will say it was the transponders, and they'll quickly suss out that you haven't paid for any. Far better to have distanced yourself from the whole deal and left the staff member unsure as to why he tried to retrieve anything at all.
Still, no time to worry about that now! You roll... +1, for a 12, and furthermore Rand has Subterfuge, which makes the whole situation look incredibly genuine. Handy, that.
And Rah easily sneaks out during the confusion...
Time to go!
Installing the transponders is done under slightly more pressure than you had wanted.
"Those Bureau ships will be here in 30 minutes!" says Doon. "We'll want to get cracking on with things, folks..."
One of them doesn't work, but Doon re-tunes it with great speed. His mechanical aptitude is of great note.
"I have to set the autopilots on the dummy ships," says Doon, when he is done. "Scorpio will catch you up. Get going! Quickly!"
Fifteen minutes later, Doon's ship pulls up alongside yours.
"Don't do anything hasty or stupid now," says Doon. "Whilst that probe is aorund scanning all ships in the area, we are just a small group of passing travellers... not the sort who suddenly take flight and whiz off without a flight plan..."
You watch the situation on your scopes; wtahcing as the dummy ships enter their hyperspace jumps, watching the Bureau ships jump into the area, pause... and turn and chase after the dummies...
"Cynelline sector traffic control, please state your intended business."
"This is the trader Scorpio and escorts; we are hauling a cargo of Auronarian tobacco to the Outer Rim."
"Stand by."
A minute and a half of agonised torture, as you are made to wait...
"Scorpio, this is Cynelline sector traffic control. Your flight plan is approved. Have a nice day."
"Oh, I will..." says Doon.
His next transmisison is to you guys.
"Ok folks, time to get out of this party. The Republic is too hot for you now. Besides, I have some heavy duty orders for you guys, and you'll need to rest up before you get to the Ghost Citadel. Luckuly, I have just the place..."
Doon transmits to you a hyperspace flight plan that stretches your fully-duelled ships to their limits, outside the boundaries of the Republic, to an irrelevant star that seems to have no planets. Quite where you can rest there, you don't now at first.
"It's a sensor illusion caused by some stellar anomaly in the sector," says Doon. "It actually carries a habitable planet, but you have to get pretty close to notice. No-one in the Republic has any clue it is there.
"You are free men again now, people. And safe. Setting course to the planet Epireus."
The stars streak, and you blur into hyperspace... and you can say goodbye to the Bureau.
End.
Good point. XP spending to begin ASAP, as well as everyone who has not upgraded their characters yet- please do so! Else play in the next Episode will be tricky.
Participation xp for this game is out of 6. By my reckoning, Rand scores four, Tanic and Rah score 5, and everyone else gets 6.
You succeeded in surviving against the Osokan menace, but you did not thrive as such; the success scores you one xp.
This was not an opposed game, nor was there a relevant side to score a victory against, so that does not count, nor was there any conspicuous heroism, much as some of you saving the others was of benefit to the group.
All of you score a point of danger money because I think all of you at some point were put into more danger than need be by player absence.
Which leaves the final allocations at:
Rand: 6
Rah: 7
Tanic: 7
Rianna: 8
Galder: 8
Takuan: 8
If all players could now update their characters to the latest rules, spend their xp if they wish, and make any tweaks and/or background changes you want to make, then I can post them up in the new Archival Records thread soon. The old Archival records are now being closed down, and all the new rules in the new rules thread are being imported into the main rules.
Also note the existence of the new Blade Trick 'Sabre Shield'.