Serenity RPG

Three days out, the crew are on edge about how they are going to get their next antitoxin injections. They have fed the prisoner in the passenger compartment two of the last three days and given him water two days. He is not in the best of moods.

Ruth decided to talk to him. He isn't very keen on chatting. However, once she realizes that he's hungry, she heads to the galley to make him a sandwich. She leaves him outside the room and he immediately runs and hides in the infirmary. Everyone searches for him, but they just can't quite find him.

Then, something on the engine blows and the ship begins to slow down. Jim checks the engine room and finds the problem in the power system, but the engines have been customized with non-standard parts that would take him days to figure out.

In his hiding spot, the prisoner opens a panel and accesses the comm system. First, he creates a massive klaxton burst that stuns everyone for a round. Then, he partially locks up the piloting controls and kills the inter-ship comms. While they others are stunned, he sneaks out and into the cargo hold.

Ruth, still holding her sandwich rushes with the others to check the cargo bay when they hear a loud crash. (Josh rolled a botch!) The prisoner had knocked over a stack of ammo boxes and was pinned beneath them.

Later, sitting in the galley, the prisoner, Josh, is eating a sandwich. Meanwhile, Jim interrogates him. His name is Josh, he was hired as a temp engineer on the firefly. He had nothing to do with running the ship, in fact, we get the idea that the crew might not have liked him. He knows nothing of Hermes' plan or the Omega List. He was hired to do a job: examine the salvage potential of ship's systems. He says he once worked for the Corone Mining Consortium.

Satisfied that he is not a threat, the set course for Jiangyin, a planet rumored to have a safe shipyard away from alliance patrols.

On the planet, they land next to a large shipworks in a small town. The modern shipwork facility is an odd site amidst the rustic hills of Jiangyin.

They are met by Mr. Hargrove, a local merchant and a marching band. Hargrove is the town welcome committee, he invites them to meet with him to discuss financial opportunities. They all join him at his General Store (oddly named Flummerfeld's General Store, not Hargrove's) in his office.

At first he is quite reticent, however, once Jim tells him that they are Browncoats his face lights up and he enthusiastically offers them trade. He tells them that if they have smuggled items in their hold, they can see Applewood at the Shipworks. They move out front to begin shopping when Ruth tells him that they just met Josh and they don't think he's trustworthy. Taking that to mean that he is an alliance spy, Hargrove hurries to the back room. Shortly, a large man enters the shop carrying a gun.

Xyon puts himself infront of the huge man. "You'd best step aside, sir," the man says. Xyon challenges him and the man flashes a badge and introduces himself as the sheriff. He dismisses Hargrove's suspicion saying that if they thought the crew was Alliance, they'd already be dead. He asked if they were smuggling cargo and suggests that if they are they should go visit Applewood at the shipyard. Hargrove comes back out and the sheriff leaves. The group split up.

Xyon buys some booze, then goes with Josh to the bank to convert credits to platinum. Jim goes to Applewood to sell the ship's cargo and Ruth heads to the hotel to meet the town's Reigstered Companion.

The Companion turns out to be a mammoth woman so huge that she seems confined to a massive couch in the lobby of the hotel. The woman doesn't quite understand what Ruth wants when she's asking for intelligent conversation since this is a whorehouse and not a library. She gives Ruth some advice: "Out here on the rim, there's not alot of use for higher learning. You fight to live and nothin' is ever easy to come by. Don't be askin' simple folks questions that it would take a college educated person to answer. There ain't any colleges out here on the rim, in fact, you're lucky to find a school."

Ruth leaves frustrated and ready to return home.

Jim sells the cargo for 5000 platinum.

Tranquility would be a good place to live if they weren't dying from a toxin given to them by a ruthless businessman. According to Captain Jax, they have 3 days before the sickness begins and 6 days until they die. If only Tranquility had a doctor's office.