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Here’s another extract from the journal of Lt Kestrel, with a few photos to illustrate the mission as well. Whilst a couple of the photos are mine, the credit for most of them goes to Revford.

We were being briefed on gate P3X-1928 which we were due to be heading through for a reconnaissance mission when word came through that we were to be sent after SGR5 who were now several hours overdue from returning from P3X-256 where they were showing a BBC reporter the sights of an uninhabited jungle planet.

Apparently someone much higher up had decided that a video record of what we were doing was needed and that rather than send us through with cameras, sending a man from the BBC was just what the doctor ordered. Still it’s nice to know what my licence fee is being spent on.

Due to the terrain, we would be walking, as whilst the gate had made a clearing for us to arrive in, beyond the reach of the vortex it was thick jungle. With a MALP indicating that arrival at least appeared safe enough we set off at a jog through the gate. On arrival whilst Skirt tried unsuccessfully to raise the SGR5 on the radio, the rest of the team and I spread out looking for signs indicating which direction they had set off into the jungle. My first impression of the planet was the noise, with panicked cries from animals alarmed by our arrival through the gate – Or more likely animals alarmed by the gate opening itself.

It appeared that they had initially set off bearing east from the eye and so with Bull taking point we set off following their trail.

About 50 yards in Bull signalled for us to halt for a moment, despite the gloom under the canopy he’d sighted something. Leaving us he went forward to check it out whilst we covered him. He’d discovered Pound a member of SGR5 lying unconscious on the ground with his general purpose machine gun lying a short distance from him.

Calling me forward Bull left me to examine Pound, whilst he checked the machine gun. Checking Pound over I found that he had been received what looked like wounds inflicted by staff weapon fire. Alerting the rest of the team to this 22, Skirt and Pop continued advancing forward into the trees, whilst I tended Pound’s wounds.

Although I was unable to treat all of his wounds I was able to clean them and bring him round. Once he had regained consciousness he reported that SGR5 had been ambushed by Jaffa and that he had been falling back to the gate, as he had seen the rest of the team taken down. He only avoided the ambush himself due to being the rearguard, although dazed from his injuries he asked a question that was rising in my mind – Why did they not pursue him and let him escape? They knew he was there, that much was evident from his injuries.

Able to walk, but clearly of limited use to ourselves I indicated the direction of the gate and ordered him to report back to the SGC, reporting that we would continue investigating to establish the fate of the rest of SGR5. Although low on ammo, Bull was happy with the condition of the machine gun and headed back in the direction of the gate setting it up to cover any retreat we might be forced to make if we encountered Jaffa.

I moved forward to rejoin the rest of the team who were attempting to follow the trail and as I caught up with the group I thought I heard a noise in one of the trees up ahead, 22 indicated that he had heard it as well and that he would check it out. Creeping forward through the trees with his rifle, we saw him suddenly drop his rifle and start scrabbling at his throat as he gave a strangled shout that was rapidly choked off. As I ran forward to help him I could see that the problem was a vine that had dropped around his neck and drawing my knife I cut though the  noose freeing him from the grasp of the plant.

Waiting for 22 to catch his breath, I noticed a colour that seemed out of place amidst all the the greenery, there was a patch of blue at the base of a nearby tree. Noticing it I pointed it out to Skirt who went towards it carefully double checking the canopy above him, as well as the ground in front. At the base of the tree he found a backpack, that from it’s colouring was obviously didn’t belong to a member of SGR5. Quickly checking the contents he found a laptop and a collection of discs marked ‘BBC Natural History’.

Shouldering the pack Skirt joined me at the front of the group and we continued along the trail that SGR5 had walked before us. Over the radio Bull indicated that Pound had successfully made it back through the gate and that he was in entrenched with the machine gun if we needed to fall back onto his position.  Continuing our progress through the jungle I sighted movement ahead and silently signalled the group to halt whilst I crept forward to check it out, it turned out to be a false alarm however as it turned out to be a camouflaged snake that would have remained hidden among the vines but for the movement that had given it away.

Suddenly off to my right I heard the sound of staff weapons firing, shortly followed by Pop indicating contact with 3 Jaffa who had evidently been heading towards the gate to find out why it had been activated.  Ordering Pop to fall back towards Bull’s position, 22, Skirt and I moved to flank the Jaffa – Judging by the direction of the sound of the fight Pop had not held position when I had ordered previously and continued moving round to the west.

22 catching sight of the enemy attempted to catch him unaware with a shot, but missed and gave away our position instead. The Jaffa aware that he had a battle on two fronts turned to face us and fired upon 22, hitting the tree he was using as cover and causing splinters to fly into his face.

His comrades however, continued their pursuit of Pop into the sights of Bull.

Of the two Jaffa chasing Pop, one was too engrossed to be aware of the danger they were being led into. The other however was not so foolhardy and on becoming aware of the danger managed to fire off a hasty shot in the direction of the machine gun, before being cut in half by the stream of lead that began to issue from it.

The second Jaffa who had not noticed the machine gun, had also not noticed me and running across my line of sight received a 3 round burst to the chest and fell to the ground motionless.

22 and his Jaffa continued to exchange fire with each other to little effect due to the cover afforded by the jungle, whilst Skirt followed by myself moved round to try and get a better position. Skirt taking advantage of the Jaffa’s preoccupation with 22 attempted to shoot the Jaffa in the back but narrowly missed. Now aware of Skirt, the Jaffa spun round and whilst he was protected from 22 by the tree now behind him, it was of little use against Skirt’s second volley which easily passed through the gold protecting his head.

Expecting further company of the orangey kind I ordered 22 to fall back and cover the gate with Bull and Pop. Pop indicated that he was preparing a surprise on one of the bodies of the downed Jaffa in clear sight of the gate for his friends to investigate after we had gone. Whilst he did that Skirt and I pressed on, although by now it was obvious what had happened to SGR5. This uninhabited looking planet evidently wasn’t and SGR5 had found out the hard way. Still their trail hadn’t come to an end yet and so it I wanted to satisfy myself that Pound wasn’t the only survivor from the mission.

The trail didn’t continue much further though and from what I could read from the battlefield remains SGR5 had walked into an ambush and been taken almost completely by surprise. They had resisted, but not for long as whilst there were spent rounds lying about they hadn’t even expended about half of the munitions brought with them.

None of their bodies was present, presumably they had either been captured or the Jaffa had taken their bodies and planned to resurrect them in a sarcophagus before torturing them – It must be handy not having to take prisoners alive. if nothing else, it’d certainly make guarding them a lot easier.

There was however a dead Jaffa lying face up on the ground, going over to the corpse I noticed that something didn’t seem quite right about this Jaffa. Cautiously I checked the body for booby traps, knowing that if Pop had thought of booby trapping a corpse, he might not be the only one. Finding nothing except a scroll case around his neck, I deactivated the Jaffa’s mask and found myself looking at the face of a particularly ugly Jaffa. Whilst I didn’t recognise the sigil on his forehead, I did note that whilst not the gold of a Prime, it not a tattoo either. It had been made by scarification, I can only conclude that this difference indicated some sort of rank.

Unable to identify the Goa’uld responsible for these Jaffa, I turned my attention to the scroll case which had a map inside of it. Taking a few minutes to decipher the Goa’uld writing it appeared that the chart indicated a patrol route originating from a concealed base about 3 miles west of here in the foothills of some nearby mountains.

To be continued…..

Tonight is roleplay night for me, although at the moment instead of just roleplay we have also been experimenting with other ideas from one off roleplay games giving everyone a chance at running something to playing DOOM: The Boardgame, which has been surprisingly entertaining. Last week we ran a .45 adventure game which the producers describe as a narrative action game, which is part board game and part roleplay.

The setting was Stargate and here is a write up of last week’s session that I have only just got around to finishing.

The following extract is from a personal journal kept against regulations and  discovered amongst his personal effects after going missing on a mission to PX2-51. This is a rendition of the events on a recon mission to Urth (originally designated as P5X-1138). Regarding this mission of particular significance were the sheep referred to as subsequent investigation showed it to be almost genetically identical to the Manx Longturn Sheep, a species that until this discovery was on the brink of extinction.

The briefing indicated that there would be a high probability of a first contact being made as the MALP’s sensors what looked like a small homestead just south-east of the gate and some sheep-like creatures grazing in the vicinity.

Giving the order to advance through the gate I noticed that Lt. Cpl. Wolf was driving more carefully than on our previous mission. No doubt the motor pool had requested that he try and avoid rock formations with the Wolf this time and live up to his nickname.

Arriving the other side of the gate showed there was little chance of a repeat of that debacle as we were on the edge of a wood and there was a distinct absence of large rocks to collide with. There were obstacles however in the form of the creatures the MALP had indicated were nearby, which appeared to be gathered around something about 150 meters away. The homestead was about 250 meters further away beyond the herd and to the north lay woods.

Advancing slowly so as not to disturb the herd Lt. Cpl. Wolf drew us closer for a look at the animals, as the MALP had indicated thanks to a curious member of the herd coming over to investigate it earlier they were rather sheepish. Closer inspection confirmed the similarity although the heads of several were adorned with pairs of horns, most had 2 or for but some of the larger had six horns. Despite this though they seemed placid enough as although members of the herd noticed our approach there were not any obvious displays of aggression.

I got out to have a closer look at the sheep and to see what they were gathered around. Pushing carefully through the herd followed by Cpl. Archer the sheep didn’t seem to mind us overmuch. As one of the animals moved aside I though I caught a glimpse of an outstretched hand on the ground and concerned for whomever it might have been I pushed forward more rapidly. Unfortunately for me this disturbed the herd and one of the biggest members presumably assuming I was a threat ran at me from the side and caught me in the leg with one of it’s horns knocking my under the hooves of the rest of the herd. Cpl. Archer, who had been just behind me attempted to distract it and prevent it injuring me further whilst I was prone before it.

It reared up in front of Cpl. Archer, who was finding out that a pistol is a less than ideal weapon against an aggressive ram and just as it was about to attempt to gore him Sgt. Dogg gave Lt. Cpl. Wolf the order to fire. Executing a clean headshot Cpl Calibre dropped the ram, before it injured Cpl. Archer further. The sound of the shot caused the rest of the herd to scatter away from us in panic, allowing me to regain my feet. Seeing the wound Cpl. Archer had on his leg I instructed him to stay on the ground whilst I attended to his injury, despite the blood the wound was not as bad as I had initially feared. One of the horns had torn through his uniform and whilst it had just gashed his inner thigh and I joked with him about how it was lucky he wasn’t six inches shorter before attending to my own wound.

Remembering the hand I had been trying to investigate before the ram had interrupted I went over and discovered a young, unconscious man clad in bloodstained woollen trousers held up by a knotted rope who had evidently been attacked before us and received further wounds being trampled by the herd, his wounds were serious and whilst I was able to stabilise him he remained unconscious and it was obvious that without proper medical attention his wounds would probably kill him.

Whilst I was doing this Cpl Calibre headed into the trees thinking he had heard something, whilst Lt. Cpl. Wolf and Sgt. Dogg reboarded the landie and got it moving again towards the bungalow with Cpl. Archer following on foot. Just as I was about to signal Lt. Cpl. Wolf to bring the Wolf back so that I give the native some further attention from within the trees the sound of a single staff weapon discharging sounded. Cpl Calibre indicated that he was being fired at by a human armed with a staff weapon and requested permission to open fire. I told him to avoid firing if at all possible and started running towards the trees following the sounds of the staff weapon firing accompanied by shouting.

Pulling up to Cpl Calibre’s position and pausing for a moment to concentrate on the shouting I realised that the language was Germanic and that he was accusing us of being hustlers after his sheep. Indicating to Cpl Calibre that he should cover me I shouted that we were not hustlers and didn’t wish to hurt him before stepping out from the cover of a tree into view of the man. He looked to be in his forties and shared a resemblance to the teenager I had discovered trampled by the herd. Guessing that he was the father I told him that his son was seriously hurt, but that we could help if he would let us.

Seeing that we intended him no harm he drew closer and I led him towards his son’s body leaving Cpl Calibre to continue investigating the edge of the woods. Introducing myself I found that he called himself Bernhart and tried to engage him in further conversation. Worried about a possible Jaffa presence due to his possession of the staff weapon as I walked with him I attempted to find out where he had obtained it from, but all I was able to understand was that he had fought a man for it when he was much younger and stronger. It was obviously a useful trophy to him and from the way he carried it, he was obvious familiar with it’s use. Seeing his son on the ground near the landie which Lt. Cpl. Wolf had brought round he ran forward, obviously concerned for the boy. He was saying something about how the boy had been injured by a beast and how he had been trying to hunt it - I indicated to the ram we had killed, but he shook his head and said something I couldn’t understand about man-beast.

I tried to explain that his son’s injuries were serious and that we could help if he would let us take his son back through the gate with us, at first he was reluctant but when I indicated that here he would die and but that we could take him thought the gate and heal him and that we would bring him back he calmed back down and started helping Sgt. Dogg lift the body into the back of the Wolf which the shepherd seemed somewhat in awe of.

Whilst the Lt. Cpl. Wolf had looped the Land Rover back round, Cpl. Archer had continued advancing towards the home of the shepherd and encountered his wife wield a skillet, able to understand her intent if not the words Cpl. Archer shouted for me to come over and calm her down. Jogging over to his position a bestial roar followed by gunfire sounded out sending the sheep into a panic and the woman ran back into her house. Turning to face the direction the roar had come from I saw Cpl Calibre backing out of the trees pursued by some kind of monstrous creature, obviously the man-beast that Bernhart had been talking about.

It stood about 8ft tall and was covered in dark fur and surprising agile for something so large. It was also tough, Cpl Calibre’s fire didn’t appear to be affecting it unduly. Attempting to aid Cpl Calibre I halted my advance and I drew up my rifle, firing a three round burst into it’s shoulder. All this did however was enrage it further and with a blood-curdling cry of bestial rage it leapt forward towards Cpl Calibre sweeping one of it’s massive arms at him. Attempting to protect himself and his rifle Cpl Calibre cried out in pain as his right arm was broken by the beast.

Carefully choosing my shots along with Sgt. Dogg I fired at the beast and whilst the animal was not stopped by the fire it was distracted enough by the wounds it was receiving to allow Cpl Calibre to break free from the monster and put some distance between him and it. Seeing the lack of effect the fire from Sgt. Dogg and I was having and seeing Cpl Calibre outdistancing the creature, Cpl. Archer from the cover of the wall around the homestead decided that his pistol would be useless and took aim with one of his LAWs. Unfortunately for me however, he hadn’t noticed my proximity to the Beast and that I would be caught within the blast. Seeing the streak of the rocket and knowing what it meant I hit the deck and whilst hit by some shrapnel I was relatively unscathed - The beast was also seemingly unscathed, despite being caught unawares and hit directly. Picking myself up off the ground assuming the demise of the beast I was caught off-guard as the beast lunged out of the smoke at me and raked it’s claws across my chest.

Not seeing that I was engaged with the beast due to the smoke surrounding us Cpl. Archer fired his remaining LAW at the beast and caught it squarely in the back, obliterating it in a mass of gore which covered me and forced me to the ground underneath the weight of the remaining bodyparts. Amazingly I escaped unscathed from the blast, I can only presume that the body of the beast protected me from most of the blast. Trapped underneath the body unable to free myself I surprised Cpl. Archer coming over to inspect his handiwork who found me underneath the corpse and unharmed, I suspect however that my language as he helped me out from under it wasn’t a surprise to him.

As I tending to Cpl Calibre’s arm, Sgt. Dogg suggested that we should take the ram back with us as well as some of the remains of the beast. When I asked Bernhart he seemed reluctant indicating that he planned to butcher the ram. I suggested a trade and that perhaps we could buy it from him, but he still seemed reluctant as he evidently considered it valuable. It was at this point that Cpl. Archer suggested we trade food with him for it if he was so worried about losing a source of food and that we offer him our MREs as well as bring something more palatable back through the gate with us.

Once we offered to trade it for food he was much more ameniable to the loss of his ram and he help us secure it to the bonnet so that we could take it back through the gate with us. Because we were taking his son back with us I offered to take him as well, but the thought of going through the gate made him uneasy and he begged off going explaining that he had to look after his wife and herd.

As well as doing a spot of sightseeing at abbeys and museums when my friend Richard was down we also took in a few of the sights of the other sights on offer - It’s been a while since he was down this way so a lot of Bristol city centre was new to him. Mind you it was new to me as well, because until this week I had not set foot inside Cabot Circus and now that I have, I rather unsurprisingly don’t feel like I have missed out on all that much.

One of the things Richard saw that I took for granted though was the above Banksy, which he had seen photographed, but with the photographs not giving anyidea of where the photograph is situated (a trend my photo doesn’t break).

Anyway Rich, you know where to find it now and even better here’s a larger copy of the photo for you and anyone else that wants it.

Banksy on Park Street, Bristol - Big Version

It’s just gone half eleven at night and I’ve just realised that it’s not Monday. I’m not completely stupid though, I do have a kind of reason for not realising that it has indeed been Thursday all day today.

I’ve only just come back from a holiday, as I have been enjoying using up my annual holiday left over from last year and so my working week, which usually starts on a Monday has only just commenced today and caused the confusion.

As to how I’ve spent my time off most of it has been spent doing not very much and enduring a 4 day headache over the New Year period. The last few days however have been a little bit more enjoyable and productive as I have been playing tourist with a friend of mine (pictured above). Richard and I were friends at uni and whilst he left Bristol for London, he returned  for a few days to visit me this week.

Having him around was like having a pet historian and I cannot recommend having one enough - It makes going to museums and churches a whole lot more interesting, as the significance of lots of minor things gets pointed out and explained. Plus having a pet historian means you have someone on hand to translate Latin inscriptions.

Unfortunately he’s had to go back to London, but on the plus side I finally got around to seeing the inside of a few places that I have been meaning to see for a few years - Bath Abbey and Bristol’s City Museum and Art Gallery. A particular bonus was getting to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition 2008 which it turns out is due to close this weekend.

My opinions about the best photos may have differed from the judges, but it has to be said that either way there is some pretty amazing photography on show. They are even kind enough to have it online for people who can’t get to the exhibition.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008

Although so far I haven’t got around to stage 3 of my non-player character (NPC) roleplay generator so it’s not yet implemented online for quick and easy use, although I am working on that.

I actually finished this on Christmas Day (because I am just that festive) and so here’s my present to those that roleplay and know how to put a perl script to use - Everyone else gets nothing!

Perl script - roleplay
Library file - lib-roleplay.pl

It’s two files this time for ease of further potential development and to save me typing things repeatedly so both of them will be needed and I am sure I will have a few other generators based of them shortly (as well as adding a few things to this one).

Currently the script will generate a random NPC using the rules from the Pathfinder Beta and uses a 20 points buy system and biases stats according to classes before adjusting character stats for race. In the case of Humans and Half-Elves the +2 bonus is assigned randomly independant of any variable.

Possible names and descriptions are race specific, so that rotund Elves and spindly, wan Dwarves  shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Each race has a pretty much unique set of first names although as surnames are of the form “adjective+noun” for the most part there is some overlap avaliable according to which root words seemed appropriate for the race, e.g forge and stone for Dwarves and oak and forest for elves etc.

For the half breed races there is a little extra step before creating the name, as the script decides whether they were raised by Elves, Humans or Orcs and names them as appropriate.

As well as optimising a couple of parts of the script I realised could be improved when finishing off the script I also plan to add other features. Features that I plan to include in rough order of priority include:

• Web implementation
• Additional 20pt stat arrays for selection
• Additional shuffling options for stats by class
• Additional stat arrays for other point buys, 15 and 25 first.
• Other stat generation methods
• Adding other character statistics, e.g. saves and hit points.
• Basic equipment, after all it’s too easy to just give everyone swords as a default
• Improved descriptions, inc a random characteristic such as big hands, body odour, etc
• Implementation of other races, Orcs, Goblins, etc
• Implementation of other classes, Adept, Expert, etc
• Addition of skills
• Inclusion of other systems, D&D 3rd edition in particular.

I am sure I will think of other things to add, but that will do as a starting point. Feel free to add suggestions if you can think of anything I should make a point of adding.

I know I have kept you waiting, but here is a picture of what I broke:

Luckily for me I was changing it for a higher powered energy saving bulb, so I wasn’t in the dark for too long. There isn’t too much need to fear for the earth as I am still using less energy than the original bulb that was there by a considerable margin.

The only thing that concerned me when picking up the pieces was that even after gathering the pieces together it still looked like I was missing a few pieces. So far though the walk around barefoot method of glass detection has failed to produce any results, so it would seem I was worrying needlessly.

So there you go Rich, you need wonder no more.