1,001 Characters #33: Gablin Five

 

33. Sir Gablin Five        48A98B     ex-Merchant 4th Officer     Age 26      2 Terms

Skills: Steward-1, Gunnery-1, Navigation-1, Streetwise-1.

Benefits: Low Psge.

    The Fives are a well known and rather large family on H'Illac. They are representative of the upper classes in the world. (Yes, I said "in". See notes below). 

    Gablin is one of the lower ranked members of the family; as such it was up to him to forge his own path, because he would not be supported by the family after his coming of age; Hence his joining the crew of a merchant vessel. Initially employed as a steward (Steward-1), because of his lack of familiarity with the simplest of technological equipment (TL-3), he was later taught to operate and fire the ship's weaponry, such as it was (Gunnery-1). A couple of years later his diligence at work was rewarded with a position as fourth officer and instruction in how to navigate the ship (Navigation-1).  

    During one shore leave he got himself entangled in the local underworld and due to some unforeseen circumstances missed his ship's liftoff and was left behind. He spent some time stuck on planet working within the underworld trying to build up sufficient funds to pay off a debt and get off planet (Streetwise-1).

    Ultimately he proved successful, although not to the degree he desired. He's managed to pay off his debtors and had just enough credits to purchase a low psge travel voucher, which got him access to the starport. Where he is hoping to negotiate a working passage, rather than risk using a low berth.

    

    H'Illac    0809    D20069B-3        Na Ni Va                                        G

Referee:  I rolled exactly 4 for re-enlistment in Term 2 and reasoned that something occurred to cause him some issues at the start of the term, when I rolled up streetwise as the skill for that term, I figured the local underworld was involved. I then thought of him being stranded dirtside and struggling to pay off a debt by working for some criminal underworld boss. I was expecting him to rejoin the ship when and if it came back or perhaps join a different ship, but the roll for re-enlistment for the third term failed and the story ended with him at the starport holding a low psge voucher and a little bit wiser (Mustering out: +1 EDU). 

    H'Illac has no atmosphere and the population do not have the technology to live in such a hostile environment. They live underground in vast cavern arcologies which are supported and maintained by very old, but high tech machinery. 

    The referee may decide what level of technology H'Illac previously had and how long ago it had it. But at present the local population is reduced to TL-3 or roughly equivalent to 19th century earth. 

    Wargamers: I originally had the idea of using Khurasan's Arak to represent Illacites, but as I wrote the previous paragraph, I thought of maybe using some Space 1899 style figures. I deliberately left descriptions of both Gablin and his people as vague as possible to allow referees to choose whatever miniatures would suit their version of H'Illac and its people.