All posts by Friz

The Exile

Patron: Entrepreneur
Required skills: None
Required equipment: Starship capable of Jump-1
Locations: Urnian Subsector, Urnian (2833) & Pylkah (2834)

Players’ Information:
While the characters are on Urnian (B9779AC-A) they are contacted by Filana Belsaris, an independent entrepreneur who primarily brokers interstellar shipping contracts for small, independent commercial starships. If the characters have been engaging in such business in the subsector for a while, they will know she has a good business reputation. She is a plain woman at the cusp of middle age who dresses in relaxed business attire. She asks the characters meet with her at her warehouse office.

“I’m originally from Pylkah (E463977-9),” she says over a round of refreshments in her comfortably cozy office. “About thirty years ago, my father was leading a popular uprising against the dictator of the nation of Bundor. Unfortunately, the uprising became a civil war, which the dictator’s forces eventually won after nearly ten standard years of fighting.

“My father was captured, tortured, put on display in a show trial and executed. People loyal to my father managed to smuggle my mother and I out of the country through the mountainous border with Pyllos. From there, we managed to find passage from the starport to here and start new lives.

“My mother passed away last year. Her dying wish was to be buried with my father. Since then, I have been trying to get permission to inter my mother’s cremains with my father’s on Pylkah, but I’ve been stonewalled with every attempt.”

She takes a moment to get a handle on her emotions before continuing. “On Pylkah, it is a deep-seated tradition in our religion to fulfill the dying wishes of family members within the passing of a number of days. The government of Bundor knows this. It is probably one more attempt to discredit my family’s name.”

Filana pulls out a small pouch of precious gemstones. “This is worth about eighty thousand credits. It is what’s left of my mother’s jewelry collection. I offer it in payment if you can transport my mother’s ashes to my father’s grave in the Bundor capital city on Pylkah before I run out of time.”

The urn
The urn – image from wikimedia – Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Referee’s Information:
The referee should take some time to get familiar with the information on Pylkah presented on The Zhodani Base website.

If the characters wish to check up on Filana’s story, they will find she has been accurate in her description of events. They will also get the Bundor version of events – most notably the fact that the resistance had engaged in a series of terrorist bombings of government facilities and the people who supported it.

If the characters need a cover for their being on Pylkah, Filana can provide a cargo shipment contract to them from another exporter on Urnian. Her operation’s name might cause the Bundor authorities to look a little too closely at the characters’ activities.

The burial urn is a spun metal flask that has been sealed with a number of intricate symbols. Research will indicate that breaking these seals would amount to desecration of a corpse under Pylkah laws – a felony offense that carries a mandatory sentence of ten years in prison.

Outcomes:
1. Filana is completely honest. All is as presented. The characters will be allowed to land at the main airport of Bundor to off-load their cargo, but they’ll have to smuggle the burial urn past local security and make their way through the city with it. The referee should create several encounters with the locals, plus generate local law enforcers (to TL 9 standards).

2. The authorities suspect something. The situation is similar to #1 above, except that Bundor’s government agents are on heightened awareness for the burial urn, due to Filana’s efforts over the past year and the upcoming deadline. Consider the capital of Bundor to be at Law Level 9 instead of 7.

3. The authorities are on high alert. Similar to #2 above, except that Filana has managed to contact former members of the uprising about the situation. They have staged a series of acts of protests that have put the local authorities on alert. Consider the capital of Bundor to be at Law Level B instead of 7. Also, there will be armed guards at the grave of Filana’s father as well.

4. Filana is being dishonest. Filana is attempting to smuggle computer hacking software and cybernetic virus programs to the uprising’s underground members, using her mother’s urn and ashes as a cover story. Members of the underground will attempt to either steal the urn from the characters (attempting to kill them in the process). The referee should generate the attackers as needed.

5. Filana is a Zhodani agent. The Zhodani have been supporting the uprising’s underground in Bundor as a way to monitor Imperial efforts in the neighboring country of Pyllos. The burial urn contains data chips imprinted with information Filana has obtained on Imperial agents active in Pyllos. The characters will be attacked by a group of Zhodani agents when they attempt to deliver the urn to the gravesite (who will attempt to kill them in the process). The referee should generate the attackers as needed.

6. Filana is a double agent. Similar to #5 above, except that Filana is actually working for the Imperium. The burial urn contains data chips with false information as well as a powered biological agent tailored to infect and kill the Zhodani agents who will attempt to intercept it (and attempt to kill the characters in the process).

The Executor

Patron: Lawyer
Required Skills: None
Required Equipment: Starship capable of Jump-2
Locations: Fessor Subsector, Gwydion (0610) & Wadanga (0709)

Players’ Information:
While the characters are on Gwydion (C442535-9), they are contacted by Symon & Associates, a legal firm noted for its expertise in handling tort law cases. Tylon Symon is a tall, thin man (as are most of the natives on Gwydion due its low gravity) well into his middle age. He greets the characters in his office, offering refreshments before settling down to business. He wears fine, though painfully conservative business attire.

Tylon’s firm is managing the estate of Achilon Zeres, who passed away earlier in the year and left the entirety of his considerable personal wealth to his favorite niece, Selfina Lysaie. “Aside from being a client,” says Tylon, “Achilon was a close personal friend. He named me as the executor of his will, and I fully intend to see it carried out in the manner he intended.”

The complication in the matter of the will is that Selfina is not currently on Gwydion. In the year prior to Achilon’s death, Selfina became a member of a religious cult headed by a leader known only as The Hierophant. The cult requires its members to sell off all of their material possessions, with the money going to cult’s coffers. “The Hierophant lives an extravagant life of luxury in his compound on Wadanga,” says Tylon, “while his followers are virtual slaves, laboring for his benefit alone.”

“I will not allow Achilon’s riches to benefit the cult,” he says. “That money is meant to provide for Selfina for the rest of her life. That is why I wish to hire you to bring her back to Gwydion. You will have to find a way to infiltrate The Hierophant’s compound, find Selina and get her off-world before the cult’s enforcers can stop you. I realize this is a high-risk venture, so I am prepared to offer you a total of one-hundred thousand credits plus your expenses to do the job. I will also represent you in any legal proceedings that may come from your actions, pro bono.”

Lawyer
The Executor – Image from wikimedia
Copyright expired – Public Domain

Referee’s Information:
Achilon Zeres made his money by expertly managing water and mineral rights of lands he bought in his youth. He also owned or had a share in many of the companies exploiting those rights. If the characters need cargo as a cover story for their trip to Wadanga (C438131-8), Tylon can arrange legitimate cargo contracts and goods from these outfits.

Tylon will provide a detailed file on Selfina, giving the characters many means of identifying her. Tylon also provides a file on The Hierophant and his cult, along with orbital photos of his compound on Wadanga. The compound houses nearly a thousand people, creating the potential for massive collateral damage should the characters try a direct approach. Tylon will stress the need to limit liabilities to both themselves and his legal firm in the operation, favoring any plan that emphasizes stealth over strength.

Outcomes:
1. Selfina is a prisoner. Selfina was specifically recruited by The Hierophant so he could loot her legacy. Selfina has since found out the religious leader orchestrated her uncle’s death, but was caught when she attempted to escape. She is being held prisoner in the compound and must be rescued by means of force. The referee will need to create maps and determine the level of opposition — off-world mercenaries — The Hierophant has hired.

2. Selfina is a true believer. Selfina truly believes in The Hierophant and his teachings and has found peace and purpose in his “care.” She is not only unwilling to leave, she will actively fight against any attempt to “liberate” her. In essence, the characters will have to kidnap her to get her off-world.

3. The Hierophant is a Zhodani agent. The Hierophant is actually an agent of the Zhodani government testing the effectiveness of a new psionic amplifier that is supposed to permanently affect the minds of its victims. The characters will discover this as they infiltrate the compound and attempt to rescue Selfina, risking falling under the influence of the “religious leader” themselves.

4. The Hierophant’s cult is under the influence of an alien artifact. The Hierophant discovered the artifact while he was on Wadanga a few years ago – a psionic information device containing the history of a now-extinct agrarian society that lived on Wadanga in the distant past. The Hierophant saw this as a religious vision and blueprint for the perfect society. The cult members exposed to this device are similarly affected. Only the device’s destruction will free the cult members from their visions.

5. Tylon is working an angle. Tylon wants to inherit the Zeres legacy for himself, which will happen if Selfina dies. The information about the cult in his files will leave out key elements of the cult’s defenses and disposition, plus fail to mention that the security forces are ordered to kill anyone attempting to escape the compound. Tylon would inherit the Zeres legacy upon Selfina’s death, of course.

6. Cloak & Dagger. The whole story is a lie. Selfina is an Imperial agent and Tylon is her handler. Selfina’s mission was to find and dispatch the Zhodani agent posing as The Hierophant. The cult compound is actually a base to train Imperial infiltrators in the arts of sabotage and misinformation. Selfina was captured and is being interrogated by the Zhodani operatives at the base. The characters are distraction for the primary extraction team, and aren’t expected to get out of this one alive…

The Regretful Historian

Patron: Academic
Required Skills Those need to operation a starship
Required Equipment: None
Locations: Mullingar, Enniskillen

Players’ Information:
The characters are between jobs on Mullingar when they are contacted by Professor Dugan O’Fallon of the Mullingar Institute of Historical Research (MIHR).  MIHR is an academic organization that uses a substantial endowment from the local government and numerous corporate contributors to fund historical research and archaeological expeditions.  Professor O’Fallon is a well-respected member of MIHR, having written many popular books on the early history of the Eire subsector.

The meeting takes place in the Professor’s office at MIHR in the late evening hours. The professor has seen many a day under alien suns, as his cracked and leathery complexion attests.  He is not well, occasionally getting short of breath as he speaks, and taking breaths of supplemental oxygen from a respirator mask.

“Two months ago,” he says, “I hired an archaeological team for an expedition on Enniskillen.  It wasn’t sanctioned by the Institute – I paid for this one out of my own deep pockets.  You see, I have a personal passion for the history of this subsector, and the team I hired shared my particular passion for this subject, so they were all very eager to go.  Unfortunately, the political situation on Enniskillen has deteriorated to the point where there are a number of armed resistance groups opposing the local government with acts of terrorism and violent confrontation. As the expedition is now two weeks overdue, they may either be victims or unable to leave the spaceport.

“The mission is three-fold.  First, I want you to travel to Enniskillen to determine what has happened to the expedition.  The independent Far Trader Longshot will be lifting tomorrow morning and I have low berths reserved for each of you, along with two tons of cargo space for any possessions and an ATV, which you’ll need for the second part of the mission.

“Second, I want you to rescue or recover the team and its equipment, including any and all data and artifacts it has collected.  There is a packet aboard the ATV that will have the details you’ll need to determine approximately where the team was going and their most likely route.

“Lastly, there is a Far Trader starship – Lady Starshine – that the team leased from an outfit here on Mullingar.  The vessel needs to be returned here within the next month or the deposit will be forfeited and an additional financial penalty will be assessed against me as well.  That last part is important because I used Institute funds to pay that deposit.  If the deposit is forfeited, the scandal will end my tenure with the institute and my career as a historian.

“Your payment will be fifty thousand credits, reimbursement of your legitimate expenses, and a bonus of up to ten thousand credits, depending on your timeliness and your ability to keep things quiet enough to protect what is left of my reputation.  Time is of the essence, so I’ll spare you the formality of haggling for a better price.  What I am offering you is literally all the material wealth that I can spare.  I’m hoping you’ll say yes.”

Referee’s Information:
Enniskillen is currently experiencing a period of local unrest due to the actions of its government.  Specifically, the government has engaged in a series of unpopular policies that have the appearance of benefitting members of the upper economic classes at the expense of the working classes.  The government’s bureaucracy has become more insular of late and has been accused of using unfair and illegal practices to exclude all but the most favored members of the upper classes from being candidates for government employment and obtaining contracts from government agencies.  This has spawned a series of popular protests as well as several extremist terrorist organizations which have made conditions in the main starport’s city, Dunbailey, somewhat precarious for travelers and business professionals.

Enniskillen is a poor, desert world with much of its surface a trackless wasteland of sand and stone.  Archeological evidence suggests that during a wetter time in the planet’s ancient past there may have been a sentient species.  The current site drawing attention is a collection of what appear to be burial mounds discovered nearly five hundred kilometers southwest of Dunbailey.  Due to the current political unrest, the government has prohibited all aerospace traffic (save spacecraft) from its skies until the current crisis has ended.

Outcomes:
1. The team is stranded.  Professor O’Fallon’s team is stranded near the archaeological site in the desert after a particularly vicious sandstorm has disabled their vehicles and communications equipment.  The characters will have to venture overland to find them and return them to the starport, facing various terrain and animal hazards along the way there and back.

2. The team is being held hostage by terrorists.  The Professor’s team has been mistaken for corporate prospectors by the locals, and a terrorist faction of the Liberation Coalition is holding the team hostage in exchange for the release of several prisoners held by the government.  Luckily for the characters, the terrorists are a fledgling organization without much experience in these activities, giving the characters a shot at rescuing the team members.  The referee will have to generate the terrorist faction members as well as map out the location where the team is being held.

3. The team is being held by the government.  The Professor’s team has been swept up in the local movement and has been arrested by federal law enforcement for aiding terrorist acts.  The characters will have to negotiate with the federal authorities to secure their release or mount a much more difficult rescue mission from a protected facility.  The referee will have to generate the federal guards and officials, plus map out the facility where the team is being held.

4. The team is hospitalized.  The Professor’s team got caught in the crossfire during a particularly violent confrontation between the Liberation Coalition and the government.  In the chaos following the confrontation, the team was taken to separate hospitals with severe injuries and their records were lost in the haste to treat so many victims.  The characters will have to investigate the situation in order to locate the team members and transport them back to Mullingar.

5. A rival has stepped in.  One of the Professor’s longtime rivals got wind of the expedition and hired a mercenary team to kill the team members in the remote desert.  The rival has also taken steps to disable the Lady Starwind so that it cannot be easily returned to Mullingar.  The characters will have to locate the team, salvage their notes and data, repair the starship and prevent the rival from delaying them further in order to meet their deadline.

6. The expedition was a ruse.  One of the terrorist factions in Liberation Coalition sent their agents to MIHR to solicit funds for the expedition from the Professor and intends to purchase arms and explosives from their sources in the black market.  The characters can work with the local authorities to recover most of the money, or thwart the terrorists’ actions personally.

The Musician

Patron: Artist
Required Skills: None
Required Equipment: Starship
Locations: Urnian, Gotylu

Players’ Information:
The characters are enjoying some downtime at a starport establishment on Urnian, which includes a live performance of Gotylu folk music by Voh Rahl Shu. After the performance, one of the characters is delivered a hand-written note, asking him or her to meet with the musician backstage.

When the character arrives at Shu dressing room, the musician is sporting the beginnings of shiner around one eye and is dabbing at a bloody nose with a handkerchief. Shu explains that he is ending a highly unfavorable performance contract with his manager – one where she and her cronies kept most of the money he earned. His injuries are a result of him refusing to sign an extension. Shu says he cannot go to the local authorities because his manager, Eboni Blayz, has connections with the local and planetary government.

Shu says he has one more performance tomorrow evening to fulfill his current contract and then wishes to return to his home on Gotylu (3 parsecs away). For payment, he offers up his toku’omo, the Gotylu instrument he has played on the tour, easily worth four times the cost of his passage to a collector. Shu wants to depart Urnian as soon as possible after his last performance.

The Musician
The Musician : Picture from wikimedia. Public domain, copyright has expired.

Referee’s Information:
Due to the laws on Urnian, breaking even the smallest terms of a contract entails severe financial penalties, including a period of indentured servitude to the injured party or organization. Trying any legitimate means of getting Shu off-world before he completes his contract will bring the full force of Urnian law enforcement down upon the characters and Shu.

The toku’omo is a fairly bulky and fragile instrument which could very easily be damaged or even destroyed with rough handling, thereby reducing its value (possibly to the point of worthlessness), even if is the signature instrument of a noteworthy performer. If any profit is to be had in the enterprise, considerations will have to be made for the transportation and storage of this item.

Eboni Blayz and her company, Blayz Entertainment, represent over a dozen off-world performers on Urnian, though Shu is by far the most noteworthy (and profitable) to date. His departure will be a serious blow to her operation’s bottom line. While there have been allegations of contract improprieties with past performers, no charges have ever brought against Eboni or Blayz Entertainment.

Outcomes:
1. All is as presented. Immediately after Shu’s final performance the next night, Eboni and three of her cronies (all armed with body pistols and cudgels) will attempt to forcibly “escort” Shu away from the venue.

2. Shu is fibbing a bit. He actually has been romantically involved with Eboni for the past year and has only recently discovered that she is pregnant. He doesn’t want to live up to his parental responsibilities and using the “contract difficulties” as a ruse to elicit sympathy from the characters. Eboni’s “cronies” are actually disgruntled family members who are upset that Shu isn’t going to marry Eboni.

3. Shu is an out-and-out liar. Shu is attempting to smuggle a small stash of anagathic drugs off-world in special space inside of his toku’omo. He gave a private performance at a wealthy noble’s home a few nights before meeting the characters and stole the drugs. He was visited by the noble’s personal guard who gave Shu his injuries. To buy time, Shu said he would have the drugs at his next performance. The guard will be there with three reinforcements (armed as the combatants in Outcome #1).

4. Eboni is working an angle. Eboni has taken out a standard life insurance policy on Shu. Since he is reluctant to sign a contract extension under her “generous” terms, she intends to collect by killing the performer and framing the characters for it. She will be waiting with her cronies (see Outcome #1) for the characters to make their move after the show, moving in to create the incident and kill Shu in the process. The secret space in Shu’s instrument contains a stash of contraband hallucinogenic drugs to further sell the story.

5. Shu and Eboni are working an angle. This is similar to Outcome #2, except that both Shu and Eboni are working together to smuggle the anagathic drugs off-world before the noble discovers the stash is missing. Shu’s story about the abusive manager is a ruse, with the injuries inflicted by Eboni needed to sell the story. Both Eboni and Shu plan to meet up on Gotylu later to split the profits of the venture. However, the noble’s men will catch up to Eboni during the show and be waiting for Shu and the characters afterward to reclaim the stash. (These guys will be armed the same as Outcome #1, but will also be wearing Jack armor as well.)

6. Shu is working a double-cross. This is similar to Outcome #5, with the twist that Shu is intending to double-cross Eboni and keep the sizable profits from the sale of the anagathic drugs on the black market. During the planned distraction, he will shoot Eboni with a poison-tipped body pistol round to make sure she is out of the game.

Each of these outcomes may have further opportunities for resolution, depending on the level of morality in your game – such as the victimized noble hiring the characters to locate the stolen stash of anagathic drugs and the persons responsible…