Patron: Diplomat
Required skills: None
Required equipment: Starship
Number of Players: 3+

Players’ Information:
The players are on Gotylu (Urnian/3238 E688699-2). They are approached by RUHK BEY, 2nd-secretary in the Imperial Embassy. The Ambassador, SERGEI HAULT-DEVROE, is seriously ill. He contracted a rare disease years before while on the Imperium’s service. It was supposed to have been cured, but it has flared up again. Gotylu lacks medical facilities to treat the condition. The only hope is to ship the Ambassador in low berth to a world where he can be helped (TL A or greater). The closest options are Ovdyo (Urnian/2935) or Urnian (Urnian/2833).

Bey offers a full charter of the party’s ship for 1 jump (all passage and cargo space). However, there is a catch. He can only pay Cr 5,000 now from the meagre funds available at the Gotylu embassy. The balance will be paid by Imperial authorities at the embassy on Urnian (Urnian/2833).

Hault-Devroe is located at the Imperial embassy building in the outskirts of the city of Tuleeren, 180km from Gotylu spaceport. The embassy has a utility helicopter that must be used to transport him. The bureaucratic authorities of Gotylu will not allow more advanced tech (e.g. grav vehicles) to be used outside the spaceport. The helicopter has a top speed of 300kph and a range of 600km with a light load. An Imperial Marine attached to the embassy can serve as pilot, or one of the party may fly the chopper themselves.

Referee’s Information:
1. All is as it seems. Determine Hault-Devroe’s fate on revival according to normal low-berth rules. If the party ever make it to Urnian, they may claim the balance of the charter.

2. As 1, but Hault-Devroe dies on revival. On a throw of 1 or 2 on 1D, the authorities at Urnian refuse to settle the balance of the charter. On a throw of 3-6, the balance is paid.

3. Hault-Devroe’s low berth signals a medical emergency during Jump, requiring immediate revival. The low berth’s logs will automatically record a failure to perform revival in response to medical emergency, which is a culpable offence punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment under Imperial law. Hault-Devroe may (throw 1-3) or may not (throw 4-6) survive very long, but in any case the crew must implement (or improvise) quarantine procedures.

4. When the party arrive at the embassy to retrieve Hault-Devroe, they find it surrounded by a detachment (about 200) of Gotylan troops equipped to TL5 – the Gotylan Empire’s crack troops. They are led by a Gotylan official, TYLOK NAGA, who refuses to allow the sick Ambassador to leave the embassy for fear of spreading the “sickness from space”. Naga may be susceptible to persuasion or bribery, but intimidation is unlikely to work given the forces at his disposal. (Their TL5 equipment is quite capable of shooting down the party’s chopper.)

5. The utility chopper develops a mechanical fault on the flight back to the spaceport and must make a forced landing. If the party can reach Bey at the spaceport by radio, he can despatch an ATV. The party must await the vehicle’s arrival and then complete the journey of 2Dx20 km overland.

6. As 5, but Bey has sabotaged the helicopter. Bey loathes Hault-Devroe and has poisoned him, hoping to blame his death on a recurrence of his disease, in an attempt to take his job. Bey has also despatched a force of locally hired mercenaries (equipped to TL2 with a sprinkling of TL5 equipment and riding the ATV) to finish the job. The referee must determine the course of events.